George Shultz’s brilliant career as a public servant, economist, Fortune 500 executive, dean of the University of Chicago’s business school and now Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University has helped shape the trajectory of America’s economic and foreign policy throughout the latter half of the 20th century.

It’s a great first step. The digitization campaign announced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will both save money and improve performance. Now, as the details of the plan are being worked out, PM Suga needs to think much bigger. His plan should be expanded in three ways.

Firstly, it should not just apply to intra-government communications and citizens’ contacts with the government for taxes, health care, etc., but to the business world as well. That’s because greater, more effective use of ICT is one of the most powerful things a country can do to boost economic growth.

COVID-19 is the most deadly and confounding world health crisis since the 1918 influenza pandemic which killed as many as 50 million people. Hopes for a better future hinge on the speedy development of effective vaccines and therapeutics. That imperative has brought the enormous challenges of vaccine development to public attention.

On December 17th, The Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asia Policy Studies (CEAP)  hosted a very enriching 90-minute webinar on the prospects of Asia’s future as Washington undergoes a change in government on January 20th. All of the panelists are research fellows affiliated with Brookings: Dr. Richard Bush, Dr. Rush Doshi, Lindsey Ford, Ryan Haas, Dr. Jonathan Stromseth, and Dr. Mireya Solís as the moderator. 

SAN FRANCISCO (Callaway Climate Insights) — Jean Rogers is a Silicon Valley executive on a fast track to change 21st-century capitalism one innovative company at a time. The mind behind the founding of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, Dr. Rogers now works as an adviser at the one-of-a-kind Long Term Stock Exchange — where the intention is to tilt the playing field to help long-haul-minded startups get support and access to capital.

Welcome to the Hale Report and the latest episode of our podcast series. Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Professor Robert J Gordon, the Stanley G. Harris Professor of Economics at Northwestern University. His chosen topic: The Knowns and Unknowns of the Covid Economy. He is an authority on a topic that presents one of the greatest economic puzzles of our time: productivity.

Eleanor Shiori Hughes is an MA Candidate in Asian Studies at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS).  In this report, she details how she recently hosted a webinar for her graduate program with Sean King, Senior VP of Park Strategies and an affiliated scholar at the University of Notre Dame's Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, on the evolution of U.S.-Taiwan relations and its trajectory going forward under the incoming Biden administration. 

Overreactions by Some Governors (and Perhaps President Biden) May Force a Short Contraction Near Year-End; This Would Be Followed by a Big Spring Rebound – Still Reach a New GDP Peak by 21Q3