ECONOMY

New Zealand ranks fifth in world’s most prosperous nation to live in, based on the 2013 Legatum Prosperity Index. The international report contains the rankings of 142 nations in terms of wealth and well-being.

Frequent fliers of China Southern Airlines to Sydney now has another reason to commute via the Chinese airliner with the launch of its Airbus A380.

Northeast Syria is now under threat of a polio outbreak. The UN's health agency World Health Organisation on Tuesday said there are now at least 10 confirmed cases in the country, which has a very big potential to spread and encapsulate the entire Middle East region.

The gods are angry. In this case, it is the Filipino conservationists versus professional wakeskater Brian Grubb who claimed he was able to conquer the Banaue Rice Terraces because he had been given permission no less than by the tribal leaders guarding it.

At least 139 of the artworks seen in various Dutch museums were determined to have been stolen from the Jews during the 1933 to 1945 World War II invasion by the Nazis.

Despite a dearth of educational institutions, the government of Bohol, stricken by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Oct 15, has announced it will resume classes on Nov 5.

The energy demand of the world's second-largest economy has been forecast to slow down by 1.8 per cent as China strives to tackle the cleaner, greener road.

Pope Francis' fan base on online social networking and microblogging service Twitter has reached 10 million.

"We now need the US and EU to quickly implement their own extractive industries transparency laws, and for Canada to get its law in place," said Oxfam Chief Executive Mark Goldring. "Mining giants Australia and South Africa have an important opportunity to lead G20 nations by example on this issue too."

A three-year-old toddler who contracted the deadly HIV virus while still inside her mother's womb continue to remain health and scot free of the infection even if it has been 18 months since she last received her treatment. Doctors hope the AIDS virus will go into permanent remission so the child can really live normally.

According to a study published in medical journal, The Lancet, there has been an increase of 25 percent in the last 20 years in the 20- to 64-year-old age bracket either affected or dying due to stroke.

Saudi Arabia has signified it will slap appropriate sanctions to protesters once they push through their planned Oct 26 mass action objecting to the ban against women drivers in the oil-rich kingdom.

In today's Daily Reckoning we're going to discuss the possible impact on Australia of a changing global monetary system. We say possible because no one really knows where this rabbit hole we're heading down leads, so it's all guesswork.

Money Printing: Everything Old is New Again

The Spanish economy grew by 0.1 percent between July and September this year on the back of stronger exports, according to estimates from Spain's central bank on Wednesday, though unemployment remains stubbornly high at around the 26 percent mark.

Businesses in earthquake-damaged Bohol in the Philippines have resumed tour operations Thursday as survivors reclaimed lives amid the rising death toll that has reached 195. Cost of damages caused by 7.2 magnitude temblor had hit Php 1 billion (AU$24 million).

Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, has sought to toughen the existing Sharia law penal code in the country. Effective April 2014, offenders of the revised law, such as adulterers face death by stoning, amputation of limbs for theft, as well as flogging for alcohol consumption and abortion, among other types of punishments.

Real money as we know it arose along with marriage and the golden rule. These innovations allowed people to live together, peacefully, and to do business with one another. Trade, savings, investment, the division of labour - these are the bedrock innovations upon which modern capitalism rests.

Although the Fed may realize (though I doubt it) that the current asset purchases have minimal impact on the real economy of the majority of American people, they probably think that continuous monetary stimulus is the lesser of two evils. This is a wrong assumption, in my opinion, because prices are rising far more than wages and salaries.

This week's theme is the global financial system. It's been around for 40+ years in its current guise. That is, since 1971 when Nixon reneged on the US government's promises to pay its debt in gold (or gold equivalent dollars).

Thailand, known for its archaeological sites, sandy beaches, weekend and night markets, Buddhist temples and, of course, the traditional Thai massage, among others, wants to slap a 500-baht (AU$16.60) entry tax on tourists upon their arrival at the country. The government targets to implement the new fee effective January 2014.

A study by researchers from the University of British Columbia's School of Population and Public Health has found that at least 21,000 Canadians die each year due to air pollution.

Who would not want to work for big companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook? But how could one get a job in these "most wanted employers' companies?"

Harbin City, capital of China's Heilongjiang province of 11 million people, has been enveloped by a chockfull of smog so thick authorities have been forced to cancel flights and suspend classes. Residents are scared out of their wits as the smog, expected to last for at least the next 24 hours, could become recurring as the country enters the winter season.

Barely a week after the devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake, the Philippines' Central Visayas region has again been struck by a 5.4 magnitude quake on Monday morning, one of the thousands of aftershocks of the original temblor.

New Zealand has gained its highest migration rate in 10 years with fewer Kiwis leaving Australia, according to Statistics New Zealand. The country had more people arriving than departing with 2,740 migrants in Sept. 2003. The figure is the highest number of migrants since Jul. 2003.

I've just spent a harrowing weekend reflecting on Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the pamphlet that came out in January 1776 and turned the public toward seeking independence from Britain. I say harrowing because the distance between the ideals found in this pamphlet and those of today's America is so vast as to make it nearly unrecognisable.

Of 100 global cities assessed by the Reputation Institute, Australia's Sydney topped the list of most reliable city published over the weekend by Forbes Magazine.

I just spent two solid days at a conference on energy development in regional shale plays of Pennsylvania-Ohio-West Virginia, called Marcellus and Utica.