The greatest educational challenge is how to fight the extremism and groupthink now put on steroids by social media

Sir, Martin Wolf writes: “The belief that a degree is the only qualification that matters has had dysfunctional effects” “Simple-minded economics distorts the education debate”

Absolutely! “Ample evidence exists of graduates doing jobs that used not to need degrees” and all this when robots and artificial intelligence are only warming up.

But, in Venezuela, the educators supposed to educate our youngsters, don’t say a word about that, in a country in which the lack of food and medicines is killing people, petrol (gas) is sold for US$0.01 a litre (4 US$ cents per gallon).

But, in the developed world, reputable finance and economy professors, supposed to educate our professionals, don’t say a word about that the risk weighted capital requirements for banks dangerously and uselessly distort the allocation of bank credit; and as a consequence a Martin Wolf can get away with not writing about these regulations having dysfunctional effects.

What made educators in Venezuela and professors in the developed world behave this way? And what are we to do when all educators are also being further groupthinked and radicalized by political agendas and social media? I really don’t know. But I do know that leaving it in the hands of governments as Wolf seems to suggest, would be a very childish and statist illusion.

(For the time being) I have two beautiful, bright and spiritual (Canadian) granddaughters. They make me spend much time trying to identify a Hogwarts School for them that could help me to keep them magic.

PS. Thinking back I must be so grateful for my parents, and grandparents, to have allowed me to go to a boarding school that, at least during that time, had something of Hogwarts, though luckily without the witchcraft. I refer to Sigtuna Humanistiska Läroverk in Sweden.

@PerKurowski

Do we really know how currencies behave when nude?

Sir, the concerted and concerned called for “We must act when currencies become misaligned” July 6, by four US senators, seems timely and reasonable even though it is hard to detect much real urgency as the unemployment levels in the US are low. In the dark ages, less than forty years ago, these currency imbalances would take care of themselves once the gold had moved over from the strong currency country to the weaker vault, and which made a reshuffle of the exchange rates required in order for the game to go on. Not any longer, now the currencies have no specific backing, they are all naked, which makes the issue much more confusing.

One of the attractions of asking someone else to revalue their currency is that somehow, because of some magic that would make the Hogwarts curricula proud, you seem to avoid having to communicate that you are devaluing yours, or that in essence you are declaring a big domestic salary decrease when measured in international purchase power terms.

The senators rightly say that there is no one single answer to America’s international economic and of course they are right, even though I fail to fully understand how “responsible healthcare” is an instrument of this particular toolbox. Sir, the world has never really been in this territory of major currency misalignments while in a nudist camp, so let us pray that everyone tinkers very carefully with them, while we learn, and at least while it all seems to be working not too bad.