Results for “africa” 1080 found
Saturday assorted links
1. Liverpool man who inherited £100,000 lets 12 strangers give the money away.
2. Jonathan Eaton, RIP. And more on his work in trade economics.
3. ACX grants from Astral Codex. And new African School of Economics coming in Zanzibar.
4. The Monk and the Gun is a fun Bhutanese movie about the foundations of democracy (and markets).
5. Using AI to campaign and deliver your victory speech, while in jail.
6. Another 2014 post on Putin: “Putin is signaling to the Russian economy that it needs to get used to some fairly serious conditions of siege, and food is of course the most important of all commodities. Why initiate such a move now if you are expecting decades of peace and harmony?”
7. John Bruton, RIP (NYT, he negotiated peace with Northern Ireland and also set the corporate income tax rate low in Ireland and designed the referendum that overturned the country’s ban on divorce).
Saturday assorted links
1. Hans Niemann okie-dokie. And a response.
2. Should more British homes be built using straw?
3. Base models of LLMs do not seem to skew so much politically. Substack version here.
4. Cameroon starts first malaria vaccine rollout.
5. What economists thought in the 1980s.
6. Does the solar shield idea have potential? (NYT)
7. NYT profile of Coleman Hughes, a highly intelligent and reasonable man. Again, here is Coleman’s new book The End of Race Politics. I will be doing a CWT with him.
8. “Richest five families in Florence 🇮🇹 from 1427 are still the richest today (archival data). Not only the top shows persistence. Any family who was in the (1427) top third is almost certain to still be there today.” Link here.
9. Ross Douthat on Dan Wang on where the future dynamism lies (NYT).
What happened in 17th century England (a lot)
East India Company founded — 1600
Shakespeare – Hamlet published 1603
England starting to settle America – 1607 in Virginia, assorted, you could add Harvard here as well
King James Bible – 1611
The beginnings of steady economic growth – 1620 (Greg Clark, JPE)
Rule of law ideas, common law ideas, Sir Edward Coke – 1628-1648, Institutes of the Laws of England, four volumes
Beginnings of libertarian thought – Levellers 1640s
Printing becomes much cheaper, and the rise of pamphlet culture
John Milton, Aeropagitica, defense of free speech, 1644
King Charles I executed – 1649 (leads to a period of “Britain without a King,” ending 1660)
Birth of economic reasoning – second half of 17th century
Royal African Company and a larger slave trade – 1660
General growth of the joint stock corporation
Final subjugation of Ireland, beginnings of British colonialism and empire (throughout, mostly second half of the century)
Discovery of the calculus, Isaac Newton 1665-1666
Great Plague of London, 1665-1666, killed ¼ of city?
Great Fire of London, 1666
John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667
Social contract theories – John Locke 1689
Bill of Rights (rights of Parliament) — 1689
Birth of modern physics – Newton’s Principia 1687
Bank of England — 1694
Scientific Revolution – throughout the 17th century, places empiricism and measurement at the core of science
The establishment of Protestantism as the religion of Britain, both formal and otherwise, throughout the century, culminating in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
London – becomes the largest city in Europe by 1700 at around 585,000 people.
England moves from being a weak nation to perhaps the strongest in Europe and with the strongest navy.
Addendum: Adam Ozimek adds:
…first bank to print banknotes in Europe, 1661
Discovery of the telescope 1608
First patent for a modern steam engine 1602
What I’ve been reading
1. Hannah Ritchie, Not the End of the World: How We Can be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet. An excellent book with sound conclusions, think of it as moderate Julian Simon-like optimism on environmental issues, but with left-coded rhetoric.
2. Colin Elliott, Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World. Think of this as a sequel to Kyle Harper’s tract on Roman plagues and their political import, this look at the Antonine plague and its impact has both good history and good economics. It is also highly readable.
3. Carrie Sheffield, Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness. A highly effective and harrowing tale of a lifetime journey from abuse to Christianity: “Carrie attended 17 public schools and homeschool, all while performing classical music on the streets and passing out fire-and-insurance religious pamphlets — at times while child custody workers loomed.” The author is well known in finance, ex-LDS circles, public policy, and right-leaning media, and she has a Master’s from Harvard. This story isn’t over.
4. Charles Freeman,
5. Erin Accampo Hern, Explaining Successes in Africa: Things Don’t Always Fall Apart. I found this book highly readable and instructive, but I find it more convincing if you reverse the central conclusion. There is too much talk of the Seychelles and Mauritius, and is Gabon the big success story on the Continent? Population is 2.3 million, the country ranks 112th in the Human Development Index, and almost half the government budget is oil revenue. Still, this book “tells you how things actually are,” and that is more important than any objections one might lodge.
Recent and noteworthy is Peter Jackson, From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane: The Reawakening of Mongol Asia. You may recall that the Mongol empire at its peak was much larger than the Roman empire at its peak, but how many young men think about it every day?
Then there is Jian Chen’s Zhou Enlai: A Life, which seems like a major achievement. I’ve only had time to read small amounts of it…is it “too soon to tell”? I say no!
*The Economist* on Tatu City, Kenya
Take the pig’s ear first. Unveiled in 2008 as a $15bn smart city project, Konza Technopolis was supposed to be the heart of Kenya’s “silicon savannah” that, by 2020, would create 100,000 jobs and add 2% to gdp. Three years and many missed deadlines later, there is still far more evidence of savannah than silicon.
By contrast, Tatu City, on the northern outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, is flourishing. Some 23,750 people already live, study or work there and 78 businesses have made it home. Moderna, an American drugmaker, is opening a $500m vaccine manufacturing facility, its first in Africa. Zhende Medical, a Chinese medical-supplies manufacturer, is also setting up shop.
Tatu and Konza were conceived at the same time. Each, at roughly 5,000 acres, is of a similar size. Both aspire to house populations of more than 200,000 people. And both have been designated Special Economic Zones (sezs), meaning that the businesses they house are eligible for tax benefits and other incentives. Why is one more likely to succeed than other? The answer lies not in their similarities, but in their differences, and these provide lessons for other developments in Africa.
The first is ownership. Konza’s proprietor is the state. Tatu City’s is Rendeavour, a big private urban land developer.
Here is the rest of the article. Here are my three CWT podcasts about Tatu City. I am pleased at how well it is all going!
For the pointer I thank Kurtis Lockhart of Charter Cities Institute.
Thursday assorted links
1. Jeffrey Paller 19 books to read on Africa.
3. Miss America supports nuclear power.
5. Why is the Dominican Republican incumbent popular?
6. Very good Douthat column on higher education (NYT). And: “Yet, through all her troubles, not a single right-leaning voice spoke up on Gay’s behalf. Indeed, during the past month, I didn’t talk to a single Republican on the Hill or around D.C. who had any kind of relationship with Gay. You might ask how Harvard’s president could have so few relationships.” A good piece.
Wednesday assorted links
1. The logic of American vs. Japanese ghost stories.
2. Paul Krugman on the economics of slavery (NYT).
3. The Year in Interintellect.
4. Casey Handmer on Elon Musk.
5. Nils Karlson open-access book on classical liberalism vs. populism. The book is very much on the mark and I was happy to blurb it.
6. What Bill Ackman is up to. A very long, programmatic tweet.
7. Good background explainer on the Ethiopia-Somaliland deal (NYT). The agreement may end up with some charter city-like elements.
Tuesday assorted links
1. Scott Sumner on money/macro GOAT (I largely agree with his perspective and picks).
2. Monopsony amplifies distortions from progressive taxes.
3. Temporarily Coasean Ethiopia and Somaliland deal.
4. Anselm Kiefer in 3-D Glory.
5. Best skyscrapers of 2023? Notably Latin America is well ahead of China.
6. 2024 is the biggest election year in history.
7. Against habits.
Friday assorted links
1. How the president of Columbia University avoided much of the current mess (NYT). She also is an economist. And part of how Harvard screwed up the tactics on the PR side.
2. Profile of Stevenson and Wolfers.
3. A typology of who is easiest and hardest to troll on-line. For instance: “People who are focused on economic issues are harder to troll. People who care primarily about social issues are easier to troll.”
4. Scott Sumner on my macro podcast with David Beckworth.
5. A claim that NYT will lose their copyright case. And Rohit. And Kevin Fischer. So far Open AI is favored in the betting markets.
No Child Left Behind: Accelerate Malaria Vaccine Distribution!
My post What is an Emergency? The Case for Rapid Malaria Vaccination, galvanized the great team at 1DaySooner. Here is Zacharia Kafuko writing at Foreign Policy:
Right now, enough material to make 20 million doses of a lifesaving malaria vaccine is sitting on a shelf in India, expected to go unused until mid-2024. Extrapolating from estimates by researchers at Imperial College London, these doses—enough for 5 million children—could save more than 31,000 lives, at a cost of a little more than $3,000 per life. But current plans by the World Health Organization to distribute the vaccine are unclear and have been criticized as lacking urgency.
…Vaccine deployment and licensure is an incredibly complex scientific, legal, and logistical process involving numerous parties across international borders. Roughly speaking, after the WHO recommends vaccines (such as R21), it must also undertake a prequalification process and receive recommendations from its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts before UNICEF is allowed to purchase vaccines. Then Gavi—a public-private global health alliance—can facilitate delivery by national governments, which must propose their anticipated demand to Gavi and make plans to distribute the vaccines.
Prequalification can take as long as 270 days after approval. However, the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out within weeks of WHO’s approval, using the separate EUL process rather than the more standard prequalification process that R21 is now undergoing.
For COVID-19 vaccines, EUL was available because the pandemic was undeniably an emergency. Given the staggering scale of deaths of children in sub-Saharan Africa every year, shouldn’t we also be treating malaria vaccine deployment as an emergency?
The R21 malaria vaccine does not legally qualify for EUL because malaria already has a preventive and curative toolkit available. My concern is that this normalizes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children each year in Africa.
We can move more quickly and save more lives, if we have the will.
Saturday assorted links
1. “The World Bank estimates that crime costs South Africa 10% of GDP annually.” Link here.
2. An analysis of Geert Wilders. People don’t like deductibles!
3. An unreasonable and offensive rant against Millennials.
4. Advance raves for Godzilla Minus One. And AARP now sponsoring the Rolling Stones.
5. Consider Before Discarding, by Marti Leimbach.
7. AGI and excess backwards induction. Knowing when to apply backwards induction should be a skill we teach in school. And speculation about Q*.
8. “The $VIX has fallen 41% over the last 4 weeks (from 21.27 to 12.46), the 9th largest 4-week decline in history.” Link here. Lowest in about four years.
Monday assorted links
1. Black athletes discuss Thomas Sowell.
2. GPT4V watches an NBA game (and roots for the Clippers).
3. No economic growth in South Africa for the last fifteen years.
4. Rasheed Griffith interviews the guy designated to lead the dollarization of Argentina.
5. Katherine Boyle speech on American dynamism.
6. Hart and Moore on property rights and the theory of the firm (1990, still relevant). And Aghion and Tirole.
Saturday assorted links
The U.S. should care about Europe too
That is the message of my latest Bloomberg column, yes Europe is falling behind but we should worry rather than gloat. Here is one excerpt:
A deeper truth is that Europe still has unparalleled cultural and political capital, often along dimensions that the US cannot match. Europe was the center of the world for a long time, even if it no longer is, and has a detailed and emotionally vivid understanding of how distinct traditions and histories can coexist. Of course they often don’t, and that too is part of Europe’s lesson for the world.
On a more practical level, the US and other nations need a Europe that can defuse its populist right pressures, handle external migration from the Middle East and Africa, and provide a partial defense against Russian expansion in Ukraine and other parts of far eastern Europe. A Europe that is declining in relative economic importance is unlikely to be able to perform those roles well.
All of which is to say, a Europe striving to regain its place atop the global economy is a welcome development not just for Europeans but for small-d democrats everywhere. If only it would go about the task with a greater sense of urgency.
Empfehlenswert.
Friday assorted links
1. “His job market paper, “Inflation, Risk Premia, and the Business Cycle”, proposes a novel macro-finance model to rationalize the risk price puzzle — the previously undocumented empirical disconnect between inflation and risk premium shocks.” J.R. Scott of MIT Sloan.
2. Oregon no longer requires a bar exam to practice law.
3. Ten minute video from hu.ma.ne. The new AI pin, some call it. Here is NYT coverage. And an NYT review. What do you all think?
4. The economics of visa-free travel to Kenya?
5. A 1599 view on how the moderns were outdoing the ancients.
6. Don’t waste your time reading this stuff. Because, of all pieces, it comes closest to what I hear from insiders.