Tag Archives: government

Eating a Bit Less Salt Can Be a Big Health Boon

Over the years, Americans have become inured to salt. Most people have no idea how much salt they consume — on average, about 9 to 12 g per person per day, according to the American Heart Association . That’s twice the amount recommended by the government

Sarkozy puts government on line over NATO

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France will put his government on the line over his decision to bring the country back into NATO’s integrated military command, more than 40 years after it walked out. French lawmakers will vote Tuesday on whether to support Sarkozy’s move, which he announced officially on Wednesday

Germany’s Solution to Big Auto’s Woes: Scrap That Clunker!

Amid the gruesome headlines generated by the world’s auto industry these days, it almost read like a typo: new car registrations in Germany rose 21% year-on-year in February, the country’s Association of the Automotive Industry announced March 3. This, though, was no error. The 278,000 cars put on the road, crowed Matthias Wissmann, VDA’s president, amounted to “the highest level of sales in the month of February for ten years.” Why the splurge German drivers have latched onto a juicy new deal

Betting the U.S. Government Won’t Pay Its Debts

It is one thing when someone can’t make a mortgage payment or a company cannot cover the interest on capital it borrowed to build a new factory. In a recession, those kinds of events are commonplace. It probably never crosses the mind of the average citizen that the ability of the U.S

Japan: GDP shrinks 12.1 percent in fourth quarter

Japan’s economy shrank more than 12 percent last quarter, the government said on Thursday, in another sign of how severely the global economic downturn has affected the world’s second-largest economy. “It has been a core belief of ours that every nation must not only live by, but help shape global rules that will determine whether people enjoy the right to live freely and participate to the fullest in their societies,” she said after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, adding the United States itself “must continually strive to live up to our own ideals.” Both of them discussed China’s human rights record and situation in Tibet on the 50th anniversary of Tibet’s national uprising

Can Obama Keep Moderate Democrats from Bailing on His Budget?

First there was last winter’s $168 billion economic stimulus package, followed by a $300 billion fund in June to help distressed mortgage holders. Then came $350 billion for the banks , another $350 billion for the banks, $787 billion in economic stimulus and $410 billion in an earmark-packed spending package for fiscal 2009 that Congress passed on Tuesday. Dizzy