Your 15-minute Wednesday report in 3629 words.
##Standard & Poorโs expects 6.3% GDP growth this year
The report says: The economic recovery is gaining momentum after last year's recession and war. The growth will come from exports and private consumption.
The investments will play a key role in the coming 2 years. For example, through government investment in transport infrastructure.
Armenia has weathered the impact of the pandemic and war without jeopardizing economic stability, partly due to credible fiscal and monetary policies.
There are some risks. Armenia has strong trade links with Russia. That's also where a large share of remittances come from. The transmission decreased in the wake of the pandemic.
>[The government won reelection in June.] This should enable authorities to pursue their ambitious reform agenda, which aims to improve the business environment, raise investments, reduce poverty, and address structural impediments to higher growth. Armeniaโs standby arrangement with the IMF will remain an anchor for near-term structural reforms. At the same time, the government has already improved governance and institutional efficiency since coming into office in 2018.
More: http://arka.am/en/news/economy/standard_poor_s_global_ratings_expects_armenia_s_real_gdp_growth_of_6_3_in_2021/
##Standard & Poor's has assigned a credit rating to the Armenian government for the first time ever
B+ long-term foreign- and local-currency sovereign credit ratings to Armenia. At the same time, the agency assigned its 'B' short-term foreign- and local currency ratings. The outlook is positive. S&P also assigned its 'BB-' transfer and convertibility assessment to Armenia.
>The positive outlook reflects Armenia's prospects for a continued rapid economic expansion over the next two-to-three years
>Our ratings on Armenia are constrained by evolving institutional settings, low income levels, high external indebtedness, and sizable external financing needs.
https://www.1lurer.am/en/2021/10/13/Sovereign-rating-to-Armenia%E2%80%99s-Government-with-a-%E2%80%98positive%E2%80%99-perspective/576048
##Standard & Poorโs: Armenian governmentโs general debt to decrease to 48% by 2024 from 53% in 2021
>the swift reduction is because of exchange rate movements: the domestic currency, the Armenian dram, has appreciated notably following depreciation at the beginning of the year and almost three-quar
... keep reading on reddit โกhttps://supchina.com/2021/11/03/taiwan-parties-split-over-constitutional-reform/
"On October 22, a group of 17 former and current legislators who form the ruling Democratic Progressive Partyโs (DPP) constitutional reform small group released a proposal for amending Taiwanโs 74-year-old constitution. Six reforms were announced, including lowering the voting age to 18, abolishing both the Control and Examination Yuan (the countryโs auditor and civil service exam institutions), and establishing an independent human rights committee.
But the proposal that has sparked the most discussion is the one that is most unlikely to pass: lowering the requirements to amend the constitution in the future. This has been one of the principal demands of Taiwanโs independence movement since its martial law period, with an eye on eventually creating a new constitution.
During martial law, various groups in the underground independence movement drafted new constitutions as a way to imagine a Taiwan no longer connected to the Republic of China (ROC). As a result, forces opposed to independence are suspicious of constitutional reform, perceiving it as secessionist. Until 1991, any mention of constitutional reform was illegal under Article 100 of the Criminal Law Code.
โThe constitution is directly related to the question of sovereignty. Because of this, it inevitably touches the question of independence or reunification,โ says Chen Li-fu (้ไฟ็ซ Chรฉn Lรฌfว), a professor at Aletheia University and member of the Nationwide Constitution Reform Alliance (ๅ จๅฝๅฎชๆน่็ quรกnguรณ xiร n gวi liรกnmรฉng). The alliance formed during the Ma Ying-jeou (้ฉฌ่ฑไน Mว Yฤซngjiว) administration to push through constitutional reforms after the 2014 Sunflower Movement. While that effort failed, various civil society groups continue to pursue amending the constitution as an avenue for advancing democracy.
โ[China] resolutely opposes any path that seeks independence through amending [Taiwanโs] constitution,โ Mว Xiวoguฤng ้ฉฌๆๅ , a spokesman for Chinaโs Taiwan Affairs Office, said in response to the current proposal. โThis includes lowering the threshold in order to open a convenient door to seek independence.โ
... keep reading on reddit โก
In 82 BCE Sulla marched on Rome for the second time. After taking control and his brutal proscriptions he formalized the cursus honorum. He seems to have thought that he had fixed the Republic and retired afterwards. But then afterwards there was the Late Republic period of incessant civil wars.
On the other hand, when Augustus gained control of Rome following Actium in 31 BCE, he managed to construct a stable structure of the Princeps that far outlasted his own life. Arguably, the system he put in place lasted at the minimum until the Crisis of the Third Century.
Why was Augustus so much more successful? Was it just because of the accident of fate that he lived forty years after his takeover while Sulla only lived for five?
10 years ago, the police in Toronto egregiously violated the constitutional rights of hundreds of Torontonians. Despite the calls for greater police accountability, here we are today.
When folks ask if I am optimistic that we will actually see police reform, I say -- if the police can trample on the rights of predominantly white protesters during G20 without consequence, I am extremely skeptical that addressing systemic racism within the police force will ever happen.
Enjoy the picture below of a couple Toronto cops at the Queen & Spadina kettle who don't have badge numbers or names on their uniforms. In my opinion they should have all been fired for this violation but are probably continuing to make hundreds of thousands of dollars standing ambivalently at a construction site.
Just another picture of Toronto Cops operating without accountability
