Growing Popularity of Women's Professional Sports in India

Women in Indian Sports Sweat for Their Share of a Booming Market
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/world/asia/india-sports-women-female-athletes.html
Female athletes are using social media to increase viewership and seek better sponsorship deals in a field long dominated by men. 

The Stunning Elegance of Smriti Mandhana (Indian Cricket Star):

Smriti Mandhana Hits 112 Runs off 62 Balls | England v India

https://youtu.be/TxXwlMfmNQc

Mobile Devices in Classrooms

Smartphone/Technology Usage in Classroom and Student Performance
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2023/12/smartphones-and-dumbing-down-of-society.html

Here’s What Happened When I Made My College Students Put
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/opinion/mobile-phones-college-classrooms.html
 
The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24543504
Abstract
Taking notes on laptops rather than in longhand is increasingly common. Many researchers have suggested that laptop note taking is less effective than longhand note taking for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students' capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops. The present research suggests that even when laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing. In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers' tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.
 
Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/691462
Abstract
Our smartphones enable—and encourage—constant connection to information, entertainment, and each other. They put the world at our fingertips, and rarely leave our sides. Although these devices have immense potential to improve welfare, their persistent presence may come at a cognitive cost. In this research, we test the “brain drain” hypothesis that the mere presence of one’s own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources, thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks and undercutting cognitive performance. Results from two experiments indicate that even when people are successful at maintaining sustained attention—as when avoiding the temptation to check their phones—the mere presence of these devices reduces available cognitive capacity. Moreover, these cognitive costs are highest for those highest in smartphone dependence. We conclude by discussing the practical implications of this smartphone-induced brain drain for consumer decision-making and consumer welfare.

Ban smartphones from schools, says major UN report
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/25/smartphones-school-classroom-ban-united-nations-unesco/
Report warns excessive mobile phone use is associated with poor educational performance and emotional instability
 
Related: https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/technology 

Goods versus Services Trade

The Trade That Binds the Indian and American Economies
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/business/trump-tariffs-india.html
President Trump focuses on the trade in manufactured goods, where India sells more to the U.S. than it buys. But the countries share a balanced trade in services. 

Currency Competition

When the Dollar Falls
https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/what-happens-if-dollar-is-no-longer-world-leading-reserve-currency-by-dennis-j-snower-2025-08
By driving up the federal debt, undermining central-bank independence, and imposing sweeping tariffs on key allies, US President Donald Trump is striking at the heart of America’s financial power. If the dollar were to lose its reserve-currency status, the resulting realignment would be neither gradual nor orderly.
 
EU speeds up plans for digital euro after US stablecoin law
https://www.ft.com/content/8ad60169-d1e5-4d2c-b928-d53d668f0ec6
Concern over competitiveness raises possibility of digital currency using public rather than private blockchain.

China considering yuan-backed stablecoins to boost global currency usage, sources say
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/china-considering-yuan-backed-stablecoins-boost-global-currency-usage-sources-2025-08-21 

Tariff Impact is Starting to Emerge

The Steep Cost of Tariffs Is Finally Coming into Focus
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-08-21/trump-tariffs-steep-cost-is-coming-into-focus
If the original motivation was to reduce trade deficits, it now looks as if the only way that will happen is through slower economic growth and investment.

Trump’s roving banditry will undermine the US economy
https://www.ft.com/content/030fd15e-9780-40a9-9f58-5dc37692ddf3
On tariffs and tax the president acts like a mafia boss, but not a very good one 

Trump and the Triffin Dilemma

The Defunct Economist Who Shapes Trump’s Trade Policy
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-defunct-economist-who-shapes-trumps-trade-policy-6726b3bb
Robert Triffin’s ‘dilemma’ didn’t pan out, but it holds sway over some of the president’s key advisers.

My take from Jan 2025:
https://thehill.com/opinion/5092814-dollar-weakens-2024/
Meanwhile, in a recent report, Stephen Miran, the Harvard-trained economist who is expected to chair President-elect Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, places much of the blame for the persistent trade imbalances on the rest of the world’s insatiable demand for dollar-denominated safe assets. The historical antecedent of this viewpoint is the Triffin dilemma. Robert Triffin had famously questioned the stability of the Bretton Woods arrangement by noting that the sovereign issuing the world’s reserve currency will have to run persistent balance of payment deficits in order to satisfy the rest of the world’s ever-increasing need for global liquidity. 

American Hypocrisy - Latest Example

Why Trump is really targeting India
https://www.ft.com/content/dfba92c3-523a-41b2-b940-d10c2ccb340e
Ashok Malik notes:
India is not the only nation trading with Russia, not even in the narrow energy sector. China is the biggest importer of its crude oil and coal. The EU is the largest customer of Russian LNG and pipeline gas. The EU’s LNG imports from Russia have risen in the past year, reaching record levels. Turkey receives crude oil, oil products and pipeline gas. Surely these countries don’t get energy supplies for free from the Russians?
Are America’s hands clean? Despite the Ukraine war, the US continues to import fertilisers from Russia for its farmers, as well as from Belarus. It buys Russian uranium and plutonium for its nuclear industry. Its electronic and automobile industries source palladium from Russia. 

By conflating corporate trade with national policy, the White House is undermining the U.S.-India relationship.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/21/india-trump-trade-manufacturing-oil-russia/