Neil Irwin, A Recession Isn’t Inevitable: The Case for Economic Optimism
(The New York Times, September 4, 2019)
For those who worry about a quasi-immediate US recession, this article provides some contrarian thinking. It enumerates the really worrisome leading indicators but claims that there are sources of resilience that could keep the expansion going; and concludes that a period of sluggish growth looks more likely than an outright recession. The core argument is that the trade war has so far had the most direct impact on manufacturing and commodity-related industries, which are a moderate share of the overall economy (reads in 6-7 min).
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Robert Kaplan, Asia’s Coming Era of Unpredictability
(Foreign Affairs, September 1, 2019)
Like the article above, this is a deeply contrarian perspective, but this time on the inevitable rise of Asia. The great historian says that the crisis in Hong Kong and the deteriorating relations between South Korea and Japan are just the beginning of a broader period of flux in Asia. He explains why Spykman’s Asian order is starting to crumble and why Asian security can no longer be taken for granted (reads in 8-9 min).
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Sam Knight, Boris Johnson’s Brexit Carnage
(The New Yorker, September 5, 2019)
“It is hard to assess the change and the damage, that Johnson is bringing to British politics in his first weeks in office”. Among the myriad of articles shedding light on the current UK political mess, this short piece (reads in about 5 min) does a great job at explaining what’s going on and what is at stake. The most disquieting bit: “There has been a sense of things—deep, quiet things that are part of British democracy—being broken that will not necessarily be put back together again”.
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Jean Twenge, Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
(The Atlantic, September 2019)
The professor of psychology who’s been researching generational differences for 25 years affirms that the generation born between 1995 and 2012 is more comfortable online than out partying, is safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been; but is also on the brink of a mental-health crisis. She explains how this generation has been shaped by the smartphone and the concomitant rise of social media, and the profound psychological impact this entails – it goes far beyond the usual concerns about curtailed attention spans (reads in about 15 min).
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Peter Singer, Why Climb Mount Everest?
(Project Syndicate, September 5, 2019)
The famous professor of bioethics asks an interesting question of moral philosophy. His argument is that the record number of deaths on the world’s tallest mountain underscores the immorality of seeking to reach the summit. But, he adds, even if you are lucky enough to reach the top without passing a climber in need of help, you are still choosing your personal goal over saving a life (reads in 4-5 min).
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