ECOFIN

Hi delegates! We're less than a week away from BMUN and we're so excited to meet all of you soon! This article came out in the Washington Post a few days ago regarding Venezuela's attempt at fighting its inflation by launching its own cryptocurrency (what a great amalgamation of both our case studies!) So far, Venezuela has been able to raise almost $1 billion but what are your opinions on this "Petro" coin? Article: " Venezuela launches the ‘petro,’ its cryptocurrency" by Rachelle Krygier See y'all soon! Sherry

Hello delegates! The Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford and ETH Zürich released a paper in November of last year around the long-term effect of refugee employment bans. The link to download the paper can be found at https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers/long-term-impact-employment-bans-economic-integration-refugees . Although it seems lengthy, I’d like to direct you to the Introduction (pages 3-5) and Discussion (pages 11-12) sections as likely the most valuable for your purposes – the rest of the paper largely concerns a case study on Yugoslav refugees who arrived in Germany in 1999 and 2000 which may be enlightening but mostly concern details about the study and how it was conducted.  See you all at conference next week! Hubert

Hello delegates! With the hockey portion of the Winter Olympics just underway, I’d like to introduce you all to one of the defining moments of Canadian history - Paul Henderson’s game-winning goal in the deciding game of the 1972 Summit Series against the USSR. Although rarely mentioned in the US, Henderson’s goal(and the picture above especially) is etched in Canadian lore as unquestionably  the greatest moment in Canadian history, although Crosby’s Golden Goal in the 2010 Olympics is undoubtedly more ingrained in our generation.  Even though the NHL embarrassingly isn't going to the Olympics this year, Canadians will still rally behind our time like always, including this somewhat isolated Canadian in California! Hubert

Hello Delegates, I want to mention couple important things on resolutions. First, we need at least one sponsor per resolution. Second, we need 20% of committee to be the signitories of your resolution. Third, for unfriendly amendment, we just need 10% of the committee to agree upon your changes. On the other hand, BMUN's mission is teaching. We will try our best to give you guys suggestions and tips. Hence, you don't need to be nervous during the conference, since we will always help you. Zishen Liu

Hello Delegates, In order to fully understand the topic of cryptocurrency, I suggest you guys to read the following article: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-mine-cryptocurrency-make-bitcoin-without-knowing-anything-2018-2/#before-anything-you-have-to-make-sure-you-have-the-right-gear-1 It is a short passage on how to mine cryptocurrency. I hope this article will give you general ideas about what the cryptocurrency is and hope you enjoy it! See you at the conference! Zishen Liu

Hello delegates! BMUN launched its Learn platform this year, which can be found at http://learn.bmun.org . This is a great resource with a plethora of information ranging from conference prep such as questions to consider when doing research to in-committee information such as tips when giving speeches. I highly encourage all of you to take a look whether this is your first or hundredth MUN conference!  Again, please feel free to contact me or any of the other dias members if you need any help or have any questions! Hubert

Hello delegates, The author, Eiko Thielemann, released a paper in December 2017 on misallocation of refugees in EU. The link to the paper is http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcms.12662/full . Even though it seems lengthy, I’d like you to look at the attached diagrams of section I and read carefully through section II and III. You can skip the rest of sections because they are author's ideas for the future refugee allocations. I don't want these ideas to affect your opinions and would like to see some novel ideas from you. See you all at conference! Zishen Liu

Hello delegates! Many of you have likely heard of the hype surrounding technologies such as Blockchain. But what exactly is Blockchain anyway? The Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at UC Berekely published a paper in 2015 regarding Blockchain, available at http://scet.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/BlockchainPaper.pdf . Although parts of the paper are rather dense and technical, the paper’s introduction (pages 3-4) is a must-read, presenting a succinct overview of one of the most important technologies today. Notice that the paper highlights Blockchain’s distributed consensus (it’s verifiable and permanent) and anonymity. These features of Blockchain are paramount to its success as one of the key drivers behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The paper goes on to highlight numerous examples of both financial and non-financial applications of Bitcoin, which you may find useful in formulating your positions.  Also, don't forget that position paper