Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

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

Talk of the pandemic dominated this week's annual meetings of the American Economics Association.

COVID era behavior has revealed some of the disciplines' failings. Turns out big global shocks tend to provide a needed dose of economic reality.

And Aggitou Gudeta made great use of overlooked resources in Northern Italy,

turning forgotten land and a few goats into award-winning cheeses and a beloved social enterprise.

Our obituary editor reflects on her inspiring life and untimely death.

But first, dozens of pro-democracy politicians and activists were arrested in Hong Kong this week under the Territory's new security law.

We have arrests of 53 persons or the offences of a suffice under the National Security Law.

On Wednesday, more than a thousand officers were dispatched to arrest people involved in unofficial primary elections last year.

They had hoped eventually to gain a pro-democratic majority in the legislative council or LEGCO.

Among those arrested was John Clancy, an American citizen. It was the first time the law had been used against a foreigner.

He was released yesterday without further charge.

And a prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong, who was already in prison for his role in last year's protests, was reportedly re-arrested and taken to a detention center for questioning.

It's not the first time that the police have been willing to use the new law to clamp down on activists, but it is a major escalation.

Well, the National Security Law was imposed directly by Beijing last June and its point was first of all to put an end to the anti-government protests that had roiled the Territory in 2019.

Dom Ziegler is our Asia colonist and is based in Hong Kong.

The second point of the law is to cut the democratic opposition down to size and to eradicate any threats that the Communist Party in Beijing might perceive to its own rule.

The act criminalizes things like succession, subversion and colluding with the foreign power.

And the sentences are potentially steep, anything between 10 years and life for the most grievous crimes.

So how has that law been used since it was implemented?

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