Cuba Libre?
What a week for global change. I’ll discuss below the assassination of Haiti’s president, but another story is emerging. Could Cuba be rising against socialism?
This is still fresh, but starting Sunday the streets of Cuba were filled with protesters decrying oppression. The economy, which hasn’t been great in a while, has been in a tailspin since COVID shut down tourism. People are lacking food and medical care, and in response they are demonstrating their frustrations.
My read of twitter has a lot of people saying that these protests feel different than any before. There seems to be a different energy, an urgency that needs to be answered. I’m excited to see it develop.
Haiti’s President Assassinated
As I have mentioned before, my research focuses on the economic history of Haiti. So I was speechless on July 7 to wake up to the news that Jovenel Moise, president of Haiti, had been assassinated in his home.
Surprisingly, I actually have research relevant to the assassination! I have a paper arguing that foreign intervention in Haiti’s 2010 election later discouraged people from voting in 2016. The intervention and discouragement were central to Moise’s victory. And the economy has been in rough shape ever since. If you want to read my analysis, it’s available here.
If you want a broad overview of what’s going on in Haiti, go check out this week’s video. Because the topic was time-sensitive, I released it on Friday. But it’s doing really well! It has over 7,300 views, putting it on track to be one of my most popular videos ever. Go check it out!
Oh, and if you’re wondering what the current story is, there appears to be an American-based doctor who hired Colombian mercenaries to take the president so he could take power. Seems like an implausible story to me, since there’s no way that would work, but maybe the doctor is imbalanced enough to think that it could. I’m following the story closely!
NBER Summer Institute
The NBER Summer Institute starts this week. If you don’t know what NBER is, I just call it “The Cool Kids Club.” Many of the top economists get invited to be members of NBER where they get to share their research and discuss ideas away from the peasants (I am not a cool kid).
With this last year’s pandemic, the NBER is broadcasting many of its sessions. You can find a schedule here. The key to finding which sessions are being broadcast is on the left side. Next to the presentation’s time, there is a 2-3 letter abbreviation. Click on that link and you’ll be brought to a page that has the YouTube link (if they’re streaming).
It’s a good opportunity to see what some of the top research looks like and learn from great economists. This week has economic history sessions (the abbreviation is DAE), and in two weeks they have development economics (DEV). But there are a lot of other topics in between.
Mobile Ad Equilibrium
Apple recently changed how much user data they allow advertisers to access. This makes it harder to target the right audience, which reduces the benefit of these ads.
What happens next?
WSJ reports that advertisers are spending less on Apple ads and putting more money into Android devices. Apple had a premium advertising price, but now the price is falling in concert with the fall in benefits.
ECONOMICS!!