Ok all know Zakaria hangs with Carney, and the WEF Davos crowd and gets his marching orders from there pretty much. So, wherever you stand on this will be where you go with this story.
Zakaria relies on the mainstream media for his livelihood. He needs to say these things to keep his sweet deal gigs going.
Now, I have done great with globalization. I was lucky, not smart. Right places at the right time pretty much. But when I went home to Ohio for years and saw what it looks like to have a crummy low paying worthless feeling service job which produces hopelessness and isolation it was always disheartening. Their parents my aunts and uncles lived better and were better off than their kids, literally. Ok the elites here are going to hit me up and say, "manufacturing job will make you feel better, and your life feel more worthwhile and less isolated?" I say yes, better pay, like making chips, or things our society needs makes one feel worthwhile because they are contributing and making decent money for a family and connected life with their communities. As mentioned in the story, most manufacturing is now done in sterile clean computer and automated driven factories. These jobs are pretty sophisticated and not for dummies or lazy people. And they are important jobs the world and country need.
Hint: As Oren repeatedly mentions, most Americans don't care about being famous, stupid rich, and walking in and having the biggest dick in the room attitudes. They want a good job some security, a nice community they can be involved in and support. Tearing up the world and being the richest smartest genius in the world doesn't really interest them, seriously. In fact, most find it amusing and mostly just egotistical and immature behavior.
And this "we can't manufacture anymore" is crap. You can if you want to. Want to do something, it can be done. This argument is again by the globalists who have profited and still are from this set up. And Zakaria and such are their mouthpieces.
Oren, keep up the great work and ideas. Your republican party I will join. The old republican party of neo cons and Norquist right wing stuff I left in 1990. They and still are not for working people who get things done in this country.
The new Religion = The University (The religion of nihilism)
"They want a good job some security, a nice community they can be involved in and support. Tearing up the world and being the richest smartest genius in the world doesn't really interest them, seriously. "
Well said. Sadly, Trump and Musk do not embody the description in your first sentence, but the one in your second.
I assume I'm with you for a lot you say. And, importantly, I think globalism is thankfully dead but instead of reversing the mistakes Americans chose exactly the wrong guy to move things back to where they should be.
But jobs are jobs and we do need a good and thriving manufacturing sector. But that's only half the problem. Our national social support configuration is a disgrace for both the employed, unemployed and retired. I lived in Germany in the 80's and early 90s and saw what a proper-functioning and balanced economy should be. The foundation of this is a very well-structured and well-functioning social support system: means-tested cost for medical care, national support for work and industry, a very secondary thought for profitability over performance and appreciation of the employed. The absorption of the former East was probably somewhat flawed and optimistic, most all because those in the East were VERY not prepared for the balance of democracy and interests. And this is playing out now in ways that are dragging down what was once the best and highest performing democracy on earth. Still, we could only dream of what all Germans have even today.
Cults. They’re dangerous when coupled with a skilled authoritarian movement. The experts to read right now are not economic experts, rather, I commend to you the thinking of our foremost experts on global authoritarian movements. I must ask; if inciting an armed insurrection against our government isn’t disqualifying for a president, can you give me an example of something that is?
I basically agree with what is being said about Zakaria's "neo-liberal" (I hate that "word" though) views. Generally, all these noun-adjectives are nevertheless more obfuscating than enlightening.
But, true. Zakaria I don't think matters anymore. He did at the end of Bush 2. Obama was trying to play along and was forced by the Rapeublican mob to go that direction too.
But my real objection is not focusing on the disease: the word "free" and its inclusion in "freedom", "free markets" and worst of all "free speech".
Starting with the last of these: We now are living again through the rule of "free speech" with Trump. In other words, that word and its accompaniments have long ceased to be anything positive in the political and rhetorical realm. See Trump.
Our Constitution has progressed from something interesting and positive to a curse. And no other Western Liberal Democracy has this religion. When working in Germany, I was even dragged into a civil suit brought against a friend who was sued (not fairly) for speaking the truth in a way that created a hazardous workplace. There was a simple civil trial that assessed a small fine for not going through proper channels and that was that. And then there's this:
"The United States has a significantly higher number of lawyers per capita compared to Germany, with roughly 1 lawyer for every 256 people in the US versus 1 lawyer for every 524 people in Germany."
To cut to the point: Trump as the King of Unlimited Legal Abuse is the ongoing apotheosis of this problem.
Here we go again, attacking fellow elites. It’s so revealing. It’s clearly a defense mechanism, a way for Oren to justify his support of the insurrectionist, Don. Rather than confront the authoritarian movement that all thinking people see clearly, Oren persists in battling fellow elites over economic arcana. Our political elites, our business elites, and our “think” tank elites continue to fail us. Not because of an outdated view of economies past, but because of a spineless indifference to authoritarian movements present. Is anyone else worried that our Star Wars bar scene cabinet feels obligated to operate secretly, eschewing their legal responsibility to record and preserve their deliberations?
So we just stop discussing important topics like protectionism and industrial policy because Orange Man Bad? He is, but he’s not the only elephant in the room.
I pray you're right, and these are just normal, conventional times, with normal, conventional players. As for me, I'll respectfully disagree. Don's seemingly irrational actions are actually right out of the authoritarian playbook. On these matters I don't read economists, I read our many renowned, non-partisan experts on global authoritarian movements. Pick several, read them, and see what they have to say these days. Perhaps Oren could do a piece on how the rule of law relates to the performance of a national economy? Or, which authoritarian run economy does he consider the model Good luck America.
I don’t think I said these are normal times or that authoritarianism is not a challenge; it is, as all elements of our society have demonstrated. Nobody gets a pass as far as I am concerned. All have been all too willing to subvert norms in pursuit of their agenda. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty of issues to discuss that are themselves independent of authoritarianism, even if affected by it (which was my point). I’m just not that interested in having every article I read be about authoritarianism.
I understand Greg. But to me, there is only one issue, the preservation of our liberal (small L) democracy. At this moment in history, to me, policy doesn’t particularly matter. Bad policies can be fixed. Losing the republic cannot. This from a guy who’s pretty convinced he’s always right on policy matters. We have one mission, and one mission only. It’s soul crushing to see R senators
I respect your POV, but for me, the richness of intellectual challenge transcends any single topic. I have more faith in the republic than you seem to have. We’ve been through horrors and come out the other side. Please don’t say “none like Trump,” because I think that’s inaccurate. Some, like the Civil War (when we almost lost the nation and saw quite a few constitutional rights abridged, only to return stronger than ever),and WWII (where through our hesitation, we almost lost Europe and the free world), dwarf Trump from my POV. I don’t think Trump is inconsequential; I believe he is bad for our country. I just don’t see him as existential.
But to each their own view.
P.S. If anyone requires a hyperventilated kick in the pants, it’s the DNC that needs to climb out of its woke culture war stupor and present a salient vision of America to the electorate. Trump is living in their heads rent free, while they organize idiotic Tesla protests, and continue to fail to offer a vision that a majority of Americans will embrace. I once bemoaned the demise of the GOP as a rational alternative to the Dems. And here in California, the seesaw between the two doesn’t work anymore. But across the country, having two vibrant parties with differing but optimistic visions of America is what this country needs—and in the absence of a viable third party or multi-party system, it helps libertarians sleep at night—but right now we have none. Neither party has an optimistic vision of a broad spectrum American future.
I watched your interview with John Stewart and was curious to understand some of the positions of those on the right. I tried to read this article to understand the point you were trying to make but was unable to discern much beyond your criticism of what you term neoliberal ideas. This is a consistent problem that find with conservative ideology; there doesn't seem to be any core principles other that what the other side is getting or doing wrong. Take away the divisiveness and I couldn't say what a conservative is. I'm guessing that most conservatives couldn't articulate any distinguishing principles as well. I really do want to know, however.
I lived and worked in the PRC for more than two decades and I am always amazed at Zakaria’s naivete about the country. It’s not a normal country. It’s focused on one thing: Revenge. The tools: Push America out of the Indo-Pacific, dominate the economically most dynamic region in the world, impoverish America and destroy the supremacy of the US dollar.
Oren Cass needs to have Matt Stoller on a future American Compass Podcast. Stoller's latest: "Monopoly Round-Up: Tariffs, Abundance and Why America Can't Build"
In all this, I don’t see any mention of having a good enough size industrial base to make the stuff that might be needed to defend our home turf, or the ships and subs to defend the seas. I guess everybody assumes that we would either just surrender peacefully or hit the big red button …
While it is undeniably true that the persistent trade deficits of the United States run is real, and multiple countries who claim to have open markets and free training United States, instead of practice, various mechanisms of protectionism to close their markets off (the EU is a great example of this) or subsidize their industry that undercuts America’s (Taiwan and South Korea), it doesn’t seem clear to me that Trump threatening to annex allies or destroy the US ‘s relationship with them makes much sense.
Further, if you really want US manufacturing to be competitive, you would seek a weaker Dollar and the most obvious solution would be to significantly lower the deficit. Doge is nothing but pennies in the real deficit reduction will have to be through entitlement reforms something that Trump doesn’t seem to be doing at all.
Of course we don’t know the endpoint of these tariffs. But this strikes me as a half baked plan.
What young men who feel lost need today , what I needed when I was a young man who was lost, was a cause that would lead to a better life not just for me but for millions of others like me.
The cause I hit upon was part-time jobs in the country. Didn't happen then, but maybe tomorrow? God knows, I've given it my all: at last count 30,000 hours, but that was 30 years ago. Never give up.
The elephant in the room is that service employment is most vulnerable to displacement by AI.
I do not expect AGI any time soon, but existing AI technology, including specialized agents, is quite capable of cutting new white collar hiring significantly by increasing productivity.
AI does not need to fully replace workers to affect employment levels. If each worker can do more work, you are not going to need to hire more to get more work done. And as people leave or retire, you are less likely to need to replace them. Even if you don’t do layoffs, employment can decrease.
Is anyone else having trouble with commonplace.org? The links won’t load and when I try to go to the site itself I get a message that it is being blocked as a suspicious site
What should America manufacture that it currently doesn’t? How much should Americans be paid compared to their foreign counterparts to produce those items? Will it be more or less? Will you risk your personal capital to start a manufacturing company for one of those items?
Americans should be manufacturing more generic drugs, PPE, medical equipment, microchips, large transformers, and anything critical for national defense.
New American factories tend to have a much higher level of automation and require fewer, but more productive, employees. Salaries should be able to be quite competitive because of that productivity.
Ok all know Zakaria hangs with Carney, and the WEF Davos crowd and gets his marching orders from there pretty much. So, wherever you stand on this will be where you go with this story.
Zakaria relies on the mainstream media for his livelihood. He needs to say these things to keep his sweet deal gigs going.
Now, I have done great with globalization. I was lucky, not smart. Right places at the right time pretty much. But when I went home to Ohio for years and saw what it looks like to have a crummy low paying worthless feeling service job which produces hopelessness and isolation it was always disheartening. Their parents my aunts and uncles lived better and were better off than their kids, literally. Ok the elites here are going to hit me up and say, "manufacturing job will make you feel better, and your life feel more worthwhile and less isolated?" I say yes, better pay, like making chips, or things our society needs makes one feel worthwhile because they are contributing and making decent money for a family and connected life with their communities. As mentioned in the story, most manufacturing is now done in sterile clean computer and automated driven factories. These jobs are pretty sophisticated and not for dummies or lazy people. And they are important jobs the world and country need.
Hint: As Oren repeatedly mentions, most Americans don't care about being famous, stupid rich, and walking in and having the biggest dick in the room attitudes. They want a good job some security, a nice community they can be involved in and support. Tearing up the world and being the richest smartest genius in the world doesn't really interest them, seriously. In fact, most find it amusing and mostly just egotistical and immature behavior.
And this "we can't manufacture anymore" is crap. You can if you want to. Want to do something, it can be done. This argument is again by the globalists who have profited and still are from this set up. And Zakaria and such are their mouthpieces.
Oren, keep up the great work and ideas. Your republican party I will join. The old republican party of neo cons and Norquist right wing stuff I left in 1990. They and still are not for working people who get things done in this country.
The new Religion = The University (The religion of nihilism)
"They want a good job some security, a nice community they can be involved in and support. Tearing up the world and being the richest smartest genius in the world doesn't really interest them, seriously. "
Well said. Sadly, Trump and Musk do not embody the description in your first sentence, but the one in your second.
I assume I'm with you for a lot you say. And, importantly, I think globalism is thankfully dead but instead of reversing the mistakes Americans chose exactly the wrong guy to move things back to where they should be.
But jobs are jobs and we do need a good and thriving manufacturing sector. But that's only half the problem. Our national social support configuration is a disgrace for both the employed, unemployed and retired. I lived in Germany in the 80's and early 90s and saw what a proper-functioning and balanced economy should be. The foundation of this is a very well-structured and well-functioning social support system: means-tested cost for medical care, national support for work and industry, a very secondary thought for profitability over performance and appreciation of the employed. The absorption of the former East was probably somewhat flawed and optimistic, most all because those in the East were VERY not prepared for the balance of democracy and interests. And this is playing out now in ways that are dragging down what was once the best and highest performing democracy on earth. Still, we could only dream of what all Germans have even today.
Cults. They’re dangerous when coupled with a skilled authoritarian movement. The experts to read right now are not economic experts, rather, I commend to you the thinking of our foremost experts on global authoritarian movements. I must ask; if inciting an armed insurrection against our government isn’t disqualifying for a president, can you give me an example of something that is?
Duh, old news, move on.
I basically agree with what is being said about Zakaria's "neo-liberal" (I hate that "word" though) views. Generally, all these noun-adjectives are nevertheless more obfuscating than enlightening.
But, true. Zakaria I don't think matters anymore. He did at the end of Bush 2. Obama was trying to play along and was forced by the Rapeublican mob to go that direction too.
But my real objection is not focusing on the disease: the word "free" and its inclusion in "freedom", "free markets" and worst of all "free speech".
Starting with the last of these: We now are living again through the rule of "free speech" with Trump. In other words, that word and its accompaniments have long ceased to be anything positive in the political and rhetorical realm. See Trump.
Our Constitution has progressed from something interesting and positive to a curse. And no other Western Liberal Democracy has this religion. When working in Germany, I was even dragged into a civil suit brought against a friend who was sued (not fairly) for speaking the truth in a way that created a hazardous workplace. There was a simple civil trial that assessed a small fine for not going through proper channels and that was that. And then there's this:
"The United States has a significantly higher number of lawyers per capita compared to Germany, with roughly 1 lawyer for every 256 people in the US versus 1 lawyer for every 524 people in Germany."
To cut to the point: Trump as the King of Unlimited Legal Abuse is the ongoing apotheosis of this problem.
The bot-trolls are out! lol funny
Here we go again, attacking fellow elites. It’s so revealing. It’s clearly a defense mechanism, a way for Oren to justify his support of the insurrectionist, Don. Rather than confront the authoritarian movement that all thinking people see clearly, Oren persists in battling fellow elites over economic arcana. Our political elites, our business elites, and our “think” tank elites continue to fail us. Not because of an outdated view of economies past, but because of a spineless indifference to authoritarian movements present. Is anyone else worried that our Star Wars bar scene cabinet feels obligated to operate secretly, eschewing their legal responsibility to record and preserve their deliberations?
So we just stop discussing important topics like protectionism and industrial policy because Orange Man Bad? He is, but he’s not the only elephant in the room.
https://open.substack.com/pub/betonit/p/what_me_worryhtml?r=2jvoi&utm_medium=ios
I pray you're right, and these are just normal, conventional times, with normal, conventional players. As for me, I'll respectfully disagree. Don's seemingly irrational actions are actually right out of the authoritarian playbook. On these matters I don't read economists, I read our many renowned, non-partisan experts on global authoritarian movements. Pick several, read them, and see what they have to say these days. Perhaps Oren could do a piece on how the rule of law relates to the performance of a national economy? Or, which authoritarian run economy does he consider the model Good luck America.
Hey Karl, if you’re not into this Substack, why don’t you go find a different one to plunder?
It’s soul crushing to see R senators crumble, as if their parking spaces at Reagan, and free haircuts, are worth sacrificing their dignity…
I don’t think I said these are normal times or that authoritarianism is not a challenge; it is, as all elements of our society have demonstrated. Nobody gets a pass as far as I am concerned. All have been all too willing to subvert norms in pursuit of their agenda. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty of issues to discuss that are themselves independent of authoritarianism, even if affected by it (which was my point). I’m just not that interested in having every article I read be about authoritarianism.
—Decades-Long Dismayed Libertarian
I understand Greg. But to me, there is only one issue, the preservation of our liberal (small L) democracy. At this moment in history, to me, policy doesn’t particularly matter. Bad policies can be fixed. Losing the republic cannot. This from a guy who’s pretty convinced he’s always right on policy matters. We have one mission, and one mission only. It’s soul crushing to see R senators
I respect your POV, but for me, the richness of intellectual challenge transcends any single topic. I have more faith in the republic than you seem to have. We’ve been through horrors and come out the other side. Please don’t say “none like Trump,” because I think that’s inaccurate. Some, like the Civil War (when we almost lost the nation and saw quite a few constitutional rights abridged, only to return stronger than ever),and WWII (where through our hesitation, we almost lost Europe and the free world), dwarf Trump from my POV. I don’t think Trump is inconsequential; I believe he is bad for our country. I just don’t see him as existential.
But to each their own view.
P.S. If anyone requires a hyperventilated kick in the pants, it’s the DNC that needs to climb out of its woke culture war stupor and present a salient vision of America to the electorate. Trump is living in their heads rent free, while they organize idiotic Tesla protests, and continue to fail to offer a vision that a majority of Americans will embrace. I once bemoaned the demise of the GOP as a rational alternative to the Dems. And here in California, the seesaw between the two doesn’t work anymore. But across the country, having two vibrant parties with differing but optimistic visions of America is what this country needs—and in the absence of a viable third party or multi-party system, it helps libertarians sleep at night—but right now we have none. Neither party has an optimistic vision of a broad spectrum American future.
This is like shooting fish in a barrel. He does have serious competition as worst business analyst though.
I watched your interview with John Stewart and was curious to understand some of the positions of those on the right. I tried to read this article to understand the point you were trying to make but was unable to discern much beyond your criticism of what you term neoliberal ideas. This is a consistent problem that find with conservative ideology; there doesn't seem to be any core principles other that what the other side is getting or doing wrong. Take away the divisiveness and I couldn't say what a conservative is. I'm guessing that most conservatives couldn't articulate any distinguishing principles as well. I really do want to know, however.
I lived and worked in the PRC for more than two decades and I am always amazed at Zakaria’s naivete about the country. It’s not a normal country. It’s focused on one thing: Revenge. The tools: Push America out of the Indo-Pacific, dominate the economically most dynamic region in the world, impoverish America and destroy the supremacy of the US dollar.
Oren Cass needs to have Matt Stoller on a future American Compass Podcast. Stoller's latest: "Monopoly Round-Up: Tariffs, Abundance and Why America Can't Build"
https://substack.com/home/post/p-159227785
In all this, I don’t see any mention of having a good enough size industrial base to make the stuff that might be needed to defend our home turf, or the ships and subs to defend the seas. I guess everybody assumes that we would either just surrender peacefully or hit the big red button …
While it is undeniably true that the persistent trade deficits of the United States run is real, and multiple countries who claim to have open markets and free training United States, instead of practice, various mechanisms of protectionism to close their markets off (the EU is a great example of this) or subsidize their industry that undercuts America’s (Taiwan and South Korea), it doesn’t seem clear to me that Trump threatening to annex allies or destroy the US ‘s relationship with them makes much sense.
Further, if you really want US manufacturing to be competitive, you would seek a weaker Dollar and the most obvious solution would be to significantly lower the deficit. Doge is nothing but pennies in the real deficit reduction will have to be through entitlement reforms something that Trump doesn’t seem to be doing at all.
Of course we don’t know the endpoint of these tariffs. But this strikes me as a half baked plan.
"Young man, there's no need to feel down
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground"
What young men who feel lost need today , what I needed when I was a young man who was lost, was a cause that would lead to a better life not just for me but for millions of others like me.
The cause I hit upon was part-time jobs in the country. Didn't happen then, but maybe tomorrow? God knows, I've given it my all: at last count 30,000 hours, but that was 30 years ago. Never give up.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U0C9HKW
The elephant in the room is that service employment is most vulnerable to displacement by AI.
I do not expect AGI any time soon, but existing AI technology, including specialized agents, is quite capable of cutting new white collar hiring significantly by increasing productivity.
AI does not need to fully replace workers to affect employment levels. If each worker can do more work, you are not going to need to hire more to get more work done. And as people leave or retire, you are less likely to need to replace them. Even if you don’t do layoffs, employment can decrease.
Is anyone else having trouble with commonplace.org? The links won’t load and when I try to go to the site itself I get a message that it is being blocked as a suspicious site
What should America manufacture that it currently doesn’t? How much should Americans be paid compared to their foreign counterparts to produce those items? Will it be more or less? Will you risk your personal capital to start a manufacturing company for one of those items?
Americans should be manufacturing more generic drugs, PPE, medical equipment, microchips, large transformers, and anything critical for national defense.
New American factories tend to have a much higher level of automation and require fewer, but more productive, employees. Salaries should be able to be quite competitive because of that productivity.