QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Zongyuan Zoe Liu, China’s Real Economic Crisis
(Foreign Affairs, 6 August 2024)
Western observers have put forward a variety of explanations to explain why the Chinese economic recovery is faltering: (1) a sustained real estate crisis, (2) China’s rapidly aging population, (3) Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on the economy and (4) above all the decades-old economic strategy that privileges industrial production over everything else. This article focuses on the latter, which over time has resulted in enormous structural overcapacity. Put simply: “China is producing far more output than it, or foreign markets, can sustainably absorb. As a result, the Chinese economy runs the risk of getting caught in a doom loop of falling prices, insolvency, factory closures, and, ultimately, job losses” (metered paywall that may require prior registration, reads in 9-11 min).
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David Wallace-Wells, Food as You Know It Is About to Change
(The New York Times, 28 July 2024)
The world as a whole is facing a “food polycrisis.” Agricultural yields are still growing, but not as quickly as they used to and not as quickly as booming demand requires. Rates of undernourishment have grown 21% since 2017, while obesity has continued to rise. Worldwide, real wholesale food prices have risen about 50% since 1999, while also becoming much more volatile. But disruption is only half the story. Adaptation and innovation will transform the global food supply, too. The pressure on the present food system is not a sign that it will necessarily fail, only that it must change. Read on: packed with insights and visuals (gifted article, reads in 10 min+).
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Rachel Cohen, The movement desperately trying to get people to have more babies
(VOX, 30 July 2024)
An in-depth, well researched article, on pronatalism: the broad ideological movement driven by concern that the world is not producing enough children, and that society should work to change that. As many countries all around the world are grappling with plummeting fertility, the political and economic risks of depopulation are coming to the fore, embraced by policymakers and analysts alike. Not all pronatalists are politically conservative, and not all conservatives are particularly pronatalist, but the movement is gaining traction among many conservatives (free access, reads in 8-10 min).
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Eric Beecher, My flirtation with Murdoch only lasted two years before my moral compass became too dysfunctional
(Crikey, 31 July 2024)
About the danger of moral fading. This extract from Beecher’s new book describes his first exposure to the subterranean world of media moguldom. The quote that captures it all: “Until I joined News Corp, I’d never had to think about what ethicists describe as ‘moral fading’, the self-deception created by behaving unethically while maintaining the appearance of being good and moral… In the Murdoch universe … they don’t talk about ethics and moral behaviour because such a discussion would inevitably collide with the company’s true mission: to make money at all costs” (free access, reads in 8-10 min).
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Silvia Stellacci, Dolce & Gabbana launches a new perfume for dogs, but some vets and pet owners are skeptical
(Associated Press, 8 August 2024)
A segway to the article above and our moral compass becoming dysfunctional. What does this tell us about ourselves? Dolce and Gabbana just put on the market a new alcohol-free perfume for dogs that costs €99 for 100 millimeters. Not all vets and pet owners agree it’s safe or appropriate (free access, reads in 3 min).
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