First Impressions from Harvard

If the past three weeks are any indication, my year at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow is going to fly by. Among the things I've learned in the first few days:

1) Never bet against the economy. Despite dire predictions in the 1970s, the world's recent unprecedented growth in population has not destroyed the global economy. Effects on environment and social well-being are another story.

2) The gap between rich and poor is not just growing. It's exploding--as even a casual look at the numbers (on life expectancy, fertility, disability and education) shows.

3) We constantly underestimate the importance of things that don't happen. More people have not been born because of China's one-child family policy than died in the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919.