TLP Week in Review, 2/25-3/2
Your weekly summary of what we've been up to here at The Liberal Patriot.
What We’re Reading (and Watching and Listening To…)
“Can Trade Intervention Lead to Freer Trade?”: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Michael Pettis argues that the current global trade regime has been broken for decades and allows imbalanced trade that forces deficit countries like America to indirectly subsidize manufacturing in surplus countries like China. One main possible way to rectify this state of affairs, Pettis observes, is to tax or otherwise control capital inflows from surplus countries.
“A Baffling Academic Feud Over Income Inequality”: How much has income inequality really gone up? There’s quite a debate about this and this Rogé Karma piece does a fine job of unpacking the differing assumptions and data that lead to different estimates from different camps of economists and social scientists. Piketty-Saez-Zucman or Auten-Splinter—or neither? You make the call.
“The Big City Where Housing Is Still Affordable”: New York Times columnist Binyamin Appelbaum details how Tokyo remains an affordable city even as urban agglomerations across the United States price out existing and potential residents. “In the past half century, by investing in transit and allowing development, the city has added more housing units than the total number of units in New York City. It has remained affordable by becoming the world’s largest city. It has become the world’s largest city by remaining affordable.”
Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan: A new documentary about the late, great Shane MacGowan, lead singer of the Pogues. See also their rendition of “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda,” possibly the greatest of all anti-war songs.
Shōgun: A new epic series based on James Clavell’s 1975 novel now streaming on Hulu. Set in turn-of-the-seventeenth-century Japan, the show chronicles the murderous intrigue and contest for power among the island nation’s top feudal lords and scheming representatives of European powers Portugal and England. Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada—you may remember him from such films as The Wolverine, Bullet Train, and John Wick: Chapter 4—stars as the embattled head of one of five major ruling clans.
What We’ve Posted
“The Way Forward on China” by Anonymous, a senior China analyst at a large global organization who wishes to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of their work and position.
“Against Democrats’ ‘What, Me Worry?’ Approach to Losing Working Class Voters” by TLP politics editor Ruy Teixeira.
“Americans Aren’t Paying Close Attention to the 2024 Election” by TLP executive editor John Halpin.
“Preventing a Ramadan Explosion in the Holy Land” by Jonathan Schanzer and Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
“Lessons From the Suozzi Victory in NY-3” by Suozzi pollster Mike Bocian.
Just one more thing…
Space weather alert! Three X-class solar flares—the strongest on the charts—burst in a twenty-four hour period but produced no potentially disruptive coronal mass ejections, only a brief series of radio blackouts.
Plus a compilation of the late comedian and actor Richard Lewis bickering with Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
