Category Archives: World politics, business and economics

The year of Covid-19: political religion and the culture wars.Part 1.

The “great reset” is the title of a book, co-authored by Thierry Malleret and  Klaus Schwab. The book’s subject is the pandemic of 2020. Things, the authors aver, will never return to normal. [1] The coronavirus “ marks a fundamental … Continue reading

Posted in Christianity, culture wars, Europe, European integration, Supranational law, The United States, United Kingdom, World politics, business and economics | 2 Comments

China in the World: Chapter 2 China becomes the prime global manufacturing and trading platform.

The forty years from 1980 to 2020 have been witness to one of the fastest power displacements in the history of the world. As the late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s Senior Minister,  noted, “The size of China’s displacement is such … Continue reading

Posted in China, demography, Economy, Europe, financial and fiscal policy, overseas Chinese, Surplus labour theory, The United States, trade and investment, Transformation, Uncategorized, World politics, business and economics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

China in the World: Chapter 1. From backwater to world power.

Time hangs heavily on Chinese civilisation. For nearly four thousand years, depending on when the first dynasty is dated, up to thirty dynasties have ruled for varying lengths of time over the Middle Kingdom. Not surprisingly, the prevalent Chinese interpretation … Continue reading

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China, coronavirus and the politics of paranoia

The over two hundred independent countries of the world face similar problems dealing with the coronavirus, but the responses from each country are unique. This is one of the fundamental lessons so far from the pandemic. As the proverb says, … Continue reading

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Brexit and the British Constitution: Part IV. The pre-1945 Roots of British Supranationalism.

The photo on the front is of David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1916 to 1922. His Liberal-Conservative government fell part in late 1922, and the Liberal Party remained out of power for nearly a century. Now … Continue reading

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Brexit and the British Constitution: Part II. The Whig spirit of the Old Constitution.

The frontispiece is from the first “Whig” History of England-by a Frenchman. The spirit of the Old Constitution How history is recorded plays a central part in Britain’s uncodified constitution. Rules and conventions remain subject to interpretation, precedents are by … Continue reading

Posted in Europe, France and Germany, The United States, United Kingdom, World politics, business and economics, World war | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

White Trash in the UK: The revenge of the June 23, 2016 vote: Part I. Policies and the economy.

A central feature of the June 23, 2016 vote on whether or not to stay in the EU is that the poorer you were, the more you tended to vote Leave.[1]The so-called “nothing to lose” electorate voted heavily against membership: … Continue reading

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President Trump and the global multilateral order

President Trump is destroying the multilateral trading system, which previous US administrations have done so much to promote, and on which the world’s continued prosperity depends. He is doing so as an “American Firster”, thereby setting an example for the … Continue reading

Posted in Asia, China, France and Germany, Japan, North America, The United States, United Kingdom, World politics, business and economics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Is it Trump or the EU that is swapping big ideas for bad ideas?

Philip Stevens writes in the FT about“How the world swapped a big idea for a bad idea”. The big idea was “the revolutionary thought that the selfish interests of rich and rising states could be accommodated if everyone played by … Continue reading

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America and the World: Part II. American century or Asian century?

How fares the American Century  is a common question running through our three books. Joseph Nye, in Is The American Century Over?  locates its starting date from February 1941, when Henry Luce, editor and owner of Life magazine, wrote an … Continue reading

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