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ژوئن 25, 2022

Explained Books | Prescription for post-Covid world: resilience

“The Covid-19 pandemic has worked like an X-ray machine, revealing the hidden challenges under the surface of many societies,” Markus K Brunnermeier says in the introduction to his book. Indeed, the pandemic has hit every country — the adverse health impact was just the starting point; the virus ended up disrupting every aspect of society, and the global economic order.
Complex supply chains built and refined over decades had to be abruptly shut down or broken to prevent or slow the infection’s spread. Jobs and livelihoods were lost, inequalities of all kinds widened, governments were pushed to pile on millions of dollars of debt to extend relief, and central banks had to resort to every possible way to stimulate the economy even as health systems collapsed and countries and societies turned more insular and protectionist.

The Covid-19 shock pushed back most countries by several years, possibly decades. And just as it appeared that the world was starting to break free from the seemingly unending cycles of lockdowns, Russia invaded Ukraine, unleashing consequences that reverberated around the world — from costlier fuel prices to scarcity of food items to dramatically heightened geopolitical tensions.
Within just a couple of years, the world economy has swung from trying to avoid a prolonged deflation to desperately fighting inflation. The post-Cold War consensus around globalisation, already under strain from the time of the global financial crisis of 2008-09, has now developed into a militant desire to reduce dependence on other countries.
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Was the world prepared to survive these shocks in 2020? Is it prepared in 2022? More importantly, will it be prepared in the future? If so, how?
In The Resilient Society, Princeton University economist Brunnermeier details the global economic fallout of the Covid disruption. Many of the book’s key insights are distilled from a Princeton webinar series called Markus Academy, which featured influential economists, including more than a dozen Nobel laureates.

In the end, for the author, the touchstone for any society, economy, or indeed the world is “resilience”, or the ability to rebound. It is resilience that sets the reed apart from the robust oak, which has the ability to resist. “I bend but do not break” — that is the essence of resilience.
After explaining the concept and how societies could be redesigned to become resilient in part 1 of the book, Brunnermeier uses Covid to explain the core elements of resilience management in part 2. In parts 3 and 4, he looks at macroeconomic and global challenges that countries face.
The book was released last year, but the Ukraine crisis shows, even though the world has moved to the next shock, Brunnermeier was spot on in underscoring the need to be resilient. The main lesson for societies
is to give up the “just in time” production approach that accords primacy to efficiency, and instead move towards a “just in case” approach that allows for safety buffers.

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ژوئن 17, 2022

Explained: How Saudi big money has shaken up golf’s status quo

This week, Brookline, Massachusetts is hosting the ‘toughest test in golf’, as the US Open is often described as. But the last few weeks can also be referred to as the ‘toughest test of golf’ as developments on the course and off it threaten to tear the professional game apart.
The US-based PGA Tour has been the toughest, most prestigious and most lucrative golf circuit in the world, with most upcoming players aspiring to it as if it were the Holy Grail. Together with the DP World Tour (formerly called the European Tour), it has dominated the golfing scene for decades.

Now, a Saudi-funded venture with immensely deep pockets has threatened the status quo, tempting the best players in the world with lucrative contracts and guaranteed prize money to play in their LIV Golf events. Some of the top golfers have jumped ship and the PGA Tour has wasted little time in suspending their membership.Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
But the big names who have opted to switch sides are free to tee up at the US Open and, in all likelihood, next month’s 150th Open Championship on The Old Course at St. Andrews, considered the home of golf.
However, it seems likely that they will not be allowed to be involved in any capacity in future Ryder Cups or Presidents Cups.
What is the row all about?
The Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, has spent a lot of money on elite sports, which critics allege is a means to spruce up the image of the Saudi ruling regime, called ‘sportswashing’. The kingdom is accused of several human rights violations and also came under a cloud after the murder of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The launch of a rival venture against an established US-based tour touches a raw nerve in the USA as 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks hailed from Saudi Arabia.

The PGA Tour refused to grant waivers to its players for playing in the LIV Golf events. Some of the players even resigned their membership to avoid future sanctions or litigation.
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What is the format?
LIV stands for 54 in Roman numerals and the tournaments are 54-hole affairs, in contrast to 72 on traditional tours, and played over three days, not four as is generally the case.
Each event features 48 players and has a team and individual competition. The teams have four members each. The players tee off at the same time on different holes in what is termed a ‘shotgun start’. This is to reduce the time taken for a round, in a bid to make it more TV-friendly.
How much money is on offer?
The biggest names in golf have been offered astronomical sums – often in hundreds of millions of dollars – to join the new venture. This is just the signing amount.
Fronted by former world Number 1 Greg Norman, LIV Golf has lined up eight events in 2022. Each of them will have a prize fund of $25 million, making them comfortably more lucrative than any tournament on the PGA Tour. The winner will take home $4m, another high. The final event will see the winning team getting $16m, with each member getting 25 percent.
There is no cut and the player finishing last will still be richer by $120,000. In contrast, on other tours, players missing the cut don’t get any prize money.
Who all have joined and why?
Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell and Phil Mickelson are some of the prominent names on the LIV Golf roster.
Some of them like Poulter and McDowell have justified their decision, arguing that they are global professionals, while sidestepping the moral questions thrown at them.
“No one’s going to argue that fact but we’re golfers. We’re not politicians. If Saudi Arabia want to use the game of golf as a way for them to get to where they want to be, we’re proud to help them on that journey,” McDowell said.
Poulter said: “I regard myself as a global golfer and I have been for 24 years. I’ve played on numerous tours and events around the world and that is what I’m continuing to do.”
Others didn’t hide the fact that it was about the money.
Johnson had earlier pledged his allegiance to the PGA Tour before having a change of heart and resigning his membership.
“I don’t want to play for the rest of my life, this gives me an opportunity to do what I want to do,” Johnson said.
DeChambeau calls his move “a business decision, first and foremost.”
“There was a lot of financials to it and a lot of time. I get to have a life outside of the game of golf as well. It’s given me a lot more opportunities outside of the game of golf and given me more time with my family and my future family,” DeChambeau said.

Some others are in their late 40s and early 50s and know their best golfing days are behind them. They may want to cash in while they can.
Why are so many LIV Golf players still in the US Open field?
The golf establishment hasn’t hidden its disappointment at the big names deserting the official tours. But the US Open is organised by the United States Golf Association (USGA), and not the PGA Tour. The criteria for earning a berth in the Major was decided much before LIV Golf emerged on the scene, so it was argued that denying them the opportunity to play would be unfair on those who have made it on merit. Many of them are past champions and have gained exemptions.
Are there any parallels in other sports?
If one can earn much more by playing much less, there’s a great temptation. It is the logic of T20 cricket professionals who go around the world playing in various leagues while not always turning up for their national teams. It is less taxing on the body and leaves one with ample time for themselves.

آوریل 13, 2022

Explained: Ruins of Mariupol port could become Russia’s first big prize in Ukraine

The Sea of Azov port of Mariupol, reduced to a wasteland by seven weeks of siege and bombardment that Ukraine says killed tens of thousands of civilians, could become the first big city captured by Russia since its invasion.
Russia said on Wednesday more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines, among the last defenders holed up in the Azovstal industrial district, had surrendered, though Ukraine did not confirm that.
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Here is why the city’s capture would be important.
STRATEGIC LOCATION
Mariupol, home to more than 400,000 people before the war, is the biggest Ukrainian city on the Sea of Azov and the main port serving the industries and agriculture of eastern Ukraine. It is also the site of some of Ukraine’s biggest metals plants.
On the eve of the war, it was the biggest city still held by Ukrainian authorities in the two eastern provinces known as the Donbas, which Moscow has demanded Ukraine cede to pro-Russian separatists.

Its capture would give Russia full control of the Sea of Azov coast, and a secure overland bridge linking mainland Russia and pro-Russian separatist territory in the east with the Crimea peninsula that Moscow seized and annexed in 2014.
It would unite Russian forces on two of the main axes of the invasion, and free them up to join an expected new offensive against the main Ukrainian force in the east.
Prominent among the Ukrainian forces that have defended Mariupol is the Azov Regiment, a militia with far right origins incorporated into Ukraine’s national guard. Russia has portrayed destroying that group as one of its main war aims.
HUMANITARIAN IMPACT
The siege of Mariupol has been the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the conflict, described by Kyiv as a war crime. Ukrainian officials say at least 20,000 civilians were killed there by Russian forces employing tactics of mass destruction used in earlier campaigns in Syria and Chechnya.
International organisations such as the Red Cross and the United Nations say they believe thousands died but the extent of suffering cannot be assessed yet because the city has been cut off.
Ukrainian officials have said around a third of the population escaped before the siege, a similar number got out during it, while around 160,000 were trapped inside. They sheltered for weeks in cellars with no power or heat, or access to outside shipments of food, water or medicine.

Daily attempts to send convoys to bring in aid and evacuate civilians failed throughout the siege, with Ukraine blaming Russia for looting shipments and refusing to let buses pass through the blockade. Moscow said Ukraine was to blame for failing to observe ceasefires.
Bodies have been buried in mass graves or makeshift graves in gardens. Ukraine says Russia has brought in mobile crematorium trucks to burn bodies and destroy evidence of killings.
Among the major incidents that drew international outcry was the bombing of a maternity hospital on March 9, when wounded pregnant women were photographed being carried out of rubble. A week later, the city’s main drama theatre was destroyed. Ukraine says hundreds of people were sheltering in its basement, and it has not been able to determine how many were killed. The word “children” had been spelled out on the street in front of the building, visible from space.
Russia denies targeting civilians in Mariupol and has said, without presenting evidence, that incidents including the theatre bombing and maternity hospital attack were staged. Kyiv and its Western allies dismiss this as a smear to deflect blame.
Ukraine says Russia forcibly deported thousands of Mariupol residents to Russia, including some unaccompanied children it views as having been kidnapped. Moscow denies this and says it has taken in refugees.
WHAT NEXT?
Western countries believe Russia’s initial war aim was to quickly topple the government in Kyiv, but Moscow has had to abandon that goal after armoured columns bearing down on the capital were repelled. Russia withdrew from northern Ukraine at the start of April and has said its focus is now on the areas claimed by the separatists in the east.

In recent days, a new Russian column has been moving into eastern Ukraine near the town of Izyum to the north of the Donbas. The fall of Mariupol could free up Russian troops in the south of the Donbas to mount an assault on Ukrainian forces from two directions.
Claiming its first big prize in eastern Ukraine could also give Russia a stronger position to negotiate at any peace talks.

مارس 1, 2022

Explained: World’s largest plane destroyed in Russia-Ukraine war — here’s what happened

Amid Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, the world’s largest cargo aircraft, the Antonov AN-225 or ‘Mriya’, was destroyed by Russian troops during an attack on an airport near Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities announced Monday.
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According to Ukrainian officials, the plane was extensively damaged after Russian troops entered a Ukrainian air base in Hostomel, where the aircraft was parked. While they have not confirmed the extent of damage, Ukraine has said that it will be rebuilding the legendary plane.

The biggest plane in the world “Mriya” (The Dream) was destroyed by Russian occupants on an airfield near Kyiv. We will rebuild the plane. We will fulfill our dream of a strong, free, and democratic Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Gy6DN8E1VR
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 27, 2022
“This was the world’s largest aircraft, AN-225 ‘Mriya’ (‘Dream’ in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
What do we know about the Antonov AN-225?
With a wingspan of over 290-feet, the unique Antonov AN-225 was designed in what was then the Ukrainian USSR during the 1980s amid a tense race to space between the United States and the Soviet Union. The plane, nicknamed ‘Mriya’ or ‘dream’ in Ukrainian, is very popular in aviation circles, and is known to attract huge crowds of fans at air shows around the world.

New 📸 @Maxar satellite images show a 3.25-mile convoy of Russian ground forces with 100s of military vehicles NE of Ivankiv, Ukraine and moving toward Kyiv (40 miles away). Contains fuel, logistics, armored vehicles (tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery). pic.twitter.com/Z75iNhy7Jw
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 27, 2022
It was initially designed as part of the Soviet aeronautical program to carry the Buran, which was the Soviet version of the US’ Space Shuttle. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the Buran program was cancelled, the aircraft was instead used to transport massive cargo loads.
Only one AN-225 was ever built by the Kyiv-based Antonov Company, the defence manufacturers who originally designed the plane. It is essentially a large version of another design by the Antonoc company — the four-engine An-124 ‘Condor’, which is used by the Russian Air Force.
The aircraft first took flight in 1988 and has been in use ever since. In the recent past, it has been used for delivering relief supplies during calamities in neighbouring nations. During the initial days of the Covid pandemic, it was used to supply medical supplies in affected nations.
What happened to the plane?
Since launching its attack four days ago, Russia has been targeting airfields and military bases. On Friday, Russia claimed it had captured the Hostomel airfield, where the AN-225 was under repair.

This was the world’s largest aircraft, AN-225 ‘Mriya’ (‘Dream’ in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022
“Russia has hit the Mriya as a symbol of Ukraine’s aviation capabilities,” Ukraine’s state-run defence manufacturer Ukroboronprom, which manages the Antonov Company, announced on Sunday.
According to a CNN report, satellite images of the air field show significant damage to the hangar in which the plane is located. NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System reported a fire at the airport at around 11:13 am on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Antonov Company, in a statement, said that it still “ cannot report on the technical condition of the aircraft.”

What’s next for the Antonov AN-225?
Ukroboronprom announced that the plane will be restored at Russia’s expense at an estimated cost of $3 billion. “The restoration is estimated to take over $3 billion and over five years,” the company said.
“Our task is to ensure that these costs are covered by the Russian Federation, which has caused intentional damage to Ukraine’s aviation and the air cargo sector,” it added.
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