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1. Tyler linked to an interesting article on Portugal. This caught my eye:
Then, in 2023, the Immigration Control Agency was dissolved, ostensibly in response to an extremely uncharacteristic display of violence where, in March 2020, two officers beat a Ukrainian man to death in the airport of Lisbon.
No protests followed the unjust death of this man on Portuguese soil. This makes for an illustrative contrast to when, three months later, the June 2020 Black Lives Matter protests were, just in Lisbon, attended by over 5000 people, decrying the death of an African-American man 6000 kilometers away on New World soil.
2. Is there a double standard in the US attitude toward human rights? Is the Pope Catholic?
Consider this: In 2023, suspicion swirled that the Indian government was connected to the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil and a plot to kill a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil—a remarkable set of allegations. Yet even more remarkable than the allegations were the reactions. The U.S. government opted to douse the potentially incendiary fallout, saying little, merely allowing the case to wend its way through the courts. In other words, Indian hubris was accommodated, not chastised. It was a testament to India’s newfound political standing.
What if it had been China?
3. East Asian governments have a new interest in boosting stock markets. I wonder why? Here’s the FT:
Rekindled investor interest in China’s state-owned behemoths would also reflect their continued economic prominence and an ongoing campaign by Beijing to improve financial performance. As their biggest shareholder, the central government stands to benefit from higher valuations and larger dividends.
“SOEs used to have lower revenue growth, lower returns on equity and much higher balance sheet leverage than private companies. But after 2020, we’ve seen SOEs improving,” said Winnie Wu, a strategist at BofA Securities in Hong Kong.
There are parallels with government campaigns in Japan and South Korea to improve stock market valuations, she said, noting that buying into SOEs might suit fund managers with benchmarks that require exposure to China.
4. Disney bought a huge area in central Florida out of frustration that urban development in Anaheim had hemmed in their original Disneyland. But it turns out that even in Anaheim they had much more land than they thought, and plan a 50% expansion into their vast parking lots.
The development agreement the city is agreeing to maps out where new theme park construction could occur over the next 40 years, giving Disney flexibility to determine what exactly would be built – though all still within the footprint of its current properties. The goal, Disney officials say, is to use underutilized land around the resort to build immersive experiences in Anaheim as the company has done elsewhere around the world.
Because of high land prices, suburban parking lots in Orange County have become gold mines.
5. Perhaps our immigration policy should steer clear of whites, and focus on cultures that are more likely to be entrepreneurial, like Hispanics, Asians, and blacks. From the WSJ:
6. The new right faces a problem. If they ever succeed in taking over our institutions, they lack an elite capable of running these institutions. As a result, they might be better off moving away from their current infatuation with government power, and switch to classical liberalism. Here’s John McGinnis:
As a result of the New Right’s mismatch problem, an intensification of the classical liberal program may paradoxically be more likely to achieve indirectly the objectives of the New Right than its own misguided program for more state power. For instance, if the momentum of school choice programs continues, competition may naturally deliver a more patriotic and family-friendly education than government schools, because that is what most parents want. The policy matches sociology: school choice empowers a group more friendly to the New Right (parents) and disempowers a group (teachers—who are more hostile to it).
Similarly, a program of deregulation disempowers bureaucracy and groups within a corporation that are hostile to conservative views. The result is likely to be a less woke corporate world.
7. The WSJ headline says:
Could Fossil Fuels Re-Elect Biden?
But the story says exactly the opposite:
The U.S. economy last year expanded by 2.5%, and while the rest of the press missed it, fossil-fuel producing states led the way. These include North Dakota (5.9%), Texas (5.7%), Wyoming (5.4%), Oklahoma (5.3%), Alaska (5.3%), West Virginia (4.7%) and New Mexico (4.1%). Mining contributed about two to three percentage points to GDP growth in these states.
GDP growth in most other states was sluggish, especially those in the Northeast like New York (0.7%) and New Jersey (1.5%) and the Great Lakes region. Mr. Biden boasts about a Midwest manufacturing boom, but folks aren’t feeling it in Wisconsin (0.2%), Ohio (1.2%), Illinois (1.3%) Indiana (1.4%) and Michigan (1.5%).
Biden’s industrial policy looks like a dud, and the energy states are not the swing states that he needs to win.
8. According to a recent article in the FT, relatively affluent Hong Kong is less technologically advanced than Beijing, capital of a middle income country:
I moved to Beijing this month, one of a trickle of correspondents recently granted entry to mainland China after expulsions and the pandemic drained our numbers. On my first evening, I ordered some paracetamol on the popular delivery app Meituan. It arrived in 20 minutes, brought to my hotel room by an affable, metre-tall white robot. “Thank you, see you again soon,” it chirped before rolling away.
This was a novelty for someone who had come from the technological backwater of Hong Kong, where newspaper stands, trams, diesel engines and cash keep you firmly rooted in the last century. Suddenly, I was thrown into the dazzling array of apps and automation that eases friction in this sprawling metropolis — from services such as ride hailing, housekeeping and food delivery to a hotel elevator equipped with facial recognition technology that automatically whisks me to the correct floor.
Not sure what to make of this, but it’s interesting. (I’d still prefer to live in Hong Kong.)
9. America’s first high speed rail will go from Las Vegas to the bustling metropolis of Rancho Cucamonga. Your tax dollars at work:
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24. April 2024 at 17:23
On #3, imagine if it had been Russia.
On #9, no surprise there. The Feds built a rail recently in Honolulu to alleviate traffic that doesn’t even go to the place that contributes the most to the traffic jams, the university as the flagship, unlike most states, is a commuter campus and traffic is noticably 75% less during both the summer and winter/spring break. Nor does it go to four of the five big Honolulu suburbs. But hey good job DOT, Honolulu now has commuter rail paid for by the Feds.
25. April 2024 at 00:19
ad. # 2:
-no surprise here: abstract universalist principles do not work well in political practice
ad # 5:
– isn’t that exactly the immigration pattern that is beeing experienced? The future should be bright, by that logic..
25. April 2024 at 06:44
#2 Aside from activists who make this their primary issue, my sense is that concern about human rights expressed in the public sphere is nearly always for political propaganda purposes rather than expressing sincerely held beliefs.
The asymmetric reaction to Russia vs. Israel (far more civilians killed and civilian infrastructure destroyed in Gaza vs. Ukraine despite a much shorter war) is instructive. Chomsky documented the usage of this tactic during the Cold War long ago. The idea that the Allied powers, who razed whole cities to the ground and killed millions of civilians, were the good guys and champions of human rights, is downright comical.
#5, I presume this is fairly tongue in cheek, since enterpreneurship is but one of many qualities of a people (charts for crime, out of wedlock births, etc would suggest very different preferred immigration patterns) and we also have to consider the quality of the new business start up (excluding whites historically would have meant no Tesla, Space-X, PayPal, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, Amazon, Cisco, Walmart, plus dozens of more examples… I can’t even name a single prominent corporation founded by a black or latino person though I sure there are some).
#6 I’m not sure what precisely is meant by the ‘New Right’, but the America First strategy is to use social media to shift the overton window and persuade young Americans to join the illiberal right, with the goal of having the best and brightest of these people increasingly infiltrate into elite institutions over the coming decades. If they succeed in that objective (which is admittedly a tall order), presumably they will also be able to operate the institutions they have captured.
25. April 2024 at 07:15
viennacapitalist, Perhaps this explains the recent rise in US business formation.
Justin, I doubt that many of the “best and brightest” will find much appeal in racist ideologies. They tend to live in a cosmopolitan world, where “Muslim bans” have little appeal and Asian immigrants are highly successful.
“charts for crime, out of wedlock births,”
That would suggest that we should exclude whites and focus on Asians?
25. April 2024 at 07:31
Classical liberalism, Scott, requires representation. It requires limited govt that doesn’t coerce; it requires of a bill rights — that means you cannot take my guns, or try to censor me, or setup a dictatorship inside the halls of some supranational, or pack the courts when you don’t get your way, or end the electoral college because it doesn’t help you, or treat people differently predicated upon skin color (your proposal for non-white immigration is not classically libearl). However, classical liberalism does allow you to make racist remarks about white people. According to you, whites are not just privileged, but apparently there also inferior because they’re incapable of starting a business.
Congratulations, you’ve swallowed CRT, hook, line and sinker. Soon, you’ll be calling for extermination camps for the white devil. LOL.
FYI, the new right is the classical liberal party.
MAGA = Classical liberalism. It’s a derivative of the tea party, which is the classical liberal party.
You just don’t know what classical liberalism is which is why your promulgate nonsense. Indeed, on your own blog, you claim to support neoliberalism. Well, I hate to break it to you: you crazy, old, bony man, but Neoliberalism is not classical liberalism.
Your supranational, one-world-nato, is not classically liberal.
You’re calls for funding Ukraine, intervening in a civil war, and increasing the debt by 1T every 100 days is not classical liberalism.
Bush, Romney. McConnell, McCain, and other oligarchs are NOT classical liberals.
Central banks are not classically liberal.
Coerceing americans to take a vaccine is not classically liberal.
Labeling certain businesses “nonessential” and sending police to make sure they remain closed is not classically liberal.
The WHO, WEF, and other thugs that think they have a right to determine our laws and regulations from brussels is not classically liberal.
Learn the difference.
25. April 2024 at 10:26
Scott,
Re (2), could you provide a thesis for how you think about the US’s role in the world and how it should approach China? Trying to get a model for how you think about these issues, as you seem far more dovish than most commentators I read.
P.S. If such a thesis already exists, I apologize and would appreciate your directing me towards it.
25. April 2024 at 12:13
“A group we now call “working class”.”
Brilliant! I often tell my kids: we are living better than the kings of ancient times.
25. April 2024 at 12:39
Andrew, Sure. Completely free trade with China unless they invade Taiwan. If they do, support Taiwan in the same way we support Ukraine, with aid but not troops.
That was also my view of Russia, where I’m viewed as a “hawk”.
25. April 2024 at 15:35
No. 2 But then again, an entirely pious US foreign policy would probably result in the US having been zero allies.
Bharat appear ascendant and more democratic than any other nation in its region.
Modi may not be perfect but do not let perfect be the opposition to good.
Bharat nationalism appears interconnected with rapid economic growth of the subcontinent. They seem to have figured out a code for growth…do Westerners understand Bharat?
26. April 2024 at 11:25
I am SURE that that high speed rail line will only need a grant of $3 billion. Maybe less, if they underspend. High speed rail construction in developed countries has a great record, doesn’t it?
27. April 2024 at 16:17
I thought this moron retired, no?
Nobody at Bentley understood why he ever stuck around. We thought he’d end up working for the CCP. They would certainly find his anti-whiteness and brand of thug-economics more palatable.
As peter mentioned, he’s clueless about everything.
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/peter-schiff-stagflation-is-here-but-theyre-still-clueless-150755/
But I love how he told us Biden was great for the economy, and how inflation was transitory. And how the general public should just listen to their elite masters, because $8 for gas, and $100 for yogurt and eggs is cheap. Sumner thinks we should be thankful they let us eat at all.
I mean, these economists praised Biden for laying off half the work force, for printing money we don’t have, and then when he remployed the workers they called it growth.
That’s hilarious.
#sumnerisclueless
#stagflation
#monetaryeconomistsaretyrants
#endthefed
#makemonetaryeconomistsjoblessandhomeless
And we can do all the above, by simply investing in bitcoin. We don’t need wars. We just need to take them out of the equation once and for all.
29. April 2024 at 20:53
I’m finally reading “The Money Illusion” the book and had a question about the reason that currencies sometimes appreciate during financial crises when those countries have contractionary monetary policy. My initial guess was that this is somehow related to an inflow of capital due to the (relatively) high interest rates but I don’t think that’s always a given. E.g. policy could be contractionary despite low rates.
On a related note: How do you feel about the “flight to safety” story for the appreciating dollar back then? It seems like that’s at best one of several possible reasons?
P.s. How do you feel about potentially blocking some of the insane comments by people like Edward?
30. April 2024 at 09:25
Justin: Despite his career with statistics, Scott relies on an ad hominem racist attack to refute your assertions. When one is woke the reality doesn’t exist in yours. Been to Columbia U. lately, Scott?
Also, not taken into consideration, is the fact that even before 1995 the Government has devoted money and programs to the advancement of non-Whites Its open border policy has resulted in Whites now being a minority. In this light, I am surprised the White number is as high as it is.
30. April 2024 at 11:05
Can, I wonder if “flight to liquidity” is a better description than flight to safety. US TIPS are ultra safe, but fell sharply in price.
I find the Russia trolls to be amusing. I’d say 90% of the time when they say I believe X, my actual views as the opposite. But I have had to limit their number, to prevent the comment section from being completely overrun with these people (many of whom have “harvard.edu” email addresses even as they trash the “elite”.) Thus many have been banned.
Art, LOL, I wasn’t criticizing Justin. We agree that the new right is unlikely to attract smart people, I just gave a reason why.
“resulted in Whites now being a minority.”
Not really, as “white” keeps getting redefined so that they remain in the majority. My Chinese wife has a white daughter. That’s the wave of the future.
2. May 2024 at 08:48
#5 seems like it is clearly a reflection of the stereotype of immigrant small local businesses: dry cleaners, restaurants, lawn services, etc. It may be that these small businesses really are a major contributor to dynamism – I think what we really need to be looking at to see this, however, is the revenue of these enterprises rather than the number.