Commentary, Culture

COMMENTARY: Harmonizing America: The Case for Federal Support of Orchestras

Eric Gao

Anand Krishnan, Stanford University -- The quality of American orchestras is in rapid decline. Many professional orchestras have been forced into semi-professional status, with over 80% of the roughly 2,000 orchestras in the US now having an operating budget of under $300,000. The latest example of this phenomenon was seen in San Antonio, the nation’s 7th largest city, where an orchestra that regularly welcomed the great violinist Jascha Heifetz was forced to ask its musicians to accept wages under the national poverty line. The federal government must use the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to better support American orchestras—only then will they be able to replicate the parity that they held with their European counterparts in the late 20th century.

Commentary

COMMENTARY: How Tech Companies Have Exploited the Defenseless

Karthick Arunachalam

Andrew Zeng, Stanford University -- The cost of recruiting a tester for a large language model (LLM) in the United States is incredibly high. It’s certainly higher than the cost of recruiting a tester from a job-starved country from the Global South. So in the search for scalability and profits, frontier AI companies have been recruiting testers from third-world countries, where pay is low and regulations are lax. The results for their employees have often been heartwrenching.

Commentary, Macroeconomics

COMMENTARY: Peso Predicaments: Economic Turmoil in Argentina

Karthick Arunachalam

Arz Taneja, St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi -- Argentina is in trouble—economic trouble. Inflation has breached a new ceiling, crossing the 120 percent mark. The Argentine peso is at risk of yet another devaluation, leading to the currency being traded on the black (or should we say blue) market for the dollar at prices roughly double that of the current exchange rate. In an effort to stabilize the peso, the Argentine government imposed a slew of rules and regulations on how dollars can be accessed, which has led to the birth of a dozen different exchange rates, several of which are quite strange. For instance, under the “Coldplay Dollar” exchange rate (374 pesos per dollar), concert promoters who book performers charging in dollars are subject to a 30 percent tax, which fans ultimately have to cover on top of ticket costs.  

Commentary, Environment

COMMENTARY: Nature’s Wrath: The Impact and Significance of the Canadian Wildfires

Karthick Arunachalam

Yi Zhi (Harry) Zhang, Boston College -- Over the last few months, Canada’s historic wildfire season has captured the world’s attention. Hundreds of fires are burning throughout the country, reaching every province except for Prince Edward Island and Nunavut. As of early June, the fires had consumed over 4.4 million hectares of land. The Canadian government has called this wildfire season the country’s “most severe on record” and has warned that higher-than-normal fire activity could persist for the remainder of 2023. What has caused these fires? What industries do they affect? And what do they tell us about our planet’s future?

Commentary, Environment

COMMENTARY: Climate Change and the Fishing Industry in Asia and Africa

Karthick Arunachalam

Celestine Lindarto, University of Western Australia -- From around the mid-1990s to 2007, oceans across the globe took in over 30 billion metric tons of carbon from fossil fuel combustion, with the world’s highest sea level being recorded in 2022. Climate change has also resulted in increased ocean surface temperatures as well as heightened severity of weather events such as tropical storms. Due to these climatic events, the fishing industry is seeing changes in both the distribution and abundance of fish as they move away from equatorial territories and swim poleward to find cooler regions. 

Commentary

COMMENTARY: Poverty Traps in Rural India: Why the NREGS Is Failing To Tackle Persistent Poverty

Karthick Arunachalam

Hugh O'Reilly, University of Manchester -- India is home to the largest public workfare program to ever exist. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) employs between 21 and 55 million rural households every year and mandates employment as a legal right for adults. The aim is twofold: to serve as a safety net for the rural poor through employment insurance, particularly in the agricultural off-season, and to develop local infrastructure such as irrigation systems, roads, water networks, and environmental conservation.

Commentary

COMMENTARY: El Salvador’s Bitcoin Adoption: The Great Cryptocurrency Experiment

Karthick Arunachalam

Kyle Feinstein, Stanford University -- After much anticipation, Bitcoin City has met its end. The futuristic city was first announced at the 2021  Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference along with a 10 billion USD bond investment. This urban oasis was a symbol of El Salvador’s unprecedented decision to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. The metropolis was to be built at the base of the Conchagua volcano and serve as a hub for cryptocurrency mining and foreign investment. Bitcoin City’s strategic location offered a steady source of geothermal energy for bitcoin mining; to enhance its appeal, the city would also not collect income taxes. As a testament to El Salvador’s ambitious efforts to integrate cryptocurrency into the national economy, Bitcoin City had a circular layout, invoking the shape of a coin.