Ending pandemic unemployment aid has not yielded extra jobs—yet
Aug 28th 2021WASHINGTON, DCONE OF THE questions gripping America is the extent to which generous unemployment benefits are distorting the economy. When covid-19 began to spread last year, Congress expanded unemployment insurance (UI) by topping up payments, allowing recipients to claim for longer and widening the eligibility criteria. The aid helped preserve incomes during lockdowns…
The Taliban get down to the tedious business of running a country
THE NEW Taliban look a lot like the old Taliban, if the composition of their new government is anything to go by. On September 7th Afghanistan’s new rulers unveiled a 33-man interim administration packed with stalwarts and clerics. Unsurprisingly, the list includes no women. More surprisingly, the group broke its pledges of an inclusive government…
Australia is ending its zero-covid strategy
Aug 28th 2021“THIS IS NOT a sustainable way to live in this country,” declared Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister, on August 23rd. He was defending a dramatic shift in covid-19 strategy. Since the start of the pandemic Australia has used an approach dubbed “covid zero”, stamping on outbreaks down to the last case, whatever it…
Alpha Condé, the president of Guinea, is ousted in a coup
THE FIRST sign was gunfire on the streets of Conakry, Guinea’s capital, on the morning of September 5th. Soon after, unauthenticated videos spread on social media showing President Alpha Condé, looking stunned and dishevelled, surrounded by masked soldiers. “Have we touched a single hair on your head?” demands one soldier of the 83-year-old. Before the…
Goldman Sachs taps public markets to bet on private equity
Sep 11th 2021THE PAST decade has not been especially kind to investors in private equity. Since 2010 they have poured $8trn into buy-out funds. Yet the returns, net of fees, that these vehicles have delivered to their “limited partners” (typically pension schemes, endowments and other institutions) have been similar to America’s comparable stock index—with vastly…
China turns to new stock exchanges to channel finance to innovative firms
CHINA’S ECONOMIC planners want more home-made semiconductors, but they are not satisfied with more chips simply being produced at home. They want to bring the entire supply chain—from raw materials and chip grinders to labour and capital—onshore. Tens of thousands of companies have established microchip businesses over the past year. Now the state is rushing…
What use is a vaccine when you’re dead? Plenty
RAYMOND SHIEH’S “hell vaccine kit” includes three vials in green, blue and red, and a large syringe, all made from joss paper. The kit will be burnt as an offering to the dead, supplying them in the afterlife with something they could not receive in this one: a vaccine for covid-19. The vials’ colours represent…
A big study in Bangladesh finds simple ways to encourage mask use
Sep 11th 2021IN DHAKA, BANGLADESH’S teeming capital of 18m, face masks are everywhere. They can be seen under the chins of street hawkers, poking out from the pockets of rickshaw-pullers and dangling on the wrists of factory workers. A rarer sight is a mask covering both mouth and nose.Listen to this storyYour browser does not…
Zionism, southern Africa’s most popular religious movement, is evolving
Sep 11th 2021JOHANNESBURG AND MANZINIIN 1892 A captivating Scottish preacher arrived in Chicago. John Alexander Dowie’s church, known as the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, proved popular. By 1900 Dowie had enough money to set up a dedicated community, known as Zion City, on the shore of Lake Michigan.Listen to this storyYour browser does…
Nigeria is struggling to get informal workers to save
Sep 9th 2021BETWEEN A SLUMPING economy and gnawing inflation, Nigerians are finding life tough. Temilola Balogun, who owns a clothing shop in Lagos, the commercial capital, sighs that it is hard to save anything. This is typical: most adults in Africa’s most populous country do not pay into a pension. Few will be able to…