Social & Living

The New York Times: China’s Cities Are Buried in Debt, but They Keep Shoveling It On. The author points out the problems but describes them as if they were some kind of misunderstanding by Chinese leaders and policymakers that can be easily changed or avoided by coming to a better understanding. But at the root of all these problems is not a subjective lack of understanding of economics and policies but an objective core element… Read More »China’s systemic problems compared to America’s

The word ‘democracy’ has broad meaning, and really isn’t the right word for some of the political contexts debating over the question whether ‘the US is a republic or democracy’. The more accurate expression is that ‘the US is a republic not a demagoguery’. Let’s separate “what it should be” from “what it really is”, and further “what it really is” from “what it was”. These are different things. There is simply no valid dispute… Read More »Republic, democracy and demagoguery

In his book “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, Neil Postman compared Orwell and Huxley: What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell… Read More »The two dimensional Orwellian / Huxleyan vector space

The US is an economy that struggles to produce what people need, while China an economy that produces more than what its people can afford.  This is why, while high inflation rate in the US is not good news, low inflation in China is not either. It all depends on what causes them. Yet, the US resorts to money-creation (printing) to stimulate consumption, while China continues to invest in the supply-side even when such investments are… Read More »What’s wrong with the politicians?