The economics of prostitution. Sex, lies and statistics, in The Economist.
Pimps, who are often women, tend to follow a business plan. They impose rules, such as “no drugs” or “no young clients” (who are more likely than older men to be violent). They are flexible with pricing, offering special deals for loyal customers and swiftly adapting to economic downturns. A third of pimps delegate management, training and even recruitment to an experienced employee called a “bottom girl”. About 15% admitted to beating up their staff. Others, however, thought violence was bad for business. One pimp said: “One bad girl can knock your whole stable loose. Get rid of the bad apple. If I needed to hit them, I didn’t need them.”
Law enforcement in the United States. Armed and dangerous, in The Economist.
That does not mean getting rid of SWAT teams entirely. But it does mean restricting their use to situations where there are solid grounds to believe that the suspect involved is armed and dangerous. They should not be used to serve search warrants on non-violent offenders, or to make sure that strip joints are code-compliant, or in any circumstance where a knock on the door from a regular cop would suffice. The “war on drugs” is supposed to be a metaphor, not a real war.
Tierras raras: Aplicaciones militares e implicaciones estratégicas, en Rojo y Gualda.
Desde 2011 la legislación presupuestaria en vigor relativa a la defensa de EEUU (National Defense Authorization Act) establece que las tierras raras constituyen un recurso crítico para la producción, el sostenimiento y la operatividad de una parte significativa de la base industrial de la defensa y de los sistemas militares estadounidenses. El Departamento de Defensa de EEUU estima que sólo las necesidades actuales de consumo de estos elementos para usos militares rondan las 175 toneladas anuales.
How to build a guerrilla communications network, in One Free Korea.
The article is interesting in other ways, such as how the Zetas managed to corrupt police, soldiers, and ordinary citizens to serve as spies or soldiers in its network. Of course, North Korea is a state built around internal control, and it’s specifically designed to defend against just this sort of subversion. But a movement that can provide for the most vulnerable elements of the population always has the potential to take root, and to expand its reach to the lower rungs of North Korea’s songbun system.
¿Por qué se desploma el Cobre? Por Daniel Lacalle.
En el año 2011, Chile representaba el 34% de la producción mundial de cobre, aproximadamente el 19% de los ingresos públicos de país. EEUU es el cuarto mayor productor de cobre del mundo, después de Chile, Perú y China, y Australia es el quinto. Todos tienen como objetivo aumentar la producción y tradicionalmente buscan producir mas cuando cae el precio para mantener los ingresos, típica actitud pro cíclica de los productores de materias primas.
