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    How Exceptional Is China’s Crony-Capitalist Boom?

    Yuen Yuen Ang

    While both the American and Chinese Gilded Ages raised material standards of living for hundreds of millions of people, their endemic corruption produced radically unequal and unsustainable growth. Ultimately, both periods offer cautionary tales about unbridled crony capitalism, not models for blind emulation.

     explains how corruption both drove the country's GDP growth and sowed the seeds for its current economic problems.
  2. bp india election Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images
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    Will India’s Election Destroy Its Democracy?

    Featured in this Big Picture

    Gaurav Dalmia, Ashoka Mody, Shashi Tharoor, Pranab Bardhan, Debasish Roy Chowdhury

    Since taking power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have stoked Hindu nationalism, hollowed out India’s democracy, and overseen an economy that is probably performing far worse than official figures suggest. And yet Modi and the BJP are genuinely popular, making them likely – though not certain – to emerge victorious when the ongoing parliamentary election concludes in June.

  3. zizek30_Fatima ShbairGetty Images_gaza Fatima Shbair/Getty Images
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    Protests of Despair

    Slavoj Žižek sees the pro-Palestinian student demonstrations as a signal of a much deeper, widespread malaise.
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    Getting the Pandemic Treaty Across the Finish Line

    Gordon Brown hopes negotiations will conclude this month, and pushes back on a last-minute wave of misinformation.
  5. rodrik222_Kevin FrayerGetty Images_china solar panel Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
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    Don’t Fret About Green Subsidies

    Dani Rodrik sees no good argument against industrial policies that accelerate growth in decarbonization industries.
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    How to Close the Gender Wage Gap

    Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir argues that Iceland’s experience lends further support to Nobel laureate economist Claudia Goldin’s research.
  7. benami213_YEHUDA RAIZNERAFP via Getty Images_israelflag Yehuda Raizner/AFP via Getty Images
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    The Unbearable Lightness of Anti-Zionism

    Shlomo Ben-Ami warns that demonizing all Israelis will only make peace less likely – though that may be the point.
  8. marin27_Sean GallupGetty Images_afd Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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    The Zero-Sum Logic Fueling the Rise of Germany’s Far Right

    Dalia Marin thinks that promoting economic growth remains the most effective antidote to nativist sentiments.
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    Free to read
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    Global Elections in the Shadow of Neoliberalism

    Joseph E. Stiglitz considers what 40 years of anti-government, low-tax, deregulatory advocacy have wrought around the world.
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Latest

  1. Protests of Despair
    zizek30_Fatima ShbairGetty Images_gaza Fatima Shbair/Getty Images

    Protests of Despair

    May 11, 2024 Slavoj Žižek sees the pro-Palestinian student demonstrations as a signal of a much deeper, widespread malaise.

  2. The Rise of the Finternet
    carstens5_Getty Images_finternet Getty Images

    The Rise of the Finternet

    May 10, 2024 Agustín Carstens & Nandan Nilekani foresee a world in which cheap, secure, and near-instantaneous financial transactions are available to all.

  3. Don’t Fret About Green Subsidies
    rodrik222_Kevin FrayerGetty Images_china solar panel Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

    Don’t Fret About Green Subsidies

    May 10, 2024 Dani Rodrik sees no good argument against industrial policies that accelerate growth in decarbonization industries.

  4. Europe’s Geoeconomic Competitiveness Challenge
    gros186_Sean GallupGetty Images_euro Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    Europe’s Geoeconomic Competitiveness Challenge

    May 10, 2024 Daniel Gros highlights the security risks raised by the prolonged decline of the EU’s relative economic power.

  5. How Exceptional Is China’s Crony-Capitalist Boom?
    op_ang1_retrorocketGetty Images_corruption retrorocket/Getty Images

    How Exceptional Is China’s Crony-Capitalist Boom?

    May 10, 2024 Yuen Yuen Ang explains how corruption both drove the country's GDP growth and sowed the seeds for its current economic problems.

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  1. op_ang1_retrorocketGetty Images_corruption retrorocket/Getty Images
    0

    How Exceptional Is China’s Crony-Capitalist Boom?

    Yuen Yuen Ang

    While both the American and Chinese Gilded Ages raised material standards of living for hundreds of millions of people, their endemic corruption produced radically unequal and unsustainable growth. Ultimately, both periods offer cautionary tales about unbridled crony capitalism, not models for blind emulation.

     explains how corruption both drove the country's GDP growth and sowed the seeds for its current economic problems.
  2. op_rchowdhury1_Drew AngererGetty Images_modi Drew Angerer/Getty Images
    2

    India’s Despotic Election

    Debasish Roy Chowdhury explains how Prime Minister Narendra Modi has eroded democratic safeguards and stacked the deck in his favor.
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    Alison L. LaCroix on the US Supreme Court, immigration policy, federalism, and more

    Alison L. LaCroix explains why “originalist” methods of constitutional interpretation are deeply ahistorical, describes the zero-sum relationship between state and federal power in modern America, identifies possible historical analogues for the upcoming US presidential election, and more.
  4. op_ghilarducci1_Jeffrey GreenbergUniversal Images Group via Getty Images_USelderlyworker Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
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    The Perils of Retirement in America

    Teresa Ghilarducci proposes a Grey New Deal that would boost economic security for all US workers in old age.
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    China’s Rebalancing Imperative

    Stephen S. Roach explains why the Chinese authorities should switch to a consumption- and productivity-led growth model.
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    Minxin Pei on China’s economy, surveillance state, repression of dissent, and more

    Minxin Pei doubts China’s government is willing to do what is needed to restore growth, describes the low-tech approaches taken by the country’s vast security apparatus, considers the Chinese social-credit system’s repressive potential, and more.

“It is better to ask forgiveness than permission” has been the mantra of the digital revolution so far, and one should not expect that to change with artificial intelligence. For those already in a position to dominate this potentially groundbreaking sector, the opportunities are too enticing to miss.

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  1. lshuo1_Ryan PyleCorbis via Getty Images_china coal Ryan Pyle/Corbis via Getty Images
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    Is Climate Action China’s Trump Card?

    Li Shuo & Lauri Myllyvirta explain why the country’s emissions-reduction plan for 2035 could accelerate the fight against global warming.
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    AI Holds the Key to Resilient Cities

    Justina Nixon-Saintil surveys the technology's foreseeable applications in promoting urban sustainable development.
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    What a Climate-Aligned IMF Would Look Like

    Mohamed Nasheed & Rakesh Mohan explain how the managing director can fully position the institution to help the most vulnerable countries.

Opinion that Moves

  1. Agustín Carstens, et al. The Rise of the Finternet
  2. Dani Rodrik Don’t Fret About Green Subsidies
  3. Daniel Gros Europe’s Geoeconomic Competitiveness Challenge
  4. Maurice Obstfeld Trump’s Plans for the Fed Would Revive 1970s-Style Inflation

  1. Slavoj Žižek Protests of Despair
  2. Shlomo Ben-Ami The Unbearable Lightness of Anti-Zionism
  3. Adekeye Adebajo Mandela’s Heirs Face Their Biggest Election Test
  4. Gaurav Dalmia What Explains the BJP’s Rise?

  1. Gordon Brown Getting the Pandemic Treaty Across the Finish Line
  2. Manica Balasegaram Climate Change Is a Worse Health Threat Than We Think
  3. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor Governments Must Step Up to Prevent Cervical Cancer
  4. Sania Nishtar Fifty Years of Immunization Success Call for 50 More

  1. Silke Bollmohr, et al. Fertilizers Will Not Fix Africa’s Food Crisis
  2. Alessio Terzi, et al. Averting Climate Catastrophe Requires Economic Growth
  3. Li Shuo, et al. Is Climate Action China’s Trump Card?
  4. Justina Nixon-Saintil AI Holds the Key to Resilient Cities

  1. J. Bradford DeLong Musk Has Made Tesla a Meme Stock
  2. Andrew Sheng, et al. China Should Emulate Taiwan’s Tech Policies
  3. Mariana Mazzucato, et al. Central Banks in a Cashless World
  4. Peter G. Kirchschläger AI Needs UN Oversight

  1. Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir How to Close the Gender Wage Gap
  2. Peter Singer When Is Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic?
  3. Ian Buruma The Privileged Gaza Protesters
  4. Nancy Qian What TikTok Got Wrong About America

Africa’s economic rise is a world-changing development, but the sources of its emerging strength – and lingering weaknesses – are little understood. W…

  1. Anne O. Krueger The Geopolitics of Africa’s Debt Crisis
  2. Jayati Ghosh The Key to Transforming African Health
  3. Ishac Diwan, et al. Developing Countries’ Liquidity Crisis Is Not Over

Today’s media landscape is littered with landmines: open hostility from illiberal and autocratic regimes, mounting censorship in countries such as Hungary, Turkey,…

  1. Jodie Ginsberg Our Freedoms Depend on Press Freedom
  2. Carsten Brosda Must Democratizing the Media Be Bad for Democracy?
  3. Anya Schiffrin, et al. Quality Journalism Is More Important than Ever

As the COVID-19 crisis escalates, PS commentators assess its implications for the economy, propose policy responses, and consider what might – and sho…

  1. Gordon Brown Getting the Pandemic Treaty Across the Finish Line
  2. Rachel Glennerster The Pandemic Financing Developing Countries Need
  3. Mariana Mazzucato How to Save the Pandemic Treaty