America has boomed even as its trade war with China has escalated. Germany has withstood the loss of Russian gas supplies without suffering an economic disaster. War in the Middle East has brought no oil shock. Missile-firing Houthi rebels have barely touched the global flow of goods.
Between the schools of thought "best lies have a hint of truth" and "the big lie" this one definitely subscribes to the latter. Literally every sentence is the opposite of reality.
America has boomed even as its trade war with China has escalated. Germany has withstood the loss of Russian gas supplies without suffering an economic disaster. War in the Middle East has brought no oil shock. Missile-firing Houthi rebels have barely touched the global flow of goods.
Literally almost all of this is wrong
where might is right and war is once again the resort of great powers.
gestures vaguely in the direction of the tens of millions of corpses piled up by western powers since the end of ww2
A subsidy war is under way, as countries seek to copy China’s and America’s vast state backing for green manufacturing.
This is bad or a worrying sign?
The return of Donald Trump to the White House, with his zero-sum worldview, would continue the erosion of institutions and norms.
Donald Trump is the norm and perfectly represents the values of liberalism and its fetid institutions.
But the achievements of the 1990s and 2000s—the high point of liberal capitalism—are unmatched in history. Hundreds of millions escaped poverty in China as it integrated into the global economy.
Schrodinger's china. Authoritarian and communist when libs bray for more sanctions and tech wars, liberal and capitalist when it comes to its undeniable economic achievements.
The latest research shows that the era of the “Washington consensus”, which today’s leaders hope to replace, was one in which poor countries began to enjoy catch-up growth, closing the gap with the rich world.
Virtually all of this growth occurred under anti-liberal economic regimes and Eastern Europe recovering from the liberal imposed collapse of the 1990s. The track record of liberal economic policies is a steaming pile of dogshit, and the only reason the liberal political order is collapsing at all is because people cannot stand the smell anymore.
Only liberals can achieve the miraculous feat of being handed a whole world free of major enemies and squander it in less than 30 years.
Without trust and an institutional framework for co-operation, it will become harder for countries to deal with the 21st century’s challenges, from containing an arms race in artificial intelligence to collaborating in space. Problems will be tackled by clubs of like-minded countries. That can work, but will more often involve coercion and resentment, as with Europe’s carbon border-tariffs or China’s feud with the IMF. When co-operation gives way to strong-arming, countries have less reason to keep the peace.
True, so you should do more to preserve this order, no? Instead of resorting to coersion to solve all problems?
In the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party, Vladimir Putin or other cynics, a system in which might is right would be nothing new. They see the liberal order not as an enactment of lofty ideals but an exercise of raw American power—power that is now in relative decline.
You cannot simultaneously claim that your order was based on mutual trust and also that the biggest "partners" you were supposed to be collaborating with see your order as an imposition fueled by raw force.
It is true that the system established after the second world war achieved a marriage between America’s internationalist principles and its strategic interests.
The internationalist principles of ceaseless war and genocide?
Buttressed by strong growth in America, it may seem as if the world economy can survive everything that is thrown at it.
Imagine hoarding the entire world’s surplus value just to use it all up to build boats mcmansions and country clubs for the aristocracy. The faster such a grotesque society crumbles, the better for humanity and life itself. The perfidious yankees will pay the price.