Exporting can’t solve China’s economic issues. Incumbents are faring badly in 2024 elections, the European elections will be no exception. If the technology exists it will be used. Nigel Farage and the ’Trumpification’ of the UK Conservative party. A young male mental health crisis going largely unnoticed.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Alicia Garcia-Herrero and Alessio Terzi, China’s Economy Cannot Export Its Problems Away
(Project Syndicate, 31 May 2024)
China’s large trade surplus and huge share of global exports are not a sign of strength, quite the opposite. They stem from the government’s inability to increase domestic consumption by reducing the domestic savings rate, which is far too high. If left unresolved, this problem will cripple China’s rise to high-income status at a time when China’s rivalry with the West is intensifying. China is now seeking to increase exports to the Global South, but the mood is changing there too. Brazil, India and others are worried about being flooded with Chinese goods and considering their own trade safeguards. If Chinese leaders think that boosting exports of manufactured goods will mitigate the economy’s structural deceleration, they are in for a rude awakening (metered paywall that requires prior registration, around 10 min).
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Zachary Basu, Voters everywhere rage against the incumbents
(Axios, 6 June 2024)
2024 is the biggest election year in human history (80 in total), with, so far, an anti-incumbent backlash, whether it’s in India, South Africa or South Korea (but not Mexico). This weekend’s elections for the European Parliament should be no exception, with the far-right populists expected to win. It’s hard to tell which is the greater source of anger: economic insecurity or disinformation? Surely a bit of both (free access, reads in 4 min).
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Dhruv Mehrotra, The Age of the Drone Police Is Here
(Wired, 5 June 2024)
Drones are everywhere, changing warfare and security. This investigative piece explores the complicated picture of the trade-offs between public safety and privacy. Based on more than 22 million flight coordinates, it reveals the complicated truth about the first full-blown police drone program in the US, and what might be coming next. Our take-away: when a technology is available, it will almost certainly be deployed (metered paywall, 7-9 min).
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Adrian Wooldridge, The Return of Nigel Farage Is the UK’s Worst Nightmare
(Bloomberg, 4 June 2024)
A “darkly charismatic figure”, a “consummate political operator who knows how to make the political weather”, “Farage is Sunak’s nightmare made flesh”. In the upcoming British elections, the architect of Brexit aims to do for the Tories what Donald Trump has done for Republicans. Superbly written and a great explainer of why a “Farage-flavored defeat will hasten the Trumpification of the Conservative Party” (gifted article, reads in 6-7 min).
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Ruth Whippman, Boys Get Everything, Except the Thing That’s Most Worth Having
(The New York Times, 5 June 2024)
And that is: human connections. The author of “Boymom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity” (and mother of three boys) argues that “a male mental-health crisis was flying under the radar” because so many boys seem ‘desperately’ lonely and isolated. While researching her book, she concluded that there are “a lot more unhealthy men than unhealthy women.” In the US, over a quarter of men under 30 say they have no close friends, while teenage boys now spend two hours less a week socializing than girls and they also spend about seven hours more per week than their female peers on screens (gifted article, reads in 6-8 min).
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