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Saturday, 20 May
20:55
10 Weekend Reads "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
The Forgotten Titanic of the Pacific: A tale of disaster, survival, and ghosts. A person prone to superstition might be forgiven for thinking that the Valencia was cursed. Built in 1882, the ship was fired upon the following year near the island of Curaao, and again four years later, this time by a Spanish warship just off the Cuban coast. During the Spanish-American War, it was leased to the U.S. Army and used to transport troops to the Philippines as part of an unofficial effort to aid rebels who, like their Cuban counterparts, were vying for independence from Spain. And in 1905, Captain Johnson ran it aground just outside St. Michael, Alaska; the crew had to move 75 tons of cargo onto another vessel before they could free the Valencia. (The Atavist Magazine)
The return to the office wont save the office: The so-called return to the office has been underway for a while now, and its a bit of a mess. Sure, more people are going to the office more often than they were a year ago, but were still eons away from where we were before the pandemic. And despite the gains in office attendance, many office buildings themselves are in big trouble some of which goes beyond remote work and started long before the pandemic. So despite what youre hearing from some bosses, things will likely never go back to the way they were. (Vox)
AI just killed its first big stock: AI claims its first casualty How to improve the odds of your kid earning a high salary Eighty percent of kids say theyre learning faster with this new tech My favorite way to play the AI education trend (Risk Hedge)
The Swedish theory of love: All countries must balance the freedom of individuals with the demands of the community. Swedens solution is unique. (Aeon)
Apples New Headset Meets Reality: The device has strayed from Tim Cooks original vision, but it will still define the field. (Businessweek)
Chatbots Dont Know What Stuff Isnt Todays language models are more sophisticated than ever, but they still str...
00:30
Weekend long read "IndyWatch Feed War"
1) At the INSS, Raz Zimmt, Carmit Valensi and Sima Shine analyse President Raisis Visit to Syria.
The recent visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Syria marked a significant achievement for Iran, as it was seen partly as a response to the normalization process between Israel and several Arab countries. The visit was presented by both countries as a demonstration of unity amidst a changing regional reality and a victory for the so-called axis of resistance. It took place against the backdrop of the improving relations between Iran and Syria and several Arab states, ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran on Syrian soil, and Irans efforts to enhance coordination among the various elements comprising the resistance axis.
2) Shany Mor discusses how The
UN is distorting the meaning of the Nakba at Unherd.
The transmutation of the Arabs failed effort to wipe out the Jewish state into their own cosmic tragedy, together with the adoption of this counter-narrative by intellectuals and self-styled humanitarians in the West, is noteworthy in itself. But for the UN, and the General Assembly specifically, to play along is particularly ironic for a number of reasons.
3) At the JCPA, Yoni Ben Menachem explains how Islamic Jihad Is Trying to Establish a Rocket Force in Judea and Samaria....
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Friday, 19 May
16:00
Typhoon-battered Philippine town turns to agroecology, agroforestry for food security "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
After their town was devastated by floods in 2004, residents of Kiday in the Philippines shifted to organic methods when rebuilding their farms.
03:46
From Bayanihan to Talkoot: Communal work practices from around the world "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
For all of human history, societies have depended on communal work to sustain themselves into the (often unpredictable) future. However, at a certain point, that all changed. Market forces took over, and communal projects ceased to have the same significance. The individual took precedence over the community, and large public works became the purview of burgeoning states.
The classic North American example of such communal work projects is the Amish tradition of barn-raising, wherein the community gathers to help a neighbor erect their barn without remuneration or any expectation of reciprocity because, as well see, these acts of generosity benefited everyone, not just the barn owner.
Most communal practices have unfortunately faded into obscurity as societies became more atomized, individualistic, and profit-driven. Only a handful of cultures are keeping these traditions alive, albeit in a variety of contexts.
What is communal work?
Communal work refers to a collaborative effort where members of a community come together to achieve a common goal or objective. It involves individuals working together in a shared space to accomplish tasks such as building houses or clinics, organizing events, providing services, or undertaking infrastructure projects. Different cultures have different names for it, such as Talkoot (Finland), Gotong-royong (Indonesia), Nachbarschaftshilfe (Germany), and Bayanihan in the Philippines.
How is communal work different from volunteering?
While communal work, v...
Thursday, 18 May
23:13
How Europes Colonial Legacy is Fueling Tensions in South China Sea "IndyWatch Feed War"
There is not a day that goes by without breaking news on escalating tensions in the South China Sea, as regional powers like Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia increasingly contest Chinas efforts to exert dominance of the strategic waterway through which moves a fifth of global trade. Yet beneath these rising tensions, the spectre of European colonialism lurks undetected.
The unexpected link between present day tensions and past misdemeanors comes through a seemingly obscure international legal dispute which last February resulted in an award of nearly $15 billion against the government of Malaysia, on behalf of nine heirs to a colonial-era Sultanate in the Sulu region of the Philippines.
The award is not only the second largest of its kind in the history of international legal arbitrations, it may also be linked to current geopolitical tensions in the region in surprising ways. According to former NATO analyst Maurizio Geri, the lawyers for the Sulu heirs are closely tied to US tech giants competing with China to dominate subsea cabling routes through which pass the worlds internet data.
Geri claims that apart from traditional trade routes, control of the global internet is the real prize at stake in the South China Sea. Indeed, in early May, US and EU officials wrote urgently to Malaysia citing risks to national security and foreign investment due to a Malaysian government review which could gift Chinas Huawei a major role in building Malaysias 5G network.
He argues that with the Sulu heirs case being financed by unidentified Western investors through the third-party litigation funding firm Therium Capital, it might well exacerbate Malaysian perceptions of Western hostility to Malaysias national interests.
But the case itself is based on flawed misreadings of the history of Spanish and British colonialism in the region. The Sulu heirs rest their case on an 1878 colonial-era land deal in which the sultan leased his territory in the Sabah region of present-day Malaysia to two British colonists for the sum of around $1,000 a year. Malaysia paid the fee until an armed invasion of Sabah by followers of the Sulu heirs in 2013, which resulted in 71 people killed.
The decision of the arbitrator in the Sulu heirs case is premised on the assumption that the 1878 treaty between the Sultan of Sulu and two British colonialists, Alfred Dent and Baron de Overbeck, is the historic legal foundation of modern Malaysias sovereignty over the North Borneo region containing what is today known as Sabah.
Thats just false. British colonial records reviewed by several specialist historians show that the Sultan of Sulu did not in fact have ownership or control over the lands of North Borneo...
14:29
My Conversation with Simon Johnson "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
Here is the audio, video, and transcript. Here is part of the episode description:
Whats more intense than leading the IMF during a financial crisis? For Simon Johnson, it was co-authoring a book with fellow economist (and past guest) Daron Acemoglu. Written in six months, their book Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, argues that widespread prosperity is not the natural consequence of technological progress, but instead only happens when there is a conscious effort to bend the direction and gains from technological advances away from the elite.
Tyler and Simon discuss the ideas in the book and on Simons earlier work on finance and banking, including at what size a US bank is small enough to fail, the future of deposit insurance, when well see a central bank digital currency, his top proposal for reforming the IMF, how quickly the Industrial Revolution led to widespread prosperity, whether AI will boost wages, how he changed his mind on the Middle Ages, the key difference in outlook between him and Daron, how he thinks institutions affect growth, how to fix northern Englands economic climate, whether the UK should join NAFTA, improving science policy, the Simon Johnson production function, whether MBAs are overrated, the importance of communication, and more.
And here is one excerpt:
COWEN: If institutions are the key to economic growth, as many people have arguedDaron and yourself to varying degreeswhy, then, is prospective economic growth so hard to predict?
In 1960, few people thought South Korea would be the big winner. It looked like their institutions were not that good. It was a common view: oh, Philippines, Sri Lankathen Ceylonwould do quite well. They had English language to some extent. They seemed to have okay education. And those two nations have more or less flopped. South Korea took off. Its now, per capita income roughly equal to France or Japan. Doesnt that mean its not about institutions? Because institutions are pretty sticky.
JOHNSON: Yes, I think of institutions as being part of the hysteresis effect, if you can get it in a positive way, that if you grow and you strengthen institutions, which South Korea has done, it makes it much harder to relapse. There are plenty of countries that had spurts of growth without strong institutions and found it hard to sustain that.
You make a very good point......