Economist, May 9, 2015 (I)

choi

(1) Free exchange Money for Old Folk; The relationship between ageing and inflation is not as simple as economists assume.
www.economist.com/ageing15

the first paragraph: "It [Japan] has become older faster than any other big country: its median age went from 34 in 1980 to 46 today, and will continue rising for decades. But it will soon have plenty of greying company, from wealthy countries such as Finland and South Korea to developing giants, including China and Russia. Economists generally agree that the ageing of populations leads to slower growth, because a country’s potential output tends to fall as its labour force shrinks. They also expect heavier fiscal burdens, with governments providing for more pensioners from a smaller tax base. Until recently, though, there had been little research into how demography affects inflation.

the last 1  1/2 paragraphs: one camp of economist postulates, "Countries with more people consuming goods and services than producing them are liable to have excess demand and thus inflationary tendencies. Those with more producers than consumers will, by contrast, have excess supply and a deflationary bias. That raises the question of why prices in Japan have fallen for so many years, given its rapidly ageing population. There are several potential culprits: the damaged balance-sheets left by the popping of the asset bubble of the 1980s, say, or the hesitant monetary policy before Mr Abe. But if the paper’s thesis holds true, an ageing population could yet lead to rising prices in the coming years. As the Bank of Japan seeks to vanquish deflation, demography may turn out to be friend, not foe.

My comment: This article deals with recent research among economists about whether aging  [American spelling] per se leads to inflation or deflation. In a nutshell, different camps of economist reach opposite conclusion. So you need not read the rest. However, quotation 2 suggests that many economists in the world can not fathom what has illed Japan--at least no consensus yet.

choi

(3) Obituary | The Great Survivor; Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a Polish statesman, died on April 24th, aged 93.
www.economist.com/news/obituary/ ... d-93-great-survivor

Note:
(a) "WHEN Hitler’s forces marched into Warsaw in September 1939, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski’s parents told him not to panic. They had experienced German occupation during the last war."
(i) The three Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth occurred in 1772, 1793, and 1795 (among Russia, Prussia and Austria). Then came Second Polish Republic (1918–39).
(ii) After the third partition in 1795, Warsaw went to Prussia. See the map in section 5 Partitioned Poland of
history of Poland
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland
(iii) Warsaw
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw
(section 2.3 19th and 20th centuries)

Napoleon came (1806; driving out Prussian) and went (1815). Then Russians took over, until "Warsaw was occupied by Germany from Aug 4, 1915 until November 1918." Ibid.

(b) “The Bartoszewskis could hardly have given their teenage son worse advice. The Western allies never came; instead the Soviets joined in the Nazi attack. Hitler not only wiped Poland off the map”

History of Poland (1939–45)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_(1939–45)
("Following the German-Soviet non-aggression treaty [signed on Aug 23, 1939], Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany on Sept 1, 1939 and by the Soviet Union on Sept 17. The campaigns ended in early October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland. After the German attack on the Soviet Union in summer 1941, Poland was occupied by Germany alone")

(c) “He [Władysław Bartoszewski] showed that kindness to Poland’s Jews. Through Zegota, a part of the Polish underground state set up for the purpose, he helped provide them with food, shelter, medical care and, during the doomed Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943, arms. * * * Many years later he would become ‘Righteous among Nations’ at the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel.”
(i) Władysław Bartoszewski
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Władysław_Bartoszewski
(1922 – 2015; a close ally of Lech Wałęsa)

was not Jewish.
(ii) Żegota
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBegota
(iii) Yad Vashem
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yad_Vashem
(section 1 Etymology: Isaiah 56:5 [where “I” is god and “them,” eunuchs]; section 8 Righteous Among the Nations)

(d) “Post-Stalinist Poland was mostly boring and tiresome rather than horrible. A born optimist, he refused to be cast down.”
(i) cast down (vt, adv): “to make (a person) discouraged or dejected”
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cast-down
(ii) cast down (adj): “DOWNCAST”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cast%20down

(e) “He never conflated the Germans, whose language and culture he loved, and the Hitlerites. When Nazi goons searched his home he teasingly quoted Heine—a German-Jewish poet whose popular ‘Die Loreley’ was allowed by the Nazis under the pretext that it was an anonymous folk song. In occupied, despoiled Warsaw, the opening lines were apt.

I know not if there is a reason
Why I am so sad at heart.
A legend of bygone ages
Haunts me and will not depart.”

(i) Lorelei
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorelei
(German: Loreley [Collins dictionary place the accent on the first syllable]; section 2 Original folklore and the creation of the modern myth: In 1824, Heinrich Heine [composed] one of his most famous poems, ''Die Lorelei')
(ii) For “die,” see German articles
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_articles
(section 1.2 Definite article)
(iii)
(A) Heinrich Heine: The Lorelei ( [translated] From German). Translated by AZ Foreman, undated.
poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2009/11/heinrich-heine-lorelei-from-german.html
(six paragraphs)

Foreman's head shot is displayed in the upper right corner of the Web page.
(B) As for his name "AZ," this is what he wrote in his Google+ page: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the A and the Z, the Beginning and the end."

(f) “His great ire was against Erika Steinbach, a combative leader of Germans cruelly deported from Poland after the war.”

Erika Steinbach
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_Steinbach
(1943- )