Globalization is going through tough times. The UK’s exit from the EU, the rise of nationalist US president Donald Trump and the escalating trade spat between the US and China are stymieing the progress towards a more connected global economy. International trade as a share of GDP fell from 60% in 2011 to 56% in 2016 in another sign globalization’s ill health.
The Canadian people are not happy with the US. According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, just 39% of Canadians now view the US favorably, down from 72% in 2002.
Imagine you are trying to solve a problem at work and you get stuck. What do you do? Maybe you ask a colleague for help or take a walk around the block to clear your mind. For ten years now, programmers have had a better option.
From 2002 to 2013, global poverty declined at a breakneck speed. The number of people in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank, fell from about 1.6 billion to 800 million over that time, even as the world’s population grew.
A funny thing happened on the way to a world of cryptocurrencies and mobile payments. Cash became more popular than ever. The main reason? The one hundred dollar bill.
The steady rise of Americans working from home continues. According to recently released data from the US Census, 5.2% of workers in the US worked at home in 2017—or 8 million people. That share is up from 5% in 2016, and 3.3% in 2000.
When people think of endangered species, they tend to think of the giant panda, the blue whale, or maybe the snow leopard. We need to add another group to the list: women named Heather.
Ten years ago today, on Sept. 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The investment bank’s collapse set off the world’s worst financial crisis in generations.
US economic news has been very good lately. Americans are making more money and spending a lot more of it, too. Jobs are plentiful.
It’s been 10 years since the global financial crisis, and Americans are slowly reaching for their opera glasses again. Newly released data from the US National Endowment for the Arts shows that attendance at arts performances is back up after a recession-led decline.
Over the past several decades, there has been a revolution in charting.
The Billboard Hot 100 is the US music industry’s most influential chart. Since 1958, it’s been used to rank the most popular songs in the country, across all genres. That’s why it was a big deal when, on July 9, Billboard announced that Drake had claimed seven simultaneous slots in the Hot 100’s top 10 songs, beating a five-song record previously held by The Beatles.
Think of the two friends you spend the most time with (and to whom you’re neither related nor romantically attached). How did you meet?
Kindly step aside, Harry. Please back up, Mr. Grey. In 2018, Donald Trump is the main character that Americans want to read about.
The Green Bay Packers are an anomaly. While every other team in the NFL is owned privately by a single owner or group of owners, the Packers are a publicly owned nonprofit with 360,000 shareholders. The Packers’ unusual structure means that the team must disclose its finances in an annual report. This report, which includes some league-wide information, is the best view the public has into the NFL’s financial health. And the latest edition of it indicates that despite a shroud of controversy, the NFL is indeed very healthy financially.
The star of the most recent monthly US jobs report was the transportation and warehousing sector. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that the sector created more than 20,000 jobs from July to August 2018. At an annualized rate of 5% growth, transportation and warehousing was the fastest growing part of the US jobs market.
How long does a couple usually take between getting together and moving in? In an innovative new study, a pair of sociologists from Stanford University used survey data on the relationship paths of about 3,000 couples and found that the average couple in the US moves in about a year and a half after they start dating (paywall).
Donald Trump loves to associate the robust job growth during his administration with the manufacturing and mining industries. While job growth in these sectors have been relatively robust during his time in office, his focus on these sorts of jobs misses the forest for the trees.
The poetically named “random forest” is one of data science’s most-loved prediction algorithms. Developed primarily by statistician Leo Breiman in the 1990s, the random forest is cherished for its simplicity. Though it is not always the most accurate prediction method for a given problem, it holds a special place in machine learning because even those new to data science can implement and understand this powerful algorithm.
Our taste in movies is now universal.
“Consider the world that Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor faced when she graduated from Stanford Law School in 1952.” Four economists from University of Chicago and Stanford University ask readers to consider the progress made since then in a fascinating study (pdf). O’Connor was among only 1% of law school students that were women, and “despite being ranked third in her class, the only private sector job she could get after graduating was as a legal secretary.”
Ten years have passed since the 2008 financial crisis, and the effects linger. For one thing, the crisis produced a significant shift in American higher education. Scared by a seemingly treacherous labor market, since the downturn college students have turned away from the humanities and towards job-oriented degrees.
Ever been on Amazon and balked at the price of something? Jeff Bezos can’t relate.
China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba is growing fast. The company announced on Thursday (August 23, 2018) that its revenue reached 80.9 billion yuan ($11.8 billion), growth of almost 61% in the fiscal first quarter of 2017. The majority of that growth came from the company’s online shopping sites, but was also due to the expansion of Alibaba’s cloud computing business, which had revenues of almost 5 billion yuan in the first quarter.
