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The solution to this problem is to figure out credible reasons to justify the number of indian military personnel, and the expenses of maintaining this relationship. Once you do that, reveal the details, and they lose leverage to push through this issue. /1


And that means owning up to why Indian military assistance is needed. This requires large national conversation about the threat of Islamic extremists in the Maldives, explain the dangers and the opportunity cost of an attack etc. /2

People will except we'll reasoned decision making. And the public already has a frame of reference to indian military assistance from November 3rd 1988. So none of this is new or a surprise. /3

What is being weaponised is this imagined spectre of loss of autonomy for the country by collaborating with indian military on national security issues. This is an easy problem to solve. /4

The solution is merely laying out how national autonomy is maintained in such a national security collaboration. It's not like the Maldives can defend itself from any foreign military invasion anyways. /5
#Thread: Though it's important to shed light on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in #Yemen, you could read this entire @reuters article (and most articles written about Yemen) and not know why this boy is starving or who is responsible for these conditions:

The boy travelled from Al-Jawf to Sana'a because al-Jawf is among "high intensity battlefronts" & is the target of repeated civilian airstrikes.
https://t.co/1KlIN5ixTf

Also, roads are "damaged" because they're frequently bombed by US/Saudi airstrikes:

Shockingly, he's one of the lucky ones who managed to make it to a hospital.

Only 51% of health facilities are (barely) functioning: https://t.co/GBgKXM562t

And hospitals have been frequently targeted by airstrikes: For example:

International aid & donations are necessary for Faid & millions to survive because of the Saudi/US/UAE blockade that prevents Yemenis from trade and makes them reliant on aid instead. Before the war, Yemen imported 90% of its food; now, 80% rely on aid.

Famine hasn't been declared because the UN faces immense pressure from its top donors, the US & Saudi, who are also causing the famine in Yemen.

The US went as far as pressuring the UN to restrict aid to Northern Yemen, where 70% of Yemenis live:
1/9. There are many problems with this rule. Pruitt/Wheeler threw out EPA's own established procedures to short-circuit the science review: changes to the review process since 2017 undermined its quality, credibility, and integrity.


2/9. Pruitt/Wheeler kicked all 7 members off the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, and replaced them under a policy found to be arbitrary and capricious by the U.S. district court of SDNY. The repopulated CASAC has the appearance of lack of impartiality.

3/9. Wheeler refused to form a CASAC Ozone Review Panel 3 months after EPA issued a call for nominations for such a panel, thereby depriving CASAC of the breadth, depth, and diversity of expertise, experience and perspectives needed for ozone NAAQS Review.

4/9. The Ozone review process was truncated and accelerated, leading to inadequate scientific review, and inappropriate commingling of science and policy reviews. Fewer opportunities for public comment created a less transparent NAAQS scientific review process

5/9. As professional malpractice, the stripped down and reconstituted CASAC offered advice outside of its expertise, particularly with regard to epidemiology (there were zero epidemiologists on CASAC). The CASAC chair imposed a burden of proof contrary to that of the CAA.
Nice article from @MESandbu. This from a theme in sellside research before Christmas. Could the pandemic break secular stagnation & deliver a decade of strong growth?


Historical evidence clear - pandemics are usually deflationary, causing lower r*. Big difference with wars, which usually cause r* to rise. Great Jorda et al paper on this

Here is their main result


Historically, Wars destroyed both capital stock and labour force. Pandemics killed millions but left capital stock untouched. Covid-19 is neither of these things. Workforce hasn't plunged, capital stock untouched. Comparison with 1920s is a stretch. So precedent for today..

Some more recent evidence based on modern health crises shows only a short-lived boost to GDP, then weaker trend then before. See this Vox column
1/

🧵 THREAD about probably one of the BEST discussions about social value of work, economic wealth and fairness in a while.

40 mins with @amolrajan, @PJTheEconomist @elerianm @KGerlich777 Louise Casey

@davidgraeber 🗣️ "The more your job helps others, the less you get paid"


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Reminded me of @euan_lawson for @BJGPjournal quoting Michael Sandel on meritocracy: https://t.co/tAl6sobtKW

🗣️ "In an unequal society, those who land on top want to believe their success is morally justified. In a meritocratic society, this means the winners must believe...

3/

🗣️ "...they have earned their success through their own talent and hard work.… at a time when racism and sexism are out of favor (discredited though not eliminated), credentialism is the last acceptable prejudice."

4/

@PJTheEconomist over the last 20 years:

⬇️ 30% per person spending on social care
⬆️ 100% more hospital doctors.

No extra GPs - actually the number of full time equivalents is dropping: https://t.co/n20woUk0Wu

And they aren't equally distributed either (inverse-care law)

5/

When we look at care work @KGerlich777 talks about care sector:

➡️ How it is heavily gendered? 80% women
➡️ How poorly it is paid and misconceptions about what it involves.

Louise Casey explaining needed huge reform and re-structure