Politics and Manufacturing

The Economist has a good article on long-term employment trends in manufacturing.
Essentially, the business model invented in England back in the 17th century has run its course.

Once you understand what manufacturing now looks like, you come to see that the way it is represented in official statistics understates its health, and that the sector’s apparent decline in the rich world is overstated. But that does not solve the politicians’ problem. The innovations behind the sector’s resilience have changed the number, nature and location of the jobs that it offers. There are still a lot of them; but many of the good jobs for the less skilled are never to return.

How communist China will become the leader of the free world

"Our real enemy is not a neighboring country. It is hunger, poverty, superstition and prejudice."

--- Xi Jinping.

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The Straits Times (Singapore) runs a front-page article on President Xi's speech in Davos.

"Ready or not, China has become the de facto world leader seeking to maintain an open global economy and battle climate change," the official China Daily said in a commentary on Friday (Jan 13).

Overall, Trump is now perceived as a threat to economic growth throughout the Asia Pacific region.

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WSJ notes that Trump's pressure can force companies into making bad economic decisions. I wonder whether shareholders can sue Trump for damages after he is sworn in.

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Let's say, we have a hypothesis that the Trump administration will result in a relative weakness of the US relative to China in the Asia Pacific region. How would we place a hedged bet on this hypothesis?

Quote of the Day

As sexually explicit novels and newly available pornographic moving images flourished during the Victorian Era, so did claims that masturbating drove people ill, insane, or blind.
...
The wealthy class believed that the men among them were rational enough to handle this sort of material, but the rich worried that the lower classes would stop working productively if they were distracted by adult- themed material.

In 1857, England passed a law forbidding the sale and distribution of obscene materials. By the end of the century, boys or girls caught masturbating were often forced into chastity devices that prevented them from touching their own genitals or “cures” that involved electrical shock.

--- Shira Tarrant. The Pornography Industry. 2016.

Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil

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