tardigrada

52% of those doing jobs ranging from data entry to food delivery are earning below the minimum wage, a study by University of Bristol finds. Average wages are £8.97 per hour – around 15% below the current UK minimum which rose to £10.42 in May. Three out of four workers say they are experiencing work-related insecurity and anxiety.

"We are in an age which, to an extent, embraces feminism, anti-racism and anti-ableism. Perhaps it is also time to include “speciesism” in our discussions about ethics – since valuing some species over others is a form of prejudice."

Cross-posted from https://beehaw.org/post/344431

A financial model investigating the issuance of digital money as central bank digital currency (CBDC) or as stablecoins found that a fully-integrated digital currency would lead to higher and less volatile asset prices, and household welfare gains are potentially large which could lead to an increase in consumption by up to 2%.

However, a fully-integrated digital currency would depress bank deposit spreads, particularly during times of crises, which limits the banks’ abilities to recapitalize losses after a bank crises. These investment losses, not specifically bank runs, create instability, the paper argues.

Another research paper found that bank runs are not as big as initially feared. This paper can be found here: https://www.financialresearch.gov/working-papers/2022/07/11/central-bank-digital-currency/

Both papers focus on the issuance of CBCD and stablecoins and do not include privately issued money like LETS/Time Dollars and similar privately issued complementary currency systems.

(Edited to correct a typo.)

From 2006 to 2018, the tiger numbers almost doubled to 2,967 and are now well above 3,000, according to the recently released census in India, home to 70 percent of the world’s tigers. Indian PM Narendra Modi also launched the 'International Big Cats Alliance', which will focus on the protection of seven big cat species: the tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar and cheetah.

Federal Reserve notes would become fully redeemable for and exchangeable with gold, with the U.S. Treasury and its gold reserves backstopping Federal Reserve Banks as guarantor. Historians have long been criticizing that the elimination of gold redeemability from the monetary system freed central bankers and federal government officials from accountability when they expand the money supply, fund government deficits though trillion-dollar bond purchases, or otherwise manipulate the economy.

The species whose lives were offered up for sale include polar bears, lions, African elephants and leopards wrapped up in special holiday packages offered at relatively low prices, like 900 euros for a giraffe and 4,500 euros for a hunt to kill a female lion—including international flights and 7-day accommodations.

"The clear and obvious solution is for those of us who have a choice in what we eat each day to simply adopt a nutritious, plant-based diet and abstain from meat altogether – the kind with legs and the kind with fins," says a researcher.

The campaign uses malicious JavaScript that’s customized for individual webmail portals belonging to various NATO-aligned organizations, researchers from security firm Proofpoint said.

Prosecutors charged former FTX-founder Bankman-Fried with directing payments in order to unfreeze accounts belonging to his hedge fund, Alameda Research, that Chinese authorities had frozen. In addition, prosecutors last month also unveiled four other counts against Bankman-Fried, accusing him of orchestrating an illegal campaign donation scheme to buy influence in Washington DC.

Han Dong reportedly met with Han Tao, China’s consul-general in Toronto in February 2021 and suggested officials in Beijing delay freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians being held by China at the time. He is alleged to have suggested releasing the two men would benefit the rival Conservative party.