With Xi’s personal grab of absolute power comes absolute personal responsibility. Understanding the economics of financial panic. Where the young global work force decides to work will shape the future. The dubious ‘benefits’ of luxury surveillance. Why are food allergies on the rise?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Ian Johnson, Xi Jinping Exposed
(Council of Foreign Relations, 23 October 2022)
The China expert argues that the recent Chinese Communist Party congress reflects what may turn out to be a flawed strategy of Xi Jinping: he is putting himself at the centre of everything, which makes him seem strong while vulnerable. Contrary to his predecessors, he’s on the firing line. When things went badly for Mao or Deng, they could jettison underlings who were nominally in charge of various issues. Xi, however, has constructed a system that makes him look strong in the short run but leaves him no place to hide (free access – reads in 4-5 min).
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Paul Krugman, The simple economics of panic: The 2022 Nobel Prize in perspective
(CEPR, 26 October 2022)
A Nobel prize winner (in 2013) puts this year’s prize winners in context. Diamond and Dybvig are rewarded for their 1983 paper analyzing banking and bank runs. There are wide implications: banking (or any financial player with liquid liabilities but illiquid assets) fulfills a productive activity but also creates systemic risks of self-fulfilling panic, unless backed by a public safety net. That same year, Bernanke presented a piece of research that “put empirical meat on the bones of the Diamond-Dybvig model”. They have now been vindicated by the euro area crisis of 2011–12 and the recent turmoil in Britain’s bond market. In each case our understanding of the self-fulfilling panic that was going on was shaped by what “we might call a Diamond-Dybvig-Bernanke frame of mind” (free access – 6-8 min).
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Parag Khanna, There’s a Global War for Young Talent. The Winners Will Shape the Future
(Time, 24 October 2022)
When the world population crosses the 8bn threshold around 15th November, Khanna observes that today’s youth are the most populous demographic. They are also the most mobile, as remote work is becoming ingrained and countries (more than 100 of them) now offer “nomad visas” or residency-by-investment programs seeking to attract talent and wealth from around the world. Much is at stake and competition will soon be fierce: as birth rates decline and the workforce ages, economic success will hinge on whether governments are able to recruit a share of the finite pool of mobile youth to their country (metered paywall – reads in about 7-9 min).
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Chris Gilliard, The Rise of ‘Luxury Surveillance’
(The Atlantic, 18 October 2022)
Surveillance isn’t just imposed on people: many of us buy into it willingly. This is notably the case for Amazon’s ‘ambient intelligence’: technology and devices that slip into the background but are “always there,” collecting information and acting upon it. The author calls this “luxury surveillance – i.e.: surveillance that people pay for and whose tracking, monitoring, and quantification features are understood by the user as benefits. The luxury-surveillance market is huge and diverse, and expanding (metered paywall – reads in 6-8 min).
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Umair Irfan, The mysterious rise of food allergies
(VOX, 21 October 2022)
Food allergies are becoming increasingly common, both in children and in adults, and adding up to a major burden across the health system and the economy. Food allergies are estimated to cost the US economy around $25bn per year. Yet, scientists find it surprisingly difficult to get a handle on even the basics. Read on to understand the role that (too much) hygiene, exposure timing, genetics, and vitamin D deficiency may play in triggering allergies (free access – reads in 5-6 min).
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