Steve Hanke and Matt Sekerke: “Crypto enthusiasts argue their vision of the financial future is needed to counter apocalyptic outcomes, such as hyperinflation and social collapse. Anything is possible, but if governments lose their ability to enforce property rights and ensure security, we’ll have bigger problems than money. As for the exceedingly rare phenomenon of hyperinflation, no major economy is foolish enough to gamble with it. Unlike the fiat money created by bank loans, which is linked to the real economy, cryptocurrencies are untethered from economic value. To treat crypto as actual wealth on par with labor earnings and returns on actual investments would grant enormous purchasing power to people who have done nothing to expand the productive capacity of the economy. Monetizing crypto would be tantamount to legalizing counterfeit currency. Granting crypto operators access to the core of the regulated financial system would be catastrophic.”
NYT: “Until the pandemic, India was pulling millions of people out of poverty, pinning its hopes of greater economic growth on education. That building block for the future is now eroding, threatening to upend India’s hard-fought progress and condemn another generation to manual, off-the-books labor…Typically a large share of the population entering the work force would be an economic boon. Now it could prove a burden, as undereducated and underemployed people in a welfare state like India end up consuming a larger share of resources, from free medicine to food subsidies…Hundreds of millions of students across India have received little to no in-person instruction with schools intermittently shut down since the start of the pandemic.”
FT on how to make resolutions stick: “Look for a fresh start that will last, a change of routine or context to which a new habit can be pinned.”
