The writer is dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College
Many people around the world, especially in the US, are focused on the prospect of Covid-19 stimulus packages. But for the long-run health of the world’s nations, the most important pieces of recent economic news may have come from two unexpected places: Puerto Rico and the moon.
On the first morning of December, the Arecibo radio telescope of the US National Science Foundation in Puerto Rico collapsed. In seconds, the instrument’s 900-tonne constellation of radio receivers and girders crashed into the massive radio dish hundreds of feet below. Since its completion in 1963, Arecibo has been among the world’s most powerful radars. It anchored earth’s search for extraterrestrial life; its examination of the heavens contributed to foundational discoveries and Nobel Prizes. But there are no current plans for its rebuilding or replacement.