I have not had much time to devote to blogging this week, but I would like to forward a report I suspect most readers will find as fascinating as I have: the Asian Productivity Organization‘s APO Productivity Databook 2015. I have been slowly leafing through it over the last month; on every page there is a […]
Info-graphic taken from Peter Turchin, “The Double-Helix of Inequality and Well-Being,” Social Evolution Forum (8 February 2013) Recently in a discussion at a different venue I wrote the following: I am extremely pessimistic about the near term (2015-2035) future of both of the countries I care most about and follow most closely, but very optimistic […]
Read this:Ireland’s Debt ServitudeAmbrose Evans-Pritchard. The Telegraph. 30 November 2010. Having done so, please watch this: My comment: It has become increasingly clear that the fate of the Euro project will be decided in the next few months. Even the Union’s strongest defenders (much less its elected and appointed officials!) admit that if the current […]
Philip Klein of the American Spectator explains why: Republican’s Fiscal Fantasyland Philip Klein. American Spectator. 10 October 2010. Republican candidates will discuss the need to cut waste from the budget vaguely while ruling out cuts to entitlements and defense spending. To demonstrate how absurd this is, I put together this pie chart breaking down the […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. THE REPUBLIC American Murder Mystery Hannah Rosen Atlantic Magazine. July 2008. Over the last decade crime rates in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago have all shrunk. A great American success story? Not quite. While the crime rates of the big cities fell, […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. There are quite a few this time, so I thought it would be best to organize them by topic. GRAND STRATEGY New Delhi, Washington: Who gets what? Ashley Tiller. Times of India. 30 January 2010. I do not know how I missed this essay when […]
It seems that the blogosphere has gone and blown itself up again. The catalyst this time around was a stellar (some have called it ‘epochal‘) essay-post by the ever erudite and timely Zenpundit, Mark Sanfranski. Zen has received much praise here in the past, and his latest tour de force does not disappoint. Titled, “The […]
A few older essays – long, but still containing insight: Man from the Margin: Cao Cao and the Three Kingdoms. Rafe de Crespigny. ANU Faculty of Asian Studies. Posted 7 June 2004. Dr. de Crespigny quite literally wrote the book(s) on the later Han dynasty and the “great disunion” that followed its collapse. In this […]
A friend recently asked my position on climate change policy. This lecture by Bjorn Lomborg pretty much nails it. Hopefully I will get to write a bit more on this later in the week; until then enjoy Mr. Lomborg’s presentation. .
The IEA released its Energy Technology Perspectives report this week in Tokyo. By far the most interesting part of the report was its projection for what is required to reach a worldwide 50% emissions reductions by the year 2050: We would need a virtual decarbonisation of the power sector. Given the growing demand for electricity, […]
