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...drop in traffic fatalities - perhaps because rising unemployment means fewer people commute to work or because people are trying to save on gas - but also of less easily explained drops in factors such as cardiovascular and liver disease, influenza and pneumonia. In one groundbreaking study in 2000 on the impact of joblessness, for example, Christopher Ruhm, an economist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, examined statewide mortality fluctuations in the U.S. between 1972 and 1991 and found that a 1% rise in a state's unemployment rate led to a 0.6% decrease in total mortality. (See pictures...
...rates are a broad-brush health measurement and do not take into account nonfatal illnesses or fatal illnesses that take several years to develop, such as cancer. Furthermore, a study published in recent months contradicts the findings Bezruchka focuses on, suggesting that recessions are at best neutral in their impact on mortality. Writing in the Lancet in July, a team of American and British researchers said it found that the decrease in traffic deaths during recessions in Europe between 1970 and 2007 was offset by increases in suicides and homicides...
...Adam Coutts of Oxford University, one of the authors of the Lancet study, tells TIME that recessions have other deleterious social effects not directly related to health and that measuring an economic downturn's overall health impact is a vexed undertaking. "It is true, for instance, that mortality rates reduced significantly during the Great Depression, but that era also saw the rise of fascism, followed by a world war," he says. "So there's no simple way to measure the impact of recessions on a population's welfare." (See pictures of the dangers of printing money in Germany...
...Bush presidency, it turns out, may have had a more lasting impact than comedians appreciate. As it opened up a bitter divide in the country, it forced stand-up comedians to take notice - and take sides. Even with a President who's no longer a ready-made joke, for comedians, there's no going back. As for Obama, he'll need to watch his step. Those White House rugs can be dangerous...
...little public opposition to coal. Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress continue to regard “clean coal” as a potential major source of green energy. Despite significant advances in coal technology, commendable progress in reducing air pollution, and reductions in mining’s environmental impact, the Kingston spill demonstrates that coal is not yet a viable option for long-term “clean” fuel production. The accident should cause Americans to demand tighter regulation of fly-ash disposal as well as to re-examine the long-term role of coal...