Nov & Dec '24

The most controversial Nobel prize in recent memory.

In my own research, I have found that countries with technology-driven, high-growth economies share one thing in common: a powerful sense of external threat. Some fear invasion; others worry about being cut off from a vital economic input, such as energy, food, and investment capital. Taiwan’s very existence is threatened by China, as was Israel’s after the Arab states began to unite around it. These two countries needed to build high-tech defense industries at home and earn money to purchase advanced weapons systems produced abroad.

How did such a demonstrably incorrect thesis win the Nobel Prize? In part, I suspect, because it tells the story that many educated Westerners want to hear about democracy. We want to live in a world where democracy cures all. But if democratic nations overpromise what democracy can achieve, they risk delegitimizing it.

Notes on Trinidad and Tobago.

Concubines:The key to dynastic China’s success.

It’s not uncommon for friends to gift each other concubines when their bro is looking particularly down. If three noblemen tell you that they’ve had five, eleven, and nine concubines each respectively, that doesn’t mean there were actually 25 unique women involved.