Immigration, The Lira, and Pineapple Diplomacy

Demography Unplugged with Neil Howe

In this latest issue of my weekly podcast, we discuss Biden's immigration strategy. Currently, the White House is using former President Trump's executive orders (notably Title 42) to handle the nearly 6,000 daily border crossings. But what's Biden's long-term plan? It largely mirrors the 2013 Senate bill, penned by the "Gang of 8." Undocumented immigrants could become citizens if they pay taxes, take a background test, and work in the US for an additional eight years.

Turkey's Lira tumbles. Over the weekend, President Recep Erdogan fired central bank head Naci Agbal. In response, the Turkish Lira fell nearly 15% on Monday. The country has always had a problem with irregular CB management. And Erdogan, like all populist autocrats, hates CB heads unless they can keep interest rates low.

#FreedomPineapple. In late February, China tried to squeeze the Taiwan economy. They banned the importation of pineapples from the island. In response, the Taiwan government asked locals and other Asian countries to buy its fruit in a new #FreedomPineapple campaign. In a few days, pineapple orders surpassed the total number shipped to China in all of 2020. Japan was one of the biggest buyers.

More baby bust evidence. According to a new CBS analysis of annual data from 32 US states, births were down by 95,000, or about 4.4%, in 2020 compared to the year before. This is in line with our prior estimate for 2020. Of the states with data available, all of them reported a drop in births except New Hampshire.

Opioid deaths make a resurgence. Opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. have surged during the pandemic. In 2020, the death toll from all drug overdoses climbed to its highest level ever, with opioids accounting for 73% of those deaths.
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