Partners in Crime
What to Know: Hackers have exposed evidence that the Mexican military has cooperated with the criminal cartels, even selling the cartels weapons.
The TPPF Take: The data is damning.
“The hack of sensitive Defense Secretariat data by self-described ‘hacktivist’ group Guacamaya has put the Mexican government on the defensive, revealing emails, photos, videos, and military intelligence assessments raising alarm over alleged cooperation between prominent politicians and criminal groups,” says TPPF’s Melissa Ford. “It also exposed the secrets of an opaque and hermetic institution, which has long resisted civilian oversight and has been accumulating power throughout AMLO’s administration.”
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Learning Loss
What to Know: ACT scores have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years due to the pandemic school closures.
The TPPF Take: The lockdowns did more harm than good.
“While businesses were shuttered, people were forced to stay home, and schools remained closed, the unintended social and economic consequences were clear: Rising unemployment, learning loss among students, spiking rates of domestic violence, and a pandemic-level rise in drug abuse and overdoses,” says TPPF’s Vance Ginn. “All of that social and economic devastation yielded a minimal impact on health-related suffering due to COVID-19.”
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Coming Up Next
What to Know: Health care price inflation is coming soon, economists say.
The TPPF Take: We can start reining in health care costs by demanding transparency.
“At its invention, the stethoscope was revolutionary—the first non-lethal way of exploring a patient’s internal anatomy,” says TPPF’s David Balat. “It opened a new world to physicians. That’s the goal of the bipartisan Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act—a measure that is completely non-invasive, but that opens up a world of information about how our health care system delivers prescription drugs and what’s driving skyrocketing costs.”
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