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Vital Signs is a weekly economic wrap from UNSW economics professor and Harvard PhD Richard Holden (@profholden). Vital Signs aims to contextualize weekly economic events and cut through the noise of the data impacting global economies.

Vital Signs Series

Marketing is getting in the way of markets that could get us to net-zero

Nov 13, 2021 07:33 am UTC| Economy

This week the prime minister entered full marketing mode. Scott Morrisons topic was climate change and his plans to get to net-zero. At the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, he tried out a few...

Vital Signs Series

Laugh at the US if you will, but Australia narrowly escaped a debt ceiling

Oct 09, 2021 08:11 am UTC| Economy

The United States government is scheduled to hit its debt ceiling of US$28.4 billion on or around October 18. The US debt ceiling isnt like the limit on a credit card, which is imposed by the lender worried about the...

Vital Signs Series

3 economic facts point to a big-spending federal budget

Apr 30, 2021 07:08 am UTC| Economy

Its difficult to make predictions, the saying goes, especially about the future. The many predictions federal budgets make about the economy over the coming four years must therefore be taken with a large grain of...

Vital Signs Series

The pros and cons of diversity in organisations

Apr 23, 2021 11:44 am UTC| Insights & Views Business

Breaking down the old boys club in business, government and other organisations is intrinsically important. Ensuring greater diversity in organisations on gender, racial, ethnic and other lines is, simply put, the right...

Vital Signs Series

Vital Signs: COVID-19 recession is different – and we need more stimulus to deal with it.

Jun 21, 2020 03:30 am UTC| Economy

Australia has done well on the public health front during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to decisive action by the National Cabinet in March. Australia has done better than most countries on the economic front, too, thanks...

Vital Signs Series

Modelling tells us the coronavirus app will need a big take-up, economics tells us how to get it

Apr 26, 2020 05:30 am UTC| Technology

With Australias test-confirmed daily COVID-19 infection rates continuing to fall to relatively low levels, there is considerable discussion about when and how the successful containment measures might be...

Vital Signs Series

The end of the checkout signals a dire future for those without the right skills

Jan 18, 2020 04:45 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

There has already been a fair number of jobs lost to automation over recent decades from factory workers to bank tellers. In the coming decade we might see radically larger numbers of jobs lost to automation, thanks to...

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Economy

Burger King Ordered to Compensate Injured Customer With Almost $8M Payout

Burger King is set to shell out about $8 million after the court ordered it to pay a customer who was injured at the restaurant. The burger store chains franchisee in Florida has been found guilty of negligence by the...

Nestlé Reveals New Operations Chief to Replace Retiring Magdi Batato

Nestlé SA food and drink company announced it has appointed the new companys head of operations. Effective on July 1, Stephanie Pullings Hart will be the new deputy head of operations, and she will be stationed at...

Asda Reportedly Finalizing £10B Merger Deal With EG Group

Asda is reportedly in the midst of finalizing its merger agreement with UK-based EG Group, which operates filling stations, fast-food outlets, and convenience stores. Reportedly, the deal will include more than 500 million...

Panera Brands Promotes Exec to CEO Post Amid IPO Plans

Panera Brands Inc., an American bakery-cafe chain store, revealed it has promoted one of its high-ranking executives to become its new chief executive officer. The promotion comes as the company reportedly plans for an...

Samsung To Invest ₩30 Billion in Advancing Smart Factories for SMEs

Samsung Electronics Co. will invest 30 billion won over the next three years in its Smart Factory 3.0 project which would transform SMEs manufacturing facilities into smart factories usingartificial intelligence (AI) and...

Politics

North Korea Media Criticizes US, South Korea, Japan Missile Warning Agreement

North Korean state media criticized the agreement made between the United States, South Korea, and Japan that would allow the three countries to share information in real-time on the isolated nations missile launches. This...

US: Biden Nominates Air Force Chief as Top General

The White House announced this week that US President Joe Biden has appointed US Air Force Chief Gen. Charles Q. Brown to serve as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Brown would become the second Black officer...

Russia-Ukraine War: Norway to Support Joint Training Programs for F-16s

Norway supports the push for joint training programs for Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets. This follows the endorsement by the United States for the training programs with Ukraine, assuring that the jets will not be used...

Japan Scrambles Fighter Jets Following Incursion of Russian 'Intelligence-Gathering' Aircraft

The Japanese defense ministry said it scrambled fighter jets after a Russian intelligence-gathering aircraft was spotted flying over the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan this week. This follows recent incidents,...

Science

Gravitational wave detector LIGO is back online after 3 years of upgrades – how the world's most sensitive yardstick reveals secrets of the universe

After a three-year hiatus, scientists in the U.S. have just turned on detectors capable of measuring gravitational waves - tiny ripples in space itself that travel through the universe. Unlike light waves, gravitational...

Why don't rocks burn?

While many rocks dont burn, some of them do. It depends on what the rocks are made of and thats related to how they were formed. There are three main rock types: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. These rocks are...

Quantum physics proposes a new way to study biology – and the results could revolutionize our understanding of how life works

Imagine using your cellphone to control the activity of your own cells to treat injuries and disease. It sounds like something from the imagination of an overly optimistic science fiction writer. But this may one day be a...

You shed DNA everywhere you go – trace samples in the water, sand and air are enough to identify who you are, raising ethical questions about privacy

Human DNA can be sequenced from small amounts of water, sand and air in the environment to potentially extract identifiable information like genetic lineage, gender, and health risks, according to our new...

Theory of everything: how progress in physics depends on asking the right questions

When I began my undergraduate physics degree (around 20 years ago), What is the theory of everything? was a question that I heard often. It was used as a label for how theoretical physicists were trying to develop a deeper...

Technology

Apple Reveals Broadcom Deal to Develop 5G Components

Apple Inc. revealed it has teamed up with Broadcom Inc. for the development of 5G radio frequency parts in the United States. The companies signed a multi-billion deal for the partnership. With the cooperation between...

What is a black box? A computer scientist explains what it means when the inner workings of AIs are hidden

For some people, the term black box brings to mind the recording devices in airplanes that are valuable for postmortem analyses if the unthinkable happens. For others it evokes small, minimally outfitted theaters. But...

AI is changing how Americans find jobs, get promoted and succeed at work

Whether we realize it or not, advancements in artificial intelligence are increasingly influencing the paths of our careers. Advancements in human capital management systems, more strategic and data-driven human...

AI is already being used in the legal system - we need to pay more attention to how we use it

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become such a part of our daily lives that its hard to avoid even if we might not recognise it. While ChatGPT and the use of algorithms in social media get lots of attention, an...

What is Bluesky and how's it different to Twitter?

Amid management changes at Twitter, discontented users are exploring an alternative social media platform called Bluesky. According to media reports, downloads of the Bluesky app surged more than 600% in...
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