By Peter Ward March 4, 2016
War Chest
Weapons haul seized by African troops in Afghanistan. © Defence Images
Can a for-profit military end up profiting the enemy? General David Petraeus encouraged throwing money at Afghanistan to help buy peace, something he believed had worked during his command in Iraq. But in Afghanistan, the strategy may have backfired. A New Yorker article published this week investigates how U.S. money pumped into Afghanistan through private military contracts fueled corruption and ended up in the hands of the Taliban.
Matthieu Aikins, a veteran feature reporter in the Middle East, tells the story through the life of Hikmatullah Shadman, or Hikmat. A former interpreter for U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan, Hikmat ultimately earned more than $160 million over five years fulfilling private trucking contracts for the U.S. military.
Although Hikmat is originally portrayed as an underdog, evidence begins to build that he may be guilty of some of the illegal practices that have blighted the private contracting business during America’s war in Afghanistan. These include bribing U.S. army officials for contracts, stealing fuel, and using money from U.S. contracts to pay off local warlords and the Taliban to ensure security.
Aikins uses courtroom documents, a book written by a former Special Forces officer, his own interviews with Hikmat and other sources to tell the story.
Hikmat’s story fits into a wider tale of corruption in Afghanistan under U.S. occupation. Aikins quotes U.S. soldiers convicted of taking bribes from contractors. Khalid Pashtoon, a member of parliament in Afghanistan, suggests Hikmat was simply unlucky. “It’s not only Hikmatullah Shadman—there were so many contractors that did the exact same thing that Shadman did,” he says. “The only problem was that Shadman was captured.” He adds, “Hikmat was like a milking cow: everybody tried to suck his milk.”
China Break Down
Grassland in inner Mongolia. © Xianyi Shen
China’s economy has been growing at an average rate of 10% for the past 30 years—an astonishing rate of growth during a period where the global economy has chugged along at an average rate of 3.6%. As has been widely covered in the media, that runaway growth finally hit a roadblock last year. But do you know what this really means on the ground in China? Bloomberg set out to explain in this data interactive published Monday.
The interactive starts with an excellent map of China. Readers can zoom in on individual regions, such as Beijing, Inner Mongolia or Tibet, to call up the key industries contributing to the local economy, as well as regional population figures and recent GDP growth figures.
The map shows, for example, that the Rustbelt Northeast, where the majority of the country’s heavy industry is concentrated, has been hit by the economic slowdown the hardest. Other regions, such as Chongqing and Guizhou, are still enjoying strong GDP growth, with the former benefitting from expansion in high-end manufacturing.
Several other interactive and static graphs paired with that map illustrate China’s struggle to meet GDP growth targets, its aging population and how its economy is shifting towards services, away from manufacturing. The graph shows that more than half of China’s economy is now made up of services, such as barbers and baristas.
Together the various maps offer a look at how the Chinese economy is shifting as it slows.
Universal Basic Income Explained
Helsinki, Finland. © Jonathan
Science fiction has long held a fascination with robots and the possibility they will one day destroy us. But a more likely reality is that they will come for our jobs first. With more and more jobs eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence, some within the U.S. technology industry are proposing universal basic income, according to a recent article in the New York Times.
The idea itself is fairly simple: taxpayer funded “universal” paychecks every month, to cover basic living costs, for all citizens. But implementation would likely be difficult in the U.S. Of course, several countries in northern Europe are already taking the idea seriously. Several Dutch cities are set to introduce a basic income this year; Switzerland will hold a referendum about it in June; and in December it was reported that the government of Finland had ordered a study of the potential impact of adopting universal basic income.
Those backing the idea say that it will simplify the social security system. The major driver behind the idea, however, is the potential to lower unemployment. If people have the security of a basic income, advocates argue, they will be economically free to take on lower paying jobs. This could become increasingly popular as ‘gig economies,’ where people work on a freelance basis for companies such as Uber, rise across the world.
Universal basic income is usually associated with left-leaning thinkers, but recently prominent venture capitalists and Silicon Valley figures have expressed their support for the concept. Sam Altman, president of technology startup incubator Y Combinator, proposed to fund research into basic income, and Albert Wenger, a venture capitalist at Union Square Ventures, is writing a book about the benefits. Proponents of the system from the technology sector believe that the rise of artificial intelligence will actually be a boon to society, by improving productivity and boosting GDPs, and allowing people to work less.
Some, however, have claimed that Silicon Valley is one of the biggest obstacles to a universal basic income, as technology companies work against the social infrastructure that would make a basic income plausible, such as corporation tax and universal healthcare. To offer a whole nation a regular paycheck would require a rethink of taxes and welfare as well, and corporations would likely have to pay their way, while healthcare would have to be rethought in the U.S. in particular to ensure all of the basic income wasn’t spent on private health insurance. Universal basic income has plenty of critics, of course, too, who say that it would discourage productivity and raise unemployment.
Corporate Plan for Workers’ Comp Faces Hurdles
Inside the Walmart Supercenter in Albany, the largest Walmart in the United States. ©Matt H. Wade. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
A nation-wide campaign devised by some of America’s biggest companies to “opt out” of state worker’s compensation programs-designed to pay workers for injuries sustained on the job-faced a major setback last week in Oklahoma. An Oklahoma law allowed companies in that state to write their own worker’s comp plans, but this was ruled unconstitutional by an Oklahoma commission last Friday.
In recent years companies like WalMart and Lowe’s have been pushing states to let them create their own worker’s comp plans, promising that they would offer greater benefits under a more efficient system. But the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission called that notion in its ruling “a mirage.”
The ruling follows an investigation by ProPublica and NPR that found that almost all of the workers compensation plans in the corporate system had lower benefits and more restrictions than the current state workers’ comp. The investigation is part of a wider look at workers’ comp by ProPublica launched in March of last year.
This Week’s Top Headlines
Oil and gas industry has pumped millions into Republican campaigns – Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson, The Guardian
Brazil’s economy shrank 3.8% in 2015 – BBC News
Shale Pioneer McClendon, Charged in Bid Rigging, Dies in Crash – Joe Carroll and Dan Murtaugh, Bloomberg News
Miramax sold to Qatar-based beIN Media Group – Robert McLean, CNN Money
Mortgage rates move higher on positive economic news – Kathy Orton, Washington Post
Sports Authority files for bankruptcy protection – Nathan Bomey, USA Today
World’s 20 richest people are $70bn poorer, says Forbes – Graham Ruddick, The Guardian
U.S. jobless claims rise, but labor market firming – Lucia Mutikani, Reuters
Dow, DuPont CEOs to get $80 million in ‘golden parachute’ payouts – Amrutha Gayathri, Reuters
Facebook investigated over market-power abuse claims – BBC News
