Last week was crunch time in the National Football
League (NFL). With the 2013 regular season approaching rapidly, NFL teams cut
about 700 players from their rosters over the Labor Day weekend. That was a big cut—about a 40 percent drop in
player employment—as rosters were pared from 90 to 53 players. However, it’s not likely to have a significant
effect on U.S. unemployment data—and that’s really what the week ahead is all
about.
Last
week, markets jittered and slumped on news that Syria
There
were signs of renewed optimism on Labor Day. Although U.S. Syria
Post
Labor Day, investors will be anticipating employment data with the zeal of Seattle Seahawk fans decked out in their 12th man gear awaiting the opening kickoff at
the Clink. The Financial Times, a
British publication that has little interest in American football but great
interest in U.S. Federal Reserve policy, put it this way:
“Members of the U.S. Federal Reserve open
market committee will get their last pieces of information about the labor
market before their all-important September meeting, which has been heavily
trailed as posing the first real opportunity for the Fed to embark on a taper… The US economy has been recovering at a painfully
slow but steady rate for more than two years now and with no sign of any
step-up in the pace of improvement, the Fed policy-makers face a finely
balanced decision.”
No matter what happens, emotions are likely to be
running high this week.
sobering statistics and investment ideas sometimes go hand-in-hand.
When one of America’s favorite fast food chains unveiled a new product in
Japan, some people wondered how long it would be before this fine innovation — a
three-quarter pound, 1100 plus calorie serving of potatoes called Mega Fries— would
reach our hungry shores. Others deliberated on the ways in which higher
consumption of nutritionally deficient foods may affect obesity rates and
illness in countries around the world. They may even have done a Google search
to ascertain which companies are working on cures for diabetes, developing
treatments for heart ailments, or bio-engineering organ replacements.
A
key measurement in evaluating the ill effects of diseases and health conditions
is the Disability-Adjusted Life Year or DALY. According to the
World Health Organization:
“One DALY can be thought of as one lost
year of "healthy" life. The sum of these DALYs across the population,
or the burden of disease, can be thought of as a measurement of the gap between
current health status and an ideal health situation where the entire population
lives to an advanced age, free of disease and disability…DALYs for a disease or
health condition are calculated as the sum of the Years of Life Lost (YLL) due
to premature mortality in the population and the Years Lost due to Disability
(YLD) for people living with the health condition or its consequences…”
It’s
depressing to note that mental disorders and drug and alcohol abuse are the
biggest drivers of disability. They account for more than 7 percent of DALYs.
That’s more than diabetes, HIV, or tuberculosis, and almost as many as cancer. Globally,
in 2010, depression and anxiety were responsible for about 11 million lost
years of healthy life in the 20- to 24-year-old age group. Drug use also
appears to peak at about this age. The number of DALYs for depression and
anxiety appears to decline with age.
Perhaps
the best idea is corporate wellness programs. Research published by Harvard University
Weekly Focus – Think
About It
“When
you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own
failings. Then you will forget your anger.”
Epictetus, Greek Stoic philosopher
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