Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Good grades just aren't enough anymore in the grand rat race of education. In some East

Asian countries, the competitiveness has become so all-consuming that governments are having

to step in. And there's a sense among many critics that novels these days should tackle

big contemporary issues. Our culture editor considers Sally Rooney's latest work finding

great fiction in a narrower focus on the timeless topics of love and growing up.

But first, in El Salvador today, a world first, Bitcoin becomes legal tender. It's a personal

campaign for President Naive Bukhale, who says the move will help both economic development

and inclusion of the country's unbanked. That will take some convincing. Both the World

Bank and the IMF have warned against the move, worrying about economic stability and the

cryptocurrencies' notorious environmental costs. Many Salvadorans aren't keen either

and have protested against the policy. And when Nelson Raúra, who writes about El Salvador

for the economist, went out in the capital, San Salvador, he found plenty of people who

simply weren't ready.

Store owner Carolina Zavila said she wasn't preparing for what's being called B-Day because

she doesn't understand it. She reckons she'll eventually catch up as she did 20 years

ago when the country made the US dollar the official currency.

Some though are embracing the change. The town, Antigua Cusquatlan, just outside San

Salvador, a store run by Adela Abendano has been taking Bitcoin for months, selling

mostly to foreigners. So she walked Nelson through the purchase.

The economist's Wall Street correspondent Alice Fullwood says it's a bold experiment

...