A Note on City Size and Political Economy
Among the China superlatives that we have heard for the last two decades is the fantastic growth in city size – Pudong in Shanghai from fishing and farming villages to the world’s most recognizable skyline; similarly for Shenzhen, Guangdong, and literally dozens of places most of us have never heard …
Health Care Crisis
Some of you have read prior posts here on health care, the good, the bad, and the unbelievable. Now comes the New York Times with a feature on the Crisis in Health Care in China, focusing on the shabby treatment of doctors and patients in the medical system. As I …
No Way Out from the Middle Kingdom
You remember the movie, with Kevin Kostner as the exemplary US Navy officer-special assistant to the Secretary of Defense (Gene Hackman). The plot twists around search for a purported Russian spy in the US, codenamed Yuri, who has been able to infiltrate the Navy at the highest levels. Following several …
Was Democracy Just A Moment?
This is the title of a 1997(!) Atlantic piece by Robert Kaplan, the foreign correspondent and advisor to various elements of US defense and foreign affairs institutions. I have long recommended the piece as a warning against American complacency about the health of our own democracy, and the futility of …
