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Even Our Doors Are All-Natural!

That's whole grain wood too!




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Our New Shelves at Work




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You can't surely be finishing that all by yourself ?




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M&Ms “Vote For Your Favorite Peanut”

Name: Peanut M&Ms: Chili Nut, Honey Nut, Coffee Nut Brand: Mars Place Purchased: samples from Mars Price: $1.19 retail Size: 1.74 ounces Calories per ounce: 147 Type: Chocolate/Peanuts Rating: 7 out of 10




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HiCHEW Sours

Name: HiCHEW Sours Brand: Morinaga Place Purchased: Daiso Market (Little Tokyo) Price: $1.50 Size: 3.17 ounces Calories per ounce: 113 Type: Chew/Sour Rating: 8 out of 10






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The Best Hockey Goal of the Week Was the FOURTH of This Player's Game







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One of Italy’s most beautiful cities issues 10-point plan to tackle overtourism

The city has repeatedly pressed for a special regulation from the national government




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Connor McGregor tells court sex with rape accuser was consensual

Irish mixed martial artist Conor McGregor claimed to have had consensual sex with a woman who is accusing him of rape, a court has heard.




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Donald Trump’s policies risk making the US dollar a source of global instability

Donald Trump’s policies risk making the US dollar a source of global instability Expert comment LToremark

Although Trump favours a weaker exchange rate, his policies are likely to have the opposite effect. The risk is that the US dollar could become too strong, which is bad news for the global economy.

President-elect Donald Trump has a dollar problem. In recent months he has shown a clear preference for a weaker exchange rate to support the competitiveness of US exports and help reduce the US trade deficit. And yet, as the market has sensed since the US election, the much more likely outcome is that his policies end up strengthening the greenback. The risk is that the US dollar – which is expensive already – becomes more obviously overvalued, and this could increase the risk of global financial instability. 

The risk is that the US dollar – which is expensive already – becomes more obviously overvalued, and this could increase the risk of global financial instability. 

The dollar has been on a rollercoaster ride in the past few decades. From 2002 until 2011, for example, the dollar weakened by around 30 per cent in inflation-adjusted, trade-weighted terms, according to BIS data. Yet in the years since 2011, the dollar has strengthened and is now at a more appreciated level than at any time since 1985.

What shapes this rollercoaster, broadly speaking, is the global balance of economic vitality: when the US economy gains momentum relative to the rest of the world, the dollar tends to strengthen; and vice versa. 

After China joined the WTO in 2001, the balance of economic vitality shifted decisively away from the US, in favour of China and other emerging economies. This was the decade of the commodity boom: the longest, biggest peacetime increase in commodity prices in nearly 200 years during which a sustained surge in China’s economy supported GDP growth across the developing world. The dollar weakened as a result.

But after 2011, a combination of factors – including the eurozone crisis and its aftermath, together with the sagging of the Chinese economy – tipped the balance of economic vitality back in favour of the US. The dollar strengthened once again.

And since both the European and Chinese economies remain very fragile, the balance of economic vitality seems likely to keep favouring the US dollar.

Two more considerations also point to a stronger US dollar under a second Trump administration.

The first is the exchange rate implications of Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports. When the US imposes tariffs on a trading partner, the foreign exchange market tends to sell that trading partner’s currency, forcing it to weaken to offset the dollar-price increase induced by the tariff. This helps explain why the Chinese renminbi depreciated by some 10 per cent in 2018 after Trump began imposing trade restrictions on China in January of that year. 

More widespread tariffs on a whole range of US trading partners should therefore strengthen the dollar more broadly.

A stronger dollar should also result from the macroeconomic framework Trump seems likely to deliver. He will certainly want to extend his 2017 tax cuts beyond 2025 when they are currently due to expire, so a more sustained loosening of US fiscal policy seems likely. Since boosting the US economy will create inflationary pressure, the market will expect interest rates to end up higher than they might otherwise be. The resulting combination of looser fiscal and tighter monetary policy tends to be a stronger currency.

The dollar probably has a fair amount of room to keep going up, since it is not obviously overvalued just yet. The US current account deficit – the broadest measure of a country’s trade deficit, and a rough but useful measure of financial vulnerability – was a little over 3 per cent of GDP last year. 

This is around half the level it reached in 2006, just before the 2008 global financial crisis, meaning the risks arising from an overvalued dollar may be for the latter part of Trump’s second presidency.

A strengthening dollar is also not great news for the rest of the world economy. A strong dollar tends to depress global trade growth, restrict developing countries’ access to international capital markets, and make it more difficult for countries whose currencies will be weakening to keep inflation under control.

If and when the dollar becomes unsustainably expensive, a further problem will present itself: how to deal with an overvalued currency without risking a lot of financial dislocation.

This problem last occurred in early 1985, when the dollar was universally reckoned to be dangerously dear. At that time the US was able to call on trading partners who depended on the US security umbrella – the UK, Germany, France and Japan – to negotiate the ‘Plaza Accord’, which coordinated a series of interventions in the foreign exchange market that allowed the dollar to decline in a measured way.  

Without much scope for a negotiated decline in the dollar, more chaotic alternatives seem likely. 

It is virtually unimaginable that something similar could be negotiated today, not least because Chinese policymakers believe that the post-Plaza strengthening of the yen in the late 1980s led to an economic disaster for Japan. Beijing will not play ball.

Without much scope for a negotiated decline in the dollar, more chaotic alternatives seem likely. 

One is that the market decides suddenly that it no longer has an appetite for expensive dollar-denominated assets, and this might lead to a messy adjustment in the foreign exchange market. 




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Here's your guide to Rockies Spring Training

Here is what you need to know about Rockies Spring Training, set to begin soon at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, in Scottsdale, Ariz.




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Here's your guide to Blue Jays Spring Training

The Blue Jays are less than one week away from the start of Spring Training. Here's a brief rundown of everything fans need to know before the Grapefruit League season officially begins.




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This Week in The Journal




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Four baptisms becomes five

After watching others be baptised, an Uzbek lady who had recently repented in the church expressed her desire to follow the others’ example.




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Encouraging smaller churches in Russia

Dorothea, from Germany, joins the one-year programme with OM Russia, which includes visiting Siberian villages to help churches and sharing the Gospel with locals.




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Your life turned upside down in 10 minutes

OM Russia works to bring hope to neighbours affected by HIV and AIDS.




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Where do you throw your water?

Thirteen students graduate from OM Russia’s Discipleship Centre on 7 April after completing the intensive seven-month course.




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A seed that took four years to bear fruit

Four years after a member of OM Russia befriended her, an Uzbek lady in Novosibirsk came to faith.




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‘Train our young people!’

OM offers Russians intensive Bible and ministry training, along with opportunities to live among unreached people to share the gospel and plant churches.




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God's amazing favour

Forty new students registered for OM Philippines-Cebu’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) programme in June, and by faith, their financial needs have been met.




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Journey towards recovery

OM Philippines-Cebu conducts critical incident stress debriefing training with partner organisations and churches in Cebu City, Northern Cebu and Bohol Island.




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No library? Build your own!

The OM Mozambique team builds a library in Mocuba to support and provide resources for the local community.




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Our Easter table

Easter provides an opportunity to share with a neighbour.




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Turks turn to Christ: The story of the Bible Correspondence Course

No known believers from a Muslim background existed in Turkey when the first two OMers arrived in 1961. Now, nearly half of the 7,000 believers there can trace their journey through the Bible Correspondence Course.




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Labouring in love

Mabel from Hong Kong learns that missions is more than sharing about God – it’s also learning to love and cooperate with team members.




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A light for the neighbours

The Friendship Centre is a central hub and meeting place for people from a diverse community in England.




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My neighbour, my brother

An act of compassion opens the door for a Zambian worker to share the Gospel with Somalis.




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Greek woman journeys to Transform

A Greek woman embarks on a lonely journey to the Transform 2013 conference in Rome, a journey that began when she accepted Christ at 19.




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When God calls your name – Transform Greece

After attending Transform 2014 and going on the Greece outreach, a young South African man returns to Greece eight months later to stay.




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Hugs, encouragement and 120 children under umbrellas

A recap of Bus4Life's ministry in Romania during the summer of 2018.




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A journey towards hope

At an OM-led art session in Serbia, some Syrian refugee children have a chance to express themselves, and let their creative talents shine.




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Hope comes in the colour brown

God grants the wish of a teenage mom as a sign of His love for her. Now she’s found what she has looked for all her life.




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Encouraging local believers

OM Riverboat community members encourage local believers who are struggling with their faith.




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The Lord establishes our steps

As workers wonder how to reach people with the good news, they find God has already prepared the way.




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God is our only peace

Hope for Zurich connects with the community at Träff International, their outreach to the local immigrant population.




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'God will never forget your name'

Time spent giving and receiving blessings is a special highlight for the participants of a weekly children's meeting.




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Connected to the source

Teens from Malaysia and Southeast Asia connect to the ultimate power source during TeenStreet Malaysia 2013, becoming lights to their families, communities and our world.




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Summer colours of Bosnia

Summer colours of Bosnia What do you get if you take 10 artists (professional and aspiring) from four different nationalities and put them in Bosnia with a pot of strong coffee, several tins of paint and 40 gypsy kids? You get this year’s Artslink team in Bihac, that’s what!




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OM team brings the Saviour to people in Perquín

A team of 38 from El Salvador and Guatemala visited the Salvadoran city of Perquín to spread the message of the Saviour.




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Bus4Life begins sixth European tour

Bus4Life begins its sixth year serving churches and OM teams across Central and Eastern Europe.




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Four years of bad roads and tight corners

Wanted: an adventure-loving, open-minded driver. Esa was that driver.




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Impacting survivours of trafficking one climb at a time

“I climb in the name of the young women we serve,” said Boris Salinas, who will participate in a Freedom Climb event on 26 April.




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Honouring the Lord, answering the call

Dr. Eddie and Jeanette Moore share testimonies and lessons in faith as newly appointed OM Ecuador interim country leaders.




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Our actions leave their mark on society

The Gospel is primarily about relationships that impact, influence and are relevant, states Pastor Hugo Echeverri, a representative of OM in Colombia.




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Mark Waugh Sees ODI Cricket 'Phasing Out' Beyond Major Tournaments

As Australia grapples with a tight international schedule, cricket legend Mark Waugh foresees a future where One-Day International (ODI) cricket is largely reserved for major tournaments.




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Court On Its Own Motion Vs. Chandigarh Administration and Ors.