In March of 2020, when panic about how the Coronavirus pandemic would effect global supply chains was at its peak, the Indian government banned the export of 26 key APIs, or active pharmaceutical ingredients, including those used in Tylenol and Hydrochloroquine. The Indian government has since then partially lifted the ban. On the other hand, … Continue reading "Cheap, Fast and Good Enough: How India Became the World’s Pharmacy"

Few countries in the developing world have been hit as hard by COVID-19 as Mexico. Mexico has seen 114,000 cases of COVID-19 and 14,000 deaths and the disease continues to accelerate. Mexico has so far conducted worryingly few COVID-19 tests. So far, only 336,000 tests have been conducted, and on a per capita basis Mexico … Continue reading "Governing is Hard: AMLO Struggles to Contain Mexico’s COVID-19 Pandemic and Economic Crisis"

Although most listeners to the Wealth of Nations podcast are only vaguely aware of Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent, the two companies play a dominant position in China’s technology ecosystem. Alibaba and Tencent both have market capitalizations over $500 billion, a market capitalization more than 8 times greater than their largest domestic competitors. As … Continue reading "Chinese Tech’s Godzilla Vs. Kong: How the Battle Between Alibaba and Tecent Will Shape the Future of Technology"

In the early stages of Covid-19, it appeared that Russia would be spared from the worst of the pandemic. However, over the last month the total number of COVID-19 cases has exploded since then, with 400,000 cases of the Coronavirus recorded so far. Despite this, if one trusts official statistics, the government of Russia has … Continue reading "To Russia, Without Love: Russia’s Fight Against COVID-19"

No country in the developing world has been hit harder by the Coronavirus pandemic than Ecuador. Government officials have recorded nearly 35,000 cases and 3,000 deaths from Covid-19, although these are almost certainly massive undercounts. For example, excess mortality in Guayaquil, the city suffering the most from Covid-19, is eight times regular levels. At the … Continue reading "No Dollar, No Cry: Dollarization, Covid-19, and Economic Disaster in Ecuador"

Pakistan saw its first case of Covid 19 on February 26th, 2020 when a student returning from Iran tested positive in Karachi. Since then, the Coronavirus has grown at a rapid rate, with 46,000 deaths causing 1,000 deaths, with then number of active cases increasing by 5% a day. Moreover, it is likely that counts … Continue reading "Give Me Liberty, and Give Me Death: Pakistan’s Muddled Response to Covid-19"

On May 15th, 2020, the World Health Organization announced the discharge of the last Ebola patient in the city of Beni, the last hotspot for Ebola in the DRC. The Ebola outbreak in the Kivus infected at least 3,645 and killed 2,271 people, and assuming no cases will be discovered in the next weeks, will … Continue reading "Juggling Ebola, Measles and Covid 19: Dealing With the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Many Epidemics"

Although the toilet paper and cleaning supplies disappeared off the shelves almost immediately after the announcement of shelter in place across the United States, most grocery stores remained well stocked with essential foods. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has put the American food supply is chain under severe strain, and millions of Americans are forced to … Continue reading "A Spoonful of State Capacity Helps Public Health Measures Go Down: Fighting Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia"

Peru confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 6th, 2020. Just 6 days later, Peru closed down its schools, 3 days after that the government closed international and inter-provincial travel, and imposed a complete lockdown on all non-essential travel the day after. One cannot leave the house for any reason between 8 PM and … Continue reading "Even The Best Laid Plans of Go Awry: The Fight Against the Coronavirus Pandemic in Peru"

At first glance, it appears Indonesia has avoided the brunt of the damage caused by COVID-19. Indonesia has had more than 12,000 cases of the Coronavirus resulting in the death of nearly 900 people. After considering Indonesia’s population of nearly 270 million people, Indonesia has, according to official statistics, been relatively unaffected by the current … Continue reading "The Fog of Pandemic: Is Successfully Indonesia Fighting COVID-19?"