According to experts, cancer is the #1 cause of death among children. The intuitive interpretation seized upon by media headlines is that more kids are dying from cancer than ever before. And why? Probably something to do with increased environmental threats to children’s health. Actually, according to Dan Gardner in Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear, this interpretation is wrong. In real terms, the number of children dying from cancer has not changed. But because diseases like diphtheria that used to result in a high child mortality rate, have been eliminated, cancer took over the #1 spot.

I’ve been reading a report in Wharton Knowledge about innovation in China. The report identifies some of the advantages that China enjoys in the field of innovation: a huge, adaptable population with an affinity for improvisation and reverse engineering; a strong culture of innovation; a determination to redefine the innovation landscape; the ability to size up opportunities and rapidly bring products to shelves at low cost; the availability of well-educated talent; and the ability to devise quick and often effective solutions to problems.

Have you noticed the human propensity for talking up a crisis? When like-minded people get together to talk, their existing views tend to become more extreme. Groups often reach conclusions that are more strident than the average view of individuals in the group. A great example of this is the memorable Monty Python skit, where 4 Yorkshiremen are vying for the status of having had the toughest upbringing.

There is a great deal of finger-pointing during the current recession. Every pundit has his or her favourite bogeyman who is deemed responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. But until I read a recent article by Paul Krugman in the New York Times, I had never heard of the blame being placed squarely on former president Ronald Reagan. As Krugman sees it, the 1930s New Deal placed restrictions on mortgage lending, limiting the ability of families to buy homes without putting a significant amount of money down. These restrictions were enacted by political leaders who had just experienced a terrible financial crisis, and were trying to prevent another. But by the time that Reagan took office, the memory of the Depression had faded. Precautionary rules were scrapped, and a radical change took place in American behavior. Household debt was only 60 percent of income when Reagan took office, but by 2007 it was up to 119 percent. It was inevitable that overstretched borrowers would start defaulting in large numbers once the housing bubble burst and unemployment began to rise. These defaults in turn wreaked havoc with a financial system that took on too much risk with too little capital. The prime villains behind the mess we’re in were Reagan and his circle of advisers — men who forgot the lessons of America’s last great financial crisis, and condemned the rest of us to repeat it.

Each side of the Irish Sea has been reeling from scandal in recent days. In the UK, it has emerged that Members of Parliament from all parties, including government ministers, former government ministers and even former party leaders - have been helping themselves to millions of pounds of dubious and possibly illegal expenses at the taxpayer's expense. In Ireland, a damning report has been published detailing the systematic and institutionalized physical, sexual and emotional abuse in children's institutions run by religious orders. The common denominator, as I see it, is the abuse and misuse of power.