Education and Human Capital: Boosting Africa's Universities

African School of Economics

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/05/23/trust-slavery-and-the-african-school-of-economics

A booming population is putting strain on Africa’s universities

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/08/10/a-booming-population-is-putting-strain-on-africas-universities

How Africa can encourage home-grown maths boffins

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/08/10/how-africa-can-encourage-home-grown-maths-boffins 

Trump and US Institutions

The System Failed the Test of Trump

The story of recent years is of institutions that were unable to constrain the presidency.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/system-failed-test/611911/

DAVID FRUM, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush:

“The story of the Trump years is a story of institutions that failed. The Department of Justice failed. The inspectors general failed. Congressional oversight failed. The national-security establishment failed. The courts failed. Trump has done things that no previous American president would ever have dared, that no previous president sank low enough even to imagine. Sometimes he was stopped, more often not. But whether stopped or not in any particular case, he has never ceased pressing ahead to do even worse the next time”. 

US Healthcare Sector in Turmoil

1.5 Million Unemployed Health-Care Workers Signal a Failed System

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-20/doctors-office-layoffs-in-pandemic-reveal-u-s-health-care-faults  

Fee-for-service has been a disaster for medical providers in the pandemic, and there is a better alternative. But will anybody switch? 

Voters and American Democracy

Trump Steps Up Attacks on Mail Vote, Making False Claims About Fraud

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/politics/trump-michigan-vote-by-mail.html

Wisconsin is starting to resemble a failed state

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/19/wisconsin-coronavirus-supreme-court-failed-state

Conservative Columnist George F. Will:

Congress’s power is in its purse. And Trump has snatched it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congresss-power-is-in-its-purse-and-trump-has-snatched-it/2020/04/23/716e669c-84d9-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb_story.html

How not to hold an election during a pandemic

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-not-to-hold-an-election-during-a-pandemic/2020/04/14/ea908ac0-7e79-11ea-9040-68981f488eed_story.html

Impact of the Pandemic on the Higher Education System

How the Pandemic Could Transform Higher Ed

WSJ – Video: https://on.wsj.com/2zQow2a

The pandemic increases the challenges facing business schools

https://www.economist.com/business/2020/05/16/the-pandemic-increases-the-challenges-facing-business-schools

Cambridge University moves all lectures online until summer 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/19/cambridge-university-moves-all-lectures-online-until-summer-2021

Cambridge University to scrap face-to-face lectures for entire year due to pandemic

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/20/uk/cambridge-university-lectures-pandemic-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

“Cambridge and Oxford, the UK's two leading universities, rely far more on smaller group teaching than large lectures -- so the move will probably not be as disruptive as it would be at most institutions”.

UK universities facing £760m hit as one in five students plan to defer

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/20/uk-universities-facing-760m-hit-one-in-five-students-plan-defer

Financial Challenges Facing Colleges/Universities
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-happens-to-college-finances-if.html

US Economic Outlook

Covid-19 Will Expose the Ghosts in the U.S. Economy

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-19/covid-19-will-expose-the-many-ghosts-in-the-u-s-economy

Unemployment is so bad that these economists are proposing a new way to measure it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/16/unemployment-is-so-bad-that-these-economists-are-proposing-new-way-measure-it/

Facing Adulthood with an Economic Disaster’s Lasting Scars

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/business/economy/coronavirus-young-old.html

Washington shows just why the country shouldn’t depend on it for stimulus

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/washington-shows-just-why-the-country-shouldnt-depend-on-it-for-stimulus/2020/05/11/f4c2650a-9386-11ea-91d7-cf4423d47683_story.html

Stock Prices Make Lofty Promises That Earnings Can’t Keep

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-19/coronavirus-stock-prices-make-promises-that-earnings-can-t-keep

Beware of the Hype

Moderna vaccine shows promising early results

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/18/coronavirus-vaccine-first-results/

“One of Moderna’s directors, Moncef Slaoui — who owns millions in company stock options — days ago left his role to become chief scientist for a White House vaccine initiative”.

Washington Post reports:

“The company reported that in eight patients who had been followed for a month and a half, the vaccine at low and medium doses triggered blood levels of virus-fighting antibodies that were similar or greater than those found in patients who recovered. That would suggest, but doesn’t prove, that it triggers some level of immunity”.

Earlier Examples –

He Was a Science Star. Then He Promoted a Questionable Cure for Covid-19.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/magazine/didier-raoult-hydroxychloroquine.html

The Politics of Hydroxychloroquine

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/04/22/the-politics-of-hydroxychloroquine