Everyone knows that educated people earn more, smoke less, are less likely to be obese and live longer. This column discusses recent research that shows more educated parents also spendmore time with their kids – a result ripe with implications for the inter-generational persistence of income and health inequalities.

The great oil shock of 2008 is bad enough for us. It poses a mortal threat to the whole economic strategy of emerging Asia, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph.

Combat One Plague, Risk Another? Scientists have genetically engineered a malaria-resistant breed of mosquito that can out-compete non-modified mosquitoes in nature, the BBC reports. Releasing the mosquitoes into the wild could be a winning and cost-effective strategy to combat a disease that kills 1 million people worldwide each year and has dire financial consequences for countries where it is endemic. But the risks of unleashing the GM mosquitoes are completely unknown, and researchers say it may be 10 years (and 10 million lives lost) before the insects are set loose in nature. The Overcoming Bias blog wonders if it’s worth the wait.

Don’t blame the speculators! Politicians who try to make oil cheaper by restraining speculation will just make things worse, says The Economist.

America's Top 20 Growing And Disappearing Jobs