Follow up on my tweets from yesterday complaining about the new economist report on how “autocratic” countries over-state their GDP. I will analyze the paper this article references, and show a range of sleight-of-hand and maths errors in this work. twitter.com/drStuartGilmou…

It's hard to overstate the magnitude of the shock hitting Europe. Japan and the Euro zone are both big exporters. Both import lots of energy to produce export goods. But the drop in the Euro zone trade balance (black) is an order of magnitude larger than for Japan (blue). Huge...

Languishing in the 'jungle' I occasionally can't help looking over the fence to the 'civilized' world. What a gem is this (delivered at the opening of European Diplomatic Academy)! With such a sophisticated straight talker at its top diplomat, no wonder 'Normative Power Europe' is thriving.

The last time we brought them cholera and raped their women, but let's give it another try, shall we?

“China produces almost four times as much food as India — agricultural output in value ($1.5 trillion versus $400 billion). This is even more astonishing given that China has less arable land and far fewer farmers.”

slkanthan.substack.com/p/how-to-make-…

Over the past 43 years, real wages for Americans are up 6.9%.

Not 6.9% per year.

6.9%.

Forty-three years.

fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252…

What a thought-provoking final few paragraphs in this new op-ed by Michelle Garnaut. Beyond Michelle, Shanghai and restauranter-ing, I'd say there's resonance and relevance for Australia-China relations more broadly.
afr.com/world/asia/why…

Interesting detail in the new US National Security Strategy that was just published.

They now write that China seeks an 'ENHANCED sphere of influence' in the Indo-Pacific. Washington's long term aim was to deny China a sphere of influence, period. They now admit they have one.

Unfortunate article in The Nation, the venerable US lefty mag, that appears not to have been fact-checked, so let’s do that fact-checking, shall we?

There are 10 main claims made by author Paul Hockenos, so it’ll take a bit of a chonky🧵. But here goes:

thenation.com/article/world/…

What could go wrong? 🤔

I'm reminded of Zbigniew Brzezinski's words: 'The most dangerous scenario [for America] would be a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran, an 'antihegemonic' coalition united not by ideology but by complimentary grievances.'