International Affairs - Problems Galore

China Wants the World to Stay Silent on Muslim Camps. It’s Succeeding.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/world/asia/china-xinjiang-muslim-camps.html

How America’s Af-Pak policy has imposed enduring security costs on India

https://chellaney.net/2019/09/17/how-americas-af-pak-policy-has-imposed-enduring-security-costs-on-india/

The central mistake of Trump’s Iran policy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-central-mistake-of-trumps-iran-policy/2019/09/19/fcc9828e-db1b-11e9-bfb1-849887369476_story.html

Iran Might Be America’s Enemy, but Saudi Arabia Is No Friend

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/opinion/iran-saudi-arabia.html

The End of Saudi Arabia’s Illusion

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/opinion/saudi-arabia-attack.html 

Background Readings:

Roger Cohen’s brilliant assessment of Middle Eastern affairs –

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/opinion/roger-cohen-middle-eastern-zen.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/opinion/donald-trump-middle-east-saudi-arabia-muslims.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/21/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-iran-donald-trump.html

Insightful analysis by Michael Axworthy:
http://www.newstatesman.com/world/2015/11/why-tehran-hates-isis-how-religious-rifts-are-fueling-conflict

The Problem with Rent Control

Rent control will make housing shortages worse

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/09/19/rent-control-will-make-housing-shortages-worse

Atlanta Startup Sees Single-Room Rentals as Future of Low-Cost Housing
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-17/atlanta-startup-padsplit-sees-high-demand-for-low-cost-housing

Housing Affordability in the US

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/06/affordable-housing-minimum-wage-rent-apartment-house-rental/592024/

Do Minimum Wage Increases Benefit Intended Households? Evidence from the Performance of Residential Leases

https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2019/wp19-28.pdf 

Global Warming and Climate Change

Greta Thunberg to world leaders: If you fail us, ‘we will never forgive you’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/09/23/greta-thunberg-vows-that-if-un-doesnt-tackle-climate-change-we-will-never-forgive-you/

Sustainability with Chinese Characteristics

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-demonstrating-climate-leadership-by-stephen-s-roach-2019-09

The past, present and future of climate change

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2019/09/21/the-past-present-and-future-of-climate-change

GDP, GDI and GDO – Which is the Better Measure of Short-Term Economic Performance?

Gross domestic income should in theory track GDP, but it tells a slightly different story.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-23/growth-is-slower-under-trump-than-obama-by-this-measure

Related:

A BETTER MEASURE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/gdo_issue_brief_final.pdf 

The Debate Surrounding Wage Growth Measurement

Are wages rising, falling, or stagnating?

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/09/10/are-wages-rising-falling-or-stagnating/

“The honest but boring answer to the question of what is happening to wages is: It depends. Specifically, it depends on how you measure it. As so often, methodology really, really, really matters. In the case of wage growth, four analytical decisions bear heavily on the results: which time period, which deflator, which workers (by gender), and which workers (in terms of position).” 

Education and the Future of Democracy

Viet Thanh Nguyen, Professor of English at University of Southern California and Pulitzer Prize winning author, notes:

Being a good teacher is hard. So is maintaining democracy. Our political leaders should take note.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/opinion/viet-thanh-nguyen-teaching-democracy.html

“Our mutual obligation as professor and students is to care. I care enough to give engaging lectures and to stimulate discussion, even with 150 students. My students, for the most part, care enough to show up, or at least two-thirds to three-fourths of them do. Their obligation, as is the obligation of all citizens and residents, is to listen and to learn. To question. To participate. To be in a room where they share similarities and differences. These demands are similar to what a democracy requires from its residents and citizens.” 

South Asia - Politics and Governance

Roger Cohen’s interesting and balanced take on South Asia:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/opinion/trump-modi-houston.html

Related:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/opinion/india-pakistan-kashmir-jammu.html

State Capacity in Pakistan:

A Professor’s Killing Sends a Chill Through a Campus in Pakistan

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/world/asia/pakistan-professor-killing.html

A Plague of Flies Descends on Karachi: ‘They’re Hounding People’

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/world/asia/karachi-flies-pakistan.html

Background reading:

https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2019/09/misconceptions-and-conflict-in-south.html