April 04, 2004

Testing Einstein.

"Gravity Probe B will test .. how the Earth's rotation twists and drags space-time around with it .. the twisting effect, called frame-dragging, has never been directly detected .. ". More BBC NEWS.

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March 01, 2004

Taxes. Wrap your mind around this one. A Canadian Conservative Party leadership candidate is proposing that a worker's first $250,000 would be earned tax free. Colby Cosh has put his 30-something mind to work on the idea, and he's not impressed.

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February 22, 2004

Money. China banks act on anticipated re-evaluation of the yuan. Quotable:

A report two weeks ago in a financial newspaper controlled by the stockmarket authority said China would move next month from its decade-old peg of 8.28 yuan to the US dollar to a rate set against a basket of currencies, and would carry out an upward revaluation of 5 per cent. The report has been denied repeatedly, but Chinese officials have started using the term "basic stability" rather than an outright dismissal of any change ..

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February 18, 2004

Money & Trade. "The U.S. dollar has now been dropping for a solid two years, declining on a broad trade-weighted basis, according to the Federal Reserve, by 13.6 percent from its February 2002 peak. Against many of the world's major currencies the buck has buckled by even more: 25 percent against the British pound, 21 percent against the Japanese yen, 32 percent against the euro. And what's happened to the U.S. trade deficit? It's got even worse, of course, jumping from $359 billion in 2001 to $418 billion in 2002 to $489 billion in 2003. That the trade gap keeps on widening despite the weak dollar is a bit of a puzzle .. ". MORE Justin Lahart.

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