Category Archives: Amazon.Com

Great Degeneration: Decline of the West

Posted by on December 11, 2012 Comments Off

The decline of the West is something that has long been prophesied. Symptoms of decline are all around us today, it seems: slowing growth, crushing debts, aging populations, anti-social behaviour. But what exactly is amiss with Western civilization? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, is that our institutions – the intricate frameworks within which a society can flourish or fail – are degenerating. Representative government, the free market, the rule of law and civil society: these were once the four pillars of West European and North American societies. It was these institutions, rather than any geographical or climatic advantages, that set the West on the path to global dominance after around 1500. In our time, however, these institutions have deteriorated in disturbing ways. Our democracies have broken the contract between the generations by heaping IOUs on our children and grandchildren. Our markets are increasingly distorted by over-complex regulations that are in fact the disease of which they purport to be the cure. The rule of law has metamorphosed into the rule of lawyers. And civil society has degenerated into uncivil society, where we lazily expect all our problems to be solved by the state. “The Degeneration of the West” a powerful – and in places polemical – indictment of an era of negligence and complacency. While the Arab world struggles to adopt democracy, and while China struggles to move from economic liberalization to the rule of law, Europeans and Americans alike are frittering away the institutional inheritance of centuries. To arrest the degeneration of the West’s once dominant civilization, Ferguson warns, will take heroic leadership and radical reform. This book is based on Niall Ferguson’s 2012 BBC Reith Lectures, which were broadcast under the title “The Rule of Law and Its Enemies”.

Great Degeneration: Niall Ferguson: 9781846147432: Amazon.com: Books

Amazon.Com comment:

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The partnership between the generations October 19, 2012
By Daniel Weitz VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
This is a review of “The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die” which is the kindle title of this work, and is no longer available on kindle.

The author is concerned about the “Degeneration of the West” into a “Stationary State” similar to that of China during the previous centuries. This he believes is due to the weakening of traditional civil institutions, crony capitalism, inefficient bureaucracy, and the decay of our legal system. Needless to say, this has drastic political and economic consequences for our society, with the widening gap of economic inequality being a symptom of the problem. Other symptoms are the rise of a welfare state that exploits those who work for those that have become “entitled”. The abandonment of what Edmund burke called “The partnership between the generations”, is also the abandonment of what is our true social contract. The excessive public and private debt is a symptom of a deeper problem; the breakdown of the generational social order.

For the rise of Europe Ferguson rejects the theories of Diamond (geographic factors), North and Wallace (transition to open access society), Max Weber (Protestant Capitalism) and Pomerants (“ghost acres”). The author argues that it is not so much as geographic and cultural factors (citing the two Koreas and the city of Nogales on the US-Mexican border), but rather the role of an inclusive elite vs. an exclusive elite with extractive institutions. He agrees with the argument of De Soto that dysfunctional institutions force the poor to live outside the law without title to the property they often “own”. This is “dead capital” that cannot be used to increase wealth.

Ferguson argues that the cause of the economic meltdown of the banks was not lack of regulation but rather the inefficiency of the current laws and regulatory system that failed to give jail time to the miscreants that violated the laws. He also believes that greater expertise is needed by the regulators rather than strict rules; we need an experienced pilot with good judgment, not a mandatory auto-pilot that follows pre-programed rules and cannot adjust to changing conditions in an unknowable future.

Other chapters deal with the importance of a good legal system and the need to maintain a civil society. We seem to have done our best to kill a civil society by replacing it with a cradle to grave government welfare system, the danger of which was pointed out by the prescient De Tocqueville almost 200 years ago.

The author’s conclusions are troubling, with a final reference to President Obama, as the “stationary mandarin” (the famous “you didn’t build that” speech) who feels that government institutions and bureaucracies are the key to growth and not individual initiative supported by a good legal system, civil institutions, and competition. Other problematic issues raised is the enormous debt-burden in the West.

A major strength of this work is the extensive documentation cited in the notes.

Book Review: The Second Nuclear Age – WSJ.com

Posted by on November 29, 2012 Comments Off

American strategists should think realistically about the possible uses of nuclear weapons.

…

… Our strategists, says Mr. Bracken, are in a state of denial: “An older generation wants to make the nuclear nightmare go away by inoculating the young with protective ideas. Nuclear weapons are useless and we should get rid of them. Strengthen the [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty]. Get rid of ballistic missiles. Deterrence will work.”

These ideas, very much at the heart of the present administration’s strategic thought, are fantasies, Mr. Bracken believes. His central contention is that we are in a second nuclear age. …

Book Review: The Second Nuclear Age – WSJ.com

Amazon.com: The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics

A leading international security strategist offers a compelling new way to “think about the unthinkable.”

The cold war ended more than two decades ago, and with its end came a reduction in the threat of nuclear weapons—a luxury that we can no longer indulge. It’s not just the threat of Iran getting the bomb or North Korea doing something rash; the whole complexion of global power politics is changing because of the reemergence of nuclear weapons as a vital element of statecraft and power politics. In short, we have entered the second nuclear age.

In this provocative and agenda-setting book, Paul Bracken of Yale University argues that we need to pay renewed attention to nuclear weapons and how their presence will transform the way crises develop and escalate. He draws on his years of experience analyzing defense strategy to make the case that the United States needs to start thinking seriously about these issues once again, especially as new countries acquire nuclear capabilities. He walks us through war-game scenarios that are all too realistic, to show how nuclear weapons are changing the calculus of power politics, and he offers an incisive tour of the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia to underscore how the United States must not allow itself to be unprepared for managing such crises.

Frank in its tone and farsighted in its analysis, The Second Nuclear Age is the essential guide to the new rules of international politics.

Amazon.com: The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics (9780805094305): Paul Bracken: Books

The American Redoubt, where survivalists plan to survive – latimes.com

Posted by on February 9, 2012 Comments Off

The guru of the movement is James Wesley Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer and author of the bestselling novel “Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse.” The book tells of military veterans who lead bands of tough-minded Americans through a period of marauding rioters and the collapse of the supply chain and technology, and of a provisional government “determined to take over America and destroy the freedoms upon which it was built.”

Rawles, who got his start as an editor at Defense Electronics magazine and a technical writer at Oracle Corp., in 2005 started what has become one of the country’s most widely read survival blogs, which claims to attract up to 300,000 unique visitors a week. He published one of the bibles of modern survivalist tactics, “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It,” in 2009.

The American Redoubt, where survivalists plan to survive – latimes.com

Unrest in China: A dangerous year | The Economist

Posted by on February 9, 2012 Comments Off

IN AN industrial zone near Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south-west China, a sign colourfully proclaims the sprawl of factories to be a “delightful, harmonious and happy district”. Angry steelworkers must have winced as they marched past the slogan in their thousands in early January, demanding higher wages. Their three-day strike was unusually large for an enterprise owned by the central government. But, as China’s economy begins to grow more sedately, more such unrest is looming.

China’s state-controlled media kept quiet about the protest that began on January 4th in Qingbaijiang District, a 40-minute drive north-east of Chengdu on an expressway that crosses a patchwork of vegetable fields and bamboo thickets. But news of the strike quickly broke on the internet. Photographs circulated on microblogs of a large crowd of workers from Pangang Group Chengdu Steel and Vanadium being kept away from a slip road to the expressway by a phalanx of police. Word spread that police had tried to disperse the workers with tear gas. In the end, as they tend to—and undoubtedly acting on government orders—factory officials backed down, partially at least. The workers got a raise, albeit a smaller one than they wanted. Managers’ wages were frozen.

Strikes have become increasingly frequent at privately owned factories in recent years, …Unrest in China: A dangerous year | The Economist

The global economy started to slow down by the end of 2007, although it wasn’t apparent at the time. It was obviously apparent by 2008. China then proceeded to stimulate its economy to buy time until the global economy could turn around in the next year or two. Except, that turn around never happened.

Fast forward to 2012 where we find our-self today. China’s stimulus is wearing off. The global economy is still fundamentally in trouble and teetering on the edge of the abyss. China is having difficulty growing at 8% or more required to keep social unrest under control. So, not unexpectedly, China’s unrest to starting to grow. Did China’s leadership really think it could grow at 8% or better forever? China’s consumers are not stepping up to the plate to take over. China’s leaders recognize that they are in trouble.

Apparently, the consensus of economists at Davos, Switzerland was that China’s state capitalism model represents one of the best ways to solve the economic problems in the west. These are the same guys that didn’t see the global financial crisis coming in the first place, but never mind. Now we need to look to China to solve all of our problems – either directly or indirectly. Apparently, the best way to drive your car is to only look in rear-view mirror. If you accidentally look through the windshield, then please ignore.

In nature the survival of the fittest rules the day. In economics failure brings a promotion. Those that actually saw the global financial crisis coming are generally marginalized because they aren’t team players – by daring to think differently. Why not fire the economists that didn’t see it coming – that is their job after-all, and put the in charge the economists that actually saw it coming? No, we get weak solutions by weak economists that are incapable of doing their job. The future is not going to be bright for China, and it is not going to be bright for the west. We are all going to follow Japan into economic stagnation until something comes along to push us all over the cliff.

The book below explains that China is a lot more fragile than you think.

China: Fragile Superpower

Once a sleeping giant, China today is the world’s fastest growing economy–the leading manufacturer of cell phones, laptop computers, and digital cameras–a dramatic turn-around that alarms many Westerners. But in China: Fragile Superpower, Susan L. Shirk opens up the black box of Chinese politics and finds that the real danger lies elsewhere–not in China’s astonishing growth, but in the deep insecurity of its leaders. China’s leaders face a troubling paradox: the more developed and prosperous the country becomes, the more insecure and threatened they feel. Shirk, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for China, knows many of today’s Chinese rulers personally and has studied them for three decades. She offers invaluable insight into how they think–and what they fear. In this revealing book, readers see the world through the eyes of men like President Hu Jintao and former President Jiang Zemin. We discover a fragile communist regime desperate to survive in a society turned upside down by miraculous economic growth and a stunning new openness to the greater world. Indeed, ever since the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, Chinese leaders have been afraid of its own citizens, and this fear motivates many of their decisions when dealing with the U.S. and other nations. In particular, the fervent nationalism of the Chinese people, combined with their passionate resentment of Japan and attachment to Taiwan, have made relations with this country a minefield. The paperback edition features a new preface by the author.

China: Fragile Superpower

Book Comment:

Susan Shirk gives her readers some useful tools to better assess the future behavior of a fast-resurging China after being “humiliated” for a century and a half (pp. 153 – 55, 185 – 87). Shirk clearly explains that Chinese communist power has two faces. China wants to be seen as behaving responsibly to foster economic growth and social stability (pp. 105 – 139). Shirk correctly states that actions rather than words will make it more credible. Establishing this reputation requires China to accommodate its neighbors, to be a team player in multinational organizations, and to use economic ties to make friends (pp. 109, 199, 223, 257 – 61).

In case of a major crisis, especially one involving Taiwan, Japan or the United States, China could show its other face by acting irresponsibly due to the absence of effective checks and balances of the Chinese system. Party leaders could recklessly play the nationalistic card again as they did with Taiwan in 1996 or with Japan in 2005 if they need to look strong domestically with other leaders, the mass public, and the military (pp. 10 -12, 43, 63, 69, 77, 139, 151, 173, 179 – 80, 186 – 90, 197, 205, 219).

The Communist Party has bet on jingoism since the 1990s because communism in China is a dying ideology in which almost no Chinese believes (pp. 11, 63 – 64, 145, 148, 164 – 70, 186). The Party implausibly claims that ordinary Chinese are unworthy of Western democracy because their country, unlike India, does not have religion to manage them responsibly (p. 53). Chinese leaders know that Chinese nationalists can turn against the Party if they appear too weak to deal with foreign pressures (pp. 61, 66, 173, 180).

Economic interdependence has had a somewhat moderating effect on the relationship of China with the outside world, including Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. (pp. 24, 96, 145 – 46, 190, 195, 233, 241, 247). Due to their fear of widespread instability and their lack of political legitimacy, Party leaders, however, have not displayed much courage in taking unpopular measures such as enforcing intellectual property rights or stopping currency manipulation in trading abroad (pp. 26 – 27, 53 – 54, 60, 73 – 74). Chinese leaders are well aware that the increased protectionism in the U.S. against the fast-growing trade deficit with China and the rampant piracy of U.S. products in China are not politically sustainable, especially in case of a majority change in Washington in 2009 (pp. 25 – 26, 248). At the same time, Shirk correctly points out that the ongoing fiscal profligacy of the U.S. is weakening the country at the profit of China (pp. 26, 249).

Of all China’s challenges, the need for “social stability” overrules all other considerations, even it means sacrificing long-term diplomatic objectives for short-term domestic political gains (pp. 38, 52 – 54, 109, 148, 183 – 87, 197, 224, 234, 254 – 55). For the Chinese communist leaders and their families, losing power could result in the loss of their possessions or even their death (pp. 7 – 9). To keep its authoritarian grip on power, the Communist Party has articulated a three-pronged policy (p. 39):

1) Avoid public leadership splits

Shirk gives a useful overview of the “selectorate,” the group of Party members who have the power to choose the leaders, and the modus operandi of the Party (pp. 39 – 52). The Communist Party is not known for its openness in framing domestic and foreign policies (pp. 43 – 44). Patronage is essential for keeping the Party in power, which feeds an endemic corruption from which many communist bigwigs enrich themselves at the expense of ordinary Chinese (pp. 60, 68 – 69). Party leaders learn from the Tiananmen fiasco that destabilizing internal dissent can undermine the Party’s grip on power (pp. 48, 53, 162). Keeping elite contests for power hidden from the public is increasingly difficult as the audience-driven media are testing the limits on what can be reported (pp. 39, 50, 52, 55, 78, 183). Although China is a still a long way from having free mass media, resourceful Chinese increasingly give the Communist Party a hard time for censoring “undesirable news (pp. 82 – 83).”

2) Prevent large-scale social unrest

Shirk demonstrates with conviction that Communist China’s obsession with internal stability paradoxically makes the Party very sensitive to public opinion due to the lack of any democratic institution to allow ordinary Chinese to express themselves peacefully (pp. 52 – 53, 66). Shirk overviews with mastery the multiple possible threats to one-party-rule and which means the Party uses to either neutralize or reduce these threats (pp. 52 – 69). Paradoxically, the more developed and rich China becomes, the more insecure and threatened Communist Party leaders feel (p. 5).

3) Keep the People’s Liberation Army on the side of the Party

Unlike their predecessors, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, Communist Party leaders Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are less politically secure and have a greater need to keep the military satisfied to safeguard them from domestic rebellion (pp. 46, 73, 77, 158 – 60, 202). Communist Party leaders seem to have a harder time saying no to the military demands for weaponry buildups and aggressive policies (pp. 70, 75 – 76, 222 – 23). The senior leadership of the PLA uses the Taiwan issue as the paramount factor for getting more “toys” approved (p. 74). By covering foreign policy, audience-driven media are making it harder for Communist Party leaders not to treat foreign policy as domestic politics (pp. 78 – 104, 140 – 254). Furthermore, history is not on the side of China because rising powers are likely to provoke war (pp. 4, 9 – 10, 210 – 11, 219, 243 – 45, 261 – 69). All of these factors undermine the credibility of the “peaceful rise” that Jintao – Wen Jiabao have promoted since 2002 (pp. 108 – 09, 252).

To summarize, China’s behavior cannot be correctly understood without a proper grasp of the tectonic forces that have molded the country’s history, geography, and culture.

Why do dictators cling to power at all cost? Will leaders in China, and Russia too, cling to power at all cost – even nuclear war?

Any attempt to diagnose a defining psychological feature of dictatorship would be facile. But in the public record available on many of them — Stalin and Mao, Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi himself — one can begin to see patterns that shape a dictatorial personality. At least since the Office of Strategic Services (now known as the Central Intelligence Agency) commissioned a secret profile called “A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler,” which was issued in 1943, psychologists have sought an explanation for the authoritarian mind. New research has brought us closer than ever to understanding how leaders become despots.

There are at least three explanations for dictatorial behavior:

1. Dictators are psychopaths.

This is the simplest and most seductive psychological explanation of dictatorship. It’s also the least helpful….

2. Dictators are paranoid narcissists.

Most non-dictatorial leaders employ subordinates who are empowered to question them. Dictators arrange their lives so that no one can play this role. …

3. Dictators are more or less normal people who develop mental disorders in the extraordinary circumstance of holding absolute power.

How does such a man become a monster? At this point, it’s tempting to invoke Lord Acton and say that absolute power corrupted Mugabe. But how, exactly? What is the mechanism by which power corrupts?

In a new paper called “How Power Corrupts,” a Columbia University team of psychologists suggest that power doesn’t change the psychology of powerful people but, rather, their physiology. Lead author Dana Carney and her team hypothesize that because power eases so many daily stressors — dictators never have to worry about driving a car or paying a mortgage — powerful people show persistently lower levels of cortisol, a hormone closely associated with stress.

The Psychology of Dictatorship: Why Gaddafi Clings to Power

‘The Mirage’: Matt Ruff’s novel of 9/11 role reversal | Seattle Times Newspaper

Posted by on February 4, 2012 Comments Off

What if the tables were turned somehow and the terrorist attacks of 2001 actually happened in the Middle East, perpetrated by Christian militants from the United States, and Muslims from that far-flung region launched a war on terror aimed at us, instead of the other way around?

This unnerving but intriguing premise forms the backbone of Seattle author Matt Ruff’s latest novel, “The Mirage” (Harpers, 414 pp., $25.99), one of the most daring 9/11-inspired novels to emerge after that horrific day more than a decade ago.

You will need to take a deep breath and establish some emotional distance from the events of the real War on Terror to appreciate the historical inversions that crowd this fast-paced and heartfelt attempt to put the shoe on the other foot, so to speak.

In the “The Mirage,” however, the terror attacks that shaped that past decade of foreign and in some cases domestic policy don’t happen in New York City and Washington, D.C., but in the Iraqi capital, where the twin Tigris and Euphrates World Trade Towers are brought down by hijacked jetliners, and Riyadh, where the “Arab Defense Ministry” is also attacked.

Those two cities are seats of power in what Ruff calls the United Arab States, a prosperous bastion of democracy.

True to the twisted plot, the attacks happen on 11/9/2001 instead of 9/11.

Books | ‘The Mirage’: Matt Ruff’s novel of 9/11 role reversal | Seattle Times Newspaper

The End of the Win-Win World – By Gideon Rachman | Foreign Policy

Posted by on January 28, 2012 Comments Off

I have spent my working life writing about international politics from the vantage points of the Economist and now the Financial Times. Surrounded by people who tracked markets and business, it has always felt natural for me to see international economics and international politics as deeply intertwined.

In my book Zero-Sum Future, written in 2009, I attempted to predict how the global economic crisis would change international politics. As the rather bleak title implied, I argued that relations between the major powers were likely to become increasingly tense and conflict-ridden. In a worsening economic climate, it would be harder for the big economies to see their relationships as mutually beneficial — as a win-win. Instead, they would increasingly judge their relationships in zero-sum terms. What was good for China would be seen as bad for America. What was good for Germany would be bad for Italy, Spain, and Greece.

Now, as the paperback edition of my book comes out, the prediction is being borne out — which is gratifying as an author, although slightly worrying as a member of the human race. The rise of zero-sum logic is the common thread, tying together seemingly disparate strands in international politics: the crisis inside the European Union, deteriorating U.S.-Chinese relations, and the deadlock in global governance.

The End of the Win-Win World – By Gideon Rachman | Foreign Policy

OK, so some people are starting a catch on. China’s rise has never been good for America because no one ever factors in the cost of a rising probability of nuclear war, and the damage done by China’s foreign policy. China is headed by a communist regime who is fundamentally at odds with freedom and democracy. It then chooses to take its profits and point nuclear weapons at us. How could helping this country possibly be good?

Trade works when it roughly goes both ways. Mostly one way trade is bad for both countries. One country generates internal bubbles – like real estate bubbles, and misallocates capital. The other loses jobs. It’s not sustainable long term.

Christmas Under Islam – Hardly a Season to be Jolly

Posted by on January 23, 2012 Comments Off

Earlier I discussed how mosques, some of which breed radicalization and serve as terrorist bases, flourish in America, while churches are increasingly targeted and destroyed in the Muslim world, especially the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity.

This pattern—religious appeasement of Muslim minorities in the West, religious hostility for Christian minorities under Islam—continues and manifests itself in other ways.

Consider Christmas. The same appeasement that allows a “victory mosque” to be erected near Ground Zero, where jihadists killed some 3,000 Americans, compromises one of Christianity’s most important events.

For instance, a “Montreal suburb has decided to remove a nativity scene and menorah from town hall rather than acquiesce to demands from a Muslim group to erect Islamic religious symbols.” Contrast this with Iran, where many churches were “ordered to cancel Christmas and New Year’s celebrations as a show of their compliance and support” for “the two month-long mourning activities of the Shia’ Moslems,” a reference to the bloody flagellations and self mutilations Shias perform in memory of Imam Hussein during Ashura.

Likewise, the University of London held Christmas service featuring readings from the Quran—Islam’s holy book that unequivocally condemns the Incarnation, which is precisely what Christmas celebrates. Meanwhile, Islam’s clerics in the West proclaimed things like “saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication or killing someone,” since doing so is to “approve of the biggest crime ever committed by humanity”: the belief that God became man on Christmas. As the cleric makes clear, these are not his words, but rather the words of Islam’s most authoritative clerics.

Nor are these just words. Around the Muslim world, Christmas time for Christians is a time of threats, harassment, and fear. One can point to any number of Muslim attacks on Christians to prove this—whether churches attacked, burned, or forced into closure; whether Muslim converts to Christianity beat, killed, or imprisoned; whether Christians abused on “blasphemy” charges; or whether just sheer violence and killings of “infidel” Christians. (See “Muslim Persecution of Christians” for a list of December’s abuses alone).

More telling, however, are the attacks that specifically targeted or revolved around Christmas:

December 25, 2011 was “Nigeria’s blackest Christmas ever“: in a number of coordinated jihadi attacks, several church were bombed, killing over 40 people, “the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.” As expected, the New York Times all but apologized for the terrorists.

Christmas Eve in Uganda saw Muslims throw acid on a church leader, leaving him with severe burns, blinding one eye and threatening sight in the other. The pastor was on his way to a church party when a man pretending to be a Christian approached him from behind, yelling, “Pastor, pastor.” When he turned, the Muslim threw acid in his face while others poured it on his back, all running away while screaming Islam’s victory cry, “Allahu Akbar!”

In Muslim-majority Tajikistan, “a young man dressed as Father Frost—the Russian equivalent of Father Christmas—was stabbed to death” while visiting relatives and bringing gifts. Considering that the crowd beating and stabbing him were shouting “you infidel!” police cited “religious hatred” as motivation.

These are among the more violent and illegal attacks on Christians around Christmas time, undertaken by Muslim mobs and terrorists. In their own way, however, Muslim governments—many deemed “friends” of America—also make Christmas a very “un-merry” time for celebrants.

For example, if “vandals” in Indonesia decapitated the statue of the Virgin Mary in a small grotto days before Christmas, Indonesian officials have been shutting down churches; one “embattled church” fighting for survival was forced to move its Christmas prayers to a member’s house.

This pattern of treating Christian minorities as dhimmis—Sharia’s legal term for non-Muslims under Islam forced to live as despised, second-class citizens—is business as usual in the Muslim world. Some more Christmas-related examples follow, from a cursory Internet search:

  • Malaysia: Parish priests and church youth leaders had to get “caroling permits”—requiring them to submit their full names and ID numbers at police stations, an eerie practice for any non-Muslim under Islam—simply to “visit their fellow church members and belt out ‘Joy to the World,’ [or] ‘Silent Night, Holy Night.’”
  • Iran: While celebrating Christmas, a church was raided by State Security. All those present, including Sunday school children, were arrested and interrogated. Hundreds of Christian books were seized. The detained Christians suffered “considerable verbal abuses.”
  • Pakistan: Intelligence reports warned of threats of terrorist attacks on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christians also lamented that “extreme power outages have become routine during Christmas and Easter seasons.”

In closing, if people in the West think Christmas is a time of “peace on earth, good will toward man”—to the point of compromising this Christian holiday to appease their “fellow [Muslim] man”—they should know that, increasingly, it is neither a time of “peace” nor “goodwill” for Christians under Islam.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of The Al Qaeda Reader, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Christmas Under Islam: Hardly a Season to be Jolly :: Middle East Forum

Amazon.com: Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Posted by on January 16, 2012 Comments Off

Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are?

Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories.

Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including:

   – China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West?
   – Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority?
   – What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More
philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions?

Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

Amazon.com: Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (9780307719218): Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson: Books

How China Stays Stable Despite 500 Protests Every Day – The Atlantic

Posted by on January 6, 2012 Comments Off

Philip Pan, a former Washington Post Beijing bureau chief, reported in his 2008 book Out of Mao’s Shadow that the protest leaders privately agreed that single-party rule was the underlying cause of Liaoyang’s problems, but were afraid to publicly criticize it or call for democracy and ultimately decided to appeal to senior Party leaders rather than challenge them.

As long as the political system remained unchanged, they agreed, those with positions of power could always abuse it, and workers could hope only for marginal improvements in their lives. For real progress, they thought democratic reform was necessary, and they believed that most workers supported such a goal. But they also knew that persuading workers to participate in a protest advocating democratic change would be all but impossible. The workers had internalized the lessons of the Tiananmen massacre. Everybody knew that the party would quickly crush a direct challenge to its authority, and nobody wanted to go to prison.

People were too afraid.

How China Stays Stable Despite 500 Protests Every Day – Max Fisher – International – The Atlantic

Debt relief: A time for forgiveness – FT.com

Posted by on December 29, 2011 4 comments

Yet there is a strange absence in the cacophony of demands. Almost no echo can be heard from a long tradition of economic protest movements, which, since the dawn of recorded history, have put one unambiguous demand at the top of their agenda: cancel the debts, redeem the debtors.

According to David Graeber, an anthropologist at Goldsmiths, part of the University of London, the first act of many successful rebellions was to annihilate the records of debt owed. In his book Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Mr Graeber describes how “cancelling the debts, destroying the records, reallocating the land, was to become the standard list of peasant revolutionaries everywhere”. Is this time different?

Debt relief: A time for forgiveness – FT.com

Conversations w/ Great Minds – Dr. David Graeber Debt: The 1st 5000 years P1