Wealth of Nations Podcast: Recent Episodes
Wealth of Nations Podcast
On February 1st, 2021 the military of Myanmar, called the Tatmadaw, launched a coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on paper thin claims of massive voter fraud. The people of Myanmar have decisively rejected the coup, with protests organizing almost immediately after the coup, with hundreds of thousands of people … Continue reading "Will Everything Be OK? : Ethnic Insurgency, Military Dictatorship and Mass Protest In Myanmar"
In December of 2020, the first announcement of effective vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer heralded the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, additional vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, and by the Russian, Chinese and Indian companies have showed effectiveness. Nations across the developed world have raced to vaccinate as many people … Continue reading "Winning the Vaccination Race: Chile’s Success in Mass Vaccination"
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the most dangerous public health threat faced by the United States was the spectacular rise of drug overdoses in recent decades. Between 1999 and 2019 the number of drug overdoses has increased from 19,000 to 77,000. While the early days of the drug overdose epidemic was driven by the unethical prescription … Continue reading "More Lows Than Highs: The Fight Against Drugs in China, Mexico and the Philippines"
On March 17th 2014, Sergio Moro, a little known judge from the Brazilian state of Curitiba, authorized an investigation of suspicious money transfers at a gas station. The resulting investigation, known as Operation Car Wash or Lava Jato, uncovered a web of corruption that shook Brazilian society to its core. The largest construction companies in … Continue reading "Closing The Shop Down: The Dispiriting End of Operation Car Wash in Brazil"
Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global health crisis that kept the most public health experts up at night was the rise of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) microbes. According to the World Health Organization, 700,000 people lose their lives to multi-drug resistant microbes a year. If no steps are taken to control the growth … Continue reading "The Ghost of Pandemics Future: Can India Stop The Rise of Superbugs?"
On February 1st, 2021 the armed forces of Myanmar, called the Tatmadaw, under Min Aung Hlaing, launched a coup against the democratically elected leader Aung San Su Kyi ending Myanmar’s ill fated experiment with democracy. In 1962, the Tatmadaw launched a coup to create an unusually brutal and xenophobic dictatorship. Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have long … Continue reading "Singing The Irrawaday Blues: The Tatmadaw Overthrows Democracy in Myanmar"
In the last episode of the Wealth of Nations podcast, I discussed Ukraine’s spectacular economic implosion in the aftermath of independence, democracy and market reforms. However, Ukraine’s experience was far from universal. Nations such as Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia successfully adapted to the political and economic transformations of the 1990s, and are … Continue reading "Why Nations Don’t Fail: Building Institutions in Romania"
On August 20th 2020, Alexei Navalny became violently ill on a flight to Moscow. Navalny, who was evacuated to a hospital in Germany, had been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok by the FSB, Russian security services. Navalny, a long time pro-democracy and anti-corruption activist, had been a thorn in Vladimir Putin’s side. Navalny was … Continue reading "Courage to the Point of Insanity: Alexei Navalny’s Return to Russia"
On August 24th, 1991 Ukraine declared its independence from and dissolution of formal ties with the USSR. Ukraine was supposed to be entering a new era of independent rule, democratic governance and a vibrant free market economy. However, this optimistic vision quickly proved to be a mirage. Between 1991 and 1999, Ukraine’s GDP PPP per … Continue reading "Socialism Without a Plan, Capitalism Without Markets: Ukraine’s Economic Collapse in the 1990s"
On August 13th, 2021 Uganda held general elections for president and parliament. The elections pitted Yoweri Museveni, the 75 year old president of Uganda since 1986 seeking a sixth term, against Robert Kyagulanyi, a 38 year old Reggae star better known as Bobi Wine. The results of the elections themselves are not in question. Businessmen … Continue reading "Aging Autocrat vs. The Ghetto President: Uganda’s Spectacularly Unfair Elections"
On February 16th, mass protests, bringing nearly 1 million people onto the streets erupted in Algeria. These protests were in response to Abdelaziz Bouteflika, long serving president and dictator of Algeria, announcing his ambitions to run for a fifth term in office for the presidency. Bouteflika had suffered a massive stroke in 2013, and had … Continue reading "The Revolution Of Smiles: Can Algeria Go From Stagnation To Progress?"
Between October 2016 and January 2017, the Tatmadaw, the armed forced of Myanmar, massacred more than 6,700 Rohingyas. Nearly a million Rohingya fled the genocide, the overwhelming majority of whom ended up in refugee camps in Bangladesh. The Kutupalong refugee camp has emerged as the largest refugee camp in the world, with a population of … Continue reading "Stateless and Forgotten: The Continuing Plight of Rohingya Refugees"
At the turn of the 20th century, Argentina was one of the wealthiest nations in the world with the GDP PPP per capita comparable to Western Europe and the United States. Argentina’s high standards of living attracted massive flows of immigrants, and Buenos Aires culture and sophistication earned it the title the Paris of Latin … Continue reading "Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, Populism Never Left You"
On October 5th 2020, Indonesia passed the Omnibus Law on Job Creation, a massive overhaul of all laws related to business, will rewrite of amend 77 separate laws, marking a fundamental change to Indonesia’s institutions. The law makes massive changes to labor law, including reducing severance payments for fired workers from 32 months to 19 … Continue reading "Omni-Bust or Boom: How Will Sweeping Business Reform Effect Indonesia"
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has seen a massive economic crisis of unprecedented scope. Just as COVID-19 has hit the elderly, those suffering from pre-existing health conditions, the poor the hardest, the economic crisis resulting from COVID-19 has disproportionately harmed the most economically most vulnerable. In particular, individuals and countries in … Continue reading "Maxing Out the Credit Card: Debt Management in Cambodia, Zambia and Peru"
On August 9th, 2020 Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, dictator of Belarus since 1994, claimed to win an overwhelming victory against the opposition. However, it was clear that the election was rigged, and a massive protest movement that at their peak brought more than a quarter million people to the streets demanded Lukashenko resign and free and … Continue reading "The Belarussian People Want to Evict Lukashenko From Power: Is Lukashenko Really Packing His Bags?"
On January 30th, Nathuram Godse assasinated Mohandas Gandhi, the founding father of India, as Mahatma Gandhi conducted a multi-faith prayer meeting because Godse saw him as too accommodating to Muslim interests. Nathuram Godse had long been a member of multiple Hindu nationalist organizations, although the most powerful the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) has disclaimed any … Continue reading "Hate Thy Neighbor: The Rise of Hindutva in India"
On November 5th, 2020 Ant Group, China’s leading fintech company, was slated for an IPO expected to raise $30 billion. However, Ant Group was forced to cancel its IPO as financial regulators in the PRC had intimated to Ant Group that new regulations would make its business model untenable. Ant Group controls Alipay, the dominant … Continue reading "Like Crushing Ants: China’s Changing Relationship With Its Emerging Tech Giants"
In 2017, the the world first heard of horrific human rights violations against the Uighur people of Xinjiang, in the northwest quarter of China. An estimated 1.5 million people, out of a total ethnic Uyghur population of 12 million people in China, have been interned in approximately 380 “re-education” camps. The region has been turned … Continue reading "The Bitter Roots of Modern Hatred: The Origins of Genocide in Xinjiang"
On April 2nd, 2018 Abiy Ahmed assumed the position of Prime Minister of Ethiopia. From 1991 to 2018, Ethiopia had been governed by a complex political system that masked the fact ultimate political authority lay in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). 57 out of the 61 most senior government positions were controlled by ethnic … Continue reading "Tigray on the Brink: Can Abiy Ahmed Avoid Civil War?"
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill every day of his life, only to watch it come tumbling down as he reached the top. Economic development in many developing countries is a Sisyphean task, as strong decades long progress can be rapidly be undone by adverse international conditions or … Continue reading "Free Trade, Open Borders and Weak Institutions: Why Is Development In Côte d’Ivoire So Fragile?"
On October 18th, 2020 socialist Luis Arce won a surprise victory over the moderate Carlos Mesa. Pre-election polls had predicted a close race between the two candidates, and a run-off victory for Carlos Mesa before the elections. However, the Bolivian people gave a resounding victory to the Movement to Socialism (MAS), with Arce winning 52% … Continue reading "MAS Strikes Back: Luis Arce’s Unexpected Victory in Bolivian Elections"
On November 10th, Evo Morales announced his resignation under duress from his position as president of Bolivia after the head of the armed forces requested he resign to restore social peace to Bolivia. According to opponents of Evo Morales, the former president of the country was forced from office by massive popular protests fighting Evo … Continue reading "Bad Blood: How Political Polarization Got So Bad in Bolivia"
Through September and Ocober of 2020, the government of Narendra Modi ushered three major reforms to India’s agricultural sector. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Indian government created a series of regulations intended to protect farmers from exploitation by big business and moneylenders. These law created the Mandi system, whereby farmers were only allowed to … Continue reading "Farm Bill to Table: Reforming Agricultural Markets in India"
Rajesh Chouhan, a construction worker in the city of Bangalore, walked for ten consecutive days and 1,200 miles to reach his home village of Srinagar Babaganj in Bihar. Rajesh Chouhan was one of millions of migrants who, in the aftermath of COVID-19 and the government response to the pandemic, chose to return to their home … Continue reading "No Migrants In My Backyard: How Bad Urban Planning Created a Humanitarian Disaster in India"
From the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of adequate testing capacity has bedeviled developing countries attempts to contain COVID-19. The most important type of testing for COVID-19 is PCR testing, a complicated process that requires skilled staff to administer the test, complex reagents to extract viral DNA from a sample, and lab … Continue reading "Cheap, Fast and Accurate Enough: The Development of COVID-19 Tests in the Developing World"
Every year, more than 3.4 million people die of waterborne illnesses across the world, the overwhelming majority of whom are young children. Diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, and parasitic worms can cause young children to suffer extreme diarrhea, eventually leading to death by dehydration. Moreover, many waterborne diseases are known to cause lifelong effects … Continue reading "Clean Water is Life, Dirty Water is Death: The Devastating Consequences of Waterborne Illnesses in the Developing World"
On August 31st, 2020 the government of Rwanda announced the arrest of Paul Rusesabagina, the man who sheltered thousands of Hutus during the 1994 genocide, was arrested on charges of terrorism, arson, murder and kidnapping. It appears that Rusesabagina was lured from his exile in San Antonio to Dubai, where agents of the Rwandan government … Continue reading "No Checkout From Hotel Rwanda: The Arrest of Paul Rusesabagina"
On August 9th, 2020 Alexander Lukashenko cruised to victory in Belarus’s presidential election, winning 80% of the vote according to official statistics. The people of Belarus have begged to differ, and the country has seen a wave of massive peaceful protests calling for Lukashenko’s ouster. However, in Belarus, official statistics have no collection to reality. … Continue reading "Europe’s Last Dictator’s Last Days?: The People Against Alexander Lukashenko"
On August 19th, 2020 the seven day average for the number of deaths from COVID-19 peaked at 978 and has for the past nine day slowly declined, marking an important turning point in India’s fight against COVID-19. Youyang Gu’s prediction models, so far the most accurate in forecasting COVID-19, expect deaths from COVID-19 to slowly … Continue reading "Searching For Silver Linings: Has COVID-19 in India Peaked?"
Medellin was once synonymous with violent crime and the homicidal rule of Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel. In 1991, the city of Medellin in Colombia had a homicide rate 381 per 100,000, making Medellin the most dangerous city in the world. The combination of rampant drug smuggling, intertwined with constant warfare between left and … Continue reading "A Tale of Two Cities: How Medellin Transformed Itself From the Crime Capital of the World Into a Model For Urban Governance"
Few nations have been hit as hard by COVID-19 as Brazil. Nearly 100,000 people have already died, with over one thousand people losing their lives everyday. While all of Brazil has been hit hard, the Amazonian region in particular has been devastated. Over 12,000 people in the northern region have died so far, 44% more … Continue reading "River of Tears: COVID-19 Devastates Communities Along Amazon River"
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, economies throughout the world have been suffering as strict lockdown policies and massive drops in aggregate demand have created the sharpest economic contraction since the great depression. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit especially hard, with imports falling by 21% and exports by 36% since the beginning of the … Continue reading "Pulling Up the Drawbridge to Trade: How COVID-19 and Rising Protectionism Are Blocking Trade From Ethiopia, Senegal and Rwanda"
In mid-June of 2020, Pakistan appeared on the verge of public health disaster, as cases and deaths from COVID-19 soared. The number of new cases of COVID-19 detected increased from 490 on May 14th, to 6825 in June 14th, and by mid-June Pakistan was recording more than a 120 deaths a day. The response of … Continue reading "Gone in a Puff of Smoke: The Sudden and Unexplainable Decline of COVID-19 in Pakistan"
In 1973, the country of Lebanon was thriving. Beirut, known as the Paris of the Middle East, was famous for its architecture and vibrant nightlife and tourists from across Europe and the Middle East flocked to Lebanon’s beaches. Lebanon acted as an essential financial intermediary between the oil reach Gulf nations, and multinational corporations in … Continue reading "Two Wolves and a Lamb Deciding What’s For Dinner: How Lebanese Bankers, Politicians and Militias Destroyed the Lebanese Economy"
On July 7th, 2020 Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Jair Bolsonaro, who had long downplayed the effects of COVID-19, and has often refused to wear masks, has led one of the most disastrous attempts in the world to combat COVID-19. Bolsonaro might want COVID-19 to magically dissapear, … Continue reading "Bolsonaro Fiddles as Brazilians Die: Bolsonaro’s Spectacular Failure to Contain COVID-19"
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the Indian healthcare system has been tested as never before. Over 400,000 cases of COVID-19 have been detected by public health officials so far, and at least 4,000 people have lost their lives. India’s hospital system has been overwhelmed by COVID-19, forcing state government to turn train cars … Continue reading "The Little Engine that Couldn’t: Why COVID-19 Overwhelmed India’s Healthcare System So Fast"
In February of 2020, Iran detected its first case of COVID-19 in the city of Qom from a businessman returning from China. COVID-19 quickly accelerated into one of the worst outbreaks in the world. Iran was quickly seeing more than 3,000 cases and 150 deaths of COVID-19 a day. The first wave of COVID-19 in … Continue reading "COVID-19 Strikes Back: The Second Wave in Iran"
Since the fall of Suharto and the beginning to democratic government in 1998, Indonesia has implemented a series of reforms to build a health system that would reflect both the diversity of the 16,671 islands of the Indonesian archipelago, and the aspirations of ordinary Indonesians for access to healthcare. Under the dictatorship of Suharto, healthcare … Continue reading "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Complicated Process of Reforming Healthcare in Indonesia"
The people of Afghanistan, long suffering in the war against the Taliban, face a new foe in COVID-19. Afghanistan has recorded nearly 30,000 cases and 600 deaths from COVID-19, although given minimal levels of testing, it is likely both numbers are massive under counts. Afghanistan has only conducted 64,000 tests, on a per capita basis … Continue reading "For Sicker and Poorer: War, Poverty and Fighting COVID-19 in Afghanistan"
In March of 2020, when panic about how the Coronavirus pandemic would effect global supply chains was at its peak, the Indian government banned the export of 26 key APIs, or active pharmaceutical ingredients, including those used in Tylenol and Hydrochloroquine. The Indian government has since then partially lifted the ban. On the other hand, … Continue reading "Cheap, Fast and Good Enough: How India Became the World’s Pharmacy"
Few countries in the developing world have been hit as hard by COVID-19 as Mexico. Mexico has seen 114,000 cases of COVID-19 and 14,000 deaths and the disease continues to accelerate. Mexico has so far conducted worryingly few COVID-19 tests. So far, only 336,000 tests have been conducted, and on a per capita basis Mexico … Continue reading "Governing is Hard: AMLO Struggles to Contain Mexico’s COVID-19 Pandemic and Economic Crisis"
Although most listeners to the Wealth of Nations podcast are only vaguely aware of Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent, the two companies play a dominant position in China’s technology ecosystem. Alibaba and Tencent both have market capitalizations over $500 billion, a market capitalization more than 8 times greater than their largest domestic competitors. As … Continue reading "Chinese Tech’s Godzilla Vs. Kong: How the Battle Between Alibaba and Tecent Will Shape the Future of Technology"
In the early stages of Covid-19, it appeared that Russia would be spared from the worst of the pandemic. However, over the last month the total number of COVID-19 cases has exploded since then, with 400,000 cases of the Coronavirus recorded so far. Despite this, if one trusts official statistics, the government of Russia has … Continue reading "To Russia, Without Love: Russia’s Fight Against COVID-19"
No country in the developing world has been hit harder by the Coronavirus pandemic than Ecuador. Government officials have recorded nearly 35,000 cases and 3,000 deaths from Covid-19, although these are almost certainly massive undercounts. For example, excess mortality in Guayaquil, the city suffering the most from Covid-19, is eight times regular levels. At the … Continue reading "No Dollar, No Cry: Dollarization, Covid-19, and Economic Disaster in Ecuador"
Pakistan saw its first case of Covid 19 on February 26th, 2020 when a student returning from Iran tested positive in Karachi. Since then, the Coronavirus has grown at a rapid rate, with 46,000 deaths causing 1,000 deaths, with then number of active cases increasing by 5% a day. Moreover, it is likely that counts … Continue reading "Give Me Liberty, and Give Me Death: Pakistan’s Muddled Response to Covid-19"
On May 15th, 2020, the World Health Organization announced the discharge of the last Ebola patient in the city of Beni, the last hotspot for Ebola in the DRC. The Ebola outbreak in the Kivus infected at least 3,645 and killed 2,271 people, and assuming no cases will be discovered in the next weeks, will … Continue reading "Juggling Ebola, Measles and Covid 19: Dealing With the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Many Epidemics"
Although the toilet paper and cleaning supplies disappeared off the shelves almost immediately after the announcement of shelter in place across the United States, most grocery stores remained well stocked with essential foods. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has put the American food supply is chain under severe strain, and millions of Americans are forced to … Continue reading "A Spoonful of State Capacity Helps Public Health Measures Go Down: Fighting Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia"
Peru confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 6th, 2020. Just 6 days later, Peru closed down its schools, 3 days after that the government closed international and inter-provincial travel, and imposed a complete lockdown on all non-essential travel the day after. One cannot leave the house for any reason between 8 PM and … Continue reading "Even The Best Laid Plans of Go Awry: The Fight Against the Coronavirus Pandemic in Peru"
At first glance, it appears Indonesia has avoided the brunt of the damage caused by COVID-19. Indonesia has had more than 12,000 cases of the Coronavirus resulting in the death of nearly 900 people. After considering Indonesia’s population of nearly 270 million people, Indonesia has, according to official statistics, been relatively unaffected by the current … Continue reading "The Fog of Pandemic: Is Successfully Indonesia Fighting COVID-19?"
In the previous episode of this miniseries, I explored the exponential growth of the HIV pandemic, which has infected 75 million people and led to the deaths of 32 million people. In the second part of this miniseries, I want to explore the decline of HIV over the last 15 years. Although the prevalence of … Continue reading "The Ghost of Pandemics Present: How Botswana, Thailand and Senegal Are Defeating HIV"
On April 25th, 2020 Wuhan, once the global epicenter of the Coronavirus pandemic, was officially declared Coronavirus free. The experience of Wuhan is emblematic of China’s dramatic success in combating, with the number of active cases coming down from a peak of 58,016 on February 17th, to 648 active cases as of April 28th. In … Continue reading "Is China the Real Sick Man of Asia?"
The last global pandemic to terrify society was HIV/AIDS, a virus that has infected 75 million people and killed 32 million. HIV was a disease that in its early stages was easy to ignore because it was most often found in stigmatized groups of people such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, … Continue reading "The Ghost of Pandemics Past: HIV in South Africa, Russia, and Uganda"
The city-state of Singapore gained international praise early on in the management of the Coronavirus pandemic. It was expected that Singapore, alongside other nations with close economic and cultural ties to China would be the hardest hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. It implemented its first measures against Covid 19 on January 2nd, checking temperatures on … Continue reading "Dog Bites Man: The Utterly Predictable Spread of Covid 19 in Singapore’s Migrant Dormitories"
Since the first cases of the global pandemic of COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan in December of 2019, the world has watched with horror as the virus has spread from country to country, and cost over 100,000 lives. The developed world has not seen a pandemic of this scale since the 1918 flu pandemic. However, the … Continue reading "This Ain’t Our First Rodeo: What Can We Learn From Past Epidemics?"
The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused the greatest economic contraction since the Great Depression, with global GDP expected to contract by 3% in 2019. A part of this economic contraction has been a near total collapse in international trade, with global trade volumes to come down by anywhere from 13% to 32%. Unfortunately, just as … Continue reading "Beggar Thy Neighbor, Literally: The Global Trade Collapse and Increasing Hunger in the Developing World"
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of Turkey and Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil have long worried international observers because of their authoritarian actions that undermine democracy. Turkey and Brazil are now again in the headlines, as they have emerged as two epicenters of the global Coronavirus pandemic. Turkey has currently seen 908 deaths from … Continue reading "Democracy Is The Baby, Not the Bathwater: How Authoritarian Leadership Has Hindered Brazil and Turkey’s Fight Against COVID-19"
Since the first case of COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, over 20,000 people have lost their lives from a spreading pandemic. If allowed to spread unchecked, the Coronavirus could cost the lives of millions. In comparison, every year, 1.6 million lose their lives to Tuberculosis, 405,000 to Malaria, 1.1 million children die under 5 die of … Continue reading "Why Public Health Systems Don’t Fail:State Capacity, Democratic Accountability, and Civic Participation"
Although India is currently not a Coronavirus hotspot, the nightmare scenario for the rapidly expanding Covid-19 pandemic is for it to spread into the slums and villages of India. India is woefully underprepared for the pandemic. India has approximately .55 hospital beds per 1,000 people and 3.2 critical care beds per 100,000 people, compared to … Continue reading "Emptying the Ocean With a Spoon: India’s Fight Against COVID-19"
On December 9th 1948, United Nations unanimously adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, promising that never again would the world allow any community to be destroyed in whole or in part because of their race, religion, or ethnic group. It is a promise the world has failed to … Continue reading "Never Again, Again: The Rohingya Genocide in Myanmar"
As of March 19th, 2020, the global pandemic of COVID-19 has resulted in the death of 10,030 people from 244,786. Growth of the Coronavirus appears to continue on its exponential trajectory, and will result in the death of tens of millions if it is allowed to do so. Even keeping the Coronavirus under control could … Continue reading "The Grim Reaper is Spending More Time in Some Countries Than Other: The Coronavirus Pandemic in South Korea, Iran and Italy"
On October 11th 2019, Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts end the long running border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Abiy Ahmed has won plaudits both at home and abroad for his pardoning of 13,000 political prisoners, dramatic reduction of press censorship, efforts to liberalize the … Continue reading "Democracy’s Steep Learning Curve: Can Abiy Ahmed Complete Ethiopia’s Political Transformation"
Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, 6.3 million refugees have fled the country with 3.6 million alone living in Turkey. We are today at the precipice of another surge in refugees from the war-torn country. Over the last several years, massive Russian and Iranian support of the Assad regime has allowed … Continue reading "Idlib’s Last Stand: Turkey’s Intervention, and the Humanitarian Catastrophe in Syria"
Since the first diagnosis of the Novel Coronavirus in December of 2019, the disease, as of February 23rd 2020, has infected 79,561 people and killed 2,619. The disease is rapidly spreading throughout the world, with recent outbreaks in Iran, Italy and South Korea. The Coronavirus is a pandemic moving so fast that it is likely … Continue reading "Solid Foundation or Feet of Clay: Can China’s Public Health System Contain the Novel Coronavirus"
According to the bible, the 8th plague God sent to Egypt, was one of locusts. East Africa, after suffering drought , cyclones, and army worm infestations is set to suffer a plague of locusts of biblical proportions. The current plague of desert locusts originate from the deserts in the interior of Yemen. The 2019 cyclone … Continue reading "A Plague Upon All the Houses: East Africa’s Devastating Locust Infestation"
On February 22nd, 1799 the Qing dynasty executed Heshen, who was a euncuch, courtier, and lover of previous emperor, for accumulating a spectacular fortune through acts of blatant corruption. Confucian emperors and Communist Chairmen have long been punishing and executing corrupt officials, but like a weed, corruption always returns to previous levels. Since the beginning … Continue reading "The Mountains Are High, and the Emperor is Far Away: Xi Jinping’s Neverending War on Corruption"
Since 2011, Venezuela has become a byword for economic mismanagement and poverty. The collapse of the price of oil in 2011 revealed massive rot in the countries economic infrastructure. Mismanagement of the oil fields led oil production to collapse from 2.4 million bbd to 700,000 bbd. Hyperinflation soared to 10,000,000%. The economic collapse has led … Continue reading "Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan: Venezuela Steps Back From Socialism"
In 2004, Atul Bihari Vajpayee and his political party, the BJP, entered elections with high hopes. Economic liberalization had accelerated GDP growth to 7.9% , and the BJP launched its campaign with the slogan “India Shining”. However, for hundreds of millions of people, India was far from shining. Inequality had been rising since the beginning … Continue reading "At Long Last, A Little Bit of Competence: Democracy, State Capacity, and Constructing the Welfare State"
Starting from December of 2019, mysterious cases of people suffering from a disease pneumonia like symptoms emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan among people connected to the Huanan Seafood Market. Public health officials have come to the conclusion that this disease is a novel coronavirus (nCoV), from the same family of illnesses as SARS … Continue reading "The Coughs Heard Round the World: China and the World Tries to Contain the Wuhan nCoV Outbreak"
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is notable for the dubious honor of surpassing India as the nation with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty, and the largest number of people suffering from malnutrition in the world. Since 2014, per capita income in Nigeria has been in steady decline, with prospects for future … Continue reading "Nigeria’s Reverse Midas Touch: How Poor Institutions Make Sustained Development Impossible"
Since November of 2012, the nations of southeast Asia, Oceania, China and India have been negotiating the RCEP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. RCEP has been described as China’s answer to the TPP, aiming to dramatically reduce trade barriers between the countries of the region. However, on November of 2019, India has decided to leave … Continue reading "Poor RCEPtion: Why Have India’s Recent Trade Negotiations Been So Difficult?"
In July of 2018, IL&FS, a massive infrastructure shadow bank that financed and operated infrastructure in India started defaulting on loans, forcing the central government to step in and bail the company out. If one analogizes the Indian economy to a human body, the collapse of IL&FS was like a sudden pain in the chest, … Continue reading "Financial Arrhythmia: Government Mismanagement, Private Sector Malfeasance, and the Indian Economy’s Trip to the Emergency Room"
Since July of 2018, Iraq has been rocked by mass protests against the corruption and malfeasance of the country’s political elites, and the ability of the state to provide basic services such as electricity and sewage. These protests have taken a violent turn in recent weeks as security forces have killed over 250 people, in … Continue reading "Return to Sender: Lebanon, Iraq and the Political Economy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Abroad"
On October 7th 2018, Cameroon held elections for the presidency of the country. The ruling CPDM party won an overwhelming victory, but few consider them anywhere near free and fair. Paul Biya, the 87 year old leader of the country will serve as president of Cameroon for another 7 years. Paul Biya has been either … Continue reading "No Country For Old Dictators: Paul Biya, the Anglophone Crisis, and the Political Economy of Cameroon"
On October of 2019, economists Abhijeet Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer were awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The award, better known as the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Banerjee, Duflo and Kremer for their pioneering advances in understanding what works on an on the ground, micro-level in … Continue reading "Experiments For Development: Duflo, Banerjee and Kremers and the Randomista Revolution"
On August 10th 2019, 50,000 people rallied in central Moscow to demand free and fair voting for elections to the local government. The immediate cause of the mass protests was the decision of electoral authorities to disallow opposition candidates from running for office by arbitrarily excluding thousands of signatures necessary to get on the ballot. … Continue reading "No Risk, No Reward: A Political Economy of Vladimir Putin’s Russia"
On September 6th 2019, Robert Mugabe died at the age of 95. Robert Mugabe was a freedom fighter, a dictator with an iron fist, first a competent manager of the country’s economy, and later the architect of its destruction. Robert Mugabe was larger than life while he lived, and continues to cast a long shadow … Continue reading "A Dead Dictator Casts a Long Shadow: Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe’s Current Economic Crisis"
In the Lord of the Rings series of fantasy novels, written by JRR Tolkien, the dark lord Sauron crafted 9 rings of power, that he granted to the great lords of elves, dwarves and men as gifts. Although the rings granted great powers to their bearers, they also allowed Sauron to corrupt and dominate those … Continue reading "Diamonds are Forever, Natural Resources Wealth is Not: Why Only Some Nations Effectively Manage Resource Windfalls"
The Amazon rain forest over the last two months has been set ablaze. So far this year there have been over 83,000 fires in Brazil, a 77% increase from the same time last year with a majority of the fires in the Amazon region. The upsurge in fire and deforestation could have a dramatic impact … Continue reading "Set Fire to the Rainforest: Jair Bolsonaro and the Destruction of the Amazon"
Pakistan has long had a reputation as a nation racked by violence, insurgency and terrorism, and a state fundamentally incapable of managing the centrifugal forces tearing the country apart. There is a natural tendency to pay close attention to a nation when it is in crisis, yet forget about a nation as it solves its … Continue reading "Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together: How Pakistan Has Restored Peace and Security"
Over the last week, the Indian region of Kashmir has been placed under an almost complete media and internet blackout, leading moderate politicians placed under house arrest, and mass protests have erupted. India’s nuclear rival Pakistan has downgraded all diplomatic relations, and cut off all trade ties, while nationalists in India are ecstatic. The cause … Continue reading "State of Collapse: Crisis and Conflict in Kashmir"
In 2018, China produced an estimated 54 million tons of pork, and home to approximately 440 million pigs. Around half of all the pigs slaughtered in the world are consumed in China, and huge swathes of land from Paraguay to Indiana are dedicated to growing feed for these hogs. When it comes to pigs, China … Continue reading "30 – 50 Feverish Hogs: African Swine Fever and China’s Pork Crisis"
On Jun 9th, 2019 1.03 million people, one seventh of Hong Kong’s population, attended marches to protest a bill that would allow Hong Kong residents to be extradited to Macau, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China for trial. The bill was ostensibly introduced because of a nasty case where a woman in Taiwan was … Continue reading "The Extradition Bill Didn’t Start the Fire, the Anger in Hong Kong Against China Was Always Burning"
Although women make up more than half of the world’s population, it is easy to treat women’s issues as an afterthought in the process of development. In part this is because women are consistently underrepresented in the halls of power, or in the broader field of economics. In countries with patriarchal norms such as India, … Continue reading "Women Hold Up Half of GDP – Women’s Rights and Economic Development in India"
For the last week, thousands of Puerto Ricans have been thronging the main square of old San Juan, calling for the governor Ricardo Rosselló , to resign from office. Police and protesters have clashed, with security forces firing tear gas on protesters. The catalyst for these protests is leaked of messages from messaging app Telegram … Continue reading "Everybody Hates Ricardo: Why Puerto Ricans are Protesting"
In July of 2018, a 65 year old woman died of a hemorrhagic fever in the isolated Congolese town of Mangina. It is believed her family and loved ones contracted this fever during the funeral and while burying the body, marking the beginning of the 2018-19 Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. … Continue reading "Death Is Certain, Taxes Are Not: The Collapse of the Congolese State and the Ebola Crisis"
On June 29th 2019, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, while at the Osaka 2019 G20 summit, agreed to a truce in the trade war between the two economic superpowers. The US has placed 25% tariffs on $250 billion , and banned the export of American technology to Chinese telecommunications manufacturer Huawei. Although old tariffs have … Continue reading "Things Don’t Fall Apart: The Surprising Resiliency of the Global Trade Regime"
On February 11th, 2011 Hosni Mubarak, president and dictator of Egypt for 30 years, was forced to step down from power by a mass protest movement. It was a heady and hopeful time in the Middle East as dictators in Tunisia, Libya and Yemen were forced from power. However, this hope quickly faded as the … Continue reading "The Empire Strikes Back: The Political Economy of El Sisi’s Egypt"
On April 11th 2019, Omar Al-Bashir, dictator of Sudan for the last 30 years, was forced out of office by mass protests against his regime. Over his 30 years of command, the country say genocidal violence in Darfur, South Sudan and other rebellious regions of the country. The country has been mired by corruption, with … Continue reading "Life After Omar Al-Bashir: What Happens Next in Sudan?"
On March 27th, 1994 Recep Tayyip Erdogan took office as the mayor of Istanbul, launching a career that would eventually make him president of the country. Ever since then, Istanbul has been governed by parties that Erdogan associated himself with. Since 2004, Erdogan’s AK (Justice and Development) Party has ruled Istanbul. On March 31st, 2019, … Continue reading "No Turkish Delight: What Does a Redo of Istanbul’s Election Mean For Turkey?"
On May 30th 2019, President Donald Trump announced a new series of tariffs on products coming from Mexico as a response to the Central American Migration crisis. Unless Mexico substantially reduces flows of migrants, Mexico will face a 5% tariff on June 10th, a 10% tariff on July 1st, a 15% tariff on August 1st, … Continue reading "Trump’s Latest Trade Tantrum: What Do Tariffs Threats Mean for US-Mexico Relations"
Coal in the United States is a dying industry. Coal mines in West Virginia and Wyoming have long been closing their doors, and total coal consumption in 2018 is close to half of what it was a decade ago. It is likely the coal power plants will struggle to survive without subsidies. However, it would … Continue reading "Zombie State Owned Enterprises, Vampiric Corporations, and a Fossil Fuel That Refuses to Die: Why India’s Reliance on Coal is Bad For India and the World"
India, the world’s largest democracy held general elections to the Lok Sabha between April 11th and May 19th. The marathon seven stage process is finally completed, and on May 23rd 2019 results were announced. Narendra Modi and the BJP have won a spectacular victory, and will like win 303 seats out of a total 543 … Continue reading "Permanent Modi-fication: What Does the BJP’s Massive Victory Mean for the Political Economy of India?"
Sub-Saharan Africa has long been a byword for extreme poverty. Common images of Sub-Saharan Africa involve famine and civil conflict, and economists have consistently found extremely poor growth results even after taking all other results into account. The phenomenal growth that has transformed much of Asia for a long time seemed to have been passing … Continue reading "It Turns Out Millennials Aren’t Ruining Everything: How Avocado Toast, Wigs and Cashew are Transforming Africa’s Economy"
On May 3rd 2019, Cyclone Fani made landfall near Puri, Odisha. Cyclone Fani was a storm as intense as a category 4 hurricane, and unleashed winds with speeds up to 130 miles per hour, and a storm surge over 5 feet tall. The storm resulted in scores of homes being washed away, and massive crop … Continue reading "No Phony Storm: How Odisha Survived Cyclone Fani"
Between 2008 and 2018, China was the country most often mentioned in NYT headlines, and was the most commonly mentioned nation in ten of twelve months. China is in the news so frequently, in large part because of its spectacular economic rise, and the United States trade war against China in response. India’s has had … Continue reading "Rubbing Trade Partners the Wrong Way: How India’s Trade Frictions With the World Will Shape the International Trading Regime"
On April 17th 2019, Indonesia held general elections for the country’s presidency and legislature. The election pitted the incumbent Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi against Prabowo Subianto. Jokowi, often compared to Barrack Obama, is the first democratically elected president of Indonesia from a non-elite background. His opponent, Prabowo Subianto, is a former senior official … Continue reading "Hope and Change or a Road to Nowhere: What do the 2019 Elections Mean For Indonesia?"
The Burj Al-Khalifah soars above almost a kilometer into the air, towering over the skyline of Dubai. The skyscraper is a testament to soaring ambitions of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and the elite that surrounds him. A century ago Dubai’s primary industry was pearl diving, and few outside of the region had heard … Continue reading "City of Golden Opportunities and Broken Dreams: How Dubai’s Midas Touch Is Transforming the World"
On April 11th 2019, India commenced general elections that will determine the composition of India’s parliament and it’s Prime Minister. The elections are a mammoth undertaking that will be carried out over a period of one month. India is the largest democracy in the world, with over 900 million eligible voters, 100 million polling stations, … Continue reading "900 Million Voters, 100 Million Polling Stations, 2,293 Political Parties, 8,000 Candidates and 39 Days of Organized Chaos"
In 2017 global carbon emissions topped 38 million tons of carbon, a 2% increase from the year previous and. 2017’s carbon emissions will cause $7.2 trillion of harm of harm to the global economy and it seems more and more unlikely that the political will can be mustered to substantially reduce carbon emissions. While carbon … Continue reading "Apocalypse Later: Can the Developing World Adapt to Global Climate Change?"