Big Tech Dominance Continues

Big Tech Rules

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/07/30/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus 

They Made How Much?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/business/dealbook/tech-earnings-economy.html

Blowout Results from Big Tech Spark Global Equity Gains, as Economic Worries Ramp Up

https://www.barrons.com/articles/blowout-results-from-big-tech-spark-global-equity-gains-51596190908

Beating up on Big Tech is fun and easy. Restraining it will require rewriting the law

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/30/antitrust-amazon-apple-facebook-google/

Big Tech Faithful Shouldn’t Ignore Antitrust Risk

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-03/apple-amazon-facebook-and-google-faithful-face-regulatory-risk

My take on the debate surrounding Big Tech:

Big Tech and the antitrust debate: Do network effects outweigh competition concerns?

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/509933-big-tech-and-the-antitrust-debate-do-network-effects-outweigh-competition 

GDP Growth Rate Comparison – Quarterly versus Annualized Basis

The second quarter GDP report confused many, but any way you slice it, the economy saw its worst quarter in at least 145 years.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/30/did-third-economy-really-vanish-just-three-months/

How Bad Was Second Quarter GDP, Really?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/07/31/how-bad-was-second-quarter-gdp-really/#5cafe66b4430

Related:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-10/u-s-second-quarter-gdp-isn-t-really-shrinking-30-by-coronavirus 

Intel’s Got a Problem but Stock May be Undervalued

Intel Emerges as Symbol of Big Tech’s Decline

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-30/intel-s-stumble-doesn-t-make-the-case-for-federal-aid 

Intel: A Fabless Future Could Be Fabulous

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4361811-intel-fabless-future-be-fabulous

The Worst-Case Scenario for Intel is in The Price

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4362223-worst-case-scenario-for-intel-is-in-price 

Citizenship for Sale

The latest trend among wealthy American travelers? Buying another country’s citizenship.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/07/29/latest-trend-among-wealthy-american-travelers-buying-another-countrys-citizenship/

Caribbean Nations Selling Second Passports Are Slashing Prices
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-10/caribbean-nations-selling-second-passports-are-slashing-prices 

Higher Education and Overproduction of Elites - UK Example

The great university funding crisis, sub-prime degrees and Boris Johnson’s “new normal”

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2020/07/editor-s-note-great-university-funding-crisis-sub-prime-degrees-and-boris

Universities Minister calls for true social mobility

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/universities-minister-calls-for-true-social-mobility

Universities Minister Michelle Donelan:

“Too many have been misled by the expansion of popular sounding courses with no real demand from the labour market.

Quite frankly, our young people have been taken advantage of – particularly those without a family history of going to university. Instead some have been left with the debt of an investment that didn’t pay off in any sense.

And too many universities have felt pressured to dumb down – either when admitting students, or in the standards of their courses. We have seen this with grade inflation and it has to stop.”.

Minister lambasts English universities for letting down students
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jul/01/minister-lambasts-uk-universities-policy-for-letting-down-students

The great university con: how the British degree lost its value
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2019/08/great-university-con-how-british-degree-lost-its-value 

Economics of Higher Education - Impact of the Pandemic

Discount, freeze or increase? How universities are handling tuition this fall.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/discount-freeze-or-increase-how-universities-are-handling-tuition-this-fall/2020/07/31/63d6fae6-ccf3-11ea-bc6a-6841b28d9093_story.html

As Students Flock to Gap-Year Programs, College Enrollments Could Suffer

https://www.chronicle.com/article/as-students-flock-to-gap-year-programs-college-enrollments-could-suffer

Considering a College Gap Year During the Pandemic? It Could Be Costly, Research Shows.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/considering-a-college-gap-year-during-the-pandemic-it-could-be-costly-research-shows-51596038486

Related:

https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2020/07/delaying-college-during-the-pandemic-can-be-costly.html

The COVID-19 shock may fundamentally alter the economics of private colleges

https://thehill.com/opinion/education/509101-the-covid-19-shock-may-fundamentally-alter-the-economics-of-private

Colleges Tap Tech to Calm Students Paying Up for Remote Classes

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-27/colleges-tap-tech-to-calm-students-paying-up-for-remote-classes 

College Campuses and Towns Have No Good Choices
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-28/coronavirus-will-be-hard-on-colleges-and-college-towns-this-fall

Back-to-College Plans Devolve into a Jumble of Fast-Changing Rules

https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-college-fall-semester-online-lockdown-reopen-harvard-michigan-berkeley-11595949067  

A Century of Women

China's Rise and the Potential for Global Conflict

Xi Jinping is using artificial intelligence to enhance his government’s totalitarian control—and he’s exporting this technology to regimes around the globe.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/china-ai-surveillance/614197/

U.S.-China tensions look eerily like the rivalry between Britain and Germany before World War I. Let’s hope it doesn’t end the same way.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-29/china-s-xi-jinping-could-make-same-mistakes-as-kaiser-wilhelm-ii

Is Dollar Dominance Under Threat?

IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath:

Goldman Warns the Dollar's Grip on Global Markets Might Be Over

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-28/goldman-warns-dollar-s-role-as-world-reserve-currency-is-at-risk

Diversifying Away from China

'Made in India' iPhone 11 goes into production in Chennai

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Made-in-India-iPhone-11-goes-into-production-in-Chennai

The U.S. Needs to Make India a Bigger Trade Partner

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-17/u-s-should-boost-trade-with-india-as-relations-with-china-fray

Apple supplier Foxconn to step up investments in India and Taiwan
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade-war/Apple-supplier-Foxconn-to-step-up-investments-in-India-and-Taiwan

Related:

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/03/23/india-as-counterweight-to-china-in-asia/#slide-1 

Economics – A Dismal Science?

Harvard economist Emmanuel Farhi has passed away:

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/emmanuel-farhi-a-brilliant-economist-gone-too-soon-11595863189730.html

https://economics.harvard.edu/news/memoriam-emmanuel-farhi-1978-2020

2019 Interview: Emmanuel Farhi

https://www.richmondfed.org/-/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/econ_focus/2019/q2-3/interview.pdf

David Warsh notes:

http://www.economicprincipals.com/issues/2020.07.26/2342.html

“Emmanuel Fahri, 41, of Harvard University, died last week, apparently by his own hand. It was the fourth such death of a prominent economist in a year, following those of Martin Weitzman, also of Harvard; Alan Krueger, of Princeton University; and William Sandholm, of the University of Wisconsin at Madison”. 

Covid-19 - Wasteful Spending and False Sense of Security

Hygiene Theater Is a Huge Waste of Time - Companies are power scrubbing their way to a false sense of security

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/ 

Argentina’s Economic Woes

Companies Flee Argentina, and Coronavirus Is Just One Reason

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-27/companies-are-leaving-argentina-and-it-s-not-pandemic-s-fault 

US Housing Market Update

2020 is the summer of booming home sales — and evictions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/27/housing-inequality-coronavirus/ 

Europe Poised to Outperform US

Europe’s Economy to Outpace U.S. in Upending of Past Roles

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-26/europe-s-economy-set-to-outpace-u-s-in-upending-of-past-roles 

Florida’s Flawed Response to the Pandemic

As virus hit, Florida governor sidelined scientists to follow Trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-ravaged-florida-as-ron-desantis-sidelined-scientists-and-followed-trump/2020/07/25/0b8008da-c648-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html 

Threats to Scholarly Independence

Big Tech Funds a Think Tank Pushing for Fewer Rules. For Big Tech:

Google, Amazon and Qualcomm finance a George Mason University institute teaching a hands-off approach to antitrust regulators and judges.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/technology/global-antitrust-institute-google-amazon-qualcomm.html

Academic Freedom and Private Donors

https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2018/05/academic-freedom-and-private-donors.html

When Scholars Collaborate with Tech Companies, How Reliable Are the Findings?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/business/economy/uber-lyft-drivers-wages.html  

Big Tech and the Stock Market

Bubble Angst Rears its Head in Nasdaq, Striking Fear into Bulls

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-24/bubble-angst-rears-its-head-in-nasdaq-striking-fear-into-bulls

If the Big Five Falter, the Rest of the Stock Market Could Be Deep-Sixed

https://www.barrons.com/articles/if-the-big-five-falter-the-rest-of-the-stock-market-could-be-deep-sixed-51595639162 

Internal Strife at Wall Street Journal

At Wall Street Journal, News Staff and Opinion Side Clash

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/business/media/wall-street-journal-news-opinion-clash-letter.html

“Bill Grueskin, a former editor at The Journal, said there had been a longstanding beef between the paper’s news and opinion desks, adding that those on the news side would often “grumble quietly” about the editorials. “Not so much because of the politics,” he said, “but because of their issues with accuracy and leaps of logic.””

Even WSJ’s own reporters think its editorials and op-eds are inaccurate:

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/letter-from-wsj-news-staff-to-publisher-almar-latour/ea78fefb574b76a6/full.pdf

Canada versus USA

Canada Got Better. The United States Got Trump.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/i-moved-canada-during-pandemic/614569/ 

Hype versus Reality

Companies Start to Think Remote Work Isn’t So Great After All

https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-start-to-think-remote-work-isnt-so-great-after-all-11595603397

A Vaccine Reality Check

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/covid-19-vaccine-reality-check/614566/ 

Reconsidering US Industrial Structure – Is Bigger Always Better?

Tim Wu notes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/opinion/us-grain-industry.html

“… the central dogma of American business strategy: maximization of size and scale, ideally to the point of monopoly. Most of America’s large national corporations are built on this model. The exemplars, like pharmaceutical companies, airlines and cable operators, have particularly deep “moats” (barriers to competitive entry like patents) and fat profits.

This bigger-is-better, dominate-the-industry strategy is a major reason the American economy is as oligarchical and homogeneous as it is. It leads to large national companies that richly reward shareholders and executives while limiting workers’ salaries and reducing the prospects for smaller or local competitors. The sale of flour is no different”. 

Dealing with an Increasingly Aggressive China

Pompeo Speech - Communist China and the Free World’s Future

https://www.state.gov/communist-china-and-the-free-worlds-future/

The U.S. ramps up its confrontation with China

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/07/24/us-ramps-up-its-confrontation-with-china/

US digs in for long war against China's communist regime

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Comment/US-digs-in-for-long-war-against-China-s-communist-regime

Amid coronavirus blame game, White House pursues broader campaign to punish China on other issues

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-blame-game-on-coronavirus-trump-white-house-pursues-broader-campaign-to-punish-china-on-other-issues/2020/07/23/ec1585a4-cd01-11ea-bc6a-6841b28d9093_story.html

Australia Is Having a Strategic Revolution, and It’s All About China

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/22/australia-military-strategy-regional-policy-china/

India’s Pivot to Australia

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/21/indias-pivot-to-australia/

China’s self-inflicted wounds in the South China Sea

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/07/24/commentary/world-commentary/chinas-self-inflicted-wounds-south-china-sea/ 

Rethinking Macroeconomics

The covid-19 pandemic is forcing a rethink in macroeconomics

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/07/25/the-covid-19-pandemic-is-forcing-a-rethink-in-macroeconomics

Governments must beware the lure of free money

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/07/23/governments-must-beware-the-lure-of-free-money 

China-UK Relationship

How China's influence extends deep into the UK economy

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/23/chinas-influence-extends-deep-uk-economy/

How Britain can tame China

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-britain-can-tame-china 

Africa’s China Debt Trap

Africa Starts to Have Second Thoughts About That Chinese Money

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-22/chinese-credit-fuels-debt-crisis-in-africa

“In Africa, Beijing was eager to fill the vacuum left when U.S. and European interest in the continent waned following the end of the Cold War. Governments there were hungry for loans not tied to austerity programs imposed by Western financial institutions, and China was quick to approve credit, with scant concern about the money going to regimes accused of corruption or human-rights violations”. 

Building a Distance-Learning Empire

How Harvard’s Star Computer-Science Professor Built a Distance-Learning Empire

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/how-harvards-star-computer-science-professor-built-a-distance-learning-empire 

EU Takes a Small Step Towards Fiscal Union

Did Europe have its ‘Hamiltonian’ moment? Not exactly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/07/22/eu-budget-summit-hamilton/ 

Tech and Wealth Inequality

Silicon Valley’s richest are getting richer just as the pandemic is getting worse

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/21/21332166/tech-billionaires-wealth-elon-musk-steve-ballmer-jeff-bezos-pandemic-covid

“Market-oriented thinkers argue that these billionaires are becoming rich because they are creating value for their shareholders — which is a basic imperative of capitalism — and the billionaires happen to be some of these companies’ largest shareholders.

That argument, though, is why it is worth assessing the figures in the uppermost echelon of America’s elite. Over the last few weeks in particular, tech fortunes have climbed to new heights.

That’s true for no one more than Bezos, whose assets in 2020 have climbed by $75 billion; his net worth is now nearing almost $200 billion.

That historic wealth gain is due to the rise of Amazon, which has proved indispensable as people around the world stay at home in response to the pandemic. Its stock has skyrocketed 70 percent since the start of the year”. 

Corruption and High Real Estate Prices in India

Importance of Teachers

In Defense of Our Teachers

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/07/dave-grohl-pandemic-reopening-schools-health-teachers/614422/ 

Profile of Martin Guzman, Argentina’s Economic Minister

Groomed by Stiglitz, Argentina’s Debt Chief Takes on Wall Street

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-21/groomed-by-stiglitz-argentina-s-debt-chief-takes-on-wall-street 

Superstar Cities in the Pandemic Era

Coronavirus Threatens the Luster of Superstar Cities

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/business/economy/coronavirus-cities.html

A Backlash Against Cities Would Be Dangerous

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/urban-density-not-problem/611752/ 

Is China Headed Towards a Financial Crisis?

China Is Getting Closer to Its Lehman Moment

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-20/china-gets-nearer-a-lehman-moment-as-regulators-seize-nine-firms 

Froth Returns to China’s Stock Market, Echoing the 2015 Crisis

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/business/china-stock-market.html 

Race for Covid-19 Vaccine

The race for a Covid-19 vaccine

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2020/07/race-covid-19-vaccine 

Race and Meritocracy

Does the white upper class feel exhausted and oppressed by meritocracy?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/opinion/sunday/white-fragility-meritocracy.html

Ross Douthat notes:

“And wouldn’t it be especially appealing if — and here I’m afraid I’m going to be very cynical — in the course of relaxing the demands of whiteness you could, just coincidentally, make your own family’s position a little bit more secure?

For instance: Once you dismiss the SAT as just a tool of white supremacy, then it gets easier for elite schools to justify excluding the Asian-American students whose standardized-test scores keep climbing while white scores stay relatively flat. Or again: If you induce inner-city charter schools to disavow their previous stress on hard work and discipline and meritocratic ambition, because those are racist, too — well, then their minority graduates might become less competitive with your own kids in the college-admissions race as well”. 

Which Country Will Emerge Stronger in the Post-Pandemic Era?

Which Country Will Triumph in the Post-Pandemic World?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/opinion/coronavirus-germany-economy.html 

US Economy - Interesting Items

Trump Did Nothing to Help the Economic Boom

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-20/trump-s-policies-did-nothing-to-help-the-u-s-economic-boom

Stock buybacks and a shaky economy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stock-buybacks-and-a-shaky-economy/2020/07/19/5d31791a-c84c-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html

Former Fed Chairs Bernanke and Yellen testified on COVID-19 and response to economic crisis

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/07/17/former-fed-chairs-bernanke-and-yellen-testified-on-covid-19-and-response-to-economic-crisis/

Businesses Are Supposed to Cut Debt in a Downturn. Why Not Now?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/business/corporate-debt-federal-reserve.html 

Lebanon’s Economic and Financial Collapse

The lights go out on Lebanon’s economy as financial collapse accelerates

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/the-lights-go-out-on-lebanons-economy-as-financial-collapse-accelerates/2020/07/19/3acfc33e-bb97-11ea-97c1-6cf116ffe26c_story.html 

Should Colleges Have In-Person Classes this Fall?

NYU’s Scott Galloway has a stark message:

https://www.businessinsider.com/scott-galloway-colleges-must-cut-costs-to-survive-covid-2020-7

“Our fumbling, incompetent response to the pandemic continues. In six weeks, a key component of our society is in line to become the next vector of contagion: higher education. Right now half of colleges and universities plan to offer in-person classes, something resembling a normal college experience, this fall. This cannot happen. In-person classes should be minimal, ideally none.

The economic circumstances for many of these schools are dire, and administrators will need imagination — and taxpayer dollars — to avoid burning the village to save it. Per current plans, hundreds of colleges will perish”.

As campuses reopen without adequate testing, universities fault young people for a lack of personal responsibility.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/colleges-are-getting-ready-blame-their-students/614410/

“Despite serious public-health concerns, Tulane and other campuses are slated to reopen for in-person instruction in the fall. Students will get infected, and universities will rebuke them for it; campuses will close, and students will be blamed for it. Relying on the self-control of young adults, rather than deploying the public-health infrastructure needed to control a disease that spreads easily among people who live, eat, study, and socialize together, is not a safe reopening strategy—and yelling at students for their dangerous behavior won’t help either”.

Opening Campuses Is Risky. The Alternative Is Worse.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-21/coronavirus-college-campuses-should-find-ways-to-reopen

On some college campuses, a new fall rite: Coronavirus testing

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/college-campus-fall-covid-testing/2020/07/17/614f7160-c5f3-11ea-a99f-3bbdffb1af38_story.html

How Should Colleges Reopen? There’s No Easy Answer

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-19/college-reopenings-amid-covid-19-have-risks-benefits

Colleges have frittered the summer away on audacious and absurd reopening plans. It’s time to embrace remote learning instead.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Plexiglass-Won-t-Save-Us/249192 

US Innovation

America’s Innovation Engine Is Slowing

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/americas-innovation-engine-slowing/614320/ 

Political Incompetence Derails US Fight Against Covid-19

The crisis that shocked the world: America’s response to the virus

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/19/coronavirus-us-failure/

Why more young people are getting sick in the latest Covid-19 outbreaks

https://www.vox.com/2020/7/18/21328358/covid-19-cases-by-age-florida-arizona-texas-miami

Inside Trump’s Failure: The Rush to Abandon Leadership Role on the Virus

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-response-failure-leadership.html

Getting other people sick isn’t an “individual choice.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/opinion/republicans-keep-flunking-microbe-economics.html

US coronavirus surge: ‘It’s a failure of national leadership’

https://www.ft.com/content/787125ba-5707-4718-858b-1e912fee0a38

America’s Compromised State

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/us-connecticut-compromise-1987-and-failed-covid-response-by-angus-deaton-2020-07 

Fiscal Policy and Economic Recovery

How to Save a Half-Open Economy

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/business/economy/how-to-save-economy.html

Ben Bernanke: Give States Billions, and You Help the Entire Country

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/opinion/ben-bernanke-coronavirus-federal-aid.html

Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen Give Republicans in Congress a Lesson on Coronavirus Economics

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/ben-bernanke-and-janet-yellen-give-republicans-in-congress-a-lesson-on-coronavirus-economics 

Virus Transmission from Animals to Humans

Spillover: the origins of Covid-19 and why the next pandemic may already have started

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/spillover-origins-covid-19-next-pandemic-may-already-have-started/ 

Brazil – Economic Response to the Pandemic

The World’s Most Reluctant Keynesian Is Spending Big in Brazil

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-16/the-world-s-most-reluctant-keynesian-is-spending-big-in-brazil 

GDP – A Flawed Economic Measure?

GDP Is the Wrong Tool for Measuring What Matters

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gdp-is-the-wrong-tool-for-measuring-what-matters/ 

An Intelligent Conservative’s Take on US Politics

Columnist George F. Will:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-what-national-decline-looks-like/2020/07/14/ef499fd4-c5f0-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html

“Never has a U.S. election come at such a moment of national mortification. In April 1970, President Richard M. Nixon told a national television audience that futility in Vietnam would make the United States appear to the world as “a pitiful, helpless giant.” Half a century later, America, for the first time in its history, is pitied”.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-one-should-want-four-more-years-of-this-taste-of-ashes/2020/06/01/1a80ecf4-a425-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html

“The nation’s downward spiral into acrimony and sporadic anarchy has had many causes much larger than the small man who is the great exacerbator of them. Most of the causes predate his presidency, and most will survive its January terminus. The measures necessary for restoration of national equilibrium are many and will be protracted far beyond his removal. One such measure must be the removal of those in Congress who, unlike the sycophantic mediocrities who cosset him in the White House, will not disappear “magically,” as Eric Trump said the coronavirus would. Voters must dispatch his congressional enablers, especially the senators who still gambol around his ankles with a canine hunger for petting”.

The difference between Trumpism and fascism

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-difference-between-trumpism-and-fascism/2020/07/09/377ae76e-c208-11ea-9fdd-b7ac6b051dc8_story.html 

President of MIT: America Needs Foreign Students

The international scholars the administration was threatening to send home are vital to American innovation and competitiveness

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/opinion/coronavirus-trump-immigration-students.html 

Decoupling from China

Think it’s Too Hard to Decouple from China? Think Again

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-15/u-s-companies-can-and-will-decouple-from-china

China's aggression is undermining its tech giants' global ambitions

https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/China-s-aggression-is-undermining-its-tech-giants-global-ambitions

Taiwan digital minister warns of China's 5G 'Trojan horse'

https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Taiwan-digital-minister-warns-of-China-s-5G-Trojan-horse 

India - Meeting the China Challenge

How India Should Meet the China Challenge

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-14/how-india-can-meet-the-long-term-challenge-from-china 

The future direction and extent of India's reforms will increasingly reflect the challenge posed by China, which Indians now regard as their principal enemy. 
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/chinese-border-incursions-will-trigger-indian-reforms-by-devesh-kapur-2020-07 

China Seeks a Global Role for the Yuan

China Renews Push for Increased Global Role for the Yuan

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-12/china-presses-global-yuan-role-as-u-s-tensions-explode-into-fx 

Herd Immunity

A New Understanding of Herd Immunity

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/herd-immunity-coronavirus/614035/ 

Robert Shiller on US Economic Conditions

Profile of Steven Mnuchin

The High-Finance Mogul in Charge of Our Economic Recovery

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-high-finance-mogul-in-charge-of-our-economic-recovery 

Google's Big Bet on India

Google will invest $10 billion in India over the next few years

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/tech/google-india-10-billion-investment/index.html

Liberal Arts Education - Still Relevant

Dear Liberal Arts Students, You Haven’t Been Robbed

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/opinion/liberal-arts-college-covid.html 

Higher Education Challenges

What’s the Value of Harvard Without a Campus?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/style/harvard-students-coronavirus.html

Related:

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/7/10/harvard-fall-academics-reactions/

The Greatest Teaching Techniques Don't Compute Over Zoom

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-12/the-greatest-teaching-techniques-don-t-compute-over-zoom

Coronavirus Tests Role of Higher Education as Recession Buffer

https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-tests-role-of-higher-education-as-recession-buffer-11594562400 

Visa Rule Change Creates Headaches for International Students

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-international-student-visas-trump/2020/07/11/2f6cb8da-c25e-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html

Pay and Performance: New Research Findings

Banker Pay Theory Upended by Harvard Expert Who Studied Sweden

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-12/banker-pay-theory-upended-by-harvard-expert-who-studied-sweden

Are CEOs Paid Too Much?
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-highest-paid-ceos/

Related:

https://www.economist.com/business/2020/07/11/how-ceo-pay-in-america-got-out-whack

Suburbs – Back in Vogue

Connecticut Bet Big on the Suburbs. That Might Finally Pay Off.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/connecticut-suburbs-coronavirus-new-york-real-estate-houses-for-sale-weston-fairfield-11594558882 

China’s Surreptitious Land Grab

Caught Between Indian and Chinese Troops, at 15,000 Feet

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/world/asia/india-china-border-ladakh.html

June 15 could mark the date on which China “lost India” strategically. India’s external policy choices will henceforth have a sharper anti-China edge.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/07/05/commentary/world-commentary/nuclear-armed-china-india-fight-fists-stones-clubs/

“China follows a familiar salami-slicing playbook in territorial disputes: change ground positions stealthily, move forward assertively, express outrage when discovered, denounce provocations and intrusions by the other party, threaten exemplary retaliation, step back in “good faith,” propose fresh border management procedures, ensure its territorial creep becomes a de facto reality, and repeat as required”.

Boycott China movement gains steam:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/07/10/india-goes-all-in-on-boycott-china/#2046d2736e19 

Campuses Already Having Trouble Containing Covid-19

Coronavirus is spreading in fraternity houses, raising concerns for campuses opening this fall

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-is-spreading-in-fraternity-houses-raising-concerns-for-campuses-opening-this-fall/2020/07/10/72c986c0-c2f0-11ea-9fdd-b7ac6b051dc8_story.html 

Politics and Society

Why we are entering a new age of disorder

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/07/state-nation

The Most Dangerous Phase of Trump’s Rule

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/opinion/trump-nationalism.html

Trump’s GOP is becoming a Garish Opera of Paranoia

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/10/trumps-gop-is-becoming-garish-opera-paranoia/

The humbling of the Anglo-American world

https://www.ft.com/content/d2d76a6f-27f4-4788-a901-1c7dcea4c26f

Enlightenment liberalism is losing ground in the debate about race

https://www.economist.com/international/2020/07/09/enlightenment-liberalism-is-losing-ground-in-the-debate-about-race

Free speech has to rest on a shared morality

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/opinion/liberalism-morality.html 

India's Foreign Policy

Why India and Russia Are Going to Stay Friends

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/08/russia-india-relations/

China's Border Invasion Will Push India Toward the U.S.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-02/china-s-himalayan-border-invasion-will-push-india-toward-u-s

Let’s not underestimate India’s foreign policy expertise

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/let-s-not-underestimate-india-s-foreign-policy-expertise-11594218502117.html

COVID-19 may provide a geopolitical opportunity for the Quad

https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/covid-19-boosting-indo-pacific-alignment-and-indias-regional-role/ 

Long-Term Consequences of the Pandemic

The pandemic and the dawn of an ‘Asian Century’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/07/10/pandemic-dawn-an-asian-century/ 

Related:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2020-06-04/lee-hsien-loong-endangered-asian-century  

Value of MBA Degrees

The Value of My $150,000 MBA Is Now in Question

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-10/the-value-of-my-150-000-mba-is-now-in-question

More Universities Shut Down Traditional M.B.A. Programs as Popularity Wanes

https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-universities-shut-down-traditional-m-b-a-programs-as-popularity-wanes-11559727000 

Tech World and the Media: A Very Complicated Story

Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/slate-star-codex-and-silicon-valleys-war-against-the-media  

Asia - Economic, Political, and Financial Developments

Malaysia's economy has a serious political problem

https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Malaysia-s-economy-has-a-serious-political-problem

Indonesia: Can an Emerging Market Become a Policy Pioneer?

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-09/indonesia-s-debt-monetization-sets-a-model-for-emerging-markets

India’s China Strategy Is Changing

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-india-border-conflict-strategic-shift-by-shashi-tharoor-2020-07

The Luckin scandal

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/The-Luckin-scandal-fake-sales-power-struggles-and-a-broken-model