Quick Hits

* Focused, quality, STEM education, even if fairly brief, adds lots of economic value, according to a study of graduates of non-degree "tech boot camps" that basically taught coding to non-computer science majors (not all of whom had four year degrees):

Although graduates of 2U boot camps spent between one-quarter and one-third of what bachelor’s degree-holders typically spend on their programs, boot camp graduates reported earning as much or more money in the year after they graduated.

The median 2018 boot camp graduate without a bachelor’s degree reported earning nearly as much ($55,000) in the year immediately after their boot camp as the median computer science bachelor’s degree graduate ($56,421), and they earned roughly $10,000 more than non-computer science majors ($44,033).3

Boot camp graduates with a bachelor’s degree (which accounts for most of the surveyed graduates) earned even higher salaries — about $5,000 more — than their counterparts with less than a bachelor’s degree. Further, boot camp graduates with bachelor’s degrees are outearning U.S. workers of the same age with a bachelor’s degree.

* Fewer graduate degrees are being awarded in the humanities in the U.S.:

Master’s degrees in the humanities, of which 16,057 were awarded in 1988, rose to 32,584 in 2012, the year they peaked. In 2020, they fell to 26,566, the report said. The number of doctoral degrees awarded also rose and fell during that time. There were 3,110 doctoral degrees in the humanities in 1998. The number rose steadily to 6,010 in 2015 but fell to 5,483 in 2020.

* Out of pocket health care spending is up, especially in the U.K.:

In 1990, out-of-pocket spending by Britons on medical expenses was equivalent to 1 per cent of GDP, while across the Atlantic, uninsured Americans forked out more than twice as much, at 2.2 per cent. Thirty years on, that gap has all but disappeared. Americans’ non-reimbursable spending now stands at 1.9 per cent, and Britons’ has doubled to 1.8 per cent. . . .

Between 2010 and 2020, the portion of UK spending that went on hospital treatments increased by 60 per cent overall, but more than doubled among the lowest-earning fifth of the population. The poorest now spend as much on private medical care as the richest, in relative terms. One in 14 of Britain’s poorest households now incurs “catastrophic healthcare costs” in a typical year — where costs exceed 40 per cent of the capacity to pay. This is up from one in 30 a decade ago.

* From the Economist (paywalled):

So far, the invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for Russia’s armed forces. About 15,000 troops have been killed in two months of fighting, according to Britain’s government. At least 1,600 armoured vehicles have been destroyed, along with dozens of aircraft and the flagship of the Black Sea fleet. The assault on the capital, Kyiv, was a chaotic failure.

* USNI news reports that:

A year ago, the [U.S. Navy] plan was to build two types of USVs [unmanned surface vessels]: a large lightly manned or autonomous that would serve as a missile magazine for the surface fleet and a medium USV that would act as a host for sensors and other payloads smaller than vertical launch cells.

After testing in the Middle East, it now seems that small drone aircraft deployed from a corvette sized, minimally manned arsenal ship can meet most of the sensor needs that medium USVs (think 23' long speedboat sized) were intended to meet. The vulnerability of forward USVs to anti-ship weapons, relative to the vulnerability of forward small drone aircraft is also a factor.

* Japan is fielding a new class of frigates:

Equipped with compact hulls, JS Mogami was built for about 46 billion yen ($352 million) under a contract awarded in October 2018, according to the JMSDF. As with the other ships of the class, the 3,900-tonne vessel will have a crew complement of about 90, a beam of 16.3 meters, and a hull draught of 9 m. . . .

Powered by a combined diesel and gas (CODAG) propulsion system featuring two MAN 12V28/33D STC diesel engines and one Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine, the ships are expected to be capable of attaining a top speed of at least 30 kt.

Armament on the frigates include a BAE Systems 5-inch (127 mm)/62-caliber naval gun in the foredeck of the ship, two missile canisters for a total of eight MHI Type 17 anti-ship missiles, and a Raytheon 11-cell SeaRAM close-in weapon system (CIWS) that can deploy RIM-116C Block 2 Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAMs).

The frigates will also be equipped with variable depth sonar and towed array sonar systems for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations.

Besides anti-air, anti-surface and ASW capabilities, the Mogami class has also been designed to undertake operations as a “mother ship” for an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) and an unmanned surface vehicle (USV), both of which will see the first installment on any Japanese frigate ever. This aims to enhance the UUV’s mine countermeasure (MCM) functions.

A spokesman at the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Agency (ATLA) has confirmed to The Diplomat that the Mogami class will be equipped with MHI’s OZZ-5 MCM autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), used for MCM operations as a UUV. French defense and electronics group Thales has supplied MHI with its SAMDIS Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) for integration on the OZZ-5 UUV. It is being supplied by MHI to the JMSDF as part of the defense cooperation agreement between Direction Générale de l’Armement (France’s defense procurement agency) and Japan’s ATLA. SAMDIS is a high-frequency, high-resolution SAS payload designed specifically to perform detection, classification, and localization of mine threats at sea. The system serves an automatic detection and classification function to alleviate operator workload in processing collected data. The OZZ-5 UUV, which measures 4 m long and 0.5 m wide with a displacement of 950 kg, is equipped with Japan’s NEC-made low-frequency SAS and France’s Thales-made high-frequency SAS combinedly, which is designed to ensure a robust MCM capability for the detection and classification of different mine threats in a range of environments. The UUV is powered by a lithium-ion rechargeable battery.

The frigate also has a manned military helicopter.

Japan's new frigate is half the size of the French designed Constellation-class frigate that the U.S. Navy has started to purchase, and has less than half as many crew (90 v. 200), at a price much less than the $1,260 million for the first ship and $1,060 million for subsequent ships that the U.S. Navy is paying. The Japanese frigate is about 15% faster than the Constellation, but probably has a shorter range.

The Constellation has two rigid hulled inflatable speed boats, a manned helicopter, and a helicopter drone, but no USVs or UUVs, and no anti-mine warfare capabilities.

The Constellation with carry 48 anti-ship missiles (some of which could be traded out for longer range anti-aircraft missiles or missiles to strike ground targets) v. 8 anti-ship missiles for the Japanese frigate, and 21 active defense RIM-116 missiles v. 11 for the Japanese frigate.

The Constellation will have a 2" naval gun v. a 5" naval gun on the Japanese frigate, in addition to smaller arms on both ships. It appears that neither ship will have torpedoes.

* Alcohol consumption is way down in France, mostly to reduced consumption of hard cider and table wine, which was only partially offset with increased consumption of champagne and higher quality wine. Consumption of spirits and beer is also down but only modestly.

The decline in French alcohol consumption is just astonishing. The average French person drinks less than a quarter as much wine today as they did in the 1960s. And look at that cidre decline.

* The Russians didn't have as much money in Switzerland as had been commonly suspected:

Two months into Vladimir Putin’s brutal war of aggression in Ukraine, however, what is remarkable is just how little Russian capital actually seems to be in the Alps. Neutral, inscrutable Switzerland was, perhaps more than any other country, presumed to be the treasure house of the Putin kleptocracy.

But despite Bern having mirrored all of the US and EU sanctions against Russian oligarchs — measures that apply to around 900 people globally — just $8bn of Russian assets in the country have so far been frozen.

Consider, by comparison, that the channel island of Jersey alone has frozen $7bn of assets linked to a single Russian tycoon, Roman Abramovich. 

It is unclear what the total amount of Russian assets seized will end up being, but the $15 billion of assets in these two examples that are part of a much bigger picture, and perhaps dozens of large yachts and private jets, surely adds up to a significant amount of wealth (at a minimum, on the same order of magnitude as Western military aid to Ukraine).

Also, direct seizures don't reflect the immense price that rich Russians are paying as a result of devaluation of their business assets and ruble denominated financial assets as a result of the Ukraine war.

* From Marginal Revolution: "the average Twitter employee generates $677k in revenue.”

* The Mormon Temple in Washington D.C. just completed a major renovation.

* The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision on conservative-liberal lines, has greatly reduced the damages that can be recovered from facilities receiving federal money by disallowing money damages for emotional harm caused by discrimination under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or the Affordable Care Act. This crabbed interpretation argues that discrimination lawsuits arising from federal funding are basically third-party beneficiary breach of contract lawsuits, rather than tort lawsuits.