This power dynamic is extremely important for monopsonies where factor mobility is low, as workers cannot easily relocate due to transportation costs, familial reasons, the location of their assets, etc. Thus, immobile factors are extremely dependent on their employer. In addition, as we learned in class, immobile factors feel the effects of changes in trade the most (compared to employers, mobile factors), either for worse or for better.

The European Union's major economies have no doubt avoided this "sharp U-turn" towards greater inequality due to their notoriously high progressive income tax system. In the article below, countries such as Spain, France, and Finland all have top statutory personal income tax rates over 50%.

https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/eu/top-personal-income-tax-rates-europe-2023/#:~:text=es%20have%20a%20progressive%20structure,as%20shown%20in%20today's%20map.

Europe's economic sanctions on Russian oil have sparked reciprocal measures by Russia, as they permanently closed a key gas pipeline to Europe in 2022. This effectively drove up gas prices across the continent, as explained in the article linked below.

Article: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/04/gas-prices-rise-russia-shuts-nord-stream-1-indefinitely

If Russian oligarchs are not reaping the promised rewards of their foreign direct investment in the United States due to sanctions, they will presumably pressure Putin to call off his invasion of Ukraine.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/turkey-subjects-protective-gear-to-export-controls/1754237

This article discusses Turkey's 2020 policy related to the export of personal protection equipment such as masks and goggles. This move was made in order to meet domestic demand, and occurred even before the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Turkey. This policy action was critical to Turkey's protection of its own citizens, but harmed other nations who were more vulnerable to the pandemic/had less stock of personal protection equipment.

It is clear from this article that globalization leads to a highly rewarding but potentially dangerous interdependence between nations. The "drive toward specialization sometimes made substitution difficult, especially for unusual skills or products", meaning that because substitution is difficult for these products, the demand is highly inelastic. Thus, nations are increasingly dependent on each other for said products because of their heightened demand.

The description of this curve reminds me of the principle of diminishing marginal returns. As more money is invested in environmental abatement measures, the marginal returns (total abatement) decrease.

Climate change certainly affects every region of the world, however oftentimes disproportionately. For example, Bangladesh is predicted to lose 17% of its entire land area to rising sea levels by 2050. This would effectively displace approximately 20 million Bangladeshis according to National Geographic. However, in other regions of the world, the climate crisis has not reached such a severe level. Even here in Singapore, we are sheltered from many natural disasters and climate change crises. Thus, the same environmental policies are not warranted across all countries.

Source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/environmental-refugee/

In concurrence with the primary argument of this book (that politics is the make or break of economic development), Singapore's rise from the third to the first world is often attributed to Lee Kuan Yu. His and his administration's vision for Singapore as a global business hub, a republic devoid of corruption, etc. is what thrust Singapore into the first world. Thus, politics is key to economic development, and not necessarily geography as Jeffery Sachs would argue.

This BBC article highlights how Lee Kuan Yu "engineered Singapore's economic miracle": https://www.bbc.com/news/business-32028693

During our inquiry into Topic #1 of this course, we linked economic phenomena in impoverished countries to psychological phenomena, and more specifically psychological theories like that of System 1 and System 2 thinking. Just like how psychology supplements our understanding of the economy, it is clear that understanding politics is also key to answering economic questions. It is easy to apply economic models to "solved political problems", however when attempting to answer unsolved questions relating to global economic development, it is imperative to combine all the social sciences to paint a fuller picture of the situation at hand.

This portion of the text speaks to Mr. Hopkins' example during our lecture in class of school enrollment in rural India. When the deadline for enrollment was pushed to after their harvest had occurred, rural Indian farmers were more likely to send their children to school, as they felt relatively richer compared to their financial situation prior to the harvest. Thus, it is clear that subtle nuances in implementation can have major positive consequences for combating the poverty cycle.

LSE

This blog post from LSE goes more in-depth into how soap operas characters/plots in South Africa were able to influence South Africans' financial literacy in a positive way (i.e. raise awareness about the dangers of gambling, reckless spending, etc.)

In psychology, it is commonly accepted that we use a dual processing model to interpret information and then make decisions. The "system 1" processor is our fast, automatic, and unconscious decision maker that relies on mental shortcuts. Our "system 2" is a much more thorough, slow, and controlled processing system which thus takes more energy and time to use compared to system 1. Therefore, I wonder if poor individuals are more prone to consistently rely on "system 1" than non-poor individuals, as they have less energy that they can afford to spend on methodical decision making (because the opportunity cost is higher for the poor)?