Thomas Yang | Senior Staff Photographer

Due to COVID-19, a football season is questionable for the Panthers.

This column is part of a point-counterpoint series. To read the opposing view, click here.

Last time Pitt football held a season amid a pandemic, they went on to win thenational championship. This years team may not reach the same heights as the 1918 Panthers although there will be a lot less competition with other leagues cancelling their schedules but there are still many reasons to play this season. Game-altering concessions must occur to pull it off, such as the absence of fans, but the benefits outweigh the compromises that must be made in what will be a year like no other.

Players have been given the freedom to opt out of the season if they dont feel safe competing or if they are worried about the long-term health issues that COVID-19 can cause. This isnt a perfect fix, though, because the coronavirus doesnt care if the players arent scared of it it can infect and hurt them all the same.

Those lasting effects, such as inflammation of the heart muscle, or myocarditis, and general organ damage due to blood clots, have been used for months to argue why the season isnt worth the risk. But some health experts think those risks are overblown. Dr. Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic, has downplayed the effects that COVID-19 can have on the heart, saying he would take it out of the safety discussion or at least demote it to ingredient number 10.

Overblown or not, its important to understand why that risk is worth taking. To do so, one must look to the issue that has been at the forefront of football at all levels for the past decade concussions. Players know that playing football can cause concussions, which can lead to even worse health problems over time as a result of chronic traumatic encephalopathy memory loss, depression, an inability to control their emotions and early-onset dementia and continue to play in spite of that. Players have been able to answer that impossible question, whether their health or the game they love means more to them, for as long as football has been played. Why shouldnt they be allowed to answer it once again?

With many professional sports leagues back in action, college sports can follow in their trial-and-error footsteps, hopefully with more success. The NHL and NBA have put together successful seasons, even with the coronavirus looming overhead, thanks to their reliance on a player bubble.

The NCAA hasnt announced any plans like that, and a bubble isnt feasible with dozens of college teams. Instead, they will follow in the footsteps of Major League Baseball, where geographically proximate teams have played each other to limit travel and the number of teams coming into contact with one another. The NCAA is having conference-only schedules in similar fashion.

The MLB was rather lax about enforcing social distancing rules at first, leading to outbreaks among the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals, among other teams. The NCAA has long been criticized for not giving players autonomy, however, and its current approach may be more helpful in this case, limiting potential exposure through more stringent policies.

The financial aspect of college football, like it or not, must be considered as well in this decision. Popular sports such as football and basketball draw millions in ticket and merchandise sales, not to mention broadcasting deals. Although college athletic programs are a relative cash cow, theyre also one of the first things to fall by the wayside in hard times.

Stanford University, facing budget cuts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, axed 11 varsity programs last month, and others may follow suit. Many other programs will be forced to do the same if they dont play football, with over $4.1 billion in fiscal revenue on the line for Power Five conference teams.

A school with balanced books may be less likely to make gambles in the name of fiscal gain gambles such as bringing students back to school as an excuse to charge full tuition.

In difficult times, there are no easy solutions, and a college football season in the middle of a pandemic is not without risks. With the professional leagues restarts as learning opportunities, however, a season can be held at diminished risk and give fans and players something to look forward to again.

See more here:

Point-Counterpoint: Benefits will outweigh the consequences for college football this fall - University of Pittsburgh The Pitt News

Republicans opened their 2020 national convention with speeches touting President Donald Trumps accomplishments interspersed with dark ruminations about what Democrats have in store for America if Joe Biden is elected.

Do you believe in American greatness, believe in yourself, in President Trump, in individual and personal responsibility? asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Trump supporter and former Fox News personality. They want to destroy this country, and everything that we have fought for and hold dear. They want to steal your liberty, your freedom.

The presidents son Donald Trump Jr. sounded a similar theme: It starts by rejecting radicals who want to drag us into the dark, and embracing the man who represents a bright and beautiful future for all. It starts by re-electing Donald J. Trump president of the United States.

Elected officials and former administration members who spoke Monday night included Sen. Tim Scott and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, both of South Carolina. Their speeches focused on their own biographies but also contrasted the Republican Party and Trump with radical or socialist Democrats.

We fact-checked several claims from speakers during the conventions first evening.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., speaks during the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

We actually saw revenues to the Treasury increase after we lowered taxes in 2017. Rest assured the Democrats do not want you to know that.

Scotts claim ismisleading.

Tax revenues rose by 0.4% between fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018 (federal fiscal years run from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.). But that small increase disappears once you account for inflation. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a group that favors shrinking the federal deficit,foundthat once you adjust for inflation, tax revenues actually fell by about 1.6%. When you factor in economic growth, revenues fell even more.

In fact, the actual amount of tax revenue collected in FY2018 was significantly lower than government projections made before the tax package was signed into law, according toa February 2020 analysisby the Brookings Institution.

In 1994, Biden led the charge on a crime bill that put millions of Black Americans behind bars.

This needs context. Analysts dont cast the 1994 crime bill as the sole driver for mass incarceration.Experts sayBidens 1994 bill was part of a trend that was already underway on the state level.

Annual reports from theU.S. Bureau of Justice Statisticsshow that the Black incarceration rate rose from about 1,200 per 100,000 in 1985 to about 2,450 per 100,000 in 2000. (This is for both men and women. The rate for Black men in 2000 was3,457 per 100,000.)

But its impossible to draw a straight line between those changes and the crime bill, experts say. Also, criminal policy is driven mostly by state and local decisions, not federal.

The act didnt cause mass incarceration, Hadar Aviram, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings told us in 2019. Prison populations started rising two decades earlier, in the early 1970s, and by 1994 had already more than tripled, from 300,000 to over 1 million.

The U.S. prison population continued to rise after the 1994 act took effect. But theoverall rate of growth slowed down.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Says Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want massive tax hikes on working families.

This isFalse. Biden has saidhe said that no new taxes would be imposed on anyone making under $400,000.

Bidensproposalwould repeal provisions in Trumps tax law for taxpayers earning over $400,000. Specifically, Biden would:

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a group thats hawkish on the federal budget deficit, has confirmed that no direct taxes would be imposed on any household making less than $400,000 per year. Households below $400,000 a year could face small income losses indirectly, largely from the portion of higher corporate taxes that companies pass along to their workers through constraints on compensation. The vast majority of the income losses from the Biden tax proposal would fall on the top one-fifth of incomes, and especially on the top 1%, experts found.

When we brought in good-paying jobs (to South Carolina), Biden and Obama sued us. Ifought back, and they gave up.

This partially accuraterecounting of a labor dispute exaggerates some of the details.

Harking back to her time as South Carolina governor, Haley is referring to a hearing process between the National Labor Relations Board and airplane manufacturer Boeing after the company decided to start a production line in South Carolina. (It wasnt technically a lawsuit.) Boeings move in 2009 was essentially taking some work away from union plants in Puget Sound, Wash.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union complained, and the federal board started a hearing process against Boeing on the grounds that it built its factory in South Carolina to punish the union. Retaliation of that sort, if proven, violates federal labor law.

The union and Boeing eventually struck afour-year dealin December 2011 that provided raises, job protections and a commitment to make more planes in the Puget Sound area. With the South Carolina plant no longer seen as a threat to jobs in Washington state, the union dropped its complaint and the NLRB ended the process.

As for the political overtones that Haley mentioned, while the case was handled by the Obama-appointed general counsel, it never came before the four board members that Obama appointed. Wepreviously foundno evidence that the White House intervened.

The composition and presidential influence varies among different federal agencies, and its a stretch to portray NLRB actions as directly managed by the Obama administration.

Donald Trump Jr., speaks as he tapes his speech for the first day of the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Democrats claim to be for workers, but theyve spent the entire pandemic trying to sneak a tax break for millionaires in Democrat states into the COVID relief bill.

This statement requires more context. Trump Jr. is referring to efforts by Democrats to erase a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that caps thedeductionfor state and local taxes at $10,000. Overall the laws benefits flowdisproportionately to wealthier taxpayers.

The Democratic-led House passed a $3 trillion bill in May that included provisions to reinstate the local tax deductions for 2020 and 2021. Thebill, known as theHeroes Act, didnt reach a vote in the Senate.

Trump Jr. said Democrats tried to sneak in the tax break, but it waswidelyreportedthat Democrats wanted to roll back the deduction cap.

The deduction benefits high-income taxpayers in high-tax jurisdictions, according to theTax Foundation. New York politiciansfought against the deduction. However, it did not only affect states led by Democrats. The deduction has also been used by taxpayers in other states, such asTexas.

Trumps portrayal of Democrats trying to help out millionaires through theHeroes Actneglects that several provisions would help people of lower and moderate incomes by expanding paid sick leave and lengthening the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures.

Biden has pledged to repeal the Trump tax cuts, which were the biggest in our country.

Bidens official campaign proposal is torepealprovisions of Trumps tax law, but not the whole thing. The specific increases in his plan would primarily hit taxpayers earning over $400,000.

Inone video clipfrom May 2019, Biden said that the first thing he will do in office is repeal the GOP tax cuts. However, he appears to be shorthanding his policy in a public event. Thats not his official campaign proposal.

As for the part about the Trump tax bill being the biggest, thats also wrong.

The Joint Committee on Taxation Congresss nonpartisan arbiter of tax analysis said the 2017 tax bill would costthe government (or save taxpayers) about $1.5 trillion over 10 years, or about $150 billion a year.

Several billssince 1980 were larger, measured not only by contemporary dollars but also by inflation-adjusted dollars and as a percentage of gross domestic product, which is a measure of the size of the overall economy. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the recent tax bill is the fourth-largest since 1940. And as a percentage of GDP, it ranks seventh.Weve summarized the tax laws here.

Rep. Steve Scalise. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP)

Joe Biden has embraced the lefts insane mission to defund (the police).

This isFalse. Biden has explicitly said he does not support defunding the police.

Biden in June told CBS Evening News host Norah ODonnell that he supports conditioning federal aid to police, based on whether they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. In a Juneopinion piece in USA TODAY, Biden also said that abuse of power in police departments must stop and that reforms were the answer to problems. He said police departments should have the money they need to institute changes and proposed an additional $300 million to reinvigorate community policing in our country.

While I do not believe federal dollars should go to police departments violating peoples rights or turning to violence as the first resort, I do not support defunding police, Biden wrote. The better answer is to give police departments the resources they need to implement meaningful reforms, and to condition other federal dollars on completing those reforms.

Wages (are) rising the fastest for lower income levels.

Theres little evidence that the lowest-income workers are seeing wage increases that exceed those of higher-income Americans.

Since Trump took office, the lowest-income workers have seen largely stagnant wages, while the top 5% show the sharpest increase, according to federal data compiled by the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

And to the extent that lower-income workers have gained in recent years, its because of state and local minimum-wage increases pushed by Democrats, often over Republican opposition. A Washington Post analysis found that before 2016, wages for lower-paid workers rose across the country at more or less the same pace. Starting in 2017, though, wage growth in states that increased minimum wages began to accelerate.

Louis Jacobson, Amy Sherman, Samantha Putterman and Miriam Valverde contributed to this report.

This article was originallypublished by PolitiFact, which is owned by the Poynter Institute, and is republished here with permission. See the sources for these facts checkshereand more of their fact-checkshere.

Read more here:

Fact-checking the first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention - Poynter

The MacKinnon report states that many Alberta doctors make, on average, 35 per cent more, about $107,000, than the average in other provinces.

Thursdays fiscal update was sobering. A deficit of $24.2 billion is forecast for this fiscal year $16.8 billion higher than originally estimated in February only weeks before the World Health Organization declared on March 11 that COVID-19 was a global pandemic.

Prior to COVID, things were looking good for Alberta. According to government figures, economic activity grew by two per cent from the previous year, rig activity was up 14 per cent, oil production was up six per cent, exports were up 19 per cent and there were increases in retail, vehicle and housing sales.

Then, Alberta was hit with a triple whammy.

In March, an OPEC dispute hit oil prices very hard and, by April, with massive demand destruction due to the global pandemic and economic shutdown, we saw negative prices, said Toews.

This massive collapse in energy prices had no precedent. Bond markets were effectively inaccessible.

The world has changed dramatically and all of our expectations have changed everywhere, but in the public sector.

A new Canadian think-tank, SecondStreet.org, filed freedom-of-information requests asking governments across the country a simple question: When was the last time you cut employee pay?

The federal government which is anticipating a $343-billion deficit this year stated: Our sector officials indicated that there is no data or any information that indicates that there has ever been a negotiated pay reduction. SecondStreet.org confirmed with the feds that there have also never been any legislated pay reductions.

Read the original post:

Corbella: Facts and fairness show public sector workers should have their pay cut - Calgary Herald

Last in a series

When Fred Perpall enters a room, he owns it.

Hes tall, confident, articulate and authentic.

He has gravitas, GQ looks and could be a stand-in for fellow Bahamian Sydney Poitier.

Thats what friends and colleagues say about him time and again.

And yet this 45-year-old leader of a global, billion-dollar Dallas enterprise will tell you that hes been pulled over by cops more than a half-dozen times for questionable traffic infractions since moving into Highland Park seven years ago as recently as earlier this month.

I got pulled over three times in one year for what they called California rolls, where I assure you I came to a stop, but apparently not enough to suit them. So lets pull you over and check your ID and registration, Perpall said. Im always courteous no matter how bogus it is.

But hell also tell you that hes been disparaged as a sellout by some Black and brown brethren because he lives in Highland Park and belongs to the Dallas Country Club.

Welcome to the world of Fred Perpall, CEO of The Beck Group, chair of the Dallas Citizens Council and a proud descendant of slaves.

Last weekend, several dozen protesters showed up in front of his house to bring attention to Black Lives Matter. They were greeted with a sign on his door saying just that.

We are getting to a binary situation, Perpall said. If you dont see African-American disparity in this country, its because you dont want to see it. If you dont see the way African-Americans are treated by many facets of our society, its because you dont want to see it.

We need to focus on uplifting these people from poverty. As a Black person, I dont equivocate on that.

If youre a good person, you know deep down inside that kids of color do not get the same investments at the same level that majority kids get. Come on, we see it all around us.

With the pandemic disproportionately attacking people of color and social unrest continuing to boil up from racial exclusion and injustice, Perpall and I decided to have our own version of Courageous Conversations so that he could share in unvarnished terms what it is like to be one of the few Black members of Dallas highest echelon of business establishment.

Friends Black and white tell him he leads a charmed life.

He says he works hard to make it look easy.

You feel like you live your life under a microscope always a little more watched than youd like to be, he said. And as [the protesters at his house] last weekend showed, its not just being watched by the broader community, its being watched by the minority community, too.

More than anything, Perpall wants to convey that inclusion is a two-way street.

I get deeply offended when people act as if having a very successful life is not having a Black life or that by having really close white friends who are your business peers and have the same high-level responsibilities as you, that somehow youve sold out the Black population, Perpall said. I dont know why we always have to go either/or. Some Black people are frankly terrible for doing that: Either you are with us or youre with them. Why cant it be yes and yes? Yes, Im with you, and yes, Im with them.

Some of us have to build those bridges and be what I call way-showers and show other people the way that you can live a very successful life.

And by the way, a successful life is not a white life. To be highly accomplished is not to be acting white. We cannot make excellence and accomplishment a white trait. We need to make that an American trait.

I choose to live in Highland Park because I run a large company and thats where many of my friends, colleagues and peers are. With the exception of a few bad experiences, its been overwhelmingly good.

I profiled Perpall in 2013, shortly after he took over as CEO of the legacy architecture and construction company founded by Henry C. Beck Sr. 101 years before.

Since then, Perpall has gained traction at Beck and in the community.

The firm, which is among the nations largest 100 construction contractors and is still controlled by the Beck family, has expanded its client base here and abroad, moved into technology and manufacturing, and doubled in employment and revenue. Its expected to post a profitable $1.45 billion in revenue this year despite the pandemic chaos, Perpall said.

Hes also closing out his second year as chairman of the Dallas Citizens Council, only the second Black person to lead the citys most elite business organization.

There are probably people who will say, Well, thats just a rich Black guy. What does that do for us? My feeling is, Just watch what we achieve. I say we because we is a powerful word.

Thats what we at the Citizens Council and we at Beck are trying to lean in on. We are trying to have our actions speak for us in terms of integrating and helping our communities of color.

And by the way, I dont just like being a part of this business community. I love Dallas.

When Beck looks for Minority Business Enterprise partners, Perpall has made it clear that the company needs to be focused on Black-owned companies. We have a problem in that Black people dont have opportunities in construction, he said.

In June, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson appointed Perpall and Richard Fisher, former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, to lead the COVID Economic Recovery Task Force, a public-private partnership to advance short-term recovery and drive long-term economic growth in Dallas.

Our work at the recovery task force focuses almost exclusively on small businesses of color, Perpall said. People who can least afford to carry the burden for this COVID-19 shutdown and the economic catastrophe that has come from it have been asked to carry the biggest burden.

Having grown up in an inner-city environment [in Nassau] with working-class parents struggling to get six of us educated, it would be an indictment to not throw the ladder back to communities like the ones where we came from.

Perpall followed his older and now-deceased brother, Randy, here in 1993 to play basketball and study architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington.

By the time Fred was 23, he had his masters degree in architecture and would soon start a promising career at Beck.

He was running Becks eastern division through its office in Atlanta when Peter Beck, grandson of the founder, brought him back to Dallas to become the fifth CEO of the family-controlled partnership.

Perpall was all of 38.

Beck has a tradition of injecting new blood at the top while the older generation is still around to give sage guidance. Beck, who was in his late 50s, considered several contenders for his potential successor. Perpall came out the winner because hed strengthened his leadership skills, successfully completing Harvard Business Schools advanced management program.

Fred emerged from being a really good architect to being an excellent business leader, said Beck, who is 65. So I made the decision to select him.

People have commented to Beck that he was a trailblazer in choosing a Black successor. I kinda give them a blank look, he said. I didnt care if the person was a female, African-American, Asian, whatever. We have so many families relying on that persons decisions and a lot of clients as well. I had to pick the very best.

Beck admits that he got internal blowback initially but not because Perpall was Black.

A lot of our people were, Gosh, hes awfully young, Beck recalled. I sent out an email to everybody explaining my decision. I reminded them that my dad took over when he was 32, Larry [Wilson] took over when he was 39, and I became CEO when I was 35, and somehow we survived all that.

Organizations need a refresh. They need a new plug. They need renewed enthusiasm. I could tell when Fred took over that it was invigorating to the company.

Perpall is grateful that Beck continues to sit in the co-pilot seat as executive chairman but makes it clear that hes comfortable at the controls.

The long handoff worked well, Perpall said. I now have the confidence to manage in a bold way. We are bringing on an entirely new generation of partners in the company. I feel pretty secure that we have a long runway in front of us. That was the advantage of getting into the role so young.

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, who took Perpall under his wing shortly after Perpall assumed his new duties, said the city needs more Peter Becks.

Peter Beck said, You know what? Im going to take off my blinders, and I am going to go out and find the most dynamic, exciting, progressive leader that I can find, said Kirk, senior of counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Peter Beck would not have entrusted his legacy company to Fred if he was just making a cosmetic move. He entrusted it to Fred because Peter knew he could take it to a new level. And by all accounts, Freds done that.

Perpall said hes been blessed with great mentors like Beck and Kirk and wants to pay those blessings forward.

Despite the jabs I might take for how integrated of a life that I try to live, its really young African-Americans that Im trying to leave a great wake for, Perpall said. I want to show them that if they work hard in the right way, they can truly be successful and change the community from the inside. That is how I think every day.

Perpall is a cigar-smoking guys guy but a family man who puts his wife, Abi, and their two teenage daughters above all else.

Fred met Abi (short for Abigail) at a party for college students whod come home to Nassau for Christmas break. She was going to dental school at the University of Oklahoma. He was in his second year at UTA. They became teenage sweethearts and married 18 years ago as of last week.

When the family moved back to Dallas, Abi put her dental practice on hold to focus on raising their daughters, who are now 14 and 16.

They are a faith-driven family. Freds dad was a catechist in the Episcopal Church. He and Randy served at the altar from elementary through high school. Abis parents were both ordained ministers. Her father founded nine churches in the Bahamas for the Church of Christ. So faith is a big part of our life, Perpall said.

He considers Bishop T.D. Jakes, founder of the Potters House megachurch, his spiritual adviser, but he and Abi want their family to be active at a church close to home. They walk to Highland Park United Methodist Church, where they attend the churchs more casual Cornerstone service.

He said he was caught off guard when his daughters became so passionate about the killing of George Floyd. I wasnt prepared for my kids tackling these adult issues, he said. Theyre 14 and 16. But you know what? A lot of the Freedom Riders were 14 and 16.

Perpall took up golf when basketball left him with chronic back pain.

Today hes a member of the United States Golf Associations executive committee and has an enviable handicap of 6. Although for betting purposes, Id like it to be a little higher, he said.

Because of what I do, many of my friends and colleagues are members of the Dallas Country Club. I like to say Im a super-member. Im there all the time. I feel very comfortable there.

Perpall also plays at Trinity Forest with affluent business peers, most of whom are white. But he also points out that one of his oldest friends is Ray Schufford, a Black barber in Oak Cliff and a chaplain for Dallas County Fire Rescue.

I love that I can be hanging out one minute with [Trinity Forest course owner] Jonas Woods and [sports magnate] Tom Dundon, and the next minute Im with Ray in the barber shop, Perpall said. I truly love that.

Perpall and Schufford bonded immediately when they met at a pick-up basketball game when Perpall was in college and Schufford had just graduated from the University of North Texas. Perpall pledged Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest Greek-letter Black college fraternity, so that they could be fraternity brothers.

Schuffords family owned a barbershop in Oak Cliff, and Perpall always came to have his hair cut with or without money.

Perpall is the same guy he was nearly 30 years ago, Schufford said. Its been great to see this young, driven guy become older and seasoned who is still all about helping the community and helping people.

Hes never been a person who went around and bragged about what he was doing or says what hes going to do. He just goes out and does it.

There is one marked difference, Schufford said: He dresses a lot better. He had a lot of rundown shoes back in the day. Hes pretty sharp now.

Dallas entrepreneur Dennis Cail, who is Black and one of Perpalls closest friends, said anyone who thinks Perpall has abandoned his roots is oblivious.

Theres nothing sellout about Fred. Hes so focused on being inclusive and promoting not just his Black friends but Black people in general, said Cail, co-founder of the tech startup Zirtue. He is conscious that when he walks into a room as Fred Perpall, theres a lot of privilege that comes along with that. Hes included in a lot of different things that most Black folks dont have access to.

He wants to push change once hes inside these groups and organizations. If he looks around and sees a sea of white, he thinks, Wait a minute, Im the only Black person here. Thats a problem. Hes constantly doing the math and trying to figure out how to right-size it. That much I do know for certain.

Perpall has been encouraged to run for political office state or federal which brings up his political identification.

Im a registered Independent, but I would describe myself as a raging centrist, Perpall said. I have fiscal proclivities that lean Republican, and I have social proclivities that lean Democratic. If I were to run for office, I dont know what I would run as.

For the time being, Perpall will stick to tackling issues through private enterprise.

Capitalism has a much better chance at changing outcomes in peoples lives than government because it gives people the opportunity to express their talents, be productive and to earn value for people they love. There is dignity in that.

He dismisses the contention that Dallas minority talent pool is too limited.

There are many like me. They just dont happen to sit atop this venerable, big company, he said. You have plenty of people of color who are equally as talented or more talented who can also hold their own in any room as well. For me, thats what makes Dallas feel like home. We just havent been as connected as we need to be.

Its wonderful that companies like his are mining young Black and brown rock stars for their next generation of leaders, he said. But its not enough to hire the top 10% and say, OK, weve done our job. We need to focus our resources on these communities so that the other 90% of kids have more opportunities, more options and more chances at success, Perpall said.

While there is plenty of room for improvement when it comes to racial inequality in Dallas, Perpall said it would be disingenuous to overlook the progress thats been made and the trajectory that recent events have created.

The winds are changing. The notion of being inclusive and working for equitable outcomes is as palatable and as real as its ever been, he said. The Greeks had words for time and timing. Chronos was the measurement of time and kairos was timing. Sometimes the time might be right, but the timing is off. Were at a moment when we have both time and timing on our side.

I tell my friends across the country, I dont think theres a better place in the United States to be Black right now than to be Black in Dallas. I truly believe that.

Title: CEO, The Beck Group

Age: 45

Resides: Highland Park

Born: Nassau, Bahamas

Naturalized U.S. citizen: 2009

Education: Two-year degree in architecture, College of the Bahamas, 1993; bachelors degree in architecture, University of Texas at Arlington, 1996; masters in architecture, UTA, 1998; Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School, 2012

Personal: Married to Abi for 18 years; their daughters are 16 and 14.

Headquarters: Dallas

Founded: 1912 in Houston by Henry C. Beck Sr. He moved the company to Dallas in 1924 as a requirement for building the Cotton Exchange Building.

Ownership: Family-controlled partnership

Offices: Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Atlanta, Denver and Tampa, Fla., Mexico City and Monterrey

Projected 2020 revenue: $1.45 billion, which includes the total value of construction projects, design revenue and management fees

Employees: 1,400

Notable recent local project: Hospitality conference center for American Airlines

SOURCE: Fred Perpall

Read the whole series

Part 1: Two Black leaders are shaping the Dallas business communitys response to dual pandemics.

Part 2: Many local business leaders say theyre committed to inclusion and diversity. But will it last?

Part 3: John Olajide, CEO of Axxess Technology Solutions Inc., wants to make getting medical care at home as easy as ordering a ride share.

Today: Fred Perpall, CEO of the Beck Group, gives his unvarnished take on what its like to be a Black CEO of a $1.45 billion company in Dallas.

See the rest here:

Fred Perpall, CEO of The Beck Group, says Blacks and whites need to be more inclusive - The Dallas Morning News

Thousands of college students have returned to local universities for the fall semester, despite decisions by college administrators to transition to online learning due to the risks of COVID-19.

At San Diego State University, an estimated 2,500 students now occupy campus housing. While administrators have capped the number of students to each unit to just two and closed common areas, the potential for an outbreak is undoubtedly present.

Its like unwritten that there is going to be an outbreak, said Senior Brenden Tuccinardi who is also the Editor in Chief of San Diego States student-run paper, The Daily Aztec. Its kind of like a waiting game. Just last weekend there were people out partying and so many were not wearing masks. Thats the reality that a lot of universities are facing.

And while Tuccinardi says the vast majority of students on campus are wearing masks and following health guidelines, he suspects that there were other factors at play in making the decision to have students live on campus despite the move to online courses.

Giving students the freedom to decide on their own, well, that is not necessarily what adults should do with 19-20 year olds. I wouldnt say its purely money making, but I definitely think it factored into this decision, which I think is just a reality of higher education at this point.

Regardless of the reason, one thing is true; universities as well as all educational institutions will face severe budget shortfalls due to the pandemic.

Students that NBC 7 spoke to agree.

Its weird, said one sophomore who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Why are students living in the dorms when all of the classes are online?

Honestly, I think money has something to do with it, I know student housing generates a lot of revenue.

But SDSUs Associate Vice President for Business Operations, Erik Hansen, says money has nothing to do with it.

Our student housing is not for profit, Hansen told NBC 7. Its a misnomer that people think housing is a money generating entity. Its not.

Instead, says Hansen, revenues from housing pays for utilities, student services, and salaries for staff to run and maintain the dorms.

Last fiscal year, Hansen said SDSU collected $57 million from student housing. Now theyve predicted a $47 million loss in student housing revenue due to the pandemic.

Student housing serves other purposes. Namely, administrators say students who live on campus are more likely to stay focused on their studies.

Randy Timm is the Assistant Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Students at SDSU.

This is so students can stay on track. To finish their degree on time.

Added Timm, There are some key student developmental issues taking place at this point in life and one of them is independence. Students want independence.

Timm says in preparation for the new school year, administrators sent students training videos on how to follow social distancing guidelines and the importance of wearing face masks. Housing staff is also tasked with educating others on the importance of following the health guidelines.

Timm says that if students dont follow the policies, students could potentially face expulsion.

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Could On-Campus Housing At Local Universities Lead To COVID-19 Outbreaks? - NBC San Diego

Written by Udit Misra, Edited by Explained Desk | New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2020 7:44:57 amMigrant labourers return to New Delhi from parts of Uttar Pradesh on August 10, 2020. In large numbers, workers had left the city due to the Covid-19 lockdown. (Express Photo: Praveen Khanna)

Monday is a crucial day for the Indian economy. The National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) will come out with the GDP estimates for the first quarter (April, May, June) of the current financial year.Observers of the Indian economy keenly await the NSO data because it will provide the first benchmark of the state of the Indian economy after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted it and forced the country into widespread and repeated lockdowns.

What do we know about the current state of economy?

The past week provided several key developments that provide the context to the GDP numbers.

RBI Annual Report: The first thing to note is that the RBIs annual year is different from the regular financial year. For Indias central bank, the annual report of 2019-20 pertains to the period between July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

This otherwise perfunctory fact is relevant this year because RBIs year included the first quarter (April, May June) of the current financial year. This is the quarter that saw the maximum disruption of economic activity and as such everyone wanted to know what RBI made of this period.

The RBI, however, refrained from providing a clear number for GDP growth or contraction but it did state that an assessment of aggregate demand during the year so far suggests that the shock to consumption is severe, and it will take quite some time to mend and regain the pre-COVID-19 momentum.

GST council meeting: Equally ominous were the words of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who, while talking to the Chief Ministers of other non-BJP ruled states, suggested reverting to the pre-GST regime. Thackeray was responding to a GST Council meeting where the Union government expressed its inability to pay the compensation amount roughly Rs 2.35 lakh crore that was due to the states under the GST regime.

This suggestion could have wide-ranging ramifications for the economy if it is pursued by some of the biggest states in a serious manner.

As different states try to recover from the impact of Covid-19, they need money, but the current GST regime has robbed the states of the freedom to raise or lower taxes. Being asked to borrow money from the market instead of getting it from the Centre has made Thackeray question the desirability of the current GST regime. (Dont miss from Explained: Issues in GST compensation)

Export Preparedness Index: The index launched by NITI Aayog ranked Indian states and Union Territories in the context of export preparedness in terms of policy environment, infrastructure etc.

The top performers were mostly coastal states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha but there was one landlocked state that managed to sneak into the top 5 list and it was Rajasthan.

At the other end of the spectrum were mostly landlocked and Himalayan states such as Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar and Assam. But West Bengal stood out for being ranked 22 out of the 36 states and UTs despite being a big coastal state.

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A crucial takeaway from this report was the need for states to work on their unique strategy for boosting exports. This again ties in with Thackerays demand to have greater leeway.

McKinsey employment report: The McKinsey Global Institutes report on Indias employment needs stated that India will have to create at least 90 million non-farm jobs over the next decade 145 million at the upper end and for which it would have to grow at 8 to 8.5 per cent every year (see chart below). This provides an understanding of how job creation may be affected because of GDP contraction or slow growth in the coming years.

Review of ease-of-doing-business rankings: On August 27, the World Bank issued a statement saying that it has ordered a systematic review and internal audit of its data and methodology used for compiling the Ease of Doing Business rankings that were published in 2017 and 2019.

The move is in response to several allegations that data was tweaked for political reasons and to favour some countries. It is important to note that Indias ranking improved from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019.

All of the past weeks concerns from plummeting domestic consumption to shrinking exports to massive unemployment to question marks on Indias Ease of Doing Business rankings and GST regime provide a useful bridge to the big event in the coming week.

What can one expect from the GDP data?

The first quarter saw the strictest lockdowns across the country and chances are it will see the sharpest fall in economic activity in a long while.

The composition of growth (or de-growth) in other words, which sector got hit the most will set the tone for the rest of the year. The amount and nature of the damage will point to the type and magnitude of fiscal and monetary policy efforts required to revive the Indian economy.

Most analysts expect the economy to contract sharply. But the expected magnitude of contraction differs sometimes substantially over specific sectors of the economy.

For instance, State Bank of Indias Saumya Kanti Ghosh expects the GDP contraction to be 16%, while Madan Sabnavis of CARE Ratings expects it to be around 20% and Aditi Nayar of ICRA Ltd expect an even bigger contraction of 25%.

Beyond the variation in headline growth numbers, if one compares specific sectors (Charts 2 and 3); one can find two broad trends:

How difficult is it to make these estimates and what is their significance?

It is true that GDP projections over the past year or so have increasingly shortened shelf life. For instance, last year in July, when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the full-year Budget, she pencilled in an 8% real GDP growth. But with each passing month, the projections continued to be scaled back as the underlying economy decelerated faster than expected. Eventually, India ended the year with just 4%.

In this financial year, making these estimates and projections is even more difficult because Covids spread in India has been much worse than the governments expectation. In the early days, the government had expected that India would have no new Covid cases after May 16. In reality, India not only added around 5,000 new cases on May 16 but also overhauled Chinas tally of over 80,000 cases.

As India has tried to open up for work, Covid cases have surged. Last week, India registered the highest single-day count of new Covid cases anywhere in the world since the start of the pandemic. It is now the third-most afflicted country on the planet. What is most worrisome is that the rate of spread of Covid in Indias rural areas is almost twice the rate of spread in urban areas.

All of this points to uncertainty about the shape of economic recovery. In this context, Mondays data would provide the first benchmark around which future analysis can happen.

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Although China may lack power in the global arena amid the COVID-19 pandemic, its economic growth is quickly getting back on track.

The Xi Jinping regimes determination to revive Chinas economic expansion to the height of the post-Lehman collapse the unprecedented financial crisis in September 2008 is achingly clear. Beijings sweeping authoritarian rule over Hong Kong through its new national security law for the semi-autonomous region is part of the scheme.

Once and for all, Japan needs to break free from the illusion of thenewera ofChina-Japan relations.

The graph indicates data for manufacturing productivity and trade in China after March 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak that began in Wuhan had abated in China and spread to other regions of the world. It also shows shifts in the SSE Index (Shanghai Stock Exchange), Shanghais main stock market index.

Chinas automobile production, which symbolizes its role as the factory of the world, is recovering with speed. The cement production trend, reflecting the countrys fixed assets investment taking up around half of Chinas GDP, is showing positive recovery in condominium building constructions.

Chinese exports remain at the same level as the previous year despite the struggling global economy amid stagnation brought about by the pandemic. Imports rose in June with strong domestic demands.

Stock prices will be discussed later, but they have soared as a result of the leverage plan with the Hong Kong market serving as a medium.

On July 16, it was announced that Chinas GDP growth bounced back for the first time in six months, expanding by 3.2% year-on-year during the three months of April to June. Because of long standing suspicion of GDP manipulation in China, the figures cannot be taken at face value. However, considering the previously mentioned production index, the data doesnt seem too off.

There are concerns. One is the increase of the potentially unemployed. Migrant workers in citieswho have gone home to rural regions amid the coronavirus pandemic are not included in the unemployment count.

Some 600 million people, more than 40% of the Chinese population, still only earn a monthly income of barely 1,000 RMB (around 15,000 JPY), Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in May. Most of these low-income people are migrant farmers.

Li also pointed out that government support for street vendors serving food such as grilled meatis an important measure to consider. Street stalls, which were once popular features of cities across China, have recently been banned. Lis remarks were criticized by the national media and his recommendations were not carried out. However, the severity of the countrys unemployment issue was unintentionally exposed.

Another concern lies in the problem of foreign currency. Substantially, Chinas currency system is based on the dollar standard, and the central governments Peoples Bank of China (PBC) issues the Chinese yuan (RMB) according to the amount of foreign currency inflow that is, the United States dollar.

When the Lehman crisis hit, China held foreign currency assets that far exceeded the dollar value of its outstanding RMB issuance. PBC used those assets as collateral to issue vast amounts of Chinese yuan and supplied them to state-owned banks. Then the banks all at once extended loans to various industries, local governments, and consumers. With sufficient financial backing at the time, Beijing launched a large-scale fiscal policy.

However, in 2015, foreign currency, on a per yuan balance basis, accounted for less than 100% of PBCs total assets. It dropped to less than 70% in 2017, a condition that has continued to the present.

As a result, the banks ability to expand financial volume in response to the coronavirus recession has been limited, and the governments own fiscal policyhas also beenextremely meager.

Lis street-stall revival proposal, mentioned earlier, was a last-resort initiative.

Capital flight has been the main cause of Chinas decline in foreign reserves. In the summer of 2015, the yuan was devalued against the U.S. dollar. This was followed by a downturn in the real estate market. Finally, in the summer of 2018, the U.S.-China trade war broke out.

The Xi administration tried to stop capital flight by cracking down on the illegal gains by Chinese Communist Party leaders. Vast amounts of wealth, which were illegally made by senior party members and their families, were converted to foreigncurrenciesand smuggled out of China. Hong Kong was the financial hub for their escape.

The new security law deprives Hong Kong of political freedom, as well as the right to freedom of expression. It will strengthen surveillance in order to block the route for capital flight. But, China says, profit-making freedom in the Hong Kong market will remain as is.

This is typical totalitarianism. The dictatorial government will leech off the avarice of the capitalist economy, and totalitarianism will take over Hong Kong.

At the end of June, Chinese companies accounted for 78% of the Hong Kong stock market capitalization, as mainland investors invested RMB in Hong Kong-based Chinese corporate stocks and boosted the market rate. This allowed for huge trading profits. Meanwhile, Shanghai shares will likely see a rise as a result of cash flowing back from Hong Kong to the Shanghai stock market.

This is how the Xi administration will try to attract foreign capital to mainland China and Hong Kong, and is the very formula for Chinas economic expansion strategy funded by foreign currency.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the U.S.-China conflict over the Xi administrations repression of Hong Kong is an issue of democracy vs. authoritarianism. Against it, he called for unity in the Western world, including Japan.

The threat of Chinese territorial expansionism is also obvious, with the frequent incursions by Chinese vessels in waters around Japan, even during the pandemic.

If Japanese politics is influenced by greed, as evidenced in the expectations that money can be made just as before in China and Hong Kong in the growing post-coronavirus market, Japan will be completely devoured.

(Find access to the original column in Japanese here.)

Author: Hideo Tamura, member, The Sankei Shimbun editorial board

Hideo Tamura is a senior staff writer and a special commentary writer for the Sankei Shimbun.

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Beware the Chinese Economy Recovery Trap - JAPAN Forward

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Voters in Clinton, Killingworth, and northern Westbrook will find three choices when voting for District 35 state representative In Novermber: Democrat Christine Goupil, Green Party candidate John May, and Republican John Hall III.

District 35 serves Clinton, Killingworth, and northern Westbrook and for the last six years been represented by Republican Jesse MacLachlan. In May, MacLachlan was unanimously endorsed by his party for a fourth term, however he unexpectedly dropped out last month to focus on his new business.

In MacLachlans stead, the Republican vacancy committee nominated Hall, a selectman from Westbrook, to take MacLachlans spot on the ballot.

In addition to Hall, the other candidates in the race include Goupil, Clintons last first selectmen and current Town Council member, as well as May, who is a member of Clintons Economic Development Commission.

Whoever wins the election will have a lot on their plate as a member of the state legislature. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its effects is sure to spur efforts to provide some kind of relief to towns and businesses. Connecticuts budget and taxes are an annual worry that must be confronted as well as bills aimed at alleviating social injustices and health concerns.

Due to the pandemic, this year absentee ballots can be used by every eligible voter in the state. Town clerks and registrars will use social distancing practices to make in-person voting as safe as possible. Election Day is Nov. 3.

The Candidates

John Hall III

Hall has a long history of experience in municipal government. Hall has been a selectman in Westbrook for more than 10 years and before that was a member of the towns Zoning Board of Appeals for 25 years.

Ive always had an interest in the legislature, Hall said.

Besides his work as a member of the Westbrook Board of Selectmen, Hall is the president of the Middlesex County Farm Bureau Board of Directors. Hall is the owner of Maple Breeze Farm, which has been in his family for hundreds of years and said he has experience working with the legislature on bills that pertain to agricultural issues.

I know most of our reps pretty well. Ive been involved in that aspect of our legislature at times, Hall said.

As for issues hed like to tackle upon taking office, Hall said he was worried about people leaving Connecticut due to high taxes, unfunded mandates to the towns, and the future effects that COVID-19 might have on towns. Hall described himself as a fiscal conservative who has experience helping pass conservative budgets in Westbrook.

Additionally, Hall listed taking care of the environment as an issue of concern.

I farm naturally, so the environment is big concern for me, said Hall.

To learn more about him and his campaign, Hall directed people to his Facebook page John Hall 2020.

Christine Goupil

Goupil referred to a press release from her campaign for information on her key issues. The release states fighting tax increases, investing in transportation infrastructure, and standing up against discrimination are some of the issues Goupil will be interested in.

The release states in part As the last first selectman of the Town of Clinton I learned through experience that a truly resilient and sustainable Connecticut needs to focus on progress in three key areas our economy, equity, and the environment.

Besides serving on the Town Council, Goupil is also a member of the Connecticut River Area Health District Board and Central Regional Tourism District Board.

A major area of concern for Goupil is healthcare.

I support transitioning to universal healthcare. Its become abundantly clear that healthcare cannot be tied to employment. When economies are bad, people lose jobsbut they should not lose their healthcare. To date, there are hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents without insurance due to Covid-19 layoffs, the release states in part.

Goupils release also addresses social issues.

I support tackling gender inequity and empower women and girls freedom, representation, and compensation equity. These last few years have seen a constant attack on womens rights at the federal level. As a result, state-level protections become more important than ever, the release states.

More information on Goupils platform can be found on her Facebook page Christine Goupil 2020 and her website christinegoupil.com.

John May

On Aug. 26, the Green Party officially entered the race when it nominated John May of Clinton to be its representative on the ballot. May was a high school teacher for many years before starting his current job as a financial advisor. May is a member of Clintons Economic Development Commission as well as a member of the Conservation Committee.

May said that as a former political science major, hes always been interested in politics and as a member outside of the traditional Democrat and Republican power structure May said he is used to working with people from all sides.

I see a coalition of natural Greens, Democrats, and Republicans working together. I like listening to people and new ideas, May said.

May said he sees a disconnect between the two major parties and believed his candidacy can fill that void since he has no party to which he has to be beholden.

One major issue on which May wants to work includes bringing ranked-choice voting to Connecticut. Ranked-choice voting is a system in which voters are able to rank their preferred candidates in order from favorite to least favorite. May explained that if no candidates in a race win more than 50 percent of first-place votes, the last place candidate is eliminated from the race, but the candidates still in the race would pick up additional votes based on how they were ranked on ballots cast by people on which they were not the first choice.

Proponents argue that in theory, ranked choice voting would then reduces the chances of an unpopular candidate winning an election and captures the opinion of a larger portion of the public.

May also said he wants to focus on educational issues, and due to the aftershocks of Tropical Storm Isaias he wants to look into Eversources response to the storm.

I want to make sure we have a better electrical system on the shoreline, May said.

May said at press time he is working on a Facebook page for his campaign that should be ready soon.

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35th District Race Brings Three Options to Clinton, Killingworth, and Westbrook - Zip06.com

Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes reflects on this weeks Democratic National Convention and discusses what to expect from next weeks Republican National Convention

At this weeks Republican National Convention (RNC), the GOP has the opportunity to correct the narrative and push back on the absurdities Americans heard at last weeks Democratic National Convention (DNC).

By staying on message, the GOPcan find success in November.

DEMOCRATS' 2020 AGENDA CARRIED OUT BY BIDEN-HARRIS WOULD HURT WORKING PEOPLE: EX-MCDONALDS USA CEO RENSI

The GOP would do well to drive home three key points.

First, contrary to what Democrats would lead you to believe, America is not a fundamentally flawed country.

Second, economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic comes from getting businesses back on track and Americans back to work, not government stimulus.

Third, that left-wing calls for systemic overhaul are blatant power grabs that fly in the face of everything that has made America a success.

Throughout the convention, Republicans must affirm what most Americans have always believed: that the United States is founded on the timeless principles of liberty and self-government, and that all of us are created equal.

This is not to say that America is without faults-- far from that-- but that as a nation we always strive to do better.

Enough of the self-hating narrative we saw at last weeks DNC. America is and continues to be the land of opportunity for all. As usual, the Republicans will be the ones to remind us of this. They are not wrong.

Under President Obama, the economic recovery amounted to a lackluster two percent GDP growth, which was dubbed the new normal.

DNC PLATFORM SHOULD WAKE UP TRUMP-WARY SUBURBANITES HERE ARE 7 REASONS WHY

Talking heads have revived this term in the past few months in the middleof the coronavirus pandemic that has put millions out of work and shuttered thousands of businesses nationwide, many of which may never reopen. With the federal deficit approaching three trillion dollars, future stimulusbills are a frightening liability for the nations long-term fiscal outlook.

The GOP knows that our only option is to get the American economy back up and running safely and responsibly as we inch closer to a vaccine.

Prior to the pandemic, President Trump and the GOPs pro-growth agenda of tax cuts and deregulation helped spur the US economy to record heights.

The path towardeconomic recovery requires a hands-off approach. This is in stark contrast to what Democrats have promised to do.

Where Democrats want to kill jobs by banning fossil fuels, the GOP understands that low emission natural gas is what has helped drive the American economy.

Where Democrats want to ban private insurance and burden small businesses with "Medicare-for-all," the GOP wants to give employers and employees health care freedom by way of expanded Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and health plan portability.

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The GOP understands that the best way to move the economy forward is to let the private sector flourish.

Economic freedom should be a core tenet of this weeks RNC.

Economically, the system doesnt need and cannot afford a total overhaul, especially in the form of the lefts "Medicare-for-all" or the Green New Deal. These proposals would cripple the economy and inhibit innovation, while at the same time granting the federal government more power.

Our nations history clearly shows that power corrupts.

Americas strengths come not from our government or our politicians, it comes from our shared values of free enterprise, individual liberty and freedom.

Now more than ever, Democrats are proposing new ways to strip Americans rights. Whether it is to abolish the Electoral College, pack the Supreme Court, or institute risky widespread mail-in voting, the GOP will rightly point out that these are power grabs under the guise of ending systemic injustice.

For all the talk from Joe Biden about returningto normalcy, his party has shown no qualms toward upending Americas established democratic norms.

If the GOP wants to win this November, they will promise to make sure everyday Americans, not bureaucrats or Congress, have the agency to make their own decisions. However, it is up to the American voter to hold them accountable to govern as they campaign.

If they remain on message and control the narrative, America will emerge from this year stronger than before.

In calling the Democrats out for what they are, Republicans will also make the case for why President Trump deserves another four years in Washington.

Republicans are lucky to have the last word at this year's RNC.

Adam Brandon is the President of FreedomWorks.

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At RNC, here's what Trump, Republicans have to say our country and economy if they want to win - Fox Business

It was his YouTube channel Wootube (of course!) that brought him to the public eye in 2012. The site quickly amassed millions of views; to date almost 60 million people have seen his work. The high school teachers straightforward, personable, real-world approach and genuine enthusiasm is clearly infectious.

"I love mathematics," he declares at the beginning of his TED Talk. "It's exactly the thing to say at a party if you want to spend the next couple of hours sipping your drink alone in the least cool corner of the room."

The idea of filming classes came to him when a student was diagnosed with cancer. I remembered struggling through mathematics when I was his age and thought the camera in my pocket has a pretty decent resolution, maybe it would be more useful than sending home work and crossing my fingers, Woo says. It seemed I was scratching an itch that I didnt even know existed. People around the country and indeed around the world mathematics is a universal language after all had been tuning in.

In 2018, Woo was nominated as Australian of the Year and then listed as one of the top 10 teachers in the world by the Global Teacher Prize. Now an education ambassador for Sydney University, he teaches maths and technology at Cherrybrook High School and is a policy adviser for the New South Wales Education Department.

Growing up with parents who migrated to Australia from Malaysia "with little more than the shirts on their backs", Woo says his approach to money is generally frugal. When I go to the shops, I still have that mentality of tightening my belt and not being a big spender, he says. I still have that poor uni student mindset.

Kinn Niyom's pad Thai with chicken and tom yum soup.Credit:Janie Barrett

Family background can influence behaviours in Teenage Boss. The kids show varying degrees of responsibility; some are remarkably astute and insightful, others not so much. A classic area for mishaps involves food under catering to the familys needs or going hard on treats.

One boy loved pickles ... he just bought jar after jar of pickles. He didnt realise this is not a food group, you cannot live on pickles alone, Woo says. "He soon realised being boss doesnt just mean 'I get to call the shots', it means people will not necessarily be happy with me.

For them to realise that that fiscal power comes with not only responsibility but also accountability, its a real eye-opener.

One family spends thousands a month on coffee the equivalent of another familys entire budget for the month. Again and again, we see the teenagers rethinking things they thought they knew. Its something teachers know: the hypercorrection effect, whereby you think you know something but are confronted with the fact you are wrong and how much you have to reassess it.

Receipt for lunch with Eddie Woo.

So, when is the right time to talk to children about finances? Its never too soon, Woo says, to help them appreciate the cost of things - not just the price of things but the full cost in terms of money and time and other options being sacrificed. Most families wait far too long and includes himself in that: I waited until I moved out!

Extensive online experience meant Woo was ideally positioned to deal with remote learning this year. At a meeting in March, his principal addressed staff about the pandemic-driven move to online learning. "There are 135 teachers at my school and I just suddenly felt that feeling, you know, when all these eyes are looking at you.

I wonder if COVID-19 means our kids are growing up more quickly. The kind of news they interact with is completely different today, he says. His nine-year-old knows about the Black Lives Matter movement, for example, while he knew nothing of the civil rights movement at that age. He is concerned that very young children have to grapple with hugely challenging issues but aren't equipped to deal with them. "One thing we cant forget is their emotional needs and their emotional maturity. I dont think they are growing up any quicker than I did their emotional intelligence hasnt changed."

Today Woo is in relative freedom in Sydney, able to teach face-to-face again. Despite his online and TV success, he is passionate about working in schools. The short answer is I love being in the classroom, my intent is to stay there as a long as possible. Its what animates me and gives me energy.

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When explaining why mathematics matters, Woo says it is an incredibly powerful tool - and it's everywhere. A project he worked on recently with the Sydney Opera House looked at the role of maths in Jorn Utzon's design of those magnificent, instantly recognisable sails.

Asked to provide an example of maths in the environment, he cites the most timely of all: viruses, which are made up of simple mathematical shapes. Picture a cube but in place of squares, imagine a series of 20 triangles. There are tens of thousands of viruses across the world that are made in this very simple shape, called an icosahedral.

Were living and breathing these pieces of geometry that have ground our world to a halt, Woo says. Geometry can be a thing of great beauty in the natural world but its also something that can create great danger.

Teenage Boss screens at 6.30pm Mondays from August 31 on ABC ME and ABC iview. Eddie Woos Magical Maths 2 is published in September.

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Kinn Niyom Thai, shop 7, Castle Tower Shopping Centre, Castle Hill; (02) 9899 5669

Sun-Wed 11.30am-2.45pm; 5pm-9:30pm; Thurs-Sat 11.30am-2:45pm; 5pm-9:45pm

Kerrie is a senior culture writer at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald

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When we went to remote learning I could feel every teacher's eyes on me - Sydney Morning Herald

Former RBI Governor D. Subbarao made a strong case for setting up a bad bank saying it is not just necessary but unavoidable in the present circumstances when NPAs are likely to balloon and much of the resolution will have to take place outside the IBC framework.

Even the Economic Survey 2017 had proposed this idea, suggesting the creation of a bad bank called Public Sector Asset Rehabilitation Agency (PARA) to help tide over the problem of stressed assets.

The standard advantage of a bad bank is that the entity taking a decision on the sale price is different from the entity accepting that price. Conflict of interest and corruption are avoided, and importantly, are seen to be avoided.

There are some successful models of bad banks with carefully designed carrots and sticks. Danaharta of Malaysia, for example, is a good model to study in designing our own bad bank, Subbarao said in an interview to PTI.

The former RBI Governor noted that with the economy contracting by at least five per cent this fiscal year, non-performing assets (NPAs) will balloon.

Also, according to RBI's Financial Stability Report, gross NPAs of banks may rise to 12.5 per cent by March 2021 under baseline scenario, from 8.5 per cent in March 2020.

"The bankruptcy framework is already overloaded and it simply will be unable to deal with this huge additional burden. It is important, therefore, indeed more than ever before, that much of the resolution takes place outside the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) framework," he said.

Before COVID-19 crisis hit India, the economy was already decelerating, real gross domestic product (GDP) growth had moderated from 7.0 per cent in 2017-18 to 6.1 per cent in 2018-19 and 4.2 per cent in 2019-20.

The growth projections for the current year by various global and domestic agencies indicate a sharp contraction of Indian economy ranging from (-)3.2 per cent to (-)9.5 per cent.

Earlier on, Subbarao said he had some reservations about a bad bank but, in view of recent experience, he is veering towards the idea of it.

"First, I believed the bankruptcy framework will put resolution on track and help clean up the system," he said, adding that in hindsight that faith seems misplaced.

Subbarao admitted that he also had concerns about the capital structure of the bank.

"Where will the funding come from? If capital has to come from the public sector banks (PSBs), the problems that bogged down PSB chiefs from taking bold decisions fear of retribution will persist.

"If it's got to come from the private sector, there will be issues of crony capitalism. If it's got to be from the government, the question is, wouldn't the government be better off using that money to capitalise individual banks which, at any rate in theory, looks more efficient?," he added.

Replying to a question on RBI's inflation targeting framework, the former RBI Governor said the point remains that the inflation targeting framework has not been fully tested.

"There has been no extraordinary circumstance to challenge the efficacy of the inflation targeting framework... Globally, there have been no hiccups on the financial stability front up until the corona crisis hit us six months ago," he said.

Subbarao pointed out that sure, the coronavirus crisis has turned our world upside down and caused a host of problems, but not much on the inflation front.

Noting that there have been no inflation pressures either from domestic or external forces, he said private demand for credit has been low because of, among other things, the NPA problem; so, not much demand push inflation.

The former RBI Governor, however, wondered if the inflation targeting framework will allow the MPC the flexibility and freedom to deal with an unusual situation such as stagflation or volatile capital flows.

"The inflation targeting framework is up for review next year and I hope the 'flexible' inflation targeting framework will be allowed further flexibility to deal with unusual economic situations,' he observed.

On consumer price index (CPI) inflation staying outside the mandated 2-6 per cent target for some months, Subbarao said he does not see that as a failure on the part of the MPC.

"We are in a very unusual economic situation, hit simultaneously by a demand slump and supply disruptions," he said adding that and there is a great deal of uncertainty from outside the financial system.

Stating that the MPC had to make a judgement call in this very unusual situation, he said its decision to keep rates unchanged at its meeting earlier this month was in fact informed by the inflation number.

"Contrary to what you imply, in its statement, the MPC has emphasised that it remains conscious of the inflation situation," he said.

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Bad bank not only necessary but unavoidable in present situation: Subbarao - THE WEEK

GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Happy Monday!

MORSE DENIES ALLEGATIONS OF INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse won't drop out of his Democratic primary race against House Ways and Means chair Richard Neal, following allegations from college Democrats that that he misused his power for romantic or sexual gain.

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Morse denied the allegations in a statement released on Sunday night. The mayor also formally released any endorsers who no longer want to support him.

"I have never used my position of power as Mayor and UMass lecturer for romantic or sexual gain, or to take advantage of students," Morse said. "Too often, elections aren't about issues and ideas; they're about personal destruction."

Last week, three groups of college Democrats disinvited Morse from all future events alleging that he showed a pattern of using his platform and taking advantage of his position of power for romantic or sexual gain, specifically toward young students. The letter was first reported by the Massachusetts Daily Collegian on Friday.

In the days that followed, some Morse supporters revoked their support, while others questioned the allegations against him. Two Holyoke City Councilors called on the mayor to resign, while another said he should be put on paid leave. College Democrats at Morse's alma mater, Brown University, said they would stop publicizing events with him.

The University of Massachusetts, where Morse was a lecturer from 2014 to 2019, announced it would launch a full review into the allegations. The university policy states faculty are prohibited from having romantic or sexual relationships with students they supervise.

In his statement, Morse said he and other members of the queer community are outraged by the use of "anti-gay stereotypes" regarding the allegations against him.

"To the many members of the queer community that have reached out to me in recent days, it's clear that many of you feel that these recent events, and the language used in response, aren't just an attack on me, but on all of us. You're genuinely outraged, as I am, by the invocation of age-old anti-gay stereotypes," Morse said. "I want my freedom, and I want you to have yours, too."

The College Democrats of Massachusetts pushed back, saying any suggestion their decision to send the letter had to do with Morse's sexuality was "untrue, disingenuous and harmful."

Justice Democrats, a progressive group backing Morse that is known for supporting other leftwing primary challengers, like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has been silent. The group has not commented on the situation or posted on its otherwise active Twitter account since the story broke Friday, though the group is still airing television ads for Morse. Fight Corporate Monopolies, which is running attack ads against Neal, told POLITICO it would continue its efforts, but emphasized it hasn't endorsed Morse.

Morse and Neal will debate for the first time Aug. 17, a week from today.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: BELAFONTE ENDORSES MARKEY Singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte is endorsing Sen. Ed Markey for reelection today.

Belafonte is celebrated for bringing Caribbean musical styles to an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte was an early supporter of the American Civil Rights movement and was close with the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Like millions of Americans, I'm aware of how desperate these times are for us all politically. That's why I'm supporting Ed Markey," Belafonte says in an endorsement video. "His political courage, his moral strength and his insight is just what we need in our political arena."

Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: [emailprotected]

TODAY Candidate for congress Jake Auchincloss talks with Boston Globe editorial page editor Bina Venkataraman about the paper's decision to endorse him.

Massachusetts reports 14 new coronavirus deaths, 286 cases on Sunday as US tops 5 million cases, by Benjamin Kail, MassLive.com: Massachusetts health officials announced another 14 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday, bringing the statewide tally to 8,514. Officials also reported another 286 new confirmed cases of the virus, totaling at least 112,459 across the commonwealth since the pandemic began.

Baker pauses reopening; cracks down on gatherings, by Sarah Betancourt, CommonWealth Magazine: Gov. Charlie Baker is hitting the pause button on the states reopening efforts and ramping up enforcement of coronavirus prevention measures in an effort to limit community transmissions. At a State House press conference on Friday, Baker said step two of Phase 3 of reopening is indefinitely on hold due to the rise in new coronavirus cases. This means live music venues and bars wont be opening any time soon.

Thats not how you teach kids how to read: What Charlie Baker said about remote-only school, by Dialynn Dwyer, Boston.com: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker expressed his concerns Friday about the impact of remote-only instruction on young students, particularly those learning to read. The comments were made during the governors press conference to provide updates on the coronavirus outbreak and followed his announcement that he would slow measures in the states reopening out of concern over an uptick in cases seen recently.

2 years on, data collection not measuring up to criminal justice reform bill goals, by Danny Jin and Jack Lyons, The Berkshire Eagle: Two years after Massachusetts passed a bill to reform its criminal justice system, it has yet to meet the data-collection goals outlined in that bill. Data collection remains inconsistent across criminal justice agencies, according to a June report.

Parents turning to pandemic pods and microschools, by Shira Schoenberg, CommonWealth Magazine: When North Andover schools closed in March, Jennifer Quadrozzis family formed a quarantine pod with three other neighborhood families. Quadrozzis seven-year-old daughter now had eight other children, ages two to nine, to play with. The kids would learn at their respective homes in the mornings, then play together in the afternoon.

Brewers await vote on distribution deal, by Christian M. Wade, CNHI News: Craft brewers and beer wholesalers are nudging lawmakers to sign off an a deal to resolve a decade-long dispute over distribution rights, warning that a delay will worsen the microbrew industrys economic situation. Last month, the sides reached an agreement to give small brewers more flexibility and backed a legislative proposal to establish what they say is a fairer process of resolving disputes.

Police say state reform bill hurting officer retention, by Elaine Thompson, Telegram & Gazette: Dozens of local police officers in Massachusetts are checking on their retirement status, looking at possibly getting out of the profession if a police reform bill, which they say will handcuff them, passes. Police Sgt. Richard P. Cipro and Officer David J. Gilbert both of whom head the two unions at the Worcester Police Department said at least 50 of the departments approximately 445 police officers and officials have contacted the citys retirement office to see if they have enough time to retire and what their benefits would be.

Lawmakers hear bill that would suspend MCAS testing for four years, by Marie Szaniszlo, Boston Herald: The states high-stakes MCAS exam would be suspended for four years due to the coronavirus pandemic under a bill before lawmakers for written testimony Monday. The Joint Committee on Education is taking written testimony on the bill, which would institute a four-year moratorium on the use of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System as a graduation requirement.

With remote learning increasingly likely, districts try to reach the most vulnerable students, by Jenna Russell, Naomi Martin and Bianca Vzquez Toness, Boston Globe: With the number of coronavirus cases climbing, and teachers unions rallying around a remote start to the school year, some Massachusetts school districts are holding out hope for a hybrid approach to reopening next month that would allow at least the most academically vulnerable students to return part-time to classrooms.

Eyes on the ground and in the sky: Dozens of police departments in Massachusetts have drones, partnerships with Amazon security company Ring, by Jackson Cote, MassLive.com: Local law enforcement agencies may be able to keep watch over their communities in more ways than one. A slew of surveillance technologies are in the hands of dozens of law enforcement agencies across Massachusetts, a new online map shows.

Many of Massachusettss biggest companies do not have a single Black board member, by Shirley Leung, Boston Globe: Change in Corporate America often begins in the board room, and by that measure, the biggest public companies in Massachusetts have a long way to go when it comes to appointing Black directors. Of the 100 largest public companies in the Commonwealth, close to two-thirds do not have a single Black board member, according to analysis by BoardProspects.

Between Mayor Walsh And Teachers Union, A Growing Gap And A Political Minefield, by Isaiah Thompson, WGBH News: With the official start of the school year just weeks away, and in the midst of a pandemic crisis whose continued magnitude and duration are unknown, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. Walsh is engaged in an increasingly public and at times acrimonious tug of war with one of the citys most influential employee unions the Boston Teachers Union.

Kennedy releases ad attacking Markey on senators home turf of Malden, by Danny McDonald, Boston Globe: More than three weeks before primary day, the Democratic contest between US Senator Edward J. Markey and Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III took a sharp turn Saturday, with the congressman releasing an online-only ad featuring a labor leader blasting Markey for hurting union workers in his hometown of Malden.

'Politics is about connecting,' by Madeline Hughes, Eagle-Tribune: Armed with a mask and hand sanitizer, Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., was fist-bumping with locals and reminding them to vote as he walked through Lawrence Friday night. He was reminding people to request ballots and vote.

State auditor endorses Jesse Mermell in race for Kennedys vacant congressional seat, by Nick Stoico, Boston Globe: Jesse Mermell, a former adviser to Governor Deval Patrick, has picked up the endorsement of State Auditor Suzanne Bump in the Democratic primary to fill US Representative Joe Kennedys congressional seat, Mermells campaign announced Sunday evening. The endorsement could give Mermell a boost in a crowded field of nine candidates for the nomination to succeed Kennedy, who is in the midst of his own primary battle against incumbent US Senator Edward Markey.

Candidates for the 4th Congressional district push toward primary, by George W. Rhodes, Sun Chronicle: Democrat Dave Cavell, whos seeking the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, hosted online trainings and digital phone banks over the weekend with a focus on assisting voters in filling out a vote by mail request, his campaign said.

Leckey rolls out new TV ad in 4th District race as ballots hit mailboxes, by Ted Nesi, WPRI: In another sign that she has become a serious contender to succeed Congressman Joe Kennedy III, Democrat Ihssane Leckey is rolling out a second TV ad on Monday that seeks to reinforce her pitch to the partys left. Leckey who entered the race more than a year ago, when Kennedy was still expected to seek re-election rather than challenge U.S. Sen. Ed Markey has vaulted into the top tier of the 4th Congressional District primary by pumping $800,000 of her own money into her campaign.

Massport slashing spending as it looks to make up $300M revenue loss under coronavirus, by Sean Philip Cotter, Boston Herald: Three hundred million dollars short. Thats how far the Massachusetts Port Authority says it would be in the red in this new fiscal year if it didnt take drastic measures cutting hundreds of millions in spending after massive revenue drops at Logan International Airport.

Pandemic shows a stark reality: For many, MBTA buses are a lifeline, by Adam Vaccaro, Boston Globe: For months, the bus system has been the MBTAs workhorse, shuttling essential workers around the region while many commuter rail and subway trains rumble nearly empty down the tracks. But within the bus network, the primary transit option in many neighborhoods, different lines tell very different stories.

Neighbor sues to block Pine Street Inn project in Jamaica Plain, by Tim Logan, Boston Globe: The Pine Street Inns biggest-ever development would provide long-term housing in Jamaica Plain for the formerly homeless. But one of the neighbors of the Washington Street site is suing to stop it, saying the project is too big, and wouldnt have enough parking.

As decision day nears, VP hopefuls rake in big money for Biden, by Elena Schneider, POLITICO: Of Bidens prospective running mates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has brought in the most money for him, totaling more than $7.7 million combined from a high-dollar event which she vocally swore off during her own campaign and a grass-roots event that drew 50,000 participants. Shes also sent multiple emails to her own small-dollar list, as well as his. On Tuesday, Warren will host another event for Biden, alongside Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), with tickets ranging from $250 to $25,000, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.

Warren and other top Democrats ask USPS watchdog to investigate practices, by Jessica Dean, Jeremy Herb and Ellie Kaufman, CNN: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other top Democrats on Friday sent a letter to the United States Postal Service inspector general asking her to investigate recent operational changes within the agency. The Democrats write that they are concerned about modifications to USPS staffing and policies recently put in place by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

Rondon gas safety bill passes U.S. Senate, by Christian M. Wade, Gloucester Daily Times: A proposal to require monitors to supervise work on natural gas systems has passed the U.S. Senate as part of a pipeline safety bill. The measure named after Leonel Rondon, the Lawrence teenager killed Sept. 13, 2018, in Merrimack Valley gas disaster, calls for other safety measures such as the instillation of pressure monitoring devices so that utility employees can quickly shut off gas flow in an emergency, among other provisions.

Herald: HURRICANE SEASON," "LET ME OUT, Globe: When a sofa cushion becomes a time clock," "Districts aim to aid at-risk students," "White House defends unilateral pandemic relief.

Candidates tout experience in three-way Dem primary in 5th Hampden District, by Dusty Christensen, Daily Hampshire Gazette: Socially distanced street corner campaigning. Masked door knocking. Zoom meetings instead of house parties and neighborhood gatherings. The COVID-19 pandemic may have made traditional political campaigning more difficult, but the three candidates for the state House seat in the 5th Hampden District have been pushing ahead as the Democratic primary approaches on Sept. 1.

Face mask order in Everett begins Monday; People can be fined up to $300 for violating order, by Scott J. Croteau, MassLive.com: Beginning Monday, anyone in Everett over the age of 2 must wear a clean face mask or face covering at any indoor or outdoor space open to the public. Anyone violating the order put in place during the coronavirus pandemic can be fined up to $300, the citys mayor, Carlo DeMaria, announced Saturday.

60 enslaved people once toiled for a rich landowner in Medford. Kyera Singleton wants you to know who they were, by Hayley Kaufman, Boston Globe: On a small piece of land a few blocks off I-93 stand two buildings, both made of clapboard and brick. One is an 18th-century mansion known as the Royall House, once home to the largest holder of enslaved people in Colonial Massachusetts. The other, a modest structure a few yards away, is believed to be the only remaining slave quarters in the Northern United States.

Globe union members rally for a new contract, by John Hilliard, Boston Globe: Members of the union representing Boston Globe employees, who have worked for more than 19 months without a new contract, rallied Sunday afternoon outside Fenway Park to demand a new agreement with the newspaper ownership. The Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents about 300 newsroom, advertising, and production employees at the Globe, has criticized the pace of contract talks with management.

Blackbaud Data Breach Affects WBUR And Other Nonprofits, WBUR: Boston University and WBUR notified donors on Saturday that some of their personal information may have been compromised. Blackbaud, a company that provides fundraising technology, says its client data was stolen.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to state Rep. Tackey Chan, state Rep. Steven Ultrino, Matthew MacWilliams and Ryan O. Ferguson.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause youre promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: [emailprotected].

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MORSE denies allegations of INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR State REOPENING is on PAUSE Senate race gets NEGATIVE - Politico

Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: The Higher Education department has re-engaged a retired bureaucrat as legal consultant, consigning austerity norms of the State Government to the dustbin. Bivas Kanungo, who retired as Special Secretary from Finance department in June, is the third officer to get a post-retirement appointment after the July 7 announcement of austerity measures and fifth to be re-engaged during the lockdown.

Bivas Kanungo, OAS (SAG), retired is hereby engaged as Legal Consultant in Higher Education department for a period not exceeding one year from the date of his joining, said an August 6 office order of the department.

Sources said, efforts were made to retain service of Kanungo in the same post (Special Secretary) in Finance department post retirement. On his retirement on June 30, a file was moved to rehire him which got the approval of the Government. However, the department could not issue the appointment order after this paper exposed how the Government is bending the (austerity) rules to rehabilitate a few retired officers in lucrative positions.

Kanungos appointment as legal consultant is baffling when the department has two law officers and the Government has a full fledged Law department to advise on official legal matters. The Advocate General is the top legal officer of the State to guide the Government on legal issues. Kanungo had all along been dealing with service conditions regarding financial matters, sources who worked closely with him told this paper.

As per the 2014 circular of GA department, there are provisions for notice inviting applications for selection of candidate (post-retirement) justifying the need for such an engagement. Prior concurrence of the Finance department is mandatory. While fixing monthly remuneration of Kanungo at `60,000, the department said this has been concurred by the Finance department.

Ironically, the previous four appointments were made without taking Finance department concurrence. The departments concerned were given the freedom to decided the remuneration which is against the GA circular. If the Finance department is bent upon violating the austerity measures, it should better withdraw the office memorandum issued on July 7 as part of the fiscal compression initiatives to overcome economic crisis due to Covid pandemic, said former Finance Minister Panchanan Kanungo.

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Austerity: Another officer retires, rehired by Odisha government - The New Indian Express

CommuniquThe International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos, in partnership with Media Rights Agenda (MRA) held a two-day Media Training Workshop on Using the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act for Investigative Reports on Campaign Finance and Covid-19 Accountability Issues on Wednesday August 5 and Thursday August 6, 2020 in Lagos.

The training workshop was supported by the European Union through Component 4b: Support to the media of the EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Project being implemented by the International Press Centre (IPC).

The workshop brought together female and male print, broadcast and online journalists including investigative reporters, political reporters, state house correspondents and editors from the public and private media in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Edo States.

The workshop featured presentations on Understanding and Reporting Campaign Finance and Political Expenditure Frameworks and Issues, by Mr. Jide Ojo, Executive Director, OJA Development Consult; Using Investigative Reporting Techniques to Monitor Compliance with Campaign Finance and Political Expenditure Regulations by Ms. Tobore Ovuorie, Freelance Investigative Journalist; and Deploying the FOI Act and Other Investigative Tools/Methodologies in Reporting Covid-19 Funds in the Public Interest by Mr. Dayo Aiyetan, Executive Director, International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).

Other presentations were: Understanding the Key Features of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 by Mr. Edetaen Ojo, MRAs Executive Director; and The Role of the Media in Ensuring Good Governance and Government Accountability by Mr. Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director of IPC.

The workshop had plenary sessions at which participants brainstormed on the matters arising from the presentations and came up with various story ideas on campaign finance and Covid-19 accountability issues that they will investigate using the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

ObservationsParticipants observed that: The media was not doing enough to unravel the mysteries surrounding political and campaign finance in Nigeria as many issues of importance and significant implications for governance remain uninvestigated and unreported;

The medias performance in holding Federal and State Governments accountable for the receipt and expenditure of Covid-19 funds has been grossly inadequate;

Investigative reporting remains a painstaking process of gathering evidence which may require journalists to submit several requests for information to different public institutions and possibly private entities;

The FOI Act is a potent tool as it makes investigative reporting much more feasible as it reduces the risks associated with obtaining information through other means while also making the process of information gathering easier;

To be able to meaningfully report on campaign finance, a journalist must be conversant with all the laws, regulations and policies which guide campaign financing;

Investigative journalism never provides an instant story, rather it goes through recognised stages of planning, investigation and information gathering as well as reporting, and has to work to accepted standards of accuracy and evidence;

Investigative journalism is a process, not an event and is not intended for use in daily reporting, leak journalism, single source reporting, misuse of information, or paparazzi journalism;

The media can play a vanguard role in overcoming the barriers that often militate against disadvantaged groups like women, youths and persons living with disabilities and their participation in elections;

For journalists to be able to do investigative reports they must be creative, inquisitive and constantly on the lookout for opportunities that exist for those in authority to profit from the system.

ResolutionsIn order to attain the objectives of the workshop, participants resolved to:

Familiarise themselves with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act in order to effectively use it for verification or fact checking in the course of investigations;

Read and digest relevant sections of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act 2010 (as ammended) so as to be able to report on the state of compliance with campaign finance disclosure and accounting obligations by political parties and candidates;

Read and digest the Companies and Allied Matters, the Public Procurement Act, Fiscal Responsibility Act and other relevant instruments in order to assess the state of compliance with such legislation, regulations and laws guiding budgeting and the award of contracts;

Familiarise themselves with the provisions of media regulatory frameworks including the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, the Code of Ethics for Nigerian Journalists and the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage in order to ensure that they stick to ethical and professional standards while reporting transparency and accountability issues in governance;

Upgrade their investigative and reportorial skills by exploring and making use of local and international opportunities including training programmes and fellowships;

Embark on collaboration in order to conduct in-depth investigations which may require more time and resources if individually conducted;

Work on the various story ideas identified at the workshop in order to promote good governance and accountability

ConclusionParticipants brainstormed on various ideas that they will investigate both individually and collaboratively and agreed to set up a platform to share further ideas and experiences on carrying out these investigations. They thanked the European Union which supported the workshop through Component 4b: Support to the media of the EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Project.

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Media Training Workshop on Using the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act for Investigative Reports on Campaign Fi - The Nigerian Voice

Micheal Alexis, a detainee at the Hays County Jail, spoke with Community Impact Newspaper about the conditions inside the jail. (Evelin Garcia/ Community Impact Newspaper)

Recent national reports from the New York Times database indicate prisons and jails have quickly become one of the nations biggest clusters of coronavirus cases. The number of positive cases among detainees housed at the Hays County Jail and those who have been outsourced, has nearly tripled since June 22.

As of July 30, 106 detainees have tested positive for the virus, which has infected about 24% of the jails population, according to the Hays County Sheriffs Office.

The overcrowded jail cost taxpayers $3.86 million in fiscal year 2018-19 to outsource detainees to Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Fort Bend and Walker counties, but with a global pandemic in play and no room for detainees to keep a safe distance, the overcrowded jail may come with a higher price tag for detainees: their well-being.

In a statement to Community Impact Newspaper, Hays County Deputy Sheriff Bruce Harlan wrote: All inmates are given masks and medical screening upon arrival in the jail. If they refuse to take a mask or refuse to wear it, we cannot make them do so. If they lose theirs, one will be replaced within a reasonable time.

However, several detainees claimed that to be untrue.

The holding areas were full. I got there the night of July 7they didnt give me a mask, soap or a test until the third or fourth day I was there. I couldnt wash my hands; there was no soap or toilet paper in the restroom, said Joshua Williams, a resident of Kyle, a cancer survivor and amputee with emphysema, who was taken into custody for a Class B misdemeanor and released seven days later.

Inmates are provided cleaning supplies daily, and upon request. Personal hygienesoapfor the inmates to maintain personal care continues to be judiciously provided by request at no cost to the inmate, Harlan wrote.

Detainees speak about jail conditions

Even after speaking about his pre-existing conditions and compromised immune system, Williams said he did not receive a mask or test upon arrival. Instead, he was placed in a crowded rec room where conditions were filthy.

They absolutely knew of my situation, but I didnt get quarantine until about the fourth day I was in there, Williams said.

He said he was eventually placed in one of the jails four infirmaries, the only place where detainees can truly be quarantined. He also noted that some nurses and the majority of correctional officers were not wearing personal protective equipment.

While he was in jail, Williams said he did not receive a proper meal, and he was denied prescribed medication for his chronic pain, even after getting confirmation from his doctor.

According to Harlan, the majority of detainees who tested positive for COVID-19 were not experiencing symptoms of the virus, and the jails medical team routinely monitored those detainees.

Harlan said jail officials issued 250-300 masks a week, but many detainees have not been wearing them in their housing units.

Michael Alexis, a detainee who said he had been in custody for about a year while awaiting court dates, tested positive for COVID-19 in late June. He said he did not receive any medical attention after exhibiting symptoms, including shortness of breath, fatigue and no taste or smell. He said he had been using the same disposable mask since mid-June.

They just started giving us masks a few weeks ago, Alexis said.

To Alexis knowledge, testing of detainees did not start until June 1, but jail officials contend that testing for the virus began April 24.

Our medical team routinely monitors inmates. If one of our inmates would experience any symptoms that need medical attention they are instructedto both verbally and in writingon how to report symptoms in order to receive treatment, Harlan wrote in response to detainees allegations.

Alexis said he knew of three riots protesting the poor conditions that occurred in June.

Lt. Dennis Gutierrez from the Hays County Sheriffs Office confirmed that detainees did riot in late June, and the Hays County SWAT team was called to quell the situation.

They barricaded windows, they tried to set fires [inside the jail], but [riots] had nothing to do with the safety conditionsit was about being tested, Gutierrez said. They demanded to get tested right then and there ... there were no injuries.

Alexis said he thinks following media coverage of the jails lack of safety conditions, local TV news channels were censored by jail officials. In early July, he said news channels disappeared, although they still received newspapers.

He also noted an incident in which a page featuring his sisters speaking about the jails lack of safety practices was missing from his newspaper.

Decisions about which TV channels would be available were recently reviewed. As a result, changes were made to add channels that would appeal to the larger population of inmates, Harlan wrote.

Multiple handwritten letters provided to Community Impact Newspaper through a nonprofit that seeks criminal justice reformMano Amigarevealed that other detainees shared the same experiences as Williams and Alexis at the county jail.

Rick Selman, a detainee who has been behind bars since 2018, wrote in a letter to Mano Amiga about facing delays with his case for the past 15 months. In his letter, he also detailed the lack of masks and proper disinfectant provided by the jail.

Honestly, masks started to be given on July 1, Selman wrote in a letter to Mano Amiga. Few people got masks before, like me, because we found one at work.

Selman said although guards sanitize twice a day, they use generic Fabuloso and Pine-Sol as a disinfectant.

I know for a fact because I did the disinfecting of dorms for months, Selman said.

Neither cleaner is listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an approved disinfectant for COVID-19.

According to Harlan, the facility is using Halt disinfectant, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved hospital-grade disinfectant.

Multiple other detainees cite in their letters the lack of medication, medical attention and healthy food options to recover from the virus. In a letter, a detainee asks the nonprofit for help and pleads to be deported to his home county to seek medical attention.

Officials consider selective releases

As health experts confirmed prisons and jails are now an epicenter of the coronavirus, some states and counties started to release detainees to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Local activists in Hays County organized demonstrations to demand that pretrial detainees be released amid the pandemic as most of these are victims of a clogged criminal legal system who are sitting in jail for months because they cannot afford bail.

According to Gutierrez, there were about 366 pretrial detainees in a jail population of 435, or 84.14%. That number includes 180 detainees who have been transferred to other counties due to overcrowding.

District judges in Hays County, along with other criminal justice officials, met in March to discuss depopulation of the jail. That led to the release of some detainees, according to Hays County District Judge Bill Henry.

Henry said he could not speak for the rest of the countys judges, but he has been reviewing his cases for any potential releases.

I am continuously reviewing my cases on these issues. Ive made some progress, but there are things on which I cannot approve, Henry said.

Local nonprofit aids detainees

On the heels of a global pandemic at play inside the county jail, Mano Amiga launched the first bail fund in the county ahead of schedule with grants from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation and the Bail Project. Bail funds assist detainees who cannot afford their bail.

The nonprofit has helped release about 18 detainees since the launch of the bail fund.

Pretrial detainees, legally innocent people who have only been charged but not convicted of a crime, account for the majority of our jail population; many of them there because they are simply too poor to afford their own freedom, Mano Amiga Policy Director Eric Martinez said. Were punishing poor community members for their poverty with a fatal virus when wealthy people accused of the same offenses are able to buy their freedom by posting bail and eluding the deadly pandemic.

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Detainees concerned for well-being as COVID-19 cases rise in crowded Hays County Jail - Community Impact Newspaper

Harvards endowment, $40.9 billion as of fiscal year 2019, has become notorious for its size both on and off campus. It is common to hear sarcastic complaints about its excess and imbalance from students discussing funding allocation, and it often comes up in staff salary and benefits disputes. The endowment even catches occasional attention from public officials: Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim said during the 2016 HUDS strike, The $35,000 annual [average] salary for these workers thats one one-millionth of Harvards endowment, and President Trump referenced its size in a recent dispute over Harvard receiving COVID-19 assistance funds. Central to these complaints is the idea that, with billions of dollars in the endowment, it is unfair and outrageous that Harvard does not fund specific areas more.

These perceptions are also common among university divestment campaigns. Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard provides an analysis of the endowment in which they estimate that, of the 1% of the endowment publicly disclosed, $5.6 million is invested in the fossil fuel industry. The letter speculates that if that 1% is a representative sample of the whole endowment, that would mean that Harvard has $560 million in fossil fuel investments, but it is also careful to say that FFDH cannot know how representative that 1% is. The Harvard Prison Divestment Campaigns website similarly features an animated graphic declaring that there are $38.775 billion endowment dollars we know nothing about.

Although they often connect to important issues, these stark arguments present an overly simplistic view of how a university endowment works.

For one, an endowment is not a general fund that Harvard can freely take money from. It is designed to be a long-term guarantee for the university via investment, with only small portions of it used to preserve its viability. The funds are run by the Harvard Management Company, a separate group created to manage the schools financial assets. Endowment investments provide future returns for an institution to ensure it can remain fiscally solvent for generations, and market fluctuations can easily wipe out those future savings. After all, Harvard lost 30% of its endowments value in the 2008 recession, and the current COVID-19 recession poses similarly immense risks. To view the endowment as a purse would be immensely irresponsible and undermine the universitys stability.

Endowments are also typically a combination of recent donations and returns on past donations, meaning some of the funds are from fixed longer-term investments that are harder for the school to adjust. According to the 2019 report, around 80% of the endowments funds are restricted by the donors wishes, often earmarked for helping specific schools or other purposes. Of the 5% of the endowment spent on University operations, 70% of those funds were restricted and 30% were available for flexible spending. Even with restrictions, the endowment provided 35% of the Universitys $5.2 billion operating expenses; it also provided pluralities and significant portions of many schools operating budgets.

It is fair to question if Harvard is spending the money it has effectively, if the growth of endowment returns is appropriately scaled to budget and funding increases, or if its investment strategies are optimal. For example, a Harvard Crimson overview of the endowment from 2016 noted that Harvards return trailed that of other universities, indicating that Harvards investments underperformed in comparison. These are some of the more precise issues at play in university funding; describing the total sum amount of the endowment is fairly meaningless on its own.

While those are more general complaints, the divestment campaigns protests on more specific facets of the endowment also contain misconceptions. Given the information available in the fiscal reports, it is not true that we know nothing about the undisclosed funds. And while the fact that Harvard does not reveal all of its investments in certain industries is technically true, the objection to it omits the context of how investing works.

Harvard, as with any group participating in an investment market, is trying to maintain a secure strategy that cannot be copied or undermined by other competitors. The universitys direct investments, about 1% of the total endowment, are publicly filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Beyond that, however, a degree of privacy is needed to have the freedom to execute a strategy, so it makes sense that Harvard would not disclose its entire portfolio beyond the legally required direct holdings.

Even though not all of its investments are revealed, we do know that Harvard has no direct investments in any of the companies the two groups highlight; its money is spread out into mutual funds that feature these companies as a partial beneficiary to an indirect general pool. Often these funds are general indexes meant to represent broad sectors of the economy for stock investment, rather than targeted at specific companies. Many peoples 401(k), general portfolios and retirement accounts have similar partial investments in such companies.

For example, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF highlighted by FFDH is designed for large-capitalization U.S. equities. Companies connected to fossil fuels, as a large component of the U.S. economy, make up 7.14% of the fund across 54 holdings and are included among other companies like Apple, Microsoft and Visa. The iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF highlighted by HPDC is similarly configured for mid-capitalization U.S. equities and includes private prison operators among many mid-sized IT, industrial, financial and other assorted companies (though the group also objects to the schools investments in companies that in some way service prisons, such as Amazon and Bank of America). The inclusion of certain industries in these funds reflects the state of the overall economy. Harvard, rather than propping up specific companies, is broadly investing its money in a typical way for any organization.

While the divestment groups have centered their most recent efforts on the abstract idea that investments should reflect [Harvards] moral and political principles, some of the campaigns have also argued that divestment will help change larger issues beyond the school. However, there is little evidence to support this claim. Research on the divestment movements impact on apartheid South Africa, one of the most public such campaigns in history, concluded that it had negligible impact on share prices themselves, though it may have contributed to the greater social pressure against the regime.

Even then, stigmatization has never been a guarantee for destroying controversial industries that still have a broad market demand for their goods and services. Tobacco, perhaps one of the most scrutinized industries of all, has maintained fairly constant production levels and increased revenues despite similar campaigns and governmental taxes. Harvard even divested from the industry in 1990, but it appears to have had little effect.

In both allocation-based and moral critiques of Harvards financial practices, the intense focus on the endowment itself is misplaced when there are alternatives that are less easy to sloganeer but more effective in practice. For those wanting to improve Harvards underfunded areas, it is better to look at what the university is funding already and assess the trade-offs. To name one example, does Harvard benefit from funding the most varsity sports of any Division I school, compared to prioritizing the needs of its workers or its less wealthy students? Questionable spending practices on certain amenities, administrative positions or other existing projects are much more tangible and consequential concerns when it comes to Harvards financials.

Likewise for the divestment campaigns, it makes more sense to focus on changing or challenging Harvards direct links with their targeted industries as well as ingraining activists in local networks. Much of this the divestment campaigns already do. FFDH has pressed against Harvard board members ties with the energy industry and its direct funding of university research. HPDC has coordinated with prison suffrage campaigns. Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine has challenged Israeli speakers and hosted striking public displays. If the campaigns want to focus on impacting the Harvard community as they describe in the vision of their coalition letter, it makes more sense to prioritize such direct efforts within the university community rather than aiming for a distant shift in investments that may not carry any substantial change.

This is not to automatically endorse every such effort on campus, as they can be judged on their own merits and prudence but such attempts would undoubtedly have a more tangible impact on the university and the student body. The endowment is much less of an issue than it carries in popular imagination, and a shift in focus would better actualize any changes student activists want.

Image Credit: Harvard fossil fuel divestment petition by victorgrigas is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

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The Endowment is Not the Issue - Harvard Political Review

IT sector would be a good defensive bet in the portfolio, but the valuation appears fair post the recent rally, Shridatta Bandwaldar, Head of Equity, Canara Robeco, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand.

Edited excerpt:

Q) July has been an impressive month for investors with both Sensex, and Nifty climbing above crucial resistance levels. We saw mild profit booking towards the close of the month, but would momentum change in August?

A) Predicting near term returns is almost impossible. At the current junction, the focus is more on accessing pace of underlying demand recovery as the economy opens more and moreovernext quarter or two from the lockdown and its implication for earnings of different sectors and companies.

Having said that, from the valuation perspective we are trading at 18xFY22, which to us looks fair and thus we see limited upside in the near term at indices levels.

But, the sectoral rotation and outperformance will continue as investors get incremental sector and company-specific data points.

Q) We have seen some massive outperformance from the IT pack. What is fuelling the rally, and what should investors do now?

A) Recent IT rally has been driven by, 1) better-than-expected quarterly numbers and guidance from most companies, 2) IT is levered to developed countries, which are expected to witness earlier demand recovery driven by huge fiscal push, 3) WFH trend at the margin will increase the need for IT spend from the customers and 4) Offshoring trend might increase as clients focus on costs in this environment.

Looking ahead, the sector would be good defensives bet in the portfolio but the valuation appears fair post the recent rally.

Q) Are there any stocks/sectors that investors could include in their portfolio to safeguard from volatility?

A) We remain invested in Healthcare, IT, select FMCG and exporters to protect portfolio from meaningful downside volatility.

Q) 2020 gave an opportunity for investors to build their portfolio at a reasonable price. What factors should one consider for value investing?

A) We are happy to see Indian retail investors participating in the market when it was at an attractive valuation. However, given the lack of research at retail investors' end, we will advise them to use a mutual fund route rather than investing directly in securities. Investing directly in securities needs a lot of in-depth research over the period.

Q) We are also heading towards the Independence Day as well. Sticking to the theme, how can investors attain financial freedom especially at the time when there is a lot of uncertainty, and equity markets have rallied without any meaningful change in fundamentals?

A) Achieving financial freedom through investing in equities needs a huge amount of discipline. Equities as an asset class will always outperform other asset classes over a period.

Investor has to remain focused on the medium to long term goals and has to continue with a pre-decided sum of SIP plan through 5, 10, 15 years to achieve that financial freedom.

There will always be some or the other uncertainty in markets, which will make investors nervous the key is to not extrapolate near term challenges for a longer horizon.

Q) What is your view on the recent results which have come out from India Inc. for the June quarter? They have not been as bad or the commentary from the management seems comforting. Or, was the Street discounting the worst before?

A) Quarterly earnings have generally been better than what the consensus was building in. This is also partly the reason, why you witnessed arally in several sectors and companies post results.

Most sectors have displayed good cost mitigation ability during when revenues were down between 15-70 percent. The next few quarters would give better indication on-demand recovery.

Q) People say that history never repeats but rhymes. Leaders of the past might not lead the future. So which according to you could lead the rally on D-Street?

A) It is almost impossible to predict that today. Having said that, consolidation of market shares would be a big theme and we would keenly watch it to identify the next winner sector and companies.

Q) PM Modis assurance to the financial sectors was a positive sign. What is your call on the financials? Do you think that investors could contra bet on this sector as the worst seems to be factored in?

A) If COVID gets resolved faster than anticipated on timeline, financials and discretionary might surprise positively. These are also the sectors with the highest uncertainty and low investor expectations for FY21/22. Financials as a sector will also witness huge consolidation on the asset side over the next 3-5 years.

Q) What are you factoring in from the RBI for the rest of the year? More easing?

A) We think RBI has done pretty well in terms of providing rate cuts and liquidity to the market in this challenging time. We do expect some more easing this year.

Q) Maruti Suzuki posted loss for the first time since IPO. What is your call on the auto space? Which sectors according to you can turn out to be a dark horse?

A) The auto sector has been witnessing a weak volume trajectory over the last 6-8 quarters, driven by slowing economic activity and retail consumption. We see the auto sector reviving at the margin in 2HFY21/FY22, driven by better rural demand and increased private transportation needs due to COVID.

Sector, where the investor expectations are really low, can prove to be a dark horse over the next 1 year. These sectors could be one or more from Auto, Financials, Discretionary consumption, Cement, etc.

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DAILY VOICE: Four reasons why IT stocks are hitting 52-week highs - Moneycontrol.com

In the early days of August 2019, Kashmiris knew that something strange was afoot: TV channels went off the air, the internet was cut off, tourists were asked to leave, and a strict curfew was imposed. Then, on Aug. 5, New Delhi announced it was revoking the semiautonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, bringing it under the central governments direct control.

At the time, in a speech announcing the move, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi explained that the decision would better integrate Kashmir into the national market and improve its economy. But one year later, there are few signs of progress. According to a report published last month by a civil rights group, the region has incurred nearly $5.3 billion in economic losses since New Delhis move to downgrade its status.

While much of the country has struggled under pandemic-induced lockdowns, Kashmiris have in effect lived with those conditions for a full year. But for most Kashmiris, the stripping of their political autonomy is not a real shock. It is frustrating but not surprising. And that is because most of them were born in a land where young men commonly picked up guns to fight for independence from the Indian state, and they grew up in a region where curfews, military operations, and extrajudicial killings were the order of the day.

About 69 percent of the around 12 million people living in Jammu and Kashmir are under the age of 35. For them, the state has been in quasi-lockdown for most of their lives. A Kashmiri politician once joked to me that local children learned the word azaadi, or freedom, before they learned to call out their mothers name.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir used to include the Hindu-majority Jammu, the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, and the largely Buddhist Ladakh. While no region was spared the unrest, it is the Kashmir Valley that has suffered the most in economic terms.

After a rigged election in 1987, Kashmiri resentment toward India increased exponentially. And with the help of Pakistan, there was a full-blown insurgency in the Kashmir Valley in 1989, which pushed separatist leaders toward militancy. Many Kashmiri Hindus were expelled from the state. The region never recovered from that conflict.

Since 2016, when I first started reporting from Kashmir, I have met many Kashmiris who were born after 1989 and for whom the very definition of a normal life is different than that of most Indians. Truck and bus drivers overwork when they can, because they might be grounded anytime due to curfews. Doctors are used to looking at bullet wounds. Mental health professionals deal with post-traumatic stress disorder patients like doctors elsewhere treat the flu. Lawyers regularly defend young boys charged with sedition or terrorist activities.

The state is the biggest employer in Kashmir, and private sector investment is negligible due to the constant violence between security forces and militants. As a result, young Kashmiris see state government jobs as their route to stability. But a small subset of Kashmiri youth who were educated in larger Indian cities and in countries abroad harbor dreams of entrepreneurship even amid the turmoil.

Consider the story of Mir Saqib, a 34-year-old entrepreneur who is considering filing for bankruptcy. Most of Saqibs primary education in Srinagar took place at home, because schools remained shut for about eight months a year in the 1990s. Every time there was militant-related violence, educational institutions were closed.

Around the time Saqib should have been in school, his peers in other Indian cities were having a very different experience. In 1991, in the face of an economic crisis, New Delhi took the difficult medicine of opening up its economy to the world, putting in place fiscal reforms that would set it on the path to rapid growth for the next two decades. While young Indians began to dream of lives on par with those of their global peers, Kashmiri youth would often harbor hopes of joining their regions separatist movement.

Kashmiris expected the economy to bounce back in 1996 when a local party, the National Conference, was elected to the state government and New Delhi promised increased autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.

Things turned out differently. In 1999, after the Kargil War between India and Pakistan, militant attacks on Indian paramilitary forces stationed in Kashmir sharply increased. These suicide attacks ushered in further militarization to the valley. Today, there is one armed personnel for every seven civilians in the region.

In 2007, when Saqib enrolled in an engineering college, little did he know that the valley would come to a complete standstill the following year. In 2008, the Indian National Congress-led government in New Delhi decided to transfer 99 acres of forest land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, a trust that governs the famous Hindu pilgrimage to the Amarnath temple. More than 500,000 Kashmiris marched in protest, rejecting what they felt was an Indian takeover of Kashmiri land. Kashmir remained shut for most of that year.

While Saqibs national peers were dreaming of packing their bags for coveted jobs in Silicon Valley, Kashmiri students were struggling to get to class.

In 2010, Saqibs studies were disrupted once again when Kashmiris took to the streets to protest extrajudicial killings of Kashmiri youth. The protests left around 120 people dead.

Finally, in 2011, Saqib graduated as an engineer from Kashmir University. He decided to set up a bottled water plant and called his product Kolahai, which is the name of the glacier where the Jhelum, Kashmirs major river, originates. His business began to pick up when he started receiving contracts to supply water at weddings across the valley. Saqib expanded his business by introducing bottled juices and teas.

A new twist emerged in 2014. A pro-Hindu government led by the Bharatiya Janata Partys Narendra Modi was elected in New Delhi. The party joined hands with a Kashmiri group called the Peoples Democratic Party and formed a government in the state. Since their visions for the state were different, the government was unstable and insecure.

The arrival of smartphones and high-speed internet further shook the regions tenuous social contract. Messages from separatist leaders reached the phones of Kashmiris directly, without censorship. People hungrily consumed video messages from young militants such as BurhanMuzaffarWani, a charismatic commander of the militant organization Hizbul Mujahideen, making the case for Kashmiri independence.

In 2016, when Wani was killed by Indian forces, tens of thousands of Kashmiris attended his funeral. The state essentially ground to a halt for almost five months. And the authorities, realizing the revolutionary power of social media and the internet, began to respond for the first time by shutting down certain apps and restricting internet speeds in the region.

Unlike the previous generation, which had access to arms, the Kashmiris who came of age in the 2000s had to resort to stones as their weapons of choice. Every Friday, after the afternoon prayers at Srinagars main mosque, young men flooded the streets to throw stones at the security forces. Over a period of time this type of protest became merely symbolic.

Saqib shuttered his factory for long periods in 2016. There arent many weddings in a society that grieves the loss of its freedom, so demand for his product dried up.

Saqib had borrowed money from banks, which he somehow managed to repay by the end of 2018. Hoping the economy would look up in 2019, Saqib began to once again dream of restoring his business to its former glory.

But then, exactly one year ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party fulfilled its campaign promise and downgraded the status of Kashmir to a union territory, bringing it under New Delhis control. And it did so while once again imposing strict curfews and shutting down the internet for the longest period in history for a democracy. This time, Saqib would finally give up dreaming: Now, I know nothing will ever go back to how it was again, he said.

In the past 12 months, New Delhi has passed successive laws that Kashmiris fear will open up their lands and ecology for exploitation, while stripping them of their unique identity. For instance, New Delhi can now decide who gets to live in Kashmir, a legal change that could end up transforming the regions demographics.

Every time I talk to a young Kashmiri, I sense fatigue and a sense of hopelessness about their future. However, most conversations end with them suggesting that they will fight to reclaim their freedom. The Indian government seems to understand this sentiment well, which perhaps explains why it continues to curtail the speed of the internet there. When the internet comes back, the possibility of large protests is ever-present. But without the internet, real investment and growth in the region is impossible to imagine.

Jammu and Kashmir had a monthly average unemployment rate of 15 percent between January 2016 and July 2019, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. This is more than double the national average of 6.4 percent during the same period.

But Saqib says his generation doesnt see unemployment as its greatest burden. We have lost our youth, our dreams, and our future, he said. That is what wed want back.

Original post:

Kashmiris Lament the Loss of Their Youth - Foreign Policy

Disrupt the economy creatively or perish should be the slogan to be followed by the new Government Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

For good results, disrupt the existing systems

It was a cakewalk for Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna or SLPP, headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to seize power in Parliament. Within a matter of a few months of its formation as a political force, it has kept a record by rising to the pinnacle of the countrys power cathedral. In the process, it has disrupted the two oldest political powers in Sri Lanka, namely, the United National Party or UNP and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party or SLFP. The emergence of a disruptor, though the name sounds something frightening, is a welcome development in any society. This is because it is disruptors, and not conventionalists, who have created a new world for the betterment of humankind.

Relating to economics, this was first presented by the 19th century French economist and statesman, Frdric Bastiat when he said that breaking of windows even in acts of vandalism was to be welcome. That was because it enabled the world to go for new generation windows sustaining the window industry, on one side, and creating a new output for society, on the other.

In the early part of the 20th century, Bastiats views were more formally and cogently presented in a positive way by two economists. One was the Russian economist Nikolai Kondratieff. The other was the Austrian-American economist, Joseph Schumpeter. I have covered their views in a previous article in this series that can be accessed at http://www.ft.lk/columns/Long-waves-in-global-business-cycles-versus-Sri-Lanka-s-disastrous-short-waves/4-701288.

Kondratieff: Inventions should be commercially produced

Kondratieff had discovered through empirical research that capitalist societies had repeatedly undergone ups and downs in their economies known as business cycles but had managed to recover to a new position every time they had suffered from an economic downturn. Such business cycles had typically been experienced by Western economies for long periods of about 50 to 60 years which he designated long-waves of business cycles.

The reason for the recovery of a dying economy was the commercial adoption of scientific and engineering inventions by businessmen thereby taking an economy to a higher wave. Schumpeter, quite independently of Kondratieff, said that any new technology that was to replace the old ones, though feared by people, was a creative destruction.

Joseph Schumpeter: Generate creative destructions

Countering the Marxian view of the self-destruction of capitalist societies from internal conflicts, Schumpeter presented the contrarian view that capitalist societies continued to sustain and prosper through the introduction of a series of new technologies to replace the worn-out old ones. Expanding his conception of creative destruction, he identified four basic developments that should take place in an economic system enabling it to rise to a new height in development. His concept agrees with the Kondratieff long-wave formation in an economic system through scientific and engineering inventions that are commercially adopted by businessmen. But this commercial adoption was called innovation by Schumpeter. Taking it forward, he identified two further developments that should be followed for an economy to sustain its prosperity. One was the diffusion of knowledge among as many businessmen as possible. The other was the imitation of new technologies by prospective entrepreneurs.

Inheriting a sick economy by SLPP

Why should SLPP be a creative disruptor of Sri Lankas economy? That is because it has inherited an economy sick with a multitude of ailments. Sri Lankas economy had infected itself with some of these ailments right from the independence of the country. Some are later infections by governments that had introduced disastrous viruses to its body from time to time. However, with no proper medication administered at the appropriate time, these ailments have grown within the body of the economy like a silent cancer that grows without demonstrating any symptoms.

As I have indicated in a previous article (available at: http://www.ft.lk/columns/C-19-economic-recovery-Most-probably-it-will-be-a-flattened-U-shaped-one/4-703372), political leaders have been playing a blame game accusing each other for the maladies from which the economy has been suffering. That was an exhibition of complacence on the part of politicians coupled with the desire to evade responsibility.

The behaviour so demonstrated by them was similar to the man falling from the 20th floor of a building shouting at a man at the window of the 10th floor that he was alright so far and there was nothing to be worried. It was simply acting on self-delusion quite oblivious of the empty space below him through which he was falling to a fatal end. In Sri Lanka, this has been repeated ad infinitum at every general election. The one that was concluded last week is not an exception.

Sri Lankas manifesting sickness from all sides

Sri Lankas economy began to demonstrate signs of serious sickness from around 2013 when the growth rate began to decelerate. Immediately after the end of the war in 2009, the economy showed all signs of recovery to a high growth path recording growth rates of above 8% in the three succeeding years. These growth rates were attained basically by investing in capital infrastructure which could sustain the growth rate only for a limited number of years. That was because in the absence of the needed reforms in the capital markets, labour markets and the public sector, the rigidity of the economy could not be softened. Such growth has been designated by Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman as ones that are attained through perspiration and not inspiration. Hence, as expected, growth rate began to fizzle out as from 2013. Along with the falling growth rates, the symptoms of other ailments from which the economy was suffering also became manifest.

Such ailments had taken the form of rising budget deficits, unmanageable public debt, rising inflation, deficits in the trade, services and the current accounts of the balance of payments or BOP. Since adequate capital flows could not be harnessed to meet the deficit in the current account, there were deficits in the overall balance of BOP too. It led to the peculiar situation in which foreign reserves had to be built only by making further borrowings. It led to two other basic ailments. One was the pressure for the exchange rate to depreciate in the market in the absence of adequate foreign exchange flows to the country. The other, arising from the inadequate foreign reserves, was the accumulation of debt by the government beyond manageable levels. As a result, repaying the maturing public debt has become a serious challenge for the new government.

No rosy picture about the economy in the next few years

Certainly, the new government has to worry about the frightening economic conditions in 2020 and in the next few years. It is facing an economy that has been virtually incapacitated by the disastrous economic fallout of COVID-19 pandemic towards the end of the first quarter of 2020. As a result, the first quarter of 2020, the size of the real economy, pulled down by a negative growth in agriculture and industry and a slow growth in services, became smaller by 1.6% in rupee terms. Its contraction was sharper in dollar terms at 5% because of the fall in the value of the rupee against the dollar from Rs. 176 to Rs. 190 per dollar in the period.

In the next three quarters, the decline in the economy would be sharper due to a completely underperforming services sector. Unless an effective vaccine against the coronavirus is found soon, this negative economic performance is to linger into the next few years too. Such an adverse development would make Sri Lankans poorer and poorer year after year. This is what the new government should avoid and for that purpose, it has to creatively disrupt the economy too.

Dont fear disruptions

A disruption is simply a forced change of how people think, act, produce, distribute and consume. Taken together, they can be called the behavioural pattern of human beings. These behavioural patterns are represented by culture and culture is subject to a natural evolution over the time. Such cultural evolutions take their own pace to complete a full cycle but when they are shocked by an external agent an opinion maker, new technology or new product the evolutionary process is quickened.

A good example is the smart mobile phone. Five years ago, except those in young age categories, no one knew how to use the data processing power of a smart mobile phone. But today, hit by the social and economic restrictions of COVID-19 pandemic, everyone has trained himself to using smart phones and their versatile applications. As a result, practically everyone today is conversant with using popular Apps like WhatsApp or Zoom to communicate with others or disseminate information. This they do on a real time basis building networks of people and assembling them together. Thus, the smart mobile phone was a shock-agent and that agent has disrupted the traditional communicating agents like newspapers, radios, TVs or even land-based telephones. This was evident when people used smart mobile phones to learn of results, quick and fast, of the general election held last week.

An aggravated fiscal crisis by a generous tax offer

Sri Lankas present economic crisis has been aggravated by a fiscal crisis, debt crisis and a foreign exchange crisis. In the case of the fiscal sector, the crisis took the form of an unwieldy budget. The government revenue in relation to GDP was falling, consumption expenditure rising, savings of the government becoming negative, having to borrow to finance both the consumption and capital expenditures on one side and pay interest and repay the maturing debt on the other. This resulted in an unwarranted rise in the public debt stock and by the time the new government came to power at end-2019, it was as high as 87% of GDP, up from 72% five years ago.

This frightening fiscal scenario was worsened by a generous tax cut offered by the new government to income tax and VAT payers. It resulted an estimated revenue loss of some Rs. 600 billion per annum. This was an unaffordable and unwarranted comfort which the new government had given to some section of the people in the country. The consequential rise in the gap in the government budget had to be financed by the government by borrowing from both the central bank and commercial banks. During the first six months of 2020, the government had borrowed, on a net basis, a staggering Rs. 1.22 trillion from this source.

This is money printing which people in the street often talk about. Its inflationary pressure will have to be borne especially the low-income people. Hence, it is an iniquitous public policy since it favours the middle class and the high-income people, while passing the burden called incidence of tax-financing versus inflation-financing on to low-income groups. Hence, it is of utmost importance that the government revert to the tax system that prevailed prior to 2020 and save its budget. But it will be a shock-agent disrupting the comfortable life which the countrys taxpayers have been enjoying ever since the new President was voted to power. But that disruption is a sine qua non today.

To resolve the debt crisis, resolve the fiscal crisis first

Sri Lankas debt crisis is an off-shoot of its fiscal crisis. Hence, the way to resolve that crisis is to resolve the fiscal crisis first. Sri Lankas government has to borrow and raise the debt levels because its revenue is inadequate relative to expenditure programs. One reform it can do in this context is to generate savings in the budget by placing the governments consumption expenditure those expenses involving the day to day running of the government below its revenue levels. To attain this target, another shock-agent of disruption has to be employed by the new government. While going back to the old tax regime, the government should economise its expenses from top to the bottom.

The curtailment of the benefits which many are enjoying today is a real disruption. This applies at the top to the Cabinet ministers who enjoy an array of benefits not counted in the budget as direct payments to them. Like in Singapore, the number of ministerial posts should be restricted, while paying them a decent salary and getting them to meet all their requirements out of those emoluments. In todays context, the direct salary of a Cabinet Minister is less than Rs. 100,000, a salary lower than the total pay package of a minor employee of a state bank. But cost to the taxpayers by way of providing houses and their maintenance, vehicles and all associated costs, security officers, etc. which are recorded in different heads in the budget is enormous.

Taking into account the current economic crisis in the country, they should go for a voluntary disruption. All other unnecessary expenses of the government should be cut, savings in the revenue account generated and those savings used for vital capital programs. In selecting those programs, those that would help the government to get more taxes in the future should receive priority. In this way, borrowings are directly linked to extension of welfare to people and gaining capacity to repay them on time.

External sector crisis needs reforms in all sectors

The crisis in Sri Lankas external sector has been manifested by a need for borrowing for repaying the external debt and meeting the stubbornly high deficit in the current account of the balance of payments. The cause of the current account deficit has been the inadequate foreign exchange earnings by way of export of goods and services and remittances by Sri Lankans working abroad relative to the high import bill of goods and services and interest payments.

The government has recently clamped import controls on what it has termed inessential imports but the savings it could make through this measure is insignificant since the total such expenses are also a small fraction of the total bill. Sri Lanka spends massive amounts import crude oil, raw materials for industries, medicines and capital equipment. Any growing economy cannot curtail these items without compromising growth rates.

Hence, the way forward for the new government is to earn more foreign exchange in the medium to long run by increasing exports and attracting non-debt sources of foreign exchange such as foreign direct investments. To boost both these sources of earning, an essential requirement will be to introduce reforms to enable exporters to export more and attract more foreign direct investments into priority areas. Already, some of the reforms have been introduced to the goods market. But the labour, capital and land markets still remain untouched. It is necessary to shock these three markets through disruptive changes. Sri Lankas archaic labour laws dating back to the colonial times need be revised protecting both the workers and producers.

Singapores experience in reforming the labour sector

This was what Singapore did as a priority in 1960s because the growing trade union militancy supported by Chinese communists kept the foreign investors away from the country. As S R Nathan, an Ex-President of Singapore, has narrated in his autobiography, An Unexpected Journey, a special Labour Research Unit or LRU was set up at the instance of Singapores first Finance Minister, Goh Keng Swee, with the responsibility for ensuring a fair deal for workers through training, empowerment and recognition of workers rights.

Nathan who joined LRU as a researcher initially became its head later. His reading of the behaviour of trade union leaders in 1960s perfectly matches those in Sri Lanka today. Nathan has observed that those trade union leaders were full of hate, delusion and bias and poor of facts and understanding. LRU therefore initiated programs to help them overcome those deficiencies. Sri Lankas trade union leaders who shout at the microphones posed to them by media display that they still live in the world in which Singapores trade unionists lived in 1960s. The new government should as a priority engage trade union leaders in productive negotiations and for that purpose, as a herald, should serve them with a shock-agent of disruption first.

Hence, disrupt the economy creatively or perish should be the slogan to be followed by the new government.

(The writer, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com.)

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SLPP has creatively disrupted politics; now it has to do the same to the economy - ft.lk

NEW DELHI: The focus of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shifted to alternate methods of providing reliefs rather than pumping more money into the banking system, in a way accepting most of industry and Streets demands.

RBI gave more freedom to banks to deal with loans while keeping mum on moratorium. The monetary policy committee (MPC) said Indias GDP growth is likely to slip in the red during the fiscal year.

As per expectations, the committee unanimously voted to maintain the status quo. It kept repo rate at 4 per cent and reverse repo rate at 3.35 per cent while not ruling out further rate cuts.

Here are key takeaways from the policy meet:Liquidity shot in the arm for MFsRBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said abundant liquidity has supported many segments of financial markets, including mutual funds, and the situation has stabilised since the Franklin Templeton episode.

Assets under management of Debt MFs, which fell to Rs 12.20 lakh crore as on 29 April, 2020, recovered and improved to Rs 13.89 lakh crore as on July 31, 2020, he said.

Recasting of MSME loansThe central bank allowed restructuring loans of the MSME sector, which came under heavy stress due to the lockdown and the following slump in demand.

It has been decided that stressed MSME borrowers will be made eligible for restructuring their debt under the existing framework, provided their accounts with the concerned lender were classified as standard as on 1 March, 2020. This restructuring will have to be implemented by 31 March, 2021, the central bank said.

More loans for your goldAs gold prices have been soaring, the central bank said it will now allow lenders to lend 90 per cent of the value of gold jewellery against earlier 75 per cent. This is likely to help Indian households, who are sitting on the largest amount of gold ornaments in the world.

Lockdowns hit high-frequency indicatorsThe MPC said even though the economic activity had started to recover from the lows of April-May, the surges of fresh infections have forced re-clamping of lockdowns in several cities and states. Consequently, several high frequency indicators have levelled off.

Petro tax fuel inflationThe central bank said higher domestic taxes on petroleum products have resulted in elevated domestic pump prices and will impart broad-based cost push pressures going forward.

It said inflation will remain elevated in the second quarter but may ease once new crops come into the market. Nonetheless, upside risks to food prices remain as vegetables and protein-based food items (meat, fish, etc.) could also emerge as a pressure point.

Low rates give boost to bond marketLower borrowing costs have led to record primary issuance of corporate bonds of Rs 2.1 lakh crore in the first quarter of 2020-21, the MPC said.

It noted the transmission of policy rate cut to bank lending rates has improved further, with the weighted average lending rate (WALR) on fresh rupee loans declining by 91 bps during March-June 2020.

Das in his statement noted that borrowing costs in financial markets have dropped to their lowest in a decade, with commercial paper yield for NBFCs falling to 3.8 per cent and non NBFCs to 3.4 per cent.

GDP to take a plungeFor the year 2020-21, as a whole, real GDP growth is expected to be negative, the MPC said. An early containment of the Covid-19 pandemic may impart an upside to the outlook. A more protracted spread of the pandemic, deviations from the forecast of a normal monsoon and global financial market volatility are the key downside risks, it said in its statement.

Space for rate cut availableThe committee said the economy is going through unprecedented stress and hence supporting the recovery of the economy assumes primacy in the conduct of monetary policy.

While space for further monetary policy action in support of this stance is available, it is important to use it judiciously and opportunistically to maximise the beneficial effects for underlying economic activity, it said.

Eternal optimismDespite all challenges on the monetary and economic front, Governor Das said he remains eternally optimistic. Throughout this traumatic period, one thing has stood out the indomitable spirit of humanity, the inner conviction that whatever be the challenge, we have the innate resilience to combat them, overcome them and emerge victorious, he said.

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More freedom to banks, further rate cut not ruled out: 10 key takeaways from policy meet - Economic Times