Hong Kong — sanctions-buster, grade inflation tricks parents and other commentary |
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Hong Kong — sanctions-buster, grade inflation tricks parents and other commentary
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Conservative: Hong Kong — Sanctions-Buster
“The U.S. can’t stop the illegal flow of oil solely by chasing tankers at sea,” warns The Wall Street Journal’s Jillian Kay Melchior; it must also “target part of the financial and corporate infrastructure” — much of it in Hong Kong — that enables commerce in sanctioned goods. Sanctions regimes “resemble a quarantine” that halts the passage of goods and services, but Hong Kong corporate law permits domiciled firms to “have no business operations” and “exist as shell companies,” facilitating the disguise of ownership under layers of fronts. By weaponizing Hong Kong’s business-friendly heritage into “lawless capitalism,” Beijing has turned the once-free city into “a hub for illicit business” that can “undermine U.S. interests.”
Eye on education: Grade Inflation Tricks Parents
“Actual proficiency rates among eighth graders” in reading and math are now below one-third, and the “problem has gotten worse over the past 15 years or so as grade inflation has increased,” thunder Ariel Kalil & Derek Rury at The New York Times. Meanwhile, “standardized testing . . . is being undermined,” as “several states have recently lowered” the bar for proficiency. So parents can “be paying close attention” to their children’s performance without realizing how little they’re learning, and so seeing “no reason........