Issue 15 – Sept 2020

Articles

Democratically digital

Internet access has been a lifeline during the Covid pandemic.  Miriam Brett argues it is too important to remain in the hands of private sector interests. An invisible lifeform has

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An isolated problem

Food insecurity grows when the sense of community is low. Megan Blake tells how people have stepped up to the challenge.   Kora and Ryan are just starting out on

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Constructive argument

‘Building back better’ is all well and good but, ask Kate Bayliss, Ben Bowles and Elisa Van Waeyenberge, better for whom?   Investment in infrastructure is a major part of the

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Mutual aid

People pull together when times are tough. Governments should let them. Guy Dauncey explains.   In the 1870s there was a surge in the numbers of self-help groups in the

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Nigeria: an infected economy

Malpractice and mismanagement have long been the emblem of Nigerian government. Covid has added to the West African nation’s woes and young Nigerians are fleeing their homeland. Grimot Nane looks

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A tale of two viruses

How do little guys defeat big guys? Francisco Perez tells the story. First there were reports of a newfound virus in the eastern part of the country. My colleagues and

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Time to be unreasonable

Normality: there can be no turning back, says John Barry. Like buses, crises (and the opportunities that can accompany them) seem to come in threes.  First, we have Brexit and

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Hope and hard work  

Martin Parker ponders how humans might learn to see themselves for what they are. Before the pandemic, I wrote a chapter for a book about hope and the social sciences.

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Brazilian wane

Brazil is big. But politics and inequality are the fuel for its Covid wildfire says Laura Zampini. In mid-June, while most of Europe and Asia were starting to relax restrictions,

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The launch pad

Stewart Lansley asks if it is finally time for a guaranteed income floor,  a form of progressive basic income that would build social resilience, opportunity and choice in an increasingly fragile and divided

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A large consideration

The UK is in hock to a discordant tune of trillions. Who should pay the piper? Alex Tziamalis writes. Consider debt. The UK owes nearly £2 trillion and now, with

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Nothing ventured

Are venture capital investors and governments missing the same trick? Johannes Lenhard sees opportunities. Venture capital has had deep involvement in the rise of the digital age. Many of the

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Fast and furious

Global warming demands a swerve in how we teach economics, says Marc Beckmann. Global student movement, Rethinking Economics, has, since 2014, spoken out against the disconnect between what is going

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Interviews

Indian Summary

Surbhi Kesar is a young, Indian, pluralist economist, who has been researching the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable Indians. The report she has contributed made the newspaper headlines in India.

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The Clout of Africa

The Mint caught up again with US-based, Kenyan economist, Mwangi wa Gĩthĩnji, on how Africa is coping with the pandemic and what that might mean in the long term with

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Columns

Defunding the past

The time has come to pucker up and give Trump a kiss. Our collective sanity is being assailed by an unrelenting locust-swarm media and the groaning end of a socioeconomic

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A shocking trolley

A misplaced piece of supermarket equipment starts a dreadful carry on. I was not going to go for the lockdown fad of starting a new project but I have decided

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Silver linings

Silver linings Nigella Vigoroso-Heck looks forward to perfection “So.  Here we are.  The end of term. I have been truly humbled by the amount of work that you have put

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