BOSTON — BOSTON (AP) — Most Valuable Papi.
David Ortiz walked off with the World Series MVP prize Wednesday night, capping a dominant week in which he led the Boston Red Sox over St. Louis with a mix of power, patience and a most timely pep talk.
By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – The United States reprimanded Germany on Wednesday, saying its exporting prowess was hampering economic stability in Europe and hurting the global economy.
The Obama administration has long called for countries with trade surpluses, such as Germany and China, to do more to spur domestic demand.
But in a semiannual report to Congress on international economic policies, the criticism of Germany stood out for its stark language and prominent placement.
“Germany’s anemic pace of domestic demand growth and dependence on exports have hampered” efforts to make the euro zone economy more stable, the Treasury said in the report.
“The net result has been a deflationary bias for the euro area, as well as for the world economy.”
Deflation is a persistent drop in wages and prices that can create a self-feeding cycle of economic weakness.
The criticism comes at tricky juncture in relations between Washington and Berlin. German envoys met the White House national security adviser in Washington on Wednesday following reports the United States monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone.
For years, the semi-annual report has been an occasion for the U.S. government to publicly criticize China’s foreign exchange practices, but this time Germany appeared to eclipse the Asian nation in terms of prominence.
The Treasury noted, for example, that Germany’s net exports of goods, services and capital exceeded those of China in 2012. The policy recommendations for Germany also topped the list of actions Washington feels are necessary to make the global economy more stable.
Economists say stronger domestic demand in Germany would suck in more goods from countries on the southern rim of the euro zone, which continue to suffer from an economic crisis.
As has been customary for over a decade, the Treasury stopped short of formally labeling China a currency manipulator.
It retained its description of the yuan currency as “significantly undervalued,” a perennial complaint among U.S. politicians and companies because a weak yuan makes Chinese exports cheaper in the United States at the expense of American manufacturers.
However, the Treasury also noted that the recent appreciation of the yuan was “good for the U.S. economy” and called on China to allow the currency to rise more quickly.
The Treasury also said it was closely following Japanese economic policies to determine whether they are geared toward boosting domestic demand.
An aggressive monetary stimulus program by Japan’s central bank has put downward pressure on the yen this year, making Japanese exports more competitive abroad. The U.S. administration notes that Japan had joined other nations in pledging not to target a lower exchange rate.
“It is important that these commitments be maintained,” the Treasury said.
Similarly, the Obama administration said it was important for South Korea to refrain from a targeted exchange rate, saying intervention by Seoul in currency markets should only be carried out under “exceptional circumstances.”
One afternoon in 2006, a Frenchman and a guy who looked like a plumber drove up to a warehouse at the end of a quiet commercial street east of downtown Los Angeles.
The Frenchman was Thierry Guetta, aka Mr. Brainwash, an eccentric filmmaker who frequently collaborates with the elusive British street artist known as Banksy.
The other man — the plumber type — was Banksy himself.
Nikon just announced the winners for its 2013 Small World Photomicrography Competition. It’s basically a collection of the best images of things you can only see under a light microscope. Or better yet, it’s the best photographs of things you can’t actually see. Here are some fantastically creepy shots that were our favorites.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has had enough of the “bullies” on the right. He told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday how he’d put an end to the Grand Old Party, if he didn’t care so much.
“If I didn’t care so much about our country, I would hope that [Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)] would get the Republican nomination for president, because that would be the end of the Republican Party,” Reid told Maddow. “He stands for everything America doesn’t.”
The Democratic leader chastised the right for offending women, the gay community, the poor and just about every other minority group through recent legislation, such as food stamp cuts and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, known as ENDA.
See, the reason you spend the extra money on First Class tickets is so that when the airplane sloughs off its wings and transforms into an organic, hyper-dimensional rocket beast, you aren’t jettisoned along with the rest of the schmucks in Economy. Plus you get to board first and clink champagne glasses together as poor people file past, which is always fun.
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If you’ve been browsing around Twitter this evening and something seemed different, you’re right — an update has rolled out that brings photos in all their glory to users’ feeds. Now when scrolling, most images will show up in a large preview window, showing a large portion of what the image is and leaving the […]
Want to find a real haunted house to explore on Halloween? Well, look no further — mapping software company Esri has come out with an interactive map that explores where in the world horror movies supposedly took place.
For example, that massive mansion in “The Shining” where Jack Nicholson’s character famously axed through a bathroom door and yelled “Here’s Johnny?” That was in Estes Park, Colo.
What about the haunted home inhabited by evil spirits and paranormal activity in “Poltergeist?” That was in the fictional town of Cuesta V… [Read more]
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BOSTON — BOSTON (AP) — There hasn’t been a party like this in New England for nearly a century.
Turmoil to triumph. Worst to first.
David Ortiz and the Boston Red Sox, baseball’s bearded wonders, capped their remarkable turnaround by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 in Game 6 on Wednesday night to win their third World Series championship in 10 seasons.
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