The St Andrews Economist Weekly Edition

With multiple vaccines now on offer to tackle COVID-19, there is finally optimism in the current pandemic. Yet its economic impacts will be felt for years to come. In “Saudi Vision 2030: the impact of COVID-19”, Claudia Baldelli considers how Saudi Arabia will cope, and what future the Saudi 2030 vision—a strategic plan to diversify the economy away from oil—has in this new economic climate.

COVID-19 is also the focus of Saskia Giraud-Reeves. In “Fiji: A Billionaires Paradise?” she looks at how it has reshaped Fiji’s economy, with their focus on attracting billionaires to help bolster their struggling economy.

Perhaps some of these billionaires might come from California. Home to 165 of them, Charlie Flynn showcases in “Taxes and Tent Cities: The State of the California Dream” the wealth and success of the Golden State, but also its ugly underbelly, with its suffocating cost of living and skyrocketing homelessness problem.

How do billionaires get so rich? While not the full source of their wealth, minimising or dodging their tax bills certainly makes the job easier. In “The Art of Tax Evasion”, Piroska Horvath explains how the art market is used in a legal (but morally questionable) manner to lower wealthy individuals’ tax bills.

Over in the United Kingdom, debate still rages on HS2—a costly planned high speed rail link to connect the north and south of England. Olivia Groom takes on the difficult task of analysing whether or not the high cost of the project outweights the benefits in “HS2: A Waste of Money or a Great Investment?”.

Finally, there still exists a huge gender disparity, not only among athletes, but also in their coaches and the businesses that make up the sports industry. In “Kim Ng: Women and the Business of Sport”, Claire Nelson celebrates Kim Ng—the first ever woman to become a manager of a US professional baseball team. Claire examines the huge progress still to be made in advancing women in the sports industry, and points out the obvious moral and less-obvious economic benefits that gender parity would bring.

For more current affairs, check out The World This Week to see our Section Editors’ survey of the latest news stories.

Middle East & Africa