‘The economics of WhatsApp have been mysterious for years’

‘How WhatsApp took over the global conversation’

Sam Knight at The New Yorker

WhatsApp is “phatic before it is anything else,” says Sam Knight. It “winks with life, informing you who is online and when they were last seen.” The “entanglement of WhatsApp in everyday feeling makes it an inviting place for theorizing about the human condition.” But the “problem underpinning every problem at WhatsApp is the sheer capaciousness of the system.” Running on “practically every type of phone” means it is “hard to know whom you are optimizing for.”

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‘Should Latin America adopt the dollar?’

Judy Shelton at The Wall Street Journal

Dollarization in Latin America has been “discussed at high levels before,” and it’s “time to reassess pushing the dollar in America’s backyard,” says Judy Shelton. Dollarizing nations “effectively give the U.S. the profit from printing money,” which “amounts to an interest-free loan to Washington.” But “dollarized nations might assume they have a claim on U.S. support.” If “dollarization helped expand U.S. participation in Latin American markets, the U.S. would benefit disproportionately from their growth.”

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‘Hospitals are no place for ICE enforcement’

Steven Miles at The Minnesota Star Tribune

ICE agents are “entering and attempting to detain patients in several Minnesota hospitals,” and “risk causing many kinds of harm,” says Steven Miles. Fear of “ICE agents is causing people to delay or forgo seeking medical care,” and this “chilling effect is not confined to undocumented persons.” The “destructive fear of ICE can affect the public health of the entire community,” and “hospitals must do more to address this unprecedented threat to medical care and public health.”

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‘The PhD students are not all right’

Leonard Saxe at The Boston Globe

Higher education is “currently facing a perfect storm,” says Leonard Saxe. Doctoral programs that “nurture the human capital to sustain society’s culture and promote innovation, have been especially hard hit.” These programs have “borne the brunt of recent financially driven cutbacks.” The “ability of graduate programs to support students” has “always been important, but it is even more so today.” Failing to “address the challenges facing PhD students and the system of doctoral education will eventually have ramifications for the larger society.”

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