US Oregon want to tax motorists for miles driven, not petrol burned.

The state invented the petrol tax in 1919., but officials now want to replace it with a vehicle-miles-travelled (VMT) fee. Under it, drivers would be charged for the distance they consume. GPS-equipped gizmos would track journeys, ensuring that motorists were not charged for driving on private roads or out of state. Those who preferred to keep their whereabouts secret could opt to be charged on odometer readings, or simply to pay a flat fee. A bill that would have applied a VMT fee to all new vehicles doing 55 miles per gallon (mpg) and above died in the last legislative session; instead, 5000 volunteers will join a new VMT scheme in July 2015. They will be charged at 1.5 cents per mile rather than paying the state petrol tax (30 cents per gallon). (The Economist October 19th-25th 2013 P.32)

US style of government by torture

When the two sides failed to strike a budget deal in 2011 they devised a punishment that would hurt each of them if negotiations were to fail again. When they duly failed, the "sequester"- a package of spending cuts to things cherished by both parties - took effect. As a result defence spending is projected to be reduced by 10% this year, while federal funding for research and development will fall by 5%. In September, faced with a similar choice between agreeing on a budget deal or stopping discretionary spending (the government shutdown), the parties opted for a shutdown. Among other things, this meant that most staff at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks the spread of infectious diseases, were sent home for nearly three weeks. Once again, accepting something previously considered appalling proved preferable to compromise. (The Economist October 19th-25th 2013 P.31)

日本社会の価値観が急変した時期について

９０年代初頭の日本では、バブル崩壊後の不況下においても、ほぼ横ばいか若干のプラスの経済成長率を記録していた。しかし、９７年から９８年にかけて北海道拓殖銀行、山一証券、日本長期信用銀行、日本債券信用銀行と大手の金融機関が続けざまに破綻した。これはいわば４回続けてリーマンショックを経験したことと同じである。ジェームズ教授（プリンストン大学のハロルド・ジェームズ教授）の説に拠れば、まさに日本社会の価値観が変わったはずである。指標をみると、確かにこの時期を境に大きな変動が読み取れる。よく言われていることだが、自殺者の数は、９７年までの２万人台から一気に３万人台に跳ね上がった。消費者物価指数は９８年から７年連続マイナスを記録。非正規労働者の割合は２１％前後から最近は３５％前後、生活保護実数世帯数や生涯未婚率の急増、若者の勤勉さに対する意識の変化など、日常生活にもその影響が及んでいる。（文藝春秋２０１３年８月号Ｐ８０より）

N. Korea out of reach for U.S. spies

I think it's, of course, one of the, if not the, most important issue for us Japan. :
(April 14, 2013. AFP-Jiji)
Conflicting accounts from U.S. intelligence about the status of North Korea's nuclear weapons development underscore just how difficult it is for American spy agencies to penetrate its inscrutable regime, officials and experts said.
   The world's most powerful intelligence apparatus is often left to guesswork when it comes to tracking a regime that has cut off its population from the outside world.
   "I also have to say that North Korea, of course, is now and always has been one of the, if not the, toughest intelligence targets," U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper told lawmakers at a hearing Thursday (April 11).
   The United States gleans most of its intelligence from satellites tracking North Korean military movements, as Western spies cannot operate effectively in such a tightly controlled dictatorship. "It is virtually impossible to run a human spy in the North and penetrate the Korean state," Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and fellow at the Brooking institution, said.
   The vexing challenge posed by Pyongyang was driven home when a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report came to light Thursday (April 11) that seemed to paint a more dangerous picture of North Korea's nuclear weapons, unlike previous accounts from American officials.
   The DIA report, revealed by a lawmaker from Colorado with a keen interest in missile defense funding, concluded that the North likely has succeeded in miniaturizing a nuclear warhead that could be placed onto a ballistic missile.

Prices outpace incomes as yen softens

How do you like Japan Up and/or Down ?  :
(April 12, 2013. JT)
Prices are rising before incomes are and thus consumers are feeling the pain of the yen's depreciation driven by "Abenomics." First affected are imports, but price hikes for daily necessities and power are looming. Credit for rising stocks and the yen's continued depreciation goes to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ultraloose economic policies and the Bank of Japan's massive monetary easing declared last week. The central bank's aggressive easing, orchestrated by BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, has the dollar surging near the symbolic threshold of ￥100. Finance Minister Taro Aso has called the depreciation a "process of (the yen) being corrected" after touching highs below 76 to the dollar last summer.