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San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 249
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World
Court
affirms Costa Rica's claim
Editors published this news story late
Wednesday morning.
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The International Court of Justice reaffirmed Costa Rica's sovereignty to land south of the mouth of the Río San Juan in a decision announced Wednesday. The court declined to assess actual damages against Nicaragua, which invaded the land. Instead, it ordered the two countries to negotiate the
Costa Rica also did not prevail on a number of environmental claims. The court said that despite general requirements in certain treaties, Nicaragua was not under any obligation to consult with Costa Rica before starting dredging operations in the river in 2010. The court easily dismissed Nicaragua's claim that its efforts to dredge a channel across land that is part of Costa Rica was just an attempt to reopen an old mouth of the river. Nicaragua's legal team had argued this. The decision noted that there were large trees in the area that was dredged and a lack of sediment that argued against the prior existence of any channel. The court also declined to find that the dredging operation had affected the flow of the Río Colorado, which is entirely in Costa Rica. The river, a southern branch of the Río San Juan, is an important waterway in northeastern Costa Rica, and those who use it feared that dredging further west in the river would divert water. The court decision said that the activities of Nicaragua could not be clearly linked to a reduction of the water, which could have been caused by the lack of rain. The court based much of its decision on an 1858 treaty and other decisions outlining the border between the two countries. The court did not seem to be concerned by a breach of its own March 8, 2011, order. Nicaragua excavated two new channels and set up some military facilities after that date on the disputed property, the decision noted. Costa Rica asked the court to nullify a 2009 decree by Nicaragua that resulted in the inspection of tourism boats on the river. The court accepted reports of two cases when navigation on the river by Costa Ricans was interrupted. In February 2013 a farmer and an uncle were detained and subjected to humiliating treatment, and in June 2014 a property owner and members of a local agricultural cooperative were stopped from navigating the river, the court affirmed. These incidents were two of five that were not contested by Nicaragua. Still the court declined to invalidate the decree although the decision agreed that the two incidents show that Nicaragua breached Costa Rica's rights of free navigation. The case began when Nicaragua invaded the Isla Calero area in 2010 and claimed a small piece of Costa Rica. Because the treaties define the border as the south bank of the Río San Juan, a new channel would have transferred part of Costa Rica to Nicaragua. The channel that since has been filled in would have created a broader and deeper mouth of the river to replace the meandering current mouth that is heavily silted. This would open up the river to large boats and commercial development. The slight change in border also would give Nicaragua substantial amounts of potentially oil-rich seabed in the Caribbean. Vacation exodus starts today in metro area By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Any Central Valley employees with a little vacation time are getting a jump on the Christmas holiday today. Public employees are supposed to begin vacation at the end of the Friday workday. But many find ways to get Friday off, too. Many private firms maintain the same schedule as the central government and provide workers with a holiday through Jan. 3. That gives the employees at least a 16-day vacation because both Christmas and New Years are on Fridays. This is the beginning of the tourism high season. Typically beach and mountain hotels do at least 50 percent of their annual income in December and January. Cuba-U.S. air travel pact promised By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. and Cuban officials say they are nearing agreement on restoring regular commercial flights between the former Cold War foes after more than 50 years. Delegations from both nations have been meeting in Washington since Monday to finalize the details of a deal they have been working on for several months. Josefina Vidal, the director of North American affairs at the Cuban foreign ministry, told reporters Wednesday in Havana the two sides have made progress on a memorandum of understanding, and are close to making a formal announcement. A spokesman for the U.S. State Department confirmed that progress had been made, but said the teams were still negotiating. Several major U.S. airlines have expressed interest in establishing regular flights to Cuba, including American Airlines, Delta, United and JetBlue. News of the pending agreement comes a year after U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced the nations were restoring formal diplomatic relations that were severed shortly after communist leader Fidel Castro overthrew the island's longtime dictator in 1959. Obama eased travel restrictions to the Caribbean island in September, but general tourism is banned by the U.S. trade embargo, which can only be lifted by Congress. In an interview with Yahoo! News last week, President Obama said he would like to visit Cuba next year, the last of his presidency, but only if he can meet with political dissidents. The president said he hopes enough progress can be made in order for a visit to happen, and possibly to "nudge the Cuban government in a new direction." Vidal said the U.S. president is welcome to visit Cuba, but said it would not negotiate its internal affairs in exchange for better diplomatic relations with Washington. |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 249 | |
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| Residents in Grecia community block work to protect their
water source |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Residents of Tacares de Grecia blocked work on a water line Wednesday, and the work will continue today under police protection. The Instituto de Acueductos y Alcantarillados said its contractor was blocked when the residents pulled a trailer over the section where work was to be done and shouted at those doing the job. There has been a months-long dispute involving residents of this Grecia community because the water company is tapping a water source there for some 21,000 residents of nearby Atenas. |
The work
Wednesday was to make the connection between existing pipes and the 23
kilometers of new pipe. Tacares residents have been expressing their unhappiness since the middle of the year over the job. The work Wednesday was at Calle Flores in Grecia, the state water company said, noting that access to water is a human right. The dispute is similar to others elsewhere in the country. Residents and agitators in Sardinal burned pipes there in a similar protest against water destined for Playa del Coco developments. |
| Finance ministry claims success in use of new electronic
system |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The finance ministry said that 390,000 taxpayers filed electronic annual returns via the new Administración Tributaria Virtual system. What the ministry did not say is that plenty of taxpayers had to stand in long lines to get appointments to fix errors that had been introduced into the new system. The Ministerio de Hacienda mandated the use of the new system Oct. 4. It was used that month to receive sales tax returns and other electronic documents. Tuesday was the deadline for filing annual tax returns without penalty. But when a lot of taxpayers tried to do so last week they found that the computer rejected them for one reason or another. Consequently they had to stand in line at various offices of |
the
Hacienda's Dirección General de Tributación. At some
places the lines were blocks long. There was an incentive to do so. Failing to file a return draws a penalty of 201,700 colons, about $384. Just like the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the local tax collectors are not known for their sense of humor. The ministry said that 21 percent more returns were received in the last four months than in the same period a year ago. Tuesday also was the deadline for reports of November sales tax, and there were 78,211 of these, said the ministry. Those who use the new system report that it is better than the previous version which was updated periodically. That version resided on the computer of a user and required a long download to use. The new system is Web-based. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 249 |
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| Repeated stress considered a trigger for developing
Alzheimer's |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
For many people, the holidays are a time of stress, whether it’s caused by the anxiety of making a big meal for friends and family or spending time with grumpy relatives. Most of the time, the stress has no long-lasting effect. But if it becomes frequent and common over time, researchers say it could increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. Everyone experiences stress from time to time. It could be prompted by the death of a spouse or loss of a job. Psychiatrist Richard Lipton says it could also be something much less traumatic, like getting a traffic ticket. “One person gets a speeding ticket and they think, 'This is horrible. My insurance premiums are going to go up and I’m going to get a $100 dollar fine," said Lipton. "This is a disaster for me.' And another person thinks, 'Hmmm. I shouldn’t have been speeding. I’m going to be more careful in the future.'" While a great loss can be devastating and the effects long-lasting, it’s the person who perceives common situations as stressful, like the first driver Lipton described, who could be putting his or her psychological health at risk. Lipton, who is with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, explains that stressing out over the small hassles of everyday life can lead to mild cognitive impairment, which is a risk factor for a far more serious disorder. “People who have mild amnestic cognitive impairment go on to develop diagnosable Alzheimer’s dementia at the rate of about 10 to 15 percent per year. So, amnestic cognitive |
impairment is
essentially most often
an early form of Alzheimer’s disease before dementia develops," he said. In a study reported in the journal Alzheimer’s Disease and Associated Disorders, Lipton and colleagues administered a stress assessment test to just over 500 individuals ages 70 and older. The test rated their level of perceived stress. None of the participants had signs of mild cognitive impairment or dementia at the start of the study, called the Einstein Aging Study. They were followed for an average of 3.5 years with a battery of neuropsychological tests and given physical exams. During the study, 71 participants were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. Those with the highest stress levels were two-and-a-half times more likely to develop the pre-Alzheimer’s condition. Most were women with less education and higher levels of depression. Lipton says chronic stress has a number of negative effects on the body. “When stressful events happen and people perceive them to be stressful, there’s a whole series of physiologic changes that take place. Blood pressure goes up, pulse goes up, the stress hormone cortisol is secreted and, over time, chronic stress can produce wear and tear on the body and wear and tear on the brain and lead to long-term health consequences," he said. Lipton says that lowering levels of perceived stress by engaging in activities such as yoga and meditation, for example, could help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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A.M. Costa Rica's
Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 249 | |||||||
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| Mistrial is declared in case of Maryland police officer By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A Baltimore, Maryland, judge has declared a mistrial in the case of police officer William Porter, charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray, a young African-American man whose spine was severed in the back of a police van in April. After three days of deliberations, the jury informed Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams that it could not reach a verdict. Williams thanked the jurors and dismissed them. Porter had been charged with involuntary manslaughter, second degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct. The jury was deadlocked on all the charges. Jury decisions have to be unanimous. It is up to the state's attorney to decide what happens next. Porter could be retried or given immunity from further prosecution if he testifies in the upcoming trials of the five other officers charged in Gray's death. A small group of demonstrators stood across from City Hall after the judge reached his decision. The black neighborhood where Gray lived was also peaceful. Remembering the riots on the day of Gray's funeral in April, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said police are prepared to protect the city's residents, neighborhoods and businesses. She said Baltimore cannot be defined by violence and called on everyone to respect what she called the American system of justice, where not every case is neatly wrapped up. Prosecutors allege Porter, who is also black, and the other officers, two of whom are black, failed to help Gray, who suffered a severe spinal cord injury. They called the van a casket on wheels. Gray was handcuffed and shackled by his feet, but not buckled in the seat after being arrested. This allegedly caused his body to slam against the side of the van, severing his spinal cord and leaving him in a coma. Prosecutors say Porter ignored Gray's pleas for medical help and abused his power as a police officer. The defense calls Gray's death a horrible tragedy, but argued there was no evidence to convict Porter and that there is too much of a reasonable doubt. They also say it was possible Gray deliberately injured himself. Violence broke out after Gray's funeral, including arson, looting and rocks and bottles thrown at police. Baltimore's black leaders say the riots were not just about Gray but about a city government that has long ignored the needs of poor African-American neighborhoods. Gray, who had been in trouble with the law in the past, was arrested in April for reasons that are still not entirely clear. Obama signs bill to keep U.S. government in business By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama Wednesday signed emergency funding legislation that will keep the U.S. government fully operational while Congress votes on a final budget deal. The bill will keep the government open through Tuesday, avoiding a partial shutdown this week. The House and Senate are expected to vote today on a $1.1 trillion spending plan for fiscal 2016. The budget would extend many popular tax cuts for businesses and individuals. A Republican proposal to end the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude oil exports is part of the budget deal, while Democrats got the five-year extension of tax breaks for producers of wind and solar energy that they wanted. The bill also would impose a two-year freeze on a pair of taxes aimed at funding the president's signature health care law: a current tax on medical devices and a tax on high-value health insurance plans that was to take effect in 2018. Changes in visa waivers included in spending bill By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. senators welcomed an overhaul of America’s visa waiver program contained in a massive federal spending bill expected to pass both legislative houses in the coming days. Once approved, the measures would constitute the full Congress’ first concrete steps to boost domestic security following the terrorist attacks in Paris and California. Under the overhaul, most nationals from more than three dozen countries would retain the ability to travel to the United States without a visa. They would be excluded from the program, however, if they have traveled to Syria, Iraq, Iran or Sudan in the last five years. The legislation also aims to strengthen information-sharing among governments, and empowers the Department of Homeland Security to terminate a country’s participation in the visa waiver program if its data sharing is deemed inadequate. “Those are pretty reasonable changes under the circumstances,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican. “We want to make sure that we protect the American people in every way we possibly can.” The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the changes last week. Attaching them to a massive yearlong spending bill will help speed them to President Barack Obama’s desk to be signed into law. After weeks of negotiations, congressional leaders late Tuesday finalized the omnibus bill that funds federal government operations through Sept. 30, 2016. As such, most senators had yet to read specific provisions for themselves, including visa waiver reforms. “I haven’t seen the details, but I know that there are alterations necessary to be sure that we are fully protective of the country,” said Sen. Angus King, an independent. Sen. John McCain, a Republican, said that tightening visa requirements is fine as a first step. “I’m happy with those changes, but we still have a lot of work to do to figure out how we can make sure that there is no terrorist that comes into this country,” McCain said. “We find loopholes all the time.” “We just had an attack on the United States of America. Clearly it requires that all aspects of immigration into this country be examined,” he added. Homeland Security unveils new terror warning category By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. has updated its terror system, adding a terror alert bulletin, intended to inform the public of developing terrorist threats. Unveiling the new intermediate warning category Wednesday in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson emphasized that there is no credible, specific information about a threat to the United States at the present time. However, he issued the department’s first bulletin which warns of a new phase in the global threat environment with implications for the homeland. The bulletin reiterates what Johnson and other federal officials have said in the days following the terrorist attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino. “Particularly with the rise in use by terrorist groups of the Internet to inspire and recruit, we are concerned about the self-radicalized actor who could strike with little or no notice,” the bulletin continues. It delineates U.S. government counter terrorism measures and suggests ways the public can help by noticing and reporting suspicious behavior. Bulletins remain in effect for six months, so this one will expire in mid-June. A terror alert system was first established in the U.S. after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It was a color-coded system with five levels from low (green) to severe (red). “One of the issues with the color bars was that there was very little public commentary to go with them,” said Johnson, “and there’s a certain de-escalation factor here. Once you elevate, it’s difficult to de-escalate.” In 2011, the color-coded system was replaced with the two-level National Terrorism Advisory System to which the bulletin category has been added. The new system included an elevated alert, warning of a credible terrorism threat against the U.S. and an imminent alert that warns of a credible, specific and impending terrorism threat. The National Terrorism Advisory System has never been activated, although Johnson said his department had considered issuing an alert earlier this year but decided there was not enough specific information to do so. Obama to meet families of those slain in California By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama will hold private meetings Friday with families who lost loved ones in the Dec. 2 California massacre that killed 14 and wounded 22 others. The White House said Wednesday that Obama would stop in San Bernardino on his way to spend Christmas in Hawaii. Spokesman Josh Earnest referred to the president as the consoler-in-chief who several times has had to meet with victims' families and survivors of mass shootings. Also Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey said U.S.-born Syed Rizwan Farook and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik, the couple who carried out the massacre, made a commitment two years ago to launch an attack even before they met in person. Comey said authorities had determined that in late 2013, Farook and Malik had direct private Internet conversations sharing their joint commitment to jihad and martyrdom. However, he said, "We still see no contact with foreign terrorist organizations" ahead of their attack on a local government center in San Bernardino, California. "We still do not see that they were part of an organized cell of some sort or other parts. Still want to know where they were for four hours and what else were they planning to do and was there anybody who helped them or assisted them in some way,” Comey said, referring to the time after the attack. Police killed the couple, who were apparent followers of the Islamic State group, in a barrage of gunfire. The FBI director said that while the couple sent private messages to each other, there is no evidence of postings on social media. After three background investigations, Ms. Malik was cleared for entry into the United States on what is known as a fiancee visa, a document that required the couple to get married within 90 days of arriving in the country, which they did last year. Study puts migrant workers at 150 million around world By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new study by the International Labor Organization finds migrant workers account for more than 150 million of the estimated 232 million people who migrate every year to countries around the world. Migration and migrants are headline news these days, and not all the reports are flattering. The International Labor Organization says government policy debates regarding migration often are divisive and based on inaccurate information. Authors of the report say they hope to set the record straight by presenting reliable evidence on the true nature of migration. A just issued labor organization report is based on data from 176 countries and territories representing nearly 100 percent of the working age population, which includes those 15 years and older. The report finds a majority of migrant workers are men, but women account for 44 percent, a significant proportion of the working force. It says labor migration occurs in all regions of the world, but most people head for high-income countries in Northern America, and northern, southern and western Europe in search of work. It adds more than one-third of all migrant workers are in the Arab states. The report focuses on migrants who are currently employed or unemployed and seeking work. It recognizes the problem of so-called irregular migration, but has no numbers as such migrants live largely in the shadows of society and don’t appear in national statistics. The labor organization says the vast majority of migrant workers are in the service sectors, followed by industry, including manufacturing and construction. It finds 7.7 percent of all migrant workers are domestic workers, with 80 percent of them women. The report is putting a special focus on migrant domestic workers because it is one of the least regulated sectors of the economy. Manuela Tomei of the labor organization said domestic workers provide services in private households where they are exposed to labor exploitation and serious abuses. “In many countries, domestic work is not regarded as work and, therefore, irrespective of who is performing domestic work, nationals or migrants, that person does not benefit from the protection of labor laws, social security regimes and all the machinery that ensures compliance with the law," said Ms. Tomei. The International Labor Organization says migrants need work, but many destination economies also need migrant workers, and this need will increase in the coming years. New York man gets 8 years for effort to radiate Muslims By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. officials say an American man has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for providing material support to terrorists. The U.S. Justice Department announced the sentencing Wednesday of Eric Feight, who pleaded guilty last year to helping another man, Glendon Scott Crawford, modify an industrial-grade radiation device intended to kill Muslims around the city of Albany, New York. According to authorities, Feight admitted to assisting Crawford by designing and building a remote initiation unit to allow the radiation device to be activated from a distance. Both men were arrested following an extensive federal investigation. “Eric Feight aided Glendon Scott Crawford in altering a dispersal device to target unsuspecting Muslim Americans with lethal doses of radiation,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin. “Feight and Crawford’s abominable plot to harm innocent Americans was thwarted thanks to the tireless efforts of law enforcement." Crawford, a self-proclaimed member of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan, sought financial support for his plot from the Klan, said the Justice Department. He and Feight later met with people they believed to be KKK financiers to advance their scheme to kill innocent Americans, according to justice officials. Those people were FBI agents posing as businessmen connected to the KKK who were willing to support the scheme. Crawford was convicted in August for his role in the case. U.S. executions take dip to lowest level since 1991 By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The number of executions in the United States has dropped to its lowest level since 1991, according to a study by the Death Penalty Information Center. As of Dec. 15, 28 death row inmates were executed in the U.S., said the non-profit center, which says it tracks data about capital punishment but does not take a position on the issue. In a news release, the center noted that “the use of the death penalty in the U.S. declined by virtually every measure" this year. “The use of the death penalty is becoming increasingly rare and increasingly isolated in the United States. These are not just annual blips in statistics, but reflect a broad change in attitudes about capital punishment across the country,” said Robert Dunham, the center’s executive director. The organization said that to date, 14 states and the federal government have imposed 49 new death sentences, marking a 33 percent drop from last year and “the lowest number since the early 1970s when the death penalty was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court.” This year, only six states went through with executions, the lowest number in 27 years, the report said. Most of those were clustered in Texas, with 13 executions, Missouri, with six and Georgia with five. One county, Riverside, California, imposed 16 percent of all death sentences in 2015, the report said. That was in line with a trend that saw nearly two of three death sentences from “the same 2 percent of U.S. counties that are responsible for more than half of all death sentenced inmates nationwide.” In total, executions in 2015 have declined 20 percent from last year’s total of 35. The report also noted that six death row inmates were exonerated this year, bringing to 156 the number who have been exonerated since 1973. DPIC also noted that two-thirds of the 28 people executed in the U.S. “exhibited symptoms of severe mental illness, intellectual disability, the debilitating effects of extreme trauma and abuse, or some combination of the three.” |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 249 | |||||||||
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Junk cars go to
social agencies
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes said it has donated 1,343 vehicles impounded by the Policía de Tránsito to various social welfare organizations this year. The value of the junk cars is about 40 million colons, about $76,000. The cars, trucks and motorcycles generally are not reclaimed by their owners because the traffic fines assessed for various violations exceeds the ability of the owner to pay. The ministry said that it is holding 30,000 vehicles and about 80 percent of the owners will not redeem them. Even if the vehicle is not junk when it is confiscated, it soon becomes that while languishing in the impound lot. Study seems to validate rogue wave tales By the University of Oxford news
staff
Mariners have long spoken of walls of water appearing from nowhere in the open seas. But oceanographers have generally disregarded such stories and suggested that rogue waves, enormous surface waves that have attained a near-mythical status over the centuries, build up gradually and have relatively narrow crests. New research from the University of Oxford in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, however, shows that the anecdotal evidence may not be so far from the truth. Rather than coming at the end of a series of increasingly large waves, rogue or freak waves emerge suddenly, being preceded by much smaller waves. The mathematical modelling also demonstrates that the crests of these rogue waves are longer than the smaller waves that surround them. The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Thomas Adcock of Oxford's Department of Engineering Science, said: "The waves we're dealing with here occur in deep water in the open ocean – very different from the waves you'll see if you go to the beach, which is what most people are familiar with. 'In deep water, where waves are much less regular, you expect a larger wave from time to time. Our paper shows that, in contrast to what was previously thought, if you're the observer on a ship, rather than seeing a gradual build-up of waves, the rogue wave will come seemingly out of nowhere. 'This happens because large waves tend to move to the front of the wave group." Adcock said: "These findings fit the anecdotal evidence you hear from mariners. They often describe walls of water coming at them in the open ocean that are impossible to steer around. An observation supported by our modelling, which shows that rogue waves tend to have a much broader crest than traditionally predicted by linear theory. |
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| From Page 7: As expected U.S. Fed increases its prime rate By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. central bank Wednesday boosted its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade, a decision that immediately increased borrowing costs for American businesses and consumers and could ripple through the world economy. After months of deliberation, Federal Reserve policy makers increased the key interest rate for short-term borrowing for the most credit-worthy U.S. institutions by a quarter of a percentage point, pushing it up from near zero where it has been for seven years. Within minutes, major U.S. banks increased their prime lending rates to key business customers, which will affect homeowners who borrow against the value of their residences. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said policy makers decided to increase the rate as the U.S. economy expands at a moderate pace. She said there has been a solid expansion of domestic spending in the U.S., where consumer purchases account for about 70 percent of the world's largest economy. She said the U.S. economy, even when economies across the globe are weaker, is showing "considerable strength. The Fed said it could continue to boost the rate in 2016. But it said the pace of more increases would be gradual as the central bank continues to monitor U.S. economic conditions, especially whether the very low annual inflation rate in the country, 0.4 percent, advances closer to the 2 percent rate it considers to be optimal. The rate boost was not a surprise. Economic analysts have been predicting for several weeks the Fed would act as the U.S. economy grows at a modest, if not robust, pace. The U.S. economy, adding 200,000 jobs a month, is advancing even as the second biggest economy in China slows and Europe's 19-nation euro currency bloc lags with tepid growth. The Fed predicted a 2.4 percent advance in the U.S. economy next year. World stock indexes gained ground Wednesday in advance of the Fed decision, with stocks closing sharply higher across Asian markets, and increasing more modestly in Europe. After the Fed's announcement, U.S. stock indexes quickly jumped to 1 percent gains for the day, an apparent sign that investors were unworried about the higher borrowing costs corporations will now incur. The Fed's interest rate hike affects the rate the country's most credit-worthy institutions pay when they borrow and lend overnight funds held by the Fed to each other. But the rate change could also affect financial transactions across the globe because of the influence of the Fed on other central banks. The Fed had kept the interest rate as low as possible to boost lending and economic activity in the United States as it recovered from the depths of the steep recession in 2008 and 2009 that was the worst in the country since the Great Depression of the 1930's, costing millions of people their jobs and homes. But now the U.S. jobless rate is at its historically typical 5 percent, even as many part-time workers are still looking for full-time jobs or better positions more attuned to their skills. Ms. Yellen said the current jobless rate could fall even further next year, perhaps to 4.7 percent. The rate boost could be the first of several if the U.S. economy continues to improve. Ms. Yellen and other policy makers say a gradual series of rate hikes could be imposed in the coming months to keep the economy from expanding too rapidly and hold inflation in check, but policy makers could also hold off if U.S. economic growth slows. The Fed said that if U.S. economic fortunes continue to advance, it could mean quarter-point rate increases every three months or so over the next three years that could lead to a 3.25 percent benchmark rate by the end of 2018. In Europe, the eurozone's central bank is continuing its large-scale purchase of bonds to boost the continent's economy and cut unemployment. The Federal Reserve also used such a stimulative measure, but ended it more than a year ago |
