Economists are agreeing with each other more
Jan 8th 2022OBSERVERS HAVE long poked fun at the inability of the economics profession to make up its mind. “If parliament were to ask six economists for an opinion, seven would come back,” runs one version of an old joke. Yet the gibes may be losing their force. A new paper, by Doris Geide-Stevenson and…
A war of words ends with the Democrats in charge of a key regulator
Jan 8th 2022WASHINGTON, DC“POWER GRAB”. An “attempt to politicise our regulators for their own gain”. “Extremist destruction of institutional norms.” The rhetoric flying around Washington sounds like the criticism once levelled against President Donald Trump about hot-button issues from border security to pollution controls. Instead, it is Republicans who have directed these barbs at Democrats…
Many Saudis are seething at Muhammad bin Salman’s reforms
ON DECEMBER 30TH the authorities in Saudi Arabia stuck notices to the shrines in Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest cities, telling worshippers to stay two metres apart, lest they spread covid-19. But Muhammad bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler (pictured), seems less keen on imposing restrictions elsewhere. His men have been drawing crowds to…
Wildlife can now be detected by sniffing DNA in the air
Jan 8th 2022IN THE PAST, studying ecosystems for signs of change has needed lots of boots on the ground. Plants, being sedentary, can be recorded easily by unleashing an infantry of PhD students eager to make a name for themselves. Taking a census of an area’s animals is, however, a different matter. It frequently involves…
Why gold has lost some of its investment allure
Jan 8th 2022INFLATION IS SURGING, central-bank money-printing has run amok and political tensions between the world’s powers are intensifying. These ingredients sound like a waking fantasy for ardent believers in the long-term promise of gold. Even mainstream investors might have been tempted to increase their holdings of the precious metal. Why then was it unable…
Could China’s north-east be home to its next banking disaster?
“CABBAGE HOMES” have brought some notoriety to Hegang in recent years. Flats in the small city in China’s far north-east have been selling for outrageously low prices—some for just $3,500 apiece—earning a comparison with the cheapest items in vegetable markets. The region’s economic outlook has been so poor for so long that it cannot retain…
A growing number of soldiers are deserting the Burmese army
ANGE LAY tried to contain his anxiety one morning last July as he, his wife and their daughter drove off the military base where they lived. A sergeant in the Burmese army, Mr Ange Lay had received permission from his superiors to visit a relative. Instead, he and his family wended their way to territory…
Kazakhstan’s president asks Russia for help as unrest grows
Jan 8th 2022WHEN KAZAKHSTAN’S government resolved to end subsidies on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) three years ago, the decision attracted little attention. Its leaders could not have guessed that the move would threaten the very existence of the regime that has ruled the Central Asian country since it became an independent republic in 1991.Listen to…
A Ugandan court has unbanned sex education
Jan 8th 2022IN 2016 UGANDAN officials burst into the halls of Green Hill Academy, a highly regarded primary school in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. They were on a curious mission. The minister for ethics and integrity had ordered them to seize copies of Jacqueline Wilson’s “Love Lessons”, a book about how a 14-year-old girl called Prudence…
How Africa can reduce its reliance on commodities
IN EASTERN SIERRA LEONE six shoeless men thwack shovels into a bank of reddish earth and heave the dirt into a stagnant pond. They hope to find diamonds. Even if they do, they will not strike it rich. The men are paid about $0.90 a day by a backer who bought the licence to mine…