뉴스&스피킹(영자신문)
하루 10분이면 영어에 대한 두려움을 극복하고 누구나 유창하게 영어를 구사하실 수 있습니다.
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Why the Interest Rate of US Treasury Notes Matters The U.S. government needs money to operate.
A lot of that money comes from taxes. However, much of the money the U.S. government uses to pay its costs comes from borrowing in the form of U.S. Treasury securities.
Investors, who believe the U.S. government will be able to pay them back, agree to loan the government money for a period of time. They receive interest payments regularly or in a way set by the Treasury.
The difference between the loan amount and the investment return is called the yield.
In past years, the interest rate on the U.S. government 10-year note was low. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, the interest rate for a 10-year government debt security was less than one percent. If you loaned the U.S. government $100, you would receive about one dollar a year in interest until the note “matures,” or is paid back.
Now, however, the yield has jumped to about five percent for a 10-year note. A note is a debt security with a term of between two and 10 years. That means investors who agree to lend money to the U.S. government for a period of 10 years will earn about a five percent return each year.
That sounds good for investors. But everyone is not happy about it.
The reason is that many other interest rates are tied to the U.S. rate for the 10-year note.
In a recent report, the Associated Press called the 10-year note “the centerpiece of the global financial system.”
Many mortgage rates, the interest rates people pay for their home loans, are connected to the 10-year note. As a result, borrowing money becomes more costly. Over the life of a 30-year home mortgage agreement, a homeowner could pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more in interest than just two or three years ago.
In addition, the high rates on the 10-year note make it harder for some new businesses to grow. A young business often does not make money. But if it wants to hire new people or create a new product, it will often take out a loan from a bank or agree to pay investors interest. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the cost of these loans has mainly been very low – only a little higher than zero percent interest.
The low rates permitted many companies to borrow money at a low cost. Many of the world’s economies that were struggling recovered because of the low rates. Individual investors bought stocks because they did not see a large cost to borrow money. They did not see U.S. Treasury securities as a good investment because their interest rates were so low.
But now, interest rates are rising. As a result, some businesses are choosing not to expand. Some are even reducing their workforce in order to reduce operating costs.
Why did the interest rates rise so fast?
The cost of living increased quickly once many countries re-opened after the pandemic. Cars, food and energy prices all went higher. The war in Ukraine reduced the food and energy supply in Europe and Africa, so those costs increased for Europeans and Africans.
Many people found that the usual amount of money did not buy the usual amount of goods. That is called inflation. In some countries, the price of food and energy doubled in a short time. Home prices increased because many people decided they needed more space if they were going to do their jobs from home.
The fast inflation concerned government banks around the world. In countries such as the U.S. and areas like Europe, central banks decided to raise the interest rates they control as a way to reduce, or slow, inflation.
Central bankers believe that increasing interest rates can keep people and businesses from spending too much money. To a point, the plan has worked. In the U.S., some data shows inflation is slowing.
Economists who study the U.S. have been surprised that the economy stayed strong even as interest rates for Treasury securities have increased. People are still spending money and the employment rate is high.
But some investors are thinking that a yield of about 5 percent is better than putting money into stocks that might lose value. As a result, stocks prices have dropped since the summer.
Because U.S. Treasury securities are not a high-risk investment, the U.S. dollar has gotten stronger compared to the Euro, the British pound and the Australian dollar.
High interest rates also hurt some investors who decided to put their money in safe U.S. Treasury securities five or 10 years ago. If those investors purchased bonds paying a lower interest rate than today, they would lose money if they tried to sell those securities on the open market now.
One large investment fund that purchases U.S. debt securities with different terms has lost three percent of its value this year. If this situation continues, the fund is on track to lose value for the third year in a row.
I’m Dan Friedell. And I'm Caty Weaver.View -
Women in Iceland, Including PM, Strike for Equal Pay Iceland’s prime minister and women across the island nation went on strike Tuesday. They are pushing for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence.
Icelanders awoke to all-male news teams announcing shutdowns across the nation. Schools closed down, public transportation was delayed, hospitals had fewer workers, and hotel rooms went uncleaned.
Katrin Jakobsdóttir is Iceland’s prime minister. She said that she would stay home as part of the women's strike and expected other women on her cabinet to do the same.
Iceland's trade unions are the main organizers of the strike. They called on women and nonbinary, a term to describe those who do not identify as male or female, to strike. They refused to do both paid and unpaid work, including household work, for the day. About 90 percent of Icelandic workers belong to a union.
Schools and the health system, which have large female workforces, said they would be heavily affected by the walkout. National broadcaster RUV said it was reducing television and radio broadcasts for the day.
Tuesday’s walkout lasts from midnight to midnight. It is called the biggest strike since Iceland’s first such event on October 24, 1975. That was when 90 percent of women refused to work, clean or look after children, to express anger at discrimination in the workplace.
In 1976, Iceland passed a law guaranteeing equal rights of men and women. Since then, there have been several partial-day strikes. The most recent one came in 2018, with women walking off the job in the early afternoon. That represented the time of day when women, on average, stop earning compared to men.
Iceland is a country of about 380,000 people. It sits just below the Arctic Circle in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has been ranked as the world’s most gender-equal country 14 years straight by the World Economic Forum, which measures pay, education, health care among others. No country has reached full equality, and there remains a gender pay gap in Iceland.
“We have not yet reached our goals of full gender equality and we are still tackling the gender-based wage gap, which is unacceptable in 2023,” the prime minster said.
The cabinet is evenly split between male and female ministers. Nearly half of lawmakers in Iceland's parliament are women.
Many women in Iceland are in high paying and powerful positions. But the lowest paying jobs, such as cleaning and child care, are still mostly done by women.
The work is very important for Iceland's tourism economy. It also depends heavily on immigrants, who largely work longer hours and take home the lowest pay. Around 22 percent of the female workforce is foreign born, found Statistics Iceland.
Large parts of the center of the capital, Reykjavík, will be closed to traffic ahead of a protest on Tuesday afternoon. Protest signs, posted on social media before the event, hit back at the idea that Iceland is already perfect for women with the slogan, “You call this gender equality?”
Iceland's 1975 strike led to similar protests in other countries including Poland. There, women boycotted jobs and classes in 2016 to protest a proposed abortion ban.
In Spain, women struck for 24 hours in 2018. The country’s major unions estimated that 5.3 million people joined the strike.
Spain's Equality Minister Irene Montero said Tuesday that the 2018 strike was inspired by Iceland’s 1975 walkout. She expressed full support for the latest protest.
I'm Gena Bennett.View -
Uganda’s President Aims to Ban Used Clothing from the West People, rich and poor, crowd into Owino Market. Owino is a huge open market in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. People here are mostly looking for secondhand clothing, clothes that have been worn by someone else. The clothes are usually low-cost but still are well made.
Such clothes usually come from Europeans and Americans who no longer want or need them. Businesses purchase the used clothing, and other businesses export them to sell in Africa. The business is valued at millions of dollars.
Some people say the demand for such clothes demonstrates that Africans believe Western fashion is better than clothes made in Africa.
In 2017, the U.S. Agency for International Development aimed to find out about the clothes East Africans buy. Its study found that about two-thirds of people in seven East African countries have “purchased at least a portion of their clothes from the secondhand clothing market.”
Although they are popular, secondhand clothes are facing increasing resistance. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has held power in Uganda since 1986. He declared in August that he was banning imports of used clothing. He said the clothes are “from dead people.”
“When a white person dies, they gather their clothes and send them to Africa,” Museveni said.
Trade officials have not yet enforced the president’s declaration, which requires a legal measure, such as an executive order.
Other African governments are trying to stop used clothing imports, saying the business is like sending waste to Africa and harms local cloth industries.
The East African Community trade bloc includes Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. It has advised banning imports of secondhand clothing since 2016. However, member states have not put bans into effect.
In Uganda, the president’s statement has spread concern among traders. A ban would put them out of business. Traders sell used clothes across the country of 45 million people. They do business in large open-air markets, roadside stands and even in stores in malls.
A group of traders in Kampala, known as KACITA, opposes a ban on secondhand clothing. The group suggests slowly reducing the imports so that local clothing producers can develop the ability to meet demand.
Some Ugandan clothing makers, like Winfred Arinaitwe, admit that the quality of locally made cloth is often poor. Many people choose to buy used clothing, she said.
“Because it lasts longer,” she said, “it can easily be seen.”
In Owino Market, a ban on used clothes is unbelievable to many. Some say they do not believe the president’s threat.
Abdulrashid Ssuuna’s job is to get people in the market to visit his brother’s used clothing business. He said a ban would deny him a way to make a living.
“It’s like they want to chase us out of the country,” he said of the president’s order. He said he cannot afford to sell new clothes.
The market is competitive, with sellers sitting behind heaps of clothes and shouting words of welcome to possible buyers.
If he helps his brother sell clothing, “I get something,” said Ssuuna, who started this work after dropping out of high school in 2020.
The market is always full of buyers, but business is unpredictable. Traders must try to imagine what people want before other sellers do.
Tadeo Walusimbi has been a used clothing trader for six years. He said some days are better than others, but he warned a government ban would not be supported.
It “will not work for me and for so many people,” Walusimbi said.
I’m Gena Bennett.View -
Most American Schools Not Prepared to Identify Math Disabilities Many American education experts are concerned about students’ performance in the subject of mathematics.
Scores on standardized tests are falling, students are having trouble learning high-level math in college and some teachers do not feel prepared to teach math to young people.
Laura Jackson’s daughter was nine years old when she discovered that she was having a learning problem that her school was not prepared to deal with.
Jackson said she started to worry about her daughter when she was having problems with math in third grade. She said other students had no trouble doing multiplication problems, but her daughter still used her fingers to count.
Discovering dyscalculia
At that point, the girl asked her mother if she was “stupid.” She was still having trouble with math although she had been working with a special math teacher.
Then Jackson heard about a learning problem from a friend. It is called dyscalculia. She looked up the learning disability and found that the learning problem prevents children from understanding numbers and learning math.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is my kid’,” Jackson said.
Around the U.S., hundreds of thousands of students might have a math-learning problem such as dyscalculia. However, most schools are not prepared to deal with the condition.
Easier to find reading problems
Schools are getting better at discovering learning problems. States passed laws that require testing young students for problems such as dyslexia, a common reading disability. But schools are not yet required to test for problems with numbers. One study, published by the National Library of Medicine in 2019, said between three and seven percent of the population has dyscalculia.
Karen Wilson is a neuropsychologist who tests children for learning problems. “There’s not as much research on math disorders,” when compared to reading problems, she said.
Math test scores have been decreasing in the U.S. for years, but the numbers got worse after the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way students learned. Few teachers say anyone has tested their students for dyscalculia.
Education experts say the kind of slow and repetitive math teaching that helps students with dyscalculia might also help other students.
Sandra Elliott currently works for TouchMath, an education company that sells a math teaching program. She used to be a special education teacher. She said schools that change their teaching to help students who have “severe disconnections and slower processing speeds,” will also help other students get better at math.
Some schools, such as the one Jackson’s daughter attended, do not always believe students have a serious math learning problem when they do well in other subjects.
Jackson researched dyscalculia on her own and decided to write a book about her family’s problems. She found many schools do not know about the problem.
She said parents think schools will let them know if their child is having trouble, “but that’s just not how it works.”
How to help students
Lynn Fuchs is a professor in special education and human development at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. She said students with math learning problems need “systematic and explicit” teaching. That means they need math teachers who have learned how to help students who have a math disability. Most do not have enough training. For example, some states require teachers to get dyslexia awareness training in order to renew their teaching permit. But no such requirement exists for dyscalculia.
Amelia Malone is a director at the National Center for Learning Disabilities. She said there are not enough high-level degrees in education that center on math learning disabilities “with any level of…depth, quality or rigor.”
In addition, most schools do not have specialists who can work with math learning problems. Jackson said she took it upon herself to learn how to teach students with dyscalculia and started giving her daughter extra help.
In New York City, some schools do look for math problems among their students. In 2015 and 2016, the city spent $6 million to introduce a math program with games, art projects and songs. However, most school systems do not do that.
Some education experts say students, such as Jackson’s daughter, could improve if schools used different methods to teach math to young people. These could include games, wooden blocks, body motions and songs.
After spending time working with her daughter, Jackson said the girl returned to classes and as her education continued, she started getting good grades in Algebra.
She said students need to understand they are not “bad at math.” They need help learning and can then succeed in the subject.
I’m Dan Friedell. And I’m Gena Bennett.View -
Google AI Tool Creates Music from Written Descriptions This week, Google researchers published a paper describing results from an artificial intelligence (AI) tool built to create music.
The tool, called MusicLM, is not the first AI music tool to launch. But the examples Google provides demonstrate musical creative ability based on a limited set of descriptive words.
AI shows how complex computer systems have been trained to behave in human-like ways.
Tools like ChatGPT can quickly produce, or generate, written documents that compare well with the work by humans. ChatGPT and similar systems require powerful computers to operate complex machine-learning models. The San Francisco-based company OpenAI launched ChatGPT late last year.
Developers train such systems on huge amounts of data to learn methods for recreating different forms of content. For example, computer-generated content could include written material, design elements, art or music.
ChatGPT has recently received a lot of attention for its ability to generate complex writings and other content from just a simple description in natural language.
Google’s MusicLM
Google engineers explain the MusicLM system this way:
First, a user comes up with a word or words that describe the kind of music they want the tool to create.
For example, a user could enter this short phrase into the system: “a continuous calming violin backed by a soft guitar sound.” The descriptions entered can include different music styles, instruments or other existing sounds.
Several different music examples produced by MusicLM were published online. Some of the generated music came from just one- or two-word descriptions, such as “jazz,” “rock” or “techno.” The system created other examples from more detailed descriptions containing whole sentences.
In one example, Google researchers include these instructions to MusicLM: “The main soundtrack of an arcade game. It is fast-paced and upbeat, with a catchy electric guitar riff. The music is repetitive and easy to remember, but with unexpected sounds…”
In the resulting recording, the music seems to keep very close to the description. The team said that the more detailed the description is, the better the system can attempt to produce it.
The MusicLM model operates similarly to the machine-learning systems used by ChatGPT. Such tools can produce human-like results because they are trained on huge amounts of data. Many different materials are fed into the systems to permit them to learn complex skills to create realistic works.
In addition to generating new music from written descriptions, the team said the system can also create examples based on a person’s own singing, humming, whistling or playing an instrument.
The researchers said the tool “produces high-quality music...over several minutes, while being faithful to the text conditioning signal.”
At this time, the Google team has not released the MusicLM models for public use. This differs from ChatGPT, which was made available online for users to experiment with in November.
However, Google announced it was releasing a “high-quality dataset” of more than 5,500 music-writing pairs prepared by professional musicians called MusicCaps. The researchers took that step to assist in the development of other AI music generators.
The MusicLM researchers said they believe they have designed a new tool to help anyone quickly and easily create high-quality music selections. However, the team said it also recognizes some risks linked to the machine learning process.
One of the biggest issues the researchers identified was “biases present in the training data.” A bias might be including too much of one side and not enough of the other. The researchers said this raises a question “about appropriateness for music generation for cultures underrepresented in the training data.”
The team said it plans to continue to study any system results that could be considered cultural appropriation. The goal would be to limit biases through more development and testing.
In addition, the researchers said they plan to keep improving the system to include lyrics generation, text conditioning and better voice and music quality.
I’m Bryan Lynn.View