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José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 202
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 National Science Foundation/Stefan
Schnitzer
Ecologist Stefan Schnitzer
studies a liana or woody vine in Panamá.Vines considered
bad for carbon capture
By the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute news staff
Although useful to Tarzan, vines endanger tropical forests' capacity to store carbon. In a major experimental study in Panamá, Smithsonian researchers showed that woody vines, or lianas, slow tropical forest tree growth and may even cause premature tree death. Lianas reduced above ground carbon uptake by more than three-quarters, threatening the forests' ability to buffer climate change. Tropical forests account for a third of the total carbon fixed by photosynthesis. Lianas' increasing abundance may be driven by changing climate, increased disturbance or by more severe seasonal drought. By reducing the ability of tropical forests to accumulate and store carbon released through burning fossil fuels, lianas could cause a positive feedback loop, accelerating climate change. "This study has far-reaching ramifications," said co-author Stefan Schnitzer, a biology professor at Marquette University and a long-term research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. "Lianas contribute only a small fraction of the biomass in tropical forests, but their effects on trees dramatically alter how carbon is accumulated and stored." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the article co-authored by Geertje van der Heijden, a postdoctoral fellow at the research institute and in Schnitzer's lab, and Jennifer Powers, a professor at the University of Minnesota. Lianas are characteristic of lowland tropical forests, often making up more than 25 percent of species and woody stems. Because they depend on trees for support as they climb into sunlit treetops, they can invest a greater percentage of their own biomass in leaves. Previous research by Schnitzer and colleagues showed that lianas can have significant negative effects on forest biomass growth and accumulation. These studies, however, focused primarily on tree growth, were restricted to forest gaps or were only observational. In this experimental study in Panama's Barro Colorado Nature Monument, all lianas were cut in eight experimental plots in a 60-year-old secondary forest, but were left intact in eight others. For the next three years, researchers monitored the growth in diameter of trees and lianas in the plot, and collected and weighed dead leaves and other debris falling from the forest canopy. By the third year, lianas reduced net biomass accumulation by 76 percent per year in plots where they were present compared to where they had been removed. This decrease was due both to lower tree growth and to an increase in tree mortality where lianas were present. The proportion of biomass in leaves versus wood differed as well: forest canopy productivity, mostly leaves, decreased by 14 percent in liana-free plots, while the productivity of woody stems rose by almost 65 percent. Lianas not only lowered biomass accumulation, but also shifted it from wood, which stores carbon for a long time, to leaves, which rot quickly and release carbon back to the atmosphere. These results have dramatic implications for the capacity of tropical forests to serve as a sink for carbon in the future. Simulating the change of biomass stocks over the next 50 years in forests with lianas and without them, the authors found lianas could reduce long-term storage of carbon by 35 percent. Even greater reductions could take place if liana-tree competition intensifies due to the spread of lianas, or causes an increase in the fast-growing tree species with low wood density. While lianas clearly reduce the capacity for tropical forests to store carbon, Schnitzer emphasizes that lianas are an important and valuable component of tropical forests: "In terms of carbon, lianas may be detrimental. However, lianas provide a wide range of resources for wildlife, such as fruits, seeds and fresh leaves, and by connecting trees together lianas provide aerial pathways that are used by the vast majority of arboreal animals to move through the forest."  Pensoft
Publishers photo
This
is the smallest free-living insect, Scydosella
musawasensis.
Smallest bug's
size finally validated
By the Pensoft Publishers news staff
The long-lasting search and debate around the size and identity of the World’s smallest free-living insect seems to have now been ended with the precise measurement and second record of the featherwing beetle species. Described back in 1999 based on only several specimens found in Nicaragua, as many as 85 individuals of the minute beetle species have recently been retrieved from Colombia and thoroughly examined. The smallest of them measured the astounding 0.325 millimeters. That is about .0127 of an inch. The finding made by Alexey Polilov, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, is available in the open access journal ZooKeys. The World’s smallest beetle and tiniest non-parasitoid insect, called Scydosella musawasensis, has an elongated oval body, yellowish-brown coloration and antennas split into 10 segments. It is also the only representative of this featherwing beetle genus. Not able to precisely measure its size because of the preserved specimens being embedded in preparations for microscopy studies, Polilov used new individuals, collected in Chicaque National Park, Colombia, in early 2015. To conclude the length of the smallest one as 0.325 millimeters the scientist used a specialized software and digital micrographs. The recent survey is the second record of the tiny beetle species, which also proved that the range of its distribution is actually much wider. Thereafter, so are the localities of the fungi that the insect feeds on. Cuban activists report sweeps by police Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Pro-democracy opposition leaders in Cuba say that more than 300 activists were grabbed by police Sunday in various parts of the island. Police injured some activists and raided two offices of the Unión Patriótica de Cuba, said the organization in an email. Most of the activists were held for from two to eight hours, although some might still be in jail, said the organization Monday. The bulk of those detained were in the streets seeking the liberation of three Cubans who managed to reach Pope Francis while he was in Havana Sept. 20. Two of the trio, Zaqueo Báez and Ismael Bonet, have been on a hunger strike since their detentions, said Unión Patriótica. The third person detained is María Josefa Acón. The organization said the bulk of the detentions took place in Santiago de Cuba with 121 and La Habana with more than 90 including some members of the Damas de Blanco. Some of those detained were associated with the Frente de Resistencia Orlando Zapata, Unión Patriótica, said. In Camagüey, Guantánamo, Holguín, Las Tunas, Pinar del Rio and Isla de la Juventud other detentions were reported, said Unión Patriótica. Unión Patriótica said that Ministerio del Interior agents also raided its main office and carried away printed material, cables and hundreds of DVDs. The organization complained that 40 cell telephones carried by its members and associated activists were blocked. Yriade Hernández Aguilera, a coordinator for the organization, suffered a bloody nose while he was protesting the beatings of other activists, said Unión Patriótica. The organization released a list of 226 of its members and members of the Frente who were detained. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 202 | |
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Pavas raid
Strong force detains eight men By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Gunplay Sunday in a Pavas neighborhood brought complaints from neighbors and a beefed up police presence. Despite more police, shooting broke out again Monday in what police later said appeared to be two gangs confronting one another. The Fuerza Pública and the Judicial Investigating Organization responded in force Monday afternoon and flooded the area, known as Piedra del Indio in Rincón Grande de Pavas. Police were unable to complete their most important mission. They said they wanted to confiscate weapons, but all they found were small quantities of drugs and some .38-caliber ammunition. Still, they managed to detain eight persons including men presumed to be leaders of both gangs, said the Fuerza Pública. Still unclear is exactly what charges the men will face. Fuerza Pública officers said that the show of force would continue for as long as needed. |
 Ministerio de Seguridad Pública photo
Police enter location where
arrests were made. |
| Computer setup to be unveiled to assist in science and
technology |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Programa Estado de la Nación says it will present today a computer platform that will link Costa Ricans in science and technology to those who might hire them. The program is called Hipatia, which in English is Hypatia, the female scientists and philosopher who lived in Fifth century Alexandria. The Programa set up a press conference this morning and plans to make a formal presentation later in the day. The platform is described as an online tool for the public which provides strategic information that shows the capacity that the country has for developing the technology sector. At the same time, the Programa said, the platform provides a |
system for
mediating offers and demands for technology. The platform was named Hipatia, said the Programa, to honor the scientist, philosopher and free thinker who lived in Alexandria from 370 to 415 and defended the central role that knowledge and science for comprehending reality. The Programa also said that the platform would help with retention of technicians and scientists in the face of brain drain to other countries. Hypatia has become popular because she was an outspoken female at a time when women were suppressed. She also was a pagan who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by a Christian mob during a complex political dispute in her home city that probably had little to do with her religious beliefs. |
| A.M. Costa Rica proudly presents three new members of our hotel directory: |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 202 | |||||
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| Researchers report a troubling possibility with popular
eco-tourism |
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By the Cell Press news staff
Many tourists today are drawn to the idea of vacationing in far-flung places around the globe where their dollars can make a positive impact on local people and local wildlife. But researchers writing in Trends in Ecology & Evolution say that all of those interactions between wild animals and friendly ecotourists eager to snap their pictures may inadvertently put animals at greater risk of being eaten. It's clear that the ecotourism business is booming. "Recent data showed that protected areas around the globe receive 8 billion visitors per year; that's like each human on Earth visited a protected area once a year, and then some!" said Daniel Blumstein of the University of California, Los Angeles. "This massive amount of nature-based and eco-tourism can be added to the long list of drivers of human-induced rapid environmental change." Blumstein says the new report sets out "a new way of thinking about possible long-term effects of nature-based tourism and encourages scientists and reserve managers to take into account these deleterious impacts to assess the sustainability of a type of tourism, which typically aims to enhance, not deplete, biodiversity." The basic premise of the report is that human presence changes the way animals act and those changes might spill over into other parts of their lives. Those changes in behavior and activity may put animals at risk in ways that aren't immediately obvious. "When animals interact in benign ways with humans, they may let down their guard," Blumstein said. As animals get used to feeling comfortable with humans nearby, they may become bolder in other situations, he says. "If this boldness transfers to real predators, then they will suffer higher mortality when they encounter real predators." Eco-tourism is in some respects similar in this regard to domestication or urbanization. In all three cases, regular interactions between people and animals may lead to habituation, a kind of taming. Evidence has shown that domesticated silver foxes become more docile and less fearful, a process that results from evolutionary changes but also from regular interactions with humans. Domesticated fish are less responsive to simulated predatory attacks. Fox squirrels and birds that live in urbanized areas are bolder. It takes more to make them flee. The presence of humans can also discourage natural |
 Cell
Press /Benjamin Geffroy.
Tourists enjoying snorkeling
surrounded by fish in a tributary of the Cuiabá River in Mato
Grosso, Brazil.predators, creating a kind of safe haven for smaller animals that might make them bolder, too. When humans are around, for example, vervet monkeys have fewer run-ins with predatory leopards. In Grand Teton National Park, elk and pronghorn in areas with more tourists spend less time at alert and more time feeding. The question is to what extent do these more relaxed and bolder behaviors around humans transfer to other situations, leaving animals at greater risk in the presence of their natural predators? And what happens if a poacher comes around? "We know that humans are able to drive rapid phenotypic change in other species," the researchers write. "If individuals selectively habituate to humans, particularly tourists, and if invasive tourism practices enhance this habituation, we might be selecting for or creating traits or syndromes that have unintended consequences, such as increased predation risk. Even a small human-induced perturbation could affect the behavior or population biology of a species and influence the species' function in its community." Blumstein says they hope to stimulate more research on the interactions of humans with wildlife. It will "now be essential to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how different species and species in different situations respond to human visitation and under what precise conditions human exposure might put them at risk," he says. |
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| Student at Emory University held over Internet threat By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Campus police at Emory University in Atlanta have arrested a 21-year-old female student for allegedly threatening a mass shooting at the school. The suspect, identified by the sheriff's office in Newton County, Georgia, as Emily Sakamoto, was accused of posting the threat on a social media site Sunday. "I'm shooting up the school. Tomorrow. Stay in your rooms. The ones on the quad are the ones who will go first," the note said. Students immediately called campus police. No other details about the suspect or the motives for the alleged threat were released. The incident occurred less than two weeks after a gunman killed nine students at a small college in Oregon, the latest in a long line of school shootings in the U.S. World Health says hunger still alarming in many lands By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new report says that despite progress in reducing hunger worldwide, levels in at least 52 developing countries remain serious or alarming. It says nearly 800 million people around the world still go hungry. The report was released Monday by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Welthungerlife and Concern Worldwide. The report says conflicts can be strongly associated with severe hunger, adding that the Central African Republic, Chad and Zambia have the highest hunger levels. "More than 80 percent of those affected by armed conflict stay within their countries," said the Welthungerlife president, Barbel Dieckmann. "They are the ones who suffer most from severe food insecurity." It says, however, that in contrast, hunger levels are down in Angola, Ethiopia and Rwanda, which all went through civil wars in the 1990's and 2000's. "Conflict is development in reverse," said Dominic MacSorley, CEO of Concern Worldwide. "The time has come for the international community to make conflict prevention, mitigation and resolution a far higher political priority." The report says hunger levels in developing countries have fallen by 27 percent since 2000. Seventeen countries, among them Brazil, Croatia, Perú and Venezuela, have reduced their hunger scores by half since 2000. It adds that calamitous famines, described as those that kill more than 1 million people, seem to have vanished. Dentist who killed famed lion will not face any prosecution By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Zimbabwe's government says it will not file charges against the U.S. dentist who killed the famed Cecil the lion. "Palmer came to Zimbabwe because his papers were in order," Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri told reporters, referring to the dentist, Walter Palmer. Palmer admitted killing the rare, prized black-maned lion with a bow and arrow July 1 near Zimbabwe's Hwange national park. Palmer said he hired professional local guides with the required hunting permits and believed the hunt was legal. Authorities said, however that Palmer, worked with his guides to lure Cecil out of Hwange to an unprotected area by strapping a dead animal to their vehicle. The lion was a major attraction at the park and was being tracked with a global positioning system collar as part of an Oxford University research project. A Zimbabwean hunter, Theodore Bronkhorst, has been charged in connection with the hunt. Following the killing of Cecil, the Zimbabwean government banned trophy hunting in the country. Three major U.S. airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines, also banned the shipment of hunting trophies, following similar prohibitions put in place by Emirates and South African Airways. The ban prevents carrying lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo trophies. Collapse of world's fisheries predicted by review of studies By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new study is warning that the world’s fisheries and ocean ecosystems are threatened even more than previously thought by rising carbon dioxide levels, and the global marine food chain could collapse. After reviewing data from 632 published experiments covering tropical to arctic waters, and a range of ecosystems including coral reefs, kelp forests and open oceans, two Australian professors conclude that very few species will escape the negative effects of increasing carbon dioxide. An exception is microorganisms, such as plankton and algae, which are expected to increase in number and diversity. They provide food for marine herbivores. But the food situation becomes more dire for the bigger carnivorous creatures that fisheries industries are based around. That will lead marine life to undergo a species collapse from the top of the food chain down, according to Associate Professor Ivan Nagelkerken of the Southern Seas Ecology Labs at the University of Adelaide. Previous scientific studies have predicted the collapse of commercial fish stocks within the next 30 years. “No species is able to sustain itself in an environment where there's not sufficient food. And these effects are only exacerbated as you go up the food chain,” Nagelkerken said. Nagelkerken, along with a fellow University of Adelaide marine ecologist, Sean Connell, were led to conclusions much worse than they anticipated when they first started studying the impact of ocean temperature warming. “We didn't expect to see such strong negative responses across so many species in terms of their diversity and abundances,” Nagelkerken said. Even if carbon dioxide emissions are stopped, oceans will still continue to warm and their pH reduced for quite some time. But there are things humans can do to mitigate the looming disaster, according to Nagelkerken. “If we reduce the amount of local stressors, such as pollution of the ocean, eutrophication and over-fishing, we can actually buy some time. So reduce the number of stressors on these species so they, at least, get some chance to potentially acclimate to global change,” he said. As the oceans warm, some species will swim to higher latitudes but the laggards will find their chances of survival greatly imperiled. The analysis also shows that warmer waters or reduced pH or both, harms habitat-forming species such as coral, oysters and mussels. Any slight change in the health of their habitats is forecast to have broad impact on a wide range of species living in the reefs. The study also predicts lower pH will lead to ocean plankton making less dimethylsulfide gas, which helps increase cloud cover which regulates the Earth's temperature. So, less of the gas means fewer clouds and more warming. Results of the University of Adelaide study are being published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The pH of the ocean is around 8.1, a drop from 8.2, The oceans still are more basic than the pH 7.0, that is neutral, but scientists still refer to the slight change in pH as acidification. Princeton professor named as Nobel winner in economics By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Princeton University Professor Angus Deaton has the won the 2015 Nobel Economics Prize for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said by linking detailed individual choices and aggregate outcomes, Deaton's research has helped transform the fields of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and development economics. The Nobel committee says his work revolves around three questions: how do consumers distribute their spending among different goods; how much of society's income is spent and how much is saved; and how to best measure and analyze welfare and poverty? It says his research has shown "how the clever use of household data can shed light on issues such as the relationship between income and calorie intake, and the extent of gender discrimination with the family." "Deaton's focus on household surveys has helped transform development economics from a theoretical field based on aggregate data to an empirical field based on detailed individual data," it says. In a press conference following the announcement, Deaton said he was delighted that his work had been recognized. He told reporters he believed poverty would decline. "I think we've had a remarkable decrease for the past 20 to 30 years. I do expect that to continue." Deaton, a British and U.S. citizen born in Scotland, has been a professor of economics and international affairs at New Jersey's Princeton University since 1983. The award comes with $978,000 in prize money. Better care for mentally ill urged as human rights goal By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
To mark World Mental Health Day Saturday, the World Health Organization urged governments to protect the human rights and dignity of people with mental health disorders who suffer from stigma, discrimination and wide-ranging abuse. Hundreds of millions of people globally suffer from mental health problems. The World Health Organization reports the mentally ill account for 13 percent of the global disease burden, and for one-third of all health-related disability. Studies in the United States, Britain and Ethiopia show people with serious mental illness are dying 10 to 20 years earlier than the general population. World Health Mental Health Coordinator Michelle Funk says people with mental health problems often are shunned and neglected. She says the services they receive for their condition are generally inadequate and almost universally brutal. She says they are stripped of their human rights and dignity, elements essential for their recovery. “What we see instead is that people admitted to in-patient facilities throughout all countries in the world are exposed to violence, sexual abuse," she said. "They are restrained. They are tied down. They are left without food and water, forced to live in extremely dirty and unhygienic conditions and simply forgotten about for years and sometimes for the rest of their life.” She notes this is a common situation in both developed and developing countries. Dr. Funk says people with mental disabilities frequently are locked up in institutions where they are isolated from society and subject to inhuman and degrading treatment. She says they often are deprived of the right to make decisions for themselves, lack access to education and employment opportunities. She says people with mental illness are set apart from the general population and are prevented from participating fully in society. The World Health Organization says poor quality care due to a lack of qualified health professionals and dilapidated facilities leads to further violations. The agency is running an awareness campaign aimed at dispelling the many myths and erroneous assumptions of the mentally ill. World Health says many people with mental disabilities can recover if treated by trained health professionals who respect the needs of their patients and include them in the decisions that affect their lives. Paintable solar cells proposed as an economical advance By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Rapidly expanding solar cell technology currently relies on expensive photovoltaic materials such as silicon or cadmium telluride, which is why their production, installation and maintenance costs are still high. Troy Townsend, an assistant professor of chemistry at St. Mary's College in St. Mary's City, Maryland, says less efficient but much cheaper inorganic materials could be used to create paintable solar cells. To make up for the low efficiency, this less expensive material may be used to cover large surfaces, such as the roofs of entire communities. “Typically, silicon solar cells are between 16 and 18 percent efficient," Townsend said. "There have been some commercially available cadmium telluride solar cells, from First Solar, that have gotten up to 20 percent. Our devices right now are between 5 and 12 percent.” The photovoltaic material can be synthesized by mixing nanocrystals with organic solvents. The resulting substance can be printed, sprayed or spin-coated to make an entire device fully solution-processed, Townsend said. Once deposited on a suitable surface, such as glass, the photosensitive layers have to be heated, together with an agent. Instead of commonly used highly toxic substances, Townsend discovered that it can be done with nontoxic salts. Individual cells can be connected in series or parallel to build up either voltage or current. Townsend hopes that someday, solar arrays may become much more affordable for individual users. “The goal of this is to be able to put this in the hands of an average, everyday person," he said. "They have all the tools they need to build these devices in their home kitchen.” He is also confident that further research will lead to the increased efficiency of paintable solar cells. Democratic candidates hold their debate tonight in Vegas By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
After watching Republican candidates spar in two rounds of debates, Democrats looking to become the next U.S. president get their turn tonight as they take the stage in Las Vegas for their first debate of the 2016 election campaign. Former secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her status as the front-runner in the Democratic race will put her in the center of the debate, both literally and figuratively, as she stands in the middle of the four other candidates taking part. Recent polls put Mrs. Clinton ahead with about 40 percent support, while her chief challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, comes in at 25 percent. In stark contrast to the Republican race, the Democrats have spent far less of the campaign talking about each other, leaving Tuesday's debate as an intriguing forum for their policies and records to be compared and contrasted. The size of the field is another marked difference, with Mrs. Clinton and Sanders being joined by former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, former Virginia senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chafee. The latter three candidates have struggled to earn even 1 percent in recent polls. The debate might be the best chance for O'Malley, Webb and Chafee to establish themselves before the possible addition of another well-known figure in the race, Vice President Joe Biden, who will not take part in the debate but is still deciding whether to run for president. |
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Forget the
birds and bees for ferns
Tree ferns fascinate me. We had ferns in our yard in New York and again in Georgia. They were nice orderly plants and kept to the shade,
Today, we are used to vascular plants that use flowers to attract pollinators like bees, ants and butterflies. The plants flower are pollinated and produce seeds. We know that some trees need cross-pollination. There must be a boy tree and a girl tree or there will be no baby trees. Fair enough. Then there are trees that have male and female parts in one tree. You have one tree and it can have baby trees. All this seems normal. Then come the ferns. Ferns are not like “normal” vascular plants like the apple. Ferns don't make flowers for busy bees. They make spore sacks under their fronds (they are too ancient to have leaves). From the sacks come spores, and I always believed that the spores just made baby ferns (I thought I understood biology. Oh, the embarrassment). Spores don't make ferns. They make gametophytes, a platform of sorts that is a kind of intermediate stage of development. When they are mature, gametophytes, which are hermaphroditic, make eggs and sperm. Given the right conditions (especially moisture), the eggs and sperm get together on the gametophyte (think tiny little waterbed) to make an embryonic fern. This little fern has two parts, a shoot that grows up toward the sun, and a root, that embeds itself in the gametophyte to stabilize the shoot. With a gametophyte the size of a dime and a lot of eggs and sperm floating around, there is intense competition for survival. Something does survive, of course, and grows up to be just like the parent plant. So there you have the very private life of ferns. I have never seen a gametophyte. But, just in case, I am making some very tiny sheets for water beds. You never know.  Plant for the Week
Here is one of those marvelous tree ferns that I found near a stream on the property. Just to be safe, I pulled the vines off carefully. Tree ferns have thorns. Now I am waiting for it to have spore sacks so that I can harvest them and grow little tree ferns. I would love to move this one to a new spot, but tree ferns are protected and must be left where they are. Maybe that's for the best. It sounds as if they need some privacy . . . . If you would like to suggest a topic for this column, simply send a letter to the editor. And, for more garden tips, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arenal-Gardeners/413220712106845 |
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| From Page 7: Fed official warns against quickly raising rates By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard warned against raising key U.S. interest rates too soon, saying despite the improving economic outlook that global weakness poses a downside risk to already low inflation in the United States. While the U.S. economy has proved reassuringly resilient, Brainard says the economic momentum may not be strong enough to overcome deflationary risks from abroad. Concerns about slowing growth in China, the world’s second largest economy, has roiled financial markets in the past two months, causing the central bank to delay raising its benchmark interest rates which have been at record lows since 2008. The Fed has not ruled out a modest rate hike before the end of the year, but Brainard says sluggish wage growth in the U.S. combined with increased market volatility could make the U.S. more vulnerable to external risks. U.S. monetary policy is based on the Fed’s dual mandate of full employment and moderate inflation. While U.S. unemployment, now at 5.1 percent is close to full employment, inflation remains well below the Fed target rate of 2 percent. Despite healthy consumer demand in the U.S., the strong dollar continues to weigh on U.S. exports, further widening trade deficits and according to Brainard, exacerbating the downside risk from slower global growth. Brainard, a voting member of the Fed's policy-making body, made the comments at the annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics in Washington, D.C. |
