Economist, Jan 26, 2019 (I)

choi

There is no need to read the rest of any of the following.

(1) Index funds | Beating the Pro; No one did more for the small investor than Jack Bogle.

the first three paragraphs:

"IN DECEMBER 2009 Paul Volcker, a revered former chairman of the Federal Reserve, took part in a conference on the future of finance. America was plunging into its worst recession since the 1930s, pushed to the brink of disaster by toxic products concocted by Wall Street alchemists. To underline his argument, Mr Volcker made a bold claim: the most useful financial innovation—indeed the only beneficial one—of the past few decades was the automated teller machine, or ATM.

"Mr Volcker is right about many things, but wrong on this one. The prize must go to the index fund, pioneered in the mid-1970s by Jack Bogle, who died last week, aged 89.

"When Vanguard, the mutual-fund group founded by Mr Bogle, launched its first index fund in 1975 after he had spotted the idea in n article by Paul Samuelson, a Nobel laureate, it was not met with great enthusiasm. * * * It raised a mere 17m in its first five years. * * * Today index funds are worth around a sixth of the value of America's stockmarket. In total, Bloomberg [the company, not the person] reckons, Mr Bogle's approach may have saved investors $1trn in fees. * * *

(2) Early education | Young Americans; More politicians from both parties are taking early childhood education seriously.

the first two paragraphs:

"FROM HOT dogs, to automobiles, to diesel fuel, Americans have been touched by plenty of German inventions. Kindergarten ('children-garden') is one of them. The programme for educating youngsters through playing and social interaction, meant as a transition from home to formal schooling, was first brought to America in the 1850s and quickly spread. Kindergarten has flourished, becoming so entrenched that it is part of the formal education system's name ('K through 12'). Yet the garden of even younger Americans, including preschoolers, has too often gone uncultivated.

"The share of three- and four-year-olds enrolled in pre-school has not changed much in two decades. While the average country in the OECD, a club of rich nations, enrolls 80% of its three- and four-year-old children in school, America enrolls just 54%, lagging behind Chile and Mexico. This is true despite abundant evidence of the benefits of early education, especially for disadvantaged children. High-quality pre-school programmes can have lasting benefits, including improving the odds of graduating from school, earning more and staying away from drugs and out of prison. For parents there are gains, too: when their children are in day care, they can work.

Note: German-English dictionary:
* Kindergarten (noun masculine; [noun neuter] Kind child +‎ -er- [used to link elements in some compounds] +‎ [noun masculine] Garten garden); Coined in 1840 by Friedrich Fröbel)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kindergarten

(3) Murder in Brazil | Dying Young. Adolescents are caught between gangs and police. Jair Bolsonaro wants bring more guns to the mix.

Quote:

" 'You can't be neutral in the war,' says Carlos (not his real name), 18, his voice breaking with emotion. 'If you're sitting on the fence, you get shot by both sides [police, gangs].

"Murder is the leading cause of death for Brazilian teenagers. In Ceará [a north-eastern state of Brazil] killings of adolescents increased from 191 in 2000 to 1,156 in 2017. By one reckoning in Fortaleza [Ceará's capital and most populous city] in 2014, 11 out of every 1,000 adolescents could expect to be murdered by the age of 19.

"On January 15 je [the newly inaugurated president] signed a decree that makes it easier for 'good citizens' to buy guns. It ends the discretionary role of the police in granting licenses. People will be able to buy guns freely if they meet conditions such as living in a place where the homicide rate exceed ten per 100,000 people (most Brazilians do). As before, gun owners must have a job and no criminal record. They have to pass a psychological test and get training. It will remain illegal for most Brazilians to carry arms outside their homes or workplaces.

choi

(4) Defending Taiwan | Dire Strait; China's growing might is forcing Taiwan to overhaul its military strategy.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2 ... s-military-strategy

"Back in 1996 [the year of 'Third Taiwan Strait Crisis': en.wikipedia.org], the most recent cross-strait crisis, China's military spending was barely twice Taiwan’s. Now it is 15 times greater.

"Taiwan already does a great deal to make itself indigestible to invaders. The island is 'honeycombed with bunkers [I did not see one],' says Ian Easton of the Project 2049 Institute, an American think-tank. Tanks are hidden away in bustling neighbourhoods of Taipei. The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Highway Number One [中山高速公路 or 國道一號] was built to handle not only rush-hour traffic, but also ten-tonne fighter jets

"America, Taiwan's closest military ally, has urged the island to move further toward a 'porcupine strategy [刺猬戰 in Taiwan].' * * * In 2017 the country's [Taiwan's] top military officer launched the 'Overall Defence Concept 整體防衛構想.' * * * One priority is intelligent sea mines, which can scoot around and so evade sweeping. Some are more advanced than anything in America's arsenal. Another focus is unmanned platform, such as remote-controlled sentry guns to guard outlying islands and armed drones to patrol the coastline. Third is an emphasis on [domestically made] missiles. * * * Such rocket-laden vehicles [trucks] are hidden 'in places you cannot imagine,' says one official

"The problem is that showcase weapons [the big-ticket items such as tanks, warships and fighter jets that the brass want, to deter China and boost morale; their thinking also: 'Missile cannot fend off prowling Chinese bombers nor speedboats patrol stormy oceans.'] are expensive. Even domestically built submarines -- Taiwan hopes to make eight -- cost more than $1bn apiece. The entire annual defence budget is just $11bn. Money is even tighter because  taiwan is scraping conscription and shifting to all-volunteer force. And since salaried soldiers are pricier, their number are fewer. Taiwan's armed forces have shed more than 150,000 people since China's cross-strait muscle-flexing in 1886. Leaving 215,000.The country's reserve force, its second line of defence, will also shrink with every passing year. Even so, any return to compulsory enlistment would be electoral suicide, politicians say.

"Some 3,500-4,000 Pentagon officials travel to Taiwan every year, an average of more than 100 per day.

"The administration of Donald Trump is stacked with senior officials who knows Taiwan well and sympathise with its plight.

"Though Mr Xi clearly feels obliged to continue to hound Taiwan about reunification, he has thus far avoided laying down a firm timeline. The relatively slow growth of China's amphibious fleet casts doubt on the idea that the PLA is working flat out to be ready to invade. Nor has it been conducting big amphibious exercises. There is still time for Taiwan to sharpen its quills.

Note:
(a)
(i) In 1886 China's GDP (修订后 71177亿元; 修订前67885; 数据变动 3292: 国家统计局). That year, the official average exchange rate of renminbi to US dollar is 8.3142 to 1. So China's GDP in 1996 was $856.1b.
(ii) 國民所得統計常用資料-年. 行政院主計總處 DGBAS, last updated Nov 30, 2018
https://statdb.dgbas.gov.tw/pxwe ... ang=9&strList=L
(1996: 國內生產毛額GDP(名目值 [nominal]，百萬元) 8,036,590 + 國內生產毛額GDP(名目值，百萬美元) 292,665 [ie, 292.665b] + 平均每人GDP(名目值，美元) 13,650)
(b) "Missile cannot fend off prowling Chinese bombers nor speedboats patrol stormy oceans."

nor (conjunction): "used before the second or further of two or more alternatives (the first being introduced by a negative such as ‘neither’ or ‘not’) to indicate that they are each untrue or each do not happen.
<However, humans and animals should not drink directly from the river nor enter the water.>
<George said the building was not owned by the government nor the police force.>"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/nor
(c) flat out (adv)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flat%20out
(d) quill (n)
"2  a        (1) : the hollow horny shaft of a feather
        (2) : FEATHER[,] especially : one of the large stiff feathers of the wing or tail
     b : one of the hollow sharp spines of a porcupine or hedgehog
     c : PEN"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quill

Definition (2)(b) fits the bill.

choi

(5) Dress codes in Japan | Defending the Nail; A court strikes a blow against exacting 'grooming standards.'
https://www.economist.com/asia/2 ... xacting-dress-codes

the first two paragraphs:

"JAPAN IS A country of conformity. As the saying goes, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. For the most part, people obey rules without questioning their often flimsy or non-existent rationale. It was surprising, therefore, that two subway drivers in the city of Osaka refused to shave their beards to conform to the city's 'grooming standards,' despite receiving negative performance reviews and lower bonuses in punishment. It was even more surprising when, on January 16th, a court ordered the city to pay compensation to the pair for violating their 'personal freedom.' Another court in Osaka is due to rule soon in a similar case brought by a female pupil against the city after her school obliged her to dye her naturally brown hair black to fit in with her classmates.

"Japan is rife with such rules about hair colour, style and facial hair. Schools and employers are the source of many of the silliest. Some go beyond appearance: many schools allow girls to wear only white underwear, as well as regulating the length of their skirts and the colour of their socks. Others are pointlessly hierarchical. A few companies reportedly ban new employees from using the lifts [elevator] to begin with, making them climb the stairs to their offices instead.

Note: "Japan even has a word for suicide induced by onerous school rules -- shidōshi 指導死."