Paris climate accords

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Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason by William Davies

active measures, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Amazon Web Services, Anthropocene, bank run, banking crisis, basic income, Black Lives Matter, Brexit referendum, business cycle, Cambridge Analytica, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, citizen journalism, Climategate, Climatic Research Unit, Colonization of Mars, continuation of politics by other means, creative destruction, credit crunch, data science, decarbonisation, deep learning, DeepMind, deindustrialization, digital divide, discovery of penicillin, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, drone strike, Elon Musk, failed state, fake news, Filter Bubble, first-past-the-post, Frank Gehry, gig economy, government statistician, housing crisis, income inequality, Isaac Newton, Jeff Bezos, Jeremy Corbyn, Johannes Kepler, Joseph Schumpeter, knowledge economy, loss aversion, low skilled workers, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Zuckerberg, mass immigration, meta-analysis, Mont Pelerin Society, mutually assured destruction, Northern Rock, obamacare, Occupy movement, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Paris climate accords, pattern recognition, Peace of Westphalia, Peter Thiel, Philip Mirowski, planetary scale, post-industrial society, post-truth, quantitative easing, RAND corporation, Ray Kurzweil, Richard Florida, road to serfdom, Robert Mercer, Ronald Reagan, sentiment analysis, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley billionaire, Silicon Valley startup, smart cities, Social Justice Warrior, statistical model, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, tacit knowledge, the scientific method, Turing machine, Uber for X, universal basic income, University of East Anglia, Valery Gerasimov, W. E. B. Du Bois, We are the 99%, WikiLeaks, women in the workforce, zero-sum game

Once-in-a-thousand-year storms are becoming familiar news items. The earth’s climate is already 0.85°C warmer than in 1880; only a rapid reduction in atmospheric greenhouse gases would avoid a rise to potentially catastrophic levels over the twenty-first century. Even the upper limits of warming aimed for by the Paris climate accord (c. 1.5–2°C above pre-industrial levels) could have an impact on sea levels and agriculture that would produce mass migrations, famines, and resource wars. Cities such as New York, with its 520-mile coastline, are severely imperiled by rising seas. Increased global temperature levels have already had a measurable impact on public health, from the impact of extreme heat on the elderly and the greater prevalence of dengue fever.6 If this weren’t frightening enough, resistance of diseases to drugs is rising steadily.

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The facts alone won’t save us The election of an American president who believes “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive” was horrifying for anyone who trusted the evidence on climate change. Trump’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, combined with his extravagant support for carbon-intensive industries, represented a reactionary force at a pivotal moment in the history of the earth’s climate. It did, however, serve as a reminder of how the most urgent scientific and political challenges are now entwined. How to respond?

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A/B testing, 199 Acorn, 152 ad hominem attacks, 27, 124, 195 addiction, 83, 105, 116–17, 172–3, 186–7, 225 advertising, 14, 139–41, 143, 148, 178, 190, 192, 199, 219, 220 aerial bombing, 19, 125, 135, 138, 143, 180 Affectiva, 188 affective computing, 12, 141, 188 Agent Orange, 205 Alabama, United States, 154 alcoholism, 100, 115, 117 algorithms, 150, 169, 185, 188–9 Alsace, 90 alt-right, 15, 22, 50, 131, 174, 196, 209 alternative facts, 3 Amazon, 150, 173, 175, 185, 186, 187, 192, 199, 201 American Association for the Advancement of Science, 24 American Civil War (1861–5), 105, 142 American Pain Relief Society, 107 anaesthetics, 104, 142 Anderson, Benedict, 87 Anthropocene, 206, 213, 215, 216 antibiotics, 205 antitrust laws, 220 Appalachia, 90, 100 Apple, 156, 185, 187 Arab Spring (2011), 123 Arendt, Hannah, xiv, 19, 23, 26, 53, 219 Aristotle, 35, 95–6 arrogance, 39, 47, 50 artificial intelligence (AI), 12–13, 140–41, 183, 216–17 artificial video footage, 15 Ashby, Ross, 181 asymmetrical war, 146 atheism, 34, 35, 209 attention economy, 21 austerity, 100–101, 225 Australia, 103 Australian, 192 Austria, 14, 60, 128, 153–75 Austria-Hungary (1867–1918), 153–4, 159 authoritarian values, 92–4, 101–2, 108, 114, 118–19, 211–12 autocracy, 16, 20, 202 Babis, Andrej, 26 Bacon, Francis, 34, 35, 95, 97 Bank of England, 32, 33, 55, 64 Banks, Aaron, 26 Bannon, Steve, 21, 22, 60–61 Bayh–Dole Act (1980), 152 Beck Depression Inventory, 107 Berlusconi, Silvio, 202 Bernays, Edward, 14–15, 16, 143 “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (Freud), 110 Bezos, Jeff, 150, 173 Big Data, 185–93, 198–201 Big Government, 65 Big Science, 180 Bilbao, Spain, 84 bills of mortality, 68–71, 75, 79–80, 81, 127 Birmingham, West Midlands, 85 Black Lives Matter, 10, 225 Blackpool, Lancashire, 100 blind peer reviewing, 48, 139, 195 Blitz (1940–41), 119, 143, 180 blue sky research, 133 body politic, 92–119 Bologna, Italy, 96 bookkeeping, 47, 49, 54 Booth, Charles, 74 Boston, Massachusetts, 48 Boyle, Robert, 48–50, 51–2 BP oil spill (2010), 89 brainwashing, 178 Breitbart, 22, 174 Brexit (2016–), xiv, 23 and education, 85 and elites, 33, 50, 61 and inequality, 61, 77 and NHS, 93 and opinion polling, 80–81 as self-harm, 44, 146 and statistics, 61 Unite for Europe march, 23 Vote Leave, 50, 93 British Futures, 65 Brooks, Rosa, 216 bullying, 113 Bureau of Labor, 74 Bush, George Herbert Walker, 77 Bush, George Walker, 77, 136 cadaverous research, 96, 98 call-out culture, 195 Calvinism, 35 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, 85 University, 84, 151 Cambridge Analytica, 175, 191, 196, 199 Cameron, David, 33, 73, 100 cancer, 105 Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Piketty), 74 capital punishment, 92, 118 car accidents, 112–13 cargo-cult science, 50 Carney, Mark, 33 cartography, 59 Case, Anne, 99–100, 102, 115 Catholicism, 34 Cato Institute, 158 Cavendish, William, 3rd Earl of Devonshire, 34 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 3, 136, 151, 199 Center for Policy Studies, 164 chappe system, 129, 182 Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 34, 68, 73 Charlottesville attack (2017), 20 Chelsea, London, 100 Chevillet, Mark, 176 Chicago School, 160 China, 13, 15, 103, 145, 207 chloroform, 104 cholera, 130 Chongqing, China, 13 chronic pain, 102, 105, 106, 109 see also pain Churchill, Winston, 138 citizen science, 215, 216 civil rights movements, 21, 194 civilians, 43, 143, 204 von Clausewitz, Carl, 128–35, 141–7, 152 and defeat, 144–6 and emotion, 141–6, 197 and great leaders, 146–7, 156, 180–81 and intelligence, 134–5, 180–81 and Napoleon, 128–30, 133, 146–7 and soldiers, number of, 133–4 war, definition of, 130, 141, 193 climate change, 26, 50, 165, 205–7, 213–16 Climate Mobilization, 213–14 climate-gate (2009), 195 Clinton, Hillary, 27, 63, 77, 99, 197, 214 Clinton, William “Bill,” 77 coal mining, 90 cognitive behavioral therapy, 107 Cold War, 132, 133, 135–6, 137, 180, 182–4, 185, 223 and disruption, 204–5 intelligence agencies, 183 McCarthyism (1947–56), 137 nuclear weapons, 135, 180 scenting, 135–6 Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), 180, 182, 200 space race, 137 and telepathy, 177–8 colonialism, 59–61, 224 commercial intelligence, 152 conscription, 127 Conservative Party, 80, 154, 160, 163, 166 Constitution of Liberty, The (Hayek), 160 consumer culture, 90, 104, 139 contraceptive pill, 94 Conway, Kellyanne, 3, 5 coordination, 148 Corbyn, Jeremy, 5, 6, 65, 80, 81, 197, 221 corporal punishment, 92 creative class, 84, 151 Cromwell, Oliver, 57, 59, 73 crop failures, 56 Crutzen, Paul, 206 culture war, xvii Cummings, Dominic, 50 currency, 166, 168 cutting, 115 cyber warfare, xii, 42, 43, 123, 126, 200, 212 Czech Republic, 103 Daily Mail, ix Damasio, Antonio, 208 Darwin, Charles, 8, 140, 142, 157, 171, 174, 179 Dash, 187 data, 49, 55, 57–8, 135, 151, 185–93, 198–201 Dawkins, Richard, 207, 209 death, 37, 44–5, 66–7, 91–101 and authoritarian values, 92–4, 101–2, 211, 224 bills of mortality, 68–71, 75, 79–80, 81, 89, 127 and Descartes, 37, 91 and Hobbes, 44–5, 67, 91, 98–9, 110, 151, 184 immortality, 149, 183–4, 224, 226 life expectancy, 62, 68–71, 72, 92, 100–101, 115, 224 suicide, 100, 101, 115 and Thiel, 149, 151 death penalty, 92, 118 Deaton, Angus, 99–100, 102, 115 DeepMind, 218 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 176, 178 Delingpole, James, 22 demagogues, 11, 145, 146, 207 Democratic Party, 77, 79, 85 Denmark, 34, 151 depression, 103, 107 derivatives, 168, 172 Descartes, René, xiii, 36–9, 57, 147 and body, 36–8, 91, 96–7, 98, 104 and doubt, 36–8, 39, 46, 52 and dualism, 36–8, 39, 86, 94, 131, 139–40, 179, 186, 223 and nature, 37, 38, 86, 203 and pain, 104, 105 Descartes’ Error (Damasio), 208 Devonshire, Earl of, see Cavendish, William digital divide, 184 direct democracy, 202 disempowerment, 20, 22, 106, 113–19 disruption, 18, 20, 146, 147, 151, 171, 175 dog whistle politics, 200 Donors Trust, 165 Dorling, Danny, 100 Downs Survey (1655), 57, 59, 73 doxing, 195 drone warfare, 43, 194 drug abuse, 43, 100, 105, 115–16, 131, 172–3 Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt, 74 Dugan, Regina, 176–7 Dunkirk evacuation (1940), 119 e-democracy, 184 Echo, 187 ecocide, 205 Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (Mises), 154, 166 economics, 59, 153–75 Economist, 85, 99 education, 85, 90–91 electroencephalography (EEG), 140 Elizabethan era (1558–1603), 51 embodied knowledge, 162 emotion and advertising, 14 artificial intelligence, 12–13, 140–41 and crowd-based politics, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 21, 23–7 Darwin’s analysis, 8, 140 Descartes on, 94, 131 and experts, 53, 60, 64, 66, 90 fear, 11–12, 16–22, 34, 40–45, 52, 60, 142 Hobbes on, 39, 41 James’ analysis, 140 and markets, 168, 175 moral, 21 and nationalism, 71, 210 pain, 102–19 sentiment analysis, xiii, 12–13, 140, 188 and war, 124–6, 142 empathy, 5, 12, 65, 102, 104, 109, 112, 118, 177, 179, 197 engagement, 7, 219 England Bank of England founded (1694), 55 bills of mortality, 68–71, 75, 79–80, 81, 89, 127 civil servants, 54 Civil War (1642–51), 33–4, 45, 53 Elizabethan era (1558–1603), 51 Great Fire of London (1666), 67 hospitals, 57 Irish War (1649–53), 59 national debt, 55 Parliament, 54, 55 plagues, 67–71, 75, 79–80, 81, 89, 127 Royal Society, 48–52, 56, 68, 86, 208, 218 tax collection, 54 Treasury, 54 see also United Kingdom English Defense League, ix entrepreneurship, 149, 156, 162 environment, 21, 26, 50, 61, 86, 165, 204–7, 213–16 climate change, 26, 50, 165, 205–7, 213–16 flying insects, decline of, 205, 215 Environmental Protection Agency, 23 ether, 104 European Commission, 60 European Space Agency, 175 European Union (EU), xiv, 22, 60 Brexit (2016–), see under Brexit and elites, 60, 145, 202 euro, 60, 78 Greek bailout (2015), 31 immigration, 60 and nationalism, 60, 145, 146 quantitative easing, 31 refugee crisis (2015–), 60, 225 Unite for Europe march (2017), 23 Exeter, Devon, 85 experts and crowd-based politics, 5, 6, 23, 25, 27 Hayek on, 162–4, 170 and representative democracy, 7 and statistics, 62–91 and technocracy, 53–61, 78, 87, 89, 90 trust in, 25–33, 63–4, 66, 74–5, 77–9, 170, 202 violence of, 59–61 Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animal, The (Darwin), 8, 140 Exxon, 165 Facebook, xvi, 15, 201 advertising, 190, 192, 199, 219, 220 data mining, 49, 185, 189, 190, 191, 192, 198, 219 and dog whistle politics, 200 and emotional artificial intelligence, 140 as engagement machine, 219 and fake news, 199 and haptics, 176, 182 and oligarchy, 174 and psychological profiling, 124 and Russia, 199 and sentiment analysis, 188 and telepathy, 176–8, 181, 185, 186 and Thiel, 149, 150 and unity, 197–8 weaponization of, 18 facial recognition, 13, 188–9 failed states, 42 fake news, 8, 15, 199 Farage, Nigel, 65 fascism, 154, 203, 209 fear, 11–12, 16–22, 34, 40–45, 52, 60, 142 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 137 Federal Reserve, 33 feeling, definition of, xii feminism, 66, 194 Fifth Amendment, 44 fight or flight, 111, 114 Financial Times, 15 first past the post, 13 First World War, see World War I Fitbit, 187 fixed currency exchange rates, 166 Florida, Richard, 84 flu, 67, 191 flying insects, 205, 215 France censuses, 66, 73 conscription introduced (1793), 127 Front National, 27, 61, 79, 87, 92 Hobbes in (1640–51), 33–4, 41–2 Le Bon’s crowd psychology, 8–12, 13, 15, 16, 20, 24, 25, 38 life expectancy, 101 Napoleonic Wars (1803–15), see Napoleonic Wars Paris climate accord (2015), 205, 207 Paris Commune (1871), 8 Prussian War (1870–71), 8, 142 Revolution (1789–99), xv, 71, 126–9, 141, 142, 144, 204 statistics agency established (1800), 72 unemployment, 83 Franklin, Benjamin, 66 free markets, 26, 79, 84, 88, 154–75 free speech, 22, 113, 194, 208, 209, 224 free will, 16 Freud, Sigmund, 9, 14, 44, 107, 109–10, 111, 112, 114, 139 Friedman, Milton, 160, 163, 166 Front National, 27, 61, 79, 87, 92, 101–2 full spectrum warfare, 43 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 140 futurists, 168 Galen, 95–6 Galilei, Galileo, 35 gambling, 116–17 game theory, 132 gaming, 193–4 Gandhi, Mohandas, 224 gate control theory, 106 Gates, Sylvester James “Jim,” 24 Gavotti, Giulio, 143 geek humor, 193 Gehry, Frank, 84 Geller, Uri, 178 geometry, 35, 49, 57, 59, 203 Gerasimov, Valery, 123, 125, 126, 130 Germany, 34, 72, 137, 205, 215 gig economy, 173 global financial crisis (2007–9), 5, 29–32, 53, 218 austerity, 100–101 bailouts, 29–32, 40, 42 and gross domestic product (GDP), 76 as “heart attack,” 57 and Obama administration, 158 and quantitative easing, 31–2, 222 and securitization of loans, 218–19 and statistics, 53, 65 and suicide, 101 and unemployment, 82 globalization, 21, 78, 84, 145, 146 Gonzales, Alberto, 136 Google, xvi, 174, 182, 185, 186, 191, 192 DeepMind, 218 Maps, 182 Transparency Project, 198 Government Accountability Office, 29 Graunt, John, 67–9, 73, 75, 79–80, 81, 85, 89, 127, 167 Great Fire of London (1666), 67 great leaders, 146–8 Great Recession (2007–13), 76, 82, 101 Greece, 5, 31, 101 Greenpeace, 10 Grenfell Tower fire (2017), 10 Grillo, Beppe, 26 gross domestic product (GDP), 62, 65, 71, 75–9, 82, 87, 138 guerrillas, 128, 146, 194, 196 Haldane, Andrew, 32 haptics, 176, 182 Harvey, William, 34, 35, 38, 57, 96, 97 hate speech, 42 von Hayek, Friedrich, 159–73, 219 health, 92–119, 224 hedge funds, 173, 174 hedonism, 70, 224 helicopter money, 222 Heritage Foundation, 164, 214 heroin, 105, 117 heroism and disruption, 18, 146 and genius, 218 and Hobbes, 44, 151 and Napoleonic Wars, 87, 127, 142 and nationalism, 87, 119, 210 and pain, 212 and protection, 202–3 and technocracy, 101 and technology, 127 Heyer, Heather, 20 Hiroshima atomic bombing (1945), 206 Hobbes, Thomas, xiii, xvi, 33–6, 38–45, 67, 147 on arrogance, 39, 47, 50, 125 and body, 96, 98–9 and Boyle, 49, 50, 51 on civil society, 42, 119 and death, 44–5, 67, 69–70, 91, 98–9, 110, 151, 184 on equality, 89 on fear, 40–45, 52, 67, 125 France, exile in (1640–51), 33–4, 41 on geometry, 35, 38, 49, 56, 57 and heroism, 44, 151 on language, 38–9 natural philosophy, 35–6 and nature, 38, 50 and Petty, 56, 57, 58 on promises, 39–42, 45, 148, 217–18 and Royal Society, 49, 50, 51 on senses, 38, 49, 147 and sovereign/state, 40–45, 46, 52, 53, 54, 60, 67, 73, 126, 166, 217, 220 on “state of nature,” 40, 133, 206, 217 war and peace, separation of, 40–45, 54, 60, 73, 125–6, 131, 201, 212 Hobsbawm, Eric, 87, 147 Hochschild, Arlie Russell, 221 holistic remedies, 95, 97 Holland, see under Netherlands homeopathy, 95 Homer, xiv Hungary, 20, 60, 87, 146 hysteria, 139 IBM, 179 identity politics, 208, 209 Iglesias Turrión, Pablo, 5 imagined communities, 87 immigration, 60, 63, 65, 79, 87, 145 immortality, 149, 183–4, 224 in-jokes, 193 individual autonomy, 16 Industrial Revolution, 133, 206 inequality, 59, 61, 62, 76, 77, 83, 85, 88–90 inflation, 62, 76, 78, 82 infographics, 75 information theory, 147 information war, 43, 196 insurance, 59 intellectual property, 150 intelligence, 132–9 intensity, 79–83 International Association for the Study of Pain, 106 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 64, 78 Internet, 184–201, 219 IP addresses, 193 Iraq War (2003–11), 74, 132 Ireland, 57, 73 Irish Republican Army (IRA), 43 “Is This How You Feel?

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, barriers to entry, Bernie Sanders, Biosphere 2, Carl Icahn, centre right, disinformation, disintermediation, Donald Trump, drone strike, Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, fake news, false flag, forensic accounting, illegal immigration, impulse control, Jeff Bezos, Jeffrey Epstein, obamacare, open immigration, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Paris climate accords, Peter Thiel, Renaissance Technologies, ride hailing / ride sharing, Robert Mercer, Ronald Reagan, Russian election interference, Saturday Night Live, self-driving car, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, single-payer health, Steve Bannon, Travis Kalanick, WikiLeaks, zero-sum game

As Jared and Ivanka were taking a victory lap, Trump signed Executive Order 13783, a change in environmental policy carefully shepherded by Bannon, which, he argued, effectively gutted the National Environmental Policy Act, the 1970 law that served as the foundation of modern environmental protections and that required all executive agencies to prepare environmental impact statements for agency actions. Among other impacts, EO 13783 removed a prior directive to consider climate change—a precursor to coming debates on the country’s position regarding the Paris Climate Accord. On April 3, Kushner unexpectedly turned up in Iraq, accompanying Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to the White House press office, Kushner was “traveling on behalf of the president to express the president’s support and commitment to the government of Iraq and U.S. personnel currently engaged in the campaign.”

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By the next day, he would be packing up his little office, and on Monday, when Trump would return to a refurbished West Wing—a paint job, new furniture, and new rugs, its look tilting toward the Trump Hotel—Steve Bannon would be back on Capitol Hill at the Breitbart Embassy, still, he was confident, the chief strategist for the Trump revolution. EPILOGUE: BANNON AND TRUMP On a sweltering morning in October 2017, the man who had more or less single-handedly brought about the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, stood on the steps of the Breitbart town house and said, with a hearty laugh, “I guess global warming is real.” Steve Bannon had lost twenty pounds since his exit from the White House six weeks before—he was on a crash all-sushi diet. “That building,” said his friend David Bossie, speaking about all White Houses but especially the Trump White House, “takes perfectly healthy people and turns them into old, unhealthy people.”

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., 140, 174–82, 235–39, 243, 257, 261–62, 272, 274, 277, 280–81, 289–91 Kelly and, 287–91, 294–97 Kushner and, 69–70, 72, 77, 87, 110, 132, 134, 140–48 Kuttner call and firing of, 297–300, 307 media and, 38, 90–91, 93, 195–97, 206–9, 222 NSC and, 103, 176, 190–92 Obamacare and, 165–67, 170–72, 175 Paris Climate Accord and, 238–39 Pence and, 124 Priebus and, 33–34, 110 role of, in early presidency, 31–35 Russia investigation and, 7, 95, 97, 101, 154–55, 157, 170, 211, 233–46, 254–55, 257, 260–62, 278–81, 308 Ryan and, 161–63 Saudi Arabia and, 229–30 Scaramucci and, 268, 271, 274, 277, 281–85 Sessions and, 155, 241–42, 277–78 Syria and, 190–94 Trump on, 122–23 Trump pressured to fire, 173–82 Trump’s personality and, 21, 23, 35, 45, 47–48, 148–49, 158 Trump’s Times interview and, 277–78 White House appointments and, 4, 36, 86–87, 89, 189, 285 Barra, Mary, 88 Barrack, Tom, 27–29, 33, 42, 85, 233, 240 Bartiromo, Maria, 205 Bass, Edward, 56 Bayrock Group, 100–102 Bedminster Golf Club, 165, 213–14, 216, 287–94, 297, 302, 307 Beinart, Peter, 297 Benghazi, 97 Berkowitz, Avi, 143 Berlusconi, Silvio, 100 Berman, Mark, 78 Best and the Brightest, The (Halberstam), 53–54 Bezos, Jeff, 35 Biosphere 2, 56 Blackstone Group, 35, 78, 87, 298 Blackwater, 265 Blair, Tony, 156–58, 228 Blankfein, Lloyd, 144 Bloomberg, Michael, 117 Boehner, John, 26, 161 Boeing, 88 Bolton, John, 4–5, 189 border wall, 77–78, 228, 280, 303 Bossie, David, 58, 144, 177, 234, 237, 301 Bowles, Erskine, 27 Boyle, Matthew, 298–300 Boy Scouts of America, 284 Brady, Tom, 50 Brand, Rachel, 279 Breitbart, Andrew, 58–59 Breitbart News, 2, 32, 58–59, 62, 121, 126–29, 138, 160–62, 167, 179–80, 196, 207–8, 237, 266, 275, 297–98, 309 Brennan, John, 6, 41 Brexit, 5 Britain, 70, 157 Brooks, Mel, 15 Bryan, William Jennings, 45 Brzezinski, Mika, 66–69, 121, 176, 247–49 Brzezinski, Zbigniew, 66 Buckley, William F., 127 Bush, Billy, 10, 13–14, 34, 86, 96, 161 Bush, George H.

The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World by Peter Frankopan

"World Economic Forum" Davos, active measures, Berlin Wall, Big Tech, bitcoin, blockchain, Boris Johnson, cashless society, clean water, cryptocurrency, Deng Xiaoping, don't be evil, Donald Trump, Ethereum, ethereum blockchain, F. W. de Klerk, failed state, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, global supply chain, high-speed rail, illegal immigration, income inequality, invisible hand, land reform, Londongrad, low interest rates, Mark Zuckerberg, mass incarceration, Meghnad Desai, Nelson Mandela, Paris climate accords, purchasing power parity, ransomware, Rubik’s Cube, smart cities, South China Sea, sovereign wealth fund, Steve Bannon, trade route, trickle-down economics, UNCLOS, urban planning, WikiLeaks, zero-sum game

A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again’.10 As he had promised during the election, Trump promptly set about pulling out of multiple agreements that the previous administration had signed up to, detaching the United States from the international mainstream in the process. This included signing an order to ‘permanently withdraw’ from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on his first day in office, promising that this was a necessary step if he was to ‘promote American industry, protect American workers, and raise American wages’.11 Then there was the Paris Climate Accord, which Trump described as ‘simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers – who I love – and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production’.

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For America First, Sarah Churchwell, Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream (London, 2018). 11White House, Presidential Memorandum Regarding Withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement, 23 January 2017. 12White House, Statement by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord, 1 June 2017. 13White House, ‘Executive Order Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States’, 27 January 2017. 14White House, ‘Remarks by President Trump on the Policy of the United States Towards Cuba’, 16 June 2017. 15Shawn Donnan, ‘Is there political method in Donald Trump’s trade madness?’

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R. here Macron, Emmanuel here, here Maio, Luigi di here Major, John here Malaysia here, here, here, here Maldives here, here Mandela, Nelson here Mao Zedong here, here Mattis, James here, here, here, here, here May, Theresa here Milanović, Branko here Mirziyoyev, Shavkat here Mittal, Lakshmi here Mnuchin, Steve here, here Modi, Narendra here Mohammad bin Salman, Prince here, here, here Mohammadi, Ebrahim here Moshiri, Farhad here Mugabe, Robert here Mumbai terrorist attacks here Myanmar here, here, here, here, here, here Nabilllina, Elvira here Nagel, Yaakov here Nakasone, Lt General Paul here nanotechnology here NATO here, here, here, here Navarro, Peter here, here al Nayhan, Abdullah bin Zayed here al Nayhan, Mansour bin Zayed here Nazarbayev, Nursultan here, here Netanyahu, Benjamin here New Zealand here, here, here, here, here Nicholson, General John here Nike here, here North Korea here, here, here, here, here Northern Powerhouse here Nye, Joseph here Obama, Barack here, here, here Obasanjo, Olusegun here oil and gas prices here, here, here, here oil reserves here Oman here, here opium poppies here Orbán, Viktor here Ottoman Empire here Pakistan China and here, here, here, here, here, here intimidation of journalists here military exercises here relations with China here relations with India here, here relations with Russia here retail market here water resources here see also TAPI pipeline Panama here, here Paris Climate Accord here Parrikar, Manohar here Pence, Mike here, here Peru here Philippines, China and here Piraeus port here Pohiva, Akalisi here Poland, judicial reforms here Polimeks here Pompeo, Mike here, here, here, here, here, here Porter, Lisa here Prabal Dostyk exercises here press freedom here property prices here Putin, Vladimir here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here meeting with Trump here Pyne, Christopher here Qatar, relations with Saudi Arabia here Qatar Airways here, here quantum computing here Radiohead here Rahmon, Emomali here rare earths here Ravat, General Bipin here Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership here Rice, Susan here Richthofen, Ferdinand von here RIMPAC exercise here robotics here Rosneft here, here Ross, Wilbur here Rouhani, Hassan here, here, here, here, here, here rules-based international order here, here Russia annexation of Crimea here, here, here, here crackdown on corruption here and Djibouti here intervention in Ukraine here, here, here, here military exercises here, here relations with China here, here relations with India here relations with Iran here relations with Saudi Arabia here relations with Turkey here, here technology development here and UK foreign policy here US intelligence and here and US foreign policy here Rwanda here S-500 air defence system here Safari, Mehrdad here Salman, King here São Tomé e Príncipe here Sarajevo here Saudi Arabia and Djibouti here reforms and arrests here relations with China here relations with Iran here relations with Israel here and US foreign policy here Vision 2030 plan here Seely, Bob here Senkaku Islands here Serbia here Sessions, Jeff here Shanghai Cooperation Organisation here, here, here Sherzai, Gul Agha here silicon here Siliguri Corridor here Silk Roads (the term) here Singapore here smart cities here Sochi Winter Olympics here Soleimani, Major General Qasem here, here Solomon Islands here Somalia here, here, here South China Sea here, here, here, here, here, here South Korea here Soviet Union here, here, here, here, here, here Soylu, Suleyman here space race here Space-X here Srebrenica massacre here Stalingrad, Battle of here Starr, S.

Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben

"Hurricane Katrina" Superdome, 23andMe, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Airbnb, Alan Greenspan, American Legislative Exchange Council, An Inconvenient Truth, Anne Wojcicki, Anthropocene, Apollo 11, artificial general intelligence, Bernie Sanders, Bill Joy: nanobots, biodiversity loss, Burning Man, call centre, Cambridge Analytica, carbon footprint, carbon tax, Charles Lindbergh, clean water, Colonization of Mars, computer vision, CRISPR, David Attenborough, deep learning, DeepMind, degrowth, disinformation, Donald Trump, double helix, driverless car, Easter island, Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, ending welfare as we know it, energy transition, Extinction Rebellion, Flynn Effect, gigafactory, Google Earth, Great Leap Forward, green new deal, Greta Thunberg, Hyperloop, impulse control, income inequality, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), James Bridle, Jane Jacobs, Jaron Lanier, Jeff Bezos, job automation, Kim Stanley Robinson, life extension, light touch regulation, Mark Zuckerberg, mass immigration, megacity, Menlo Park, moral hazard, Naomi Klein, Neil Armstrong, Nelson Mandela, Nick Bostrom, obamacare, ocean acidification, off grid, oil shale / tar sands, paperclip maximiser, Paris climate accords, pattern recognition, Peter Thiel, plutocrats, profit motive, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ray Kurzweil, Robert Mercer, Ronald Reagan, Sam Altman, San Francisco homelessness, self-driving car, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, smart meter, Snapchat, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steven Pinker, strong AI, supervolcano, tech baron, tech billionaire, technoutopianism, TED Talk, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, traffic fines, Tragedy of the Commons, Travis Kalanick, Tyler Cowen, urban sprawl, Virgin Galactic, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, Y Combinator, Y2K, yield curve

Trump, his news diet centered on the Fox News cable network that the climate deniers had so assiduously cultivated, believed that global warming was a “hoax invented by the Chinese” to cripple American manufacturing. (He further believed that polar ice caps “are at a record level.”)15 As a result, he pulled America out of the Paris climate accords, meaning that the nation that had poured the most carbon into the planet’s atmosphere was now the only country not willing even to pretend to take action to stop the crisis. Meanwhile, at Exxon, business continued as usual. Tillerson’s successor, Darren Woods, fended off shareholder pressure by agreeing to have his executives write a report disclosing the company’s “climate risk.”

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It “wouldn’t have been child’s play,” but “well-understood incremental regulatory reforms and well-designed carbon trading or pricing systems” would have done the trick. But now, rushing up on 2020, and after three decades of soaring carbon emissions, meeting even the modest targets of, say, the Paris climate accord has become nearly impossible. “The path now is steep as hell—the new curve we’re on demands downright disruptive emissions cuts” of as much as 50 percent a decade. As the geophysicist Michael Mann put it, “what would have been a bunny slope was now a double black diamond.” That means, Steffen explained, that “climate action can no longer be orderly, gradual, or even continuous with our expectations.”18 By early 2018, the view from the analysts calculating transition efforts around the world was stark.

…

The new head of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, for instance, had gained experience for his post by urging Americans to stockpile incandescent lightbulbs from Amazon on the grounds that an intrusive federal government would next be banning night baseball to save electricity.32 If you tried to figure out the worst way to respond to climate change, all this is what it would look like. Actually, the worst possible plan would also include trying to squash action in every other country, too. And that’s what the entire government-hating network managed to achieve in 2017, when President Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accords. It was as shameful a moment as any in our recent history: the country that produces more carbon than any other announcing that it was now the only country on earth not willing to make even a modest international commitment to solving climate change. As the Washington Post made clear in a lengthy special report, getting to that moment required a “two-decade crusade” by precisely the interbred group of antigovernment fossil fuel zealots we’ve already met.

Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs by Juli Berwald

23andMe, 3D printing, Alfred Russel Wallace, Anthropocene, Black Lives Matter, carbon footprint, Charles Lindbergh, circular economy, clean water, coronavirus, COVID-19, en.wikipedia.org, Fellow of the Royal Society, financial innovation, Garrett Hardin, George Floyd, Google Earth, Gregor Mendel, Greta Thunberg, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), lateral thinking, Maui Hawaii, microbiome, mouse model, ocean acidification, Panamax, Paris climate accords, Skype, social distancing, sovereign wealth fund, stem cell, TED Talk, the scientific method, too big to fail, Tragedy of the Commons

BP, perpetrator of the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history, saw revenues fall $16.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020. So BP cut oil and gas production by 40 percent and upped its commitment to low-carbon energy technologies tenfold. The Biden administration, during its first week in office, rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and issued a slew of executive orders addressing climate change. We saw that we have power over our atmosphere. It’s not too big. In our seas, perhaps that shift had also started happening. At the end of 2020, significant efforts to support the health of our oceans were announced, again too quietly for most of us to notice amid the pandemic and the contentious presidential election.

…

GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT BNP Paribas: Based in France, it is the world’s eighth-largest bank by total assets. With a tagline, “The bank for a changing world,” it touts a strong strategy in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, since the signing of the Paris Climate Accords, BNP has financed roughly $120 billion in fossil fuel projects, more than any other bank in the EU. Damian Carrington, “Big Banks’ Trillion-Dollar Finance for Fossil Fuels ‘Shocking,’ Says Report,” The Guardian, March 24, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/24/big-banks-trillion-dollar-finance-for-fossil-fuels-shocking-says-report.

…

See also Great Barrier Reef Australian Institute of Marine Science, 42, 262 autoimmune disease, 76–77 axial polyps, 168 B baboons, 45 bacteria and coral farming techniques, 187 and cryopreservation of coral, 192 and living rocks, 95 and settlement of coral larvae, 213 and stony coral tissue loss disease, 102 strep infections and PANDAS, 76, 78–79 and symbiosis with corals, 79–82, 161, 213 Badi (Indonesian island), 135, 142 Bahamas, 5, 186, 216–19, 225, 231 Bali, Indonesia and coral bleaching events, 64 and coral restoration efforts, 146, 155, 164–65, 169–70, 176, 286 and coral trade, 164–65, 166–71 earthquake, 174–75 family trip to, 125, 174–77 and Indonesian Through Flow, 131 Bali Aquarium, 165 Bay, Line, 18, 271–75 Bayahibe, Dominican Republic, 193, 204–5, 208, 211, 212 “Beat It (the Heat): Combating Stress in Coral Reefs” (symposium), 71–74 Belize, 12–13, 93, 103, 181–82 Ben (son) attitudes on environmental issues, 250 diving trips, 291–92 family travels, 104, 174–75 and Isy’s struggles with OCD, 214–15, 251–52 and onset of COVID-19 pandemic, 254, 256 benefits of corals and aquarium trade, 94–97, 123, 130, 159–65, 171–73 economic value, 7, 11, 159–65, 181–82, 185, 238 “ecosystem services” approach to determining, 126–27 environmental, 7, 11, 184, 285 fishery support, 15, 123, 135–38 flood and storm protection, 7, 11, 104, 126, 171, 218–19, 241–42 Bermuda, 184 Biden, Joe, 288 biodiversity and Acropora genus, 167 and aesthetic value of corals, 7 and algal symbiosis, 69 and aquarium trade, 159 in Caribbean, 93–94 in Coral Triangle, 42, 117–18 and cryopreservation of corals, 188–92 in Dominican Republic, 202 and economic value of coral reefs, 127 ethnic diversity parallels, Scott on, 266 and 50 Reefs study, 231, 233 of Florida reef, 22 of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 292–93 and genetic mixing, 44 and Indonesian Through Flow, 131, 167 and land restoration projects, 185 and Low Isles expeditions, 59–60 measuring reef health, 143 monoculture threat, 96 and stony coral tissue loss disease, 225 Black, Kristina, 265 Black Lives Matter, 267 Blanco, Macarena, 188, 193, 204–5 blast fishing, 23, 139–42, 232, 240, 313n141 bleaching of corals, 6–7 in Arabian Gulf, 62 and bacterial infections, 80–81 and Chasing Coral, 84 and Coral Reef Watch, 253 early research on, 55–60 etymology of term, 267, 268 in Florida and Caribbean, 62–63, 65, 94 at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 292 and genetics research, 273–76, 277 global bleaching events, 6–7, 25, 64–67, 132 Great Barrier Reef, 11, 65, 66, 254, 258, 259–60 Gulf of Mexico, 107 in Hawai`i, 61–66 origins of research on, 61–66 patchiness of, 270 in Red Sea, 65 and reef acoustics, 146 satellite imagery, 233 in Seychelles, 240 and storm damage, 218 Bloomberg Philanthropies, 231 blue bonds, 237, 239–40 bluehead wrass (Thalassoma bifasciatum), 196 BNP Paribas, 284, 322n284 Bonaire, 88 Bontasua, 135–38, 148–54 boulder corals, 60, 64, 93, 96–98, 143, 199–200 BP, 288 branching corals and aquarium trade, 161, 164 and changing environmental conditions, 60 and coral farming, 168–69 and Indonesian restoration sites, 138, 143 and natural history collections, 42 propagation by fragmentation, 96 and reef tract disease, 21 and restoration projects, 182 and storm damage, 218 varied morphology of, 43–44 See also elkhorn corals; staghorn corals branding programs, 25–27, 147, 226 Brandt, Karl Andreas Heinrich, 67, 305n67 BRCA gene, 273 Brown, Margaret “Molly,” 235 Bruckner, Andrew, 101 Buddy Dive Resort, 181 Bugis people, 128–29 bumphead parrotfish, 176 C cactus coral (Mycetophyllia lamarckiana), 209 calcium carbonate, 50–52, 65, 86 Caldiera, Ken, 250 Cannery Row (Steinbeck), 116 carbon emissions and algae/coral symbiosis, 38 author’s offset practices, 300n9 and cloud-brightening proposals, 20 and coral bleaching, 7, 73 and geoengineering proposal, 248–50 impact of COVID-19 pandemic, 262 methane compared with, 247 Montreal Protocol on, 300n9 and ocean acidification, 50–53 and Paris Climate Accords, 288, 322n284 reduction efforts, 14 and Tragedy of the Commons model, 116 Caribbean and coral bleaching, 62, 64, 65 and evolution of corals, 93–94 reef damage in, 5–6, 94, 218–19 and tourism industry, 181–82 and tropical storms/hurricanes, 216–17 white band disease, 94 Carnegie Institute, 55 Cayman Islands, 65, 108–9 Center for Tropical Island Biodiversity Studies, 266 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 87, 256 Chalias, Vincent, 165, 166–71, 314n171 Chasing Coral (film), 24, 26, 27, 84 Chasing Ice (film), 26 China, 119, 162 chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), 300n9 chlorophyll, 36, 38, 39, 68 chloroplasts, 82 Chozin, Muhammad, 141 Cladocopium, 69–70 clams, 52 Clean Air and Water Acts, 62, 116 climate change and global warming and coral bleaching, 6–7, 25, 64–67, 132 and coral genetics research, 34–35 Coral Reef Watch program, 253 and coral spawning, 131 and coral symbionts, 70 and ethical issues of coral restoration, 230 and 50 Reefs study, 231 financial impacts of, 240–42 and geoengineering proposals, 9, 18–20, 247–55, 258–59, 261–62 and Great Barrier Reef damage, 17 and heat waves, 291 and lessons of coronavirus pandemic, 287–88 and prioritization of environmental efforts, 131–32, 226–28, 234–35, 285, 289 and Reef Futures meeting, 9 and reticulated evolution, 45 See also carbon emissions climate change mitigation, 12, 18–20 cloud brightening and dust storms, 281–82 initial testing program, 251, 252–54, 258–59, 261–62 promise of, 300n17 and Reef Futures meeting, 19–20 viability of, 249–50 Wadhams on, 247–49 clown fish (Amphiprioninae), 143, 196 Club Méditerranée (Club Med), 203 Cocos Island, 48 Coles, Steve, 62, 66 Colombia, 64 colonialism, legacy of, 140–41, 203, 266 Columbia University, 273–74 Columbus, Christopher, 202 conservation ethic, 110 container ships, 99 continental drift, 47–48, 93 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), 162–64 Cook Islands, 64 coral atolls, 47–49, 52, 57, 134, 240 coral farming, 166–73 and aquarium trade, 159–65 and hospitality industry, 181–84, 204 and Reef Futures meeting, 12, 14, 20 and reef restoration, 94–98 and spawning, 205–9 See also aquarium trade Coral Probiotic Hypothesis, 80–82 Coral Reef Conservation Program, 102 Coral Reef Watch program, 253 Coral Restoration Consortium, 10–16 coral restoration efforts algae’s role in, 149, 188, 212–13 at Bontasua, 135–37, 148–51 and climate change, 231 cost of, 127 criteria for, 15 and financial innovations, 239–42 and genetics research, 35 Indonesia’s advantages, 131–32, 167, 176 and Mars, Inc., 122–24, 128–32 and measuring reef health, 143 and Reef Futures meeting, 11–12, 28–30 scale of, 17–22 and tetrapod structures, 211–14 See also coral farming; funding for coral research and restoration Coral Restoration Foundation, 96, 98, 225, 228, 284 Coral Sea, 253 coral trade.

American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup by F. H. Buckley

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Andrei Shleifer, belling the cat, Bernie Sanders, British Empire, Cass Sunstein, colonial rule, crony capitalism, desegregation, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, guns versus butter model, hindsight bias, illegal immigration, immigration reform, income inequality, low interest rates, Michael Milken, military-industrial complex, old-boy network, Paris climate accords, race to the bottom, Republic of Letters, reserve currency, Ronald Coase, Stephen Fry, Suez crisis 1956, transaction costs, Washington Consensus, wealth creators

Let’s look at the Yes California independence campaign, led by Marcus Ruiz Evans. It’s calling for a “Calexit,” echoing Brexit, and the movement has been gathering steam ever since Trump was sworn into office and started abandoning all manner of progressive causes. He has withdrawn America from the Paris Climate Accords and wants to open the California coast to offshore drilling. He has throttled back Obama’s auto emission standards and plans to revoke California’s right to set its own standards. To add insult to injury, he has slapped a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panels. From its headquarters in “Fresno, Republic of California,” Yes California makes the financial case for secession.

…

Morris, Gouverneur Mueller, Robert Mulroney, Brian NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) Nagin, Ray Napoleon Bonaparte; empire of NASCAR Nashville Skyline (Dylan) nationalism: and liberal principles; as “progressive” NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) neoconservatives neo-Nazis Ness, Eliot Nevada New Flemish Alliance New Jersey New York New Yorker New York Herald New York Morning News New York Times New York Tribune New York Weekly Journal New Zealand Nietzsche, Friedrich Nigeria “Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, The” Nixon, Richard North, Frederick North, 8th baron North Carolina; Research Triangle North Korea nullification doctrine Obama, Barack; and Affordable Care Act; and Blagojevich; diktats of; and drug enforcement; and military funding Obama, Michelle O’Connor, Flannery Once and Future King, The (Buckley) Oregon; and ICE Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Orwell, George Paine, Tom Pakistan Palin, Sarah Paris Climate Accords parliamentary regimes Parnell, Charles Stuart Parti Québécois Paul, Rand pay-for-play Pearl Harbor attack Pettigru, James Philadelphia Evening Journal Philippines Piepenbring, Dan Pierce, Franklin Pinochet, Augusto Pledge of Allegiance Pocock, J.G.A. population; of California; density; and happiness; and military spending; and social trust; and wealth Posner, Eric post-contractual opportunism Putin, Vladimir Quebec; Charter opt-outs; Meech Lake Accords on; opportunism of; secession referenda in; and social welfare; and sovereignty-association Reconstruction Reconstruction Amendments Reference re Secession of Quebec religious faction Republican Party; and heartland Revolutionary War.

Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity by Joseph E. Stiglitz

"World Economic Forum" Davos, accelerated depreciation, Airbnb, Alan Greenspan, balance sheet recession, bank run, banking crisis, barriers to entry, Basel III, basic income, behavioural economics, benefit corporation, Berlin Wall, bilateral investment treaty, business cycle, business process, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, carbon tax, central bank independence, collapse of Lehman Brothers, collective bargaining, corporate governance, corporate raider, corporate social responsibility, creative destruction, credit crunch, deindustrialization, discovery of DNA, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, eurozone crisis, Fall of the Berlin Wall, financial engineering, financial intermediation, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, full employment, gender pay gap, George Akerlof, gig economy, Gini coefficient, Glass-Steagall Act, hiring and firing, housing crisis, Hyman Minsky, income inequality, independent contractor, inflation targeting, informal economy, information asymmetry, intangible asset, investor state dispute settlement, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, labor-force participation, liberal capitalism, low interest rates, low skilled workers, market fundamentalism, mini-job, moral hazard, non-tariff barriers, offshore financial centre, open economy, Paris climate accords, patent troll, pension reform, price mechanism, price stability, proprietary trading, purchasing power parity, quantitative easing, race to the bottom, regulatory arbitrage, rent-seeking, Robert Shiller, Ronald Reagan, selection bias, shareholder value, Silicon Valley, sovereign wealth fund, TaskRabbit, too big to fail, trade liberalization, transaction costs, transfer pricing, trickle-down economics, tulip mania, universal basic income, unorthodox policies, vertical integration, zero-sum game

Even as talk of a trade war began, some firms producing in the United States but selling elsewhere discussed moving their factories. More broadly, Trump’s disdain for multilateral settings runs across policy areas. A concerted diplomatic effort by European nations to dissuade Trump from pulling out of the Paris climate accord failed. Trump shows no sign of making human rights a priority in US foreign policy—in fact, quite the contrary. Furthermore, international development work is on the chopping block and Trump left the Iran agreement, which was intended to reduce the threat of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

…

See home mortgages multilateralism, Trump and, 294, 296, 300–301, 311 multinational corporations, 198, 303–4, 318–20 Mundell, Robert, 33 NEET rates, 278 neoliberal (neoclassical) economics described, 13–14 limitations of, 14–16 perspective on retirees, 243 net public investment, 103–4 Netscape Navigator, 134 net wealth, taxation of, 190–91, 200 non-distortionary taxes, 187–88 non-tariff barriers, 317 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 294–95 Obama, Barack, 211–12 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), 197 Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 247 oligopolies, 129, 130, 220 One Belt, One Road initiative, 298, 302 Orderly Liquidation Authority, 181 Panama Papers, 196 Paradise Papers, 196 Paris climate accord, 328 patents, 144, 146–48 pension programs defined contribution systems, 248–49 informal economy adaptations, 247–48 job creation and, 246 neoliberal perspective on, 243 pension portability, 248 private sector failure, 243 privatizations, reversing, 244–46 public, misguided changes to, 243–44, 246–47 supplementing, with public option, 249–50 pharmaceutical companies intellectual property rules and, 145, 325 lack of transparency with, 312 place-based assistance, 274 Poland, 244, 245, 247, 271 political differences, 298–99 political divergence, 48–49 politics economics tied to, 95, 130 EU political rules, 10–11 of globalization, 221–22 Maastricht Treaty and, 75 Max Weber on, 9 political discontent, 2 political moment, current, 302–3 (see also globalization, mismanagement of) Portugal, 35, 36, 50, 219, 251 poverty rising, 218–19, 219 social protection and, 247–48 pre-distribution of market incomes, 223 Price Stability Doctrine, 18–19 private sector.

…

See also Free-Trade Doctrine; trade agreements; trade deficits crisis countries and, 41 globalization of, 23–24 liberalization of, 304–5 political differences impacting, 298–99 wars, effects of, 295–96 trade agreements compromises and benefits of, 291, 316–17 focus of current, 314, 317–18 limiting intellectual property rights, 324–26 pros and cons of, 24 questioning results of, 291 transparency and, 312–15 Trump hostility toward, 293–95 trade deficits in crisis countries, 39–40, 58–59 multilateral, 294 trade globalization, 23–24 trade liberalization, 304–5 trade wars, 295–96 Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), 314 transfer pricing, 198 Trans-Pacific Partnership, 316–17 transparency ECB enhancing, 89, 173 markets requiring, 140–41, 290–91, 312–15 regulatory standards and, 319 Trichet, Jean-Claude, 42, 66 Troika demands on, by ECB, 77 managing 2008 crisis, 36 policies imposed on Greece, 40 structural reforms of, 70 Trump, Donald EU challenging, 300–301 against globalization, 287–88 misguided moves of, 295 policy failures of, 293–94 post-Trump world, 296–97 promoting protectionism, 292–93 trade policies of, 294–95 unilateralism of, 296 WTO opposition of, 310–12 Trump administration for-profit school regulation, negating, 229 Paris climate accord and, 328 pressuring lending law, 235 pro-Wall Street agenda of, 159 2008 financial crisis assessing impacts of, 29, 49–50 convergence criteria and, 34 countries impacted by, 35–37 enormous costs of, 157–58 unemployment and, 29–30, 31 2010 debt crisis. See sovereign debt crisis Uber, 268, 269 UBI.

Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance by Ian Goldin, Chris Kutarna

"World Economic Forum" Davos, 2013 Report for America's Infrastructure - American Society of Civil Engineers - 19 March 2013, 3D printing, Airbnb, Albert Einstein, AltaVista, Asian financial crisis, asset-backed security, autonomous vehicles, banking crisis, barriers to entry, battle of ideas, Bear Stearns, Berlin Wall, bioinformatics, bitcoin, Boeing 747, Bonfire of the Vanities, bread and circuses, carbon tax, clean water, collective bargaining, Colonization of Mars, Credit Default Swap, CRISPR, crowdsourcing, cryptocurrency, Dava Sobel, demographic dividend, Deng Xiaoping, digital divide, Doha Development Round, double helix, driverless car, Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, en.wikipedia.org, epigenetics, experimental economics, Eyjafjallajökull, failed state, Fall of the Berlin Wall, financial innovation, full employment, Galaxy Zoo, general purpose technology, Glass-Steagall Act, global pandemic, global supply chain, Higgs boson, Hyperloop, immigration reform, income inequality, indoor plumbing, industrial cluster, industrial robot, information retrieval, information security, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), intermodal, Internet of things, invention of the printing press, Isaac Newton, Islamic Golden Age, Johannes Kepler, Khan Academy, Kickstarter, Large Hadron Collider, low cost airline, low skilled workers, Lyft, Mahbub ul Haq, Malacca Straits, mass immigration, Max Levchin, megacity, Mikhail Gorbachev, moral hazard, Nelson Mandela, Network effects, New Urbanism, non-tariff barriers, Occupy movement, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, open economy, Panamax, Paris climate accords, Pearl River Delta, personalized medicine, Peter Thiel, post-Panamax, profit motive, public intellectual, quantum cryptography, rent-seeking, reshoring, Robert Gordon, Robert Metcalfe, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Second Machine Age, self-driving car, Shenzhen was a fishing village, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Skype, smart grid, Snapchat, special economic zone, spice trade, statistical model, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, Stuxnet, synthetic biology, TED Talk, The Future of Employment, too big to fail, trade liberalization, trade route, transaction costs, transatlantic slave trade, uber lyft, undersea cable, uranium enrichment, We are the 99%, We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters, working poor, working-age population, zero day

If Facebook were a nation, it would be the most populous on Earth, with over 1.5 billion active users each month.31 And despite being dispersed around the globe, they are all, on average, less than four degrees of separation apart.32 On Facebook, even if we’ve never met, a friend of your friend knows a friend of my friend. This new group intelligence has been pivotal in many of the most talked-about events of the twenty-first century: the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement, public relief efforts in response to Hurricane Sandy, the Paris Climate Accord and the rise of extremist political parties in Europe. The wide range of these activities highlights how the new digital medium can bring both positive and negative outcomes. Societies and citizens are still fumbling to learn how to operate and manage this layer of consciousness. It has helped give rise to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL)—and to new Arab secular movements that reject not just religious violence but religious governance (see Chapter Eight).

…

Competing Finally, “connected” suggests a reaching out to one another in a spirit of cooperation. We have done that, more and more, on cross-border issues: health, security, the economy and the environment. For example the global energy trade, which keeps the world’s lights on, betrays an interdependence that transcends many deep geopolitical divides. See Figure 3-4. And the 2015 Paris Climate Accord saw 195 nations come to a science-driven consensus that alternative fuels must power most of our twenty-first century. Figure 3-4. The global oil trade defies many deep geopolitical differences. Source: BP (2015). Statistical Review of World Energy (64th Ed.). London: BP. But contest, too, motivates our reach.

…

See Buonarroti, Michelangelo middle class, 73–5, 93, 178, 186, 241 Middle East, 40–1, 93 Arab Spring, 24, 36, 211, 222–4, 228 and economic divergence, 211 and development, 161 and health care, 98 and life expectancy, 76 See also Islam migration benefits of, 86–8 challenges of, 230–1 drivers of, 59 economic migration, 56–7 and innovation, 59 international migration flows, 58 and labor, 57–9 long-term, 52–60 and policy, 249–51, 254 in the Renaissance, 55–6 and selected capital inflows to developing world, 87 and urbanization, 53–5, 249–50 See also refugees Milner, Yuri, 156 modernity, 152, 207–10, 212, 229 Moore, Gordon, 31 Moore, Michael, 227 Moore’s Law, 31–2, 117, 123, 136 More, Thomas, 75, 261 Mosteghanemi, Ahlam, 212 Musk, Elon, 243 Myanmar, 24, 206, 252 9/11, 4, 166, 207, 219, 227, 242 nanotechnology, 125–31, 157, 162 National Security Agency (NSA), 24 nationalism, 65, 230 new media, 25–37 New Renaissance, 7–10, 139, 235–67 beginning of, 10 breadth of achievement, 101 and collaboration, 145 and democracy, 230 and life sciences, 121 and progress, 11, 98–9 and protest, 223 Newton, Isaac, 107, 124, 237 Nigeria, 43, 94, 146, 182 Nobel Prize, 137, 158, 238 Nokia, 43 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 25 North Korea, 25, 98, 111, 197–9, 223 Occupy movement, 36, 220–1, 224 offshoring, 44, 249 open-source movement, 145, 241 Open Tree of Life, 36 Ottoman Empire, 2, 10–11, 18, 30, 40–1, 51, 55, 60–1, 72–3, 135, 194–5, 204, 209, 213, 230 Oweidat, Nadia, 213 pandemics, 137, 185–7 Black Death, 1, 70, 72–3, 93, 143, 173–5, 177, 184 defined, 179 Ebola, 181–3 H5N1 (bird flu), 165, 183–5, 186, 237, 253 HIV/AIDS, 76, 83, 98, 101, 154, 158, 185–6 SARS, 180–1 Spanish flu, 165 paradigm shifts and Copernicus, 105–8, 110–12, and genius, 107 in life science, 112–21 in physical science, 121–31 in the Renaissance, 105–11 See also genius Paris Climate Accord, 36, 67 patents, 136–7, 159, 227, 244–5 PayPal, 59, 153, 243 perspective, need for, 4–7 Peru, 29, 93 Petrarch, 80, 133, 256 Peurbach, Georg von, 105, 133 PewDiePie, 138 pharmaceutical industry, 83–4, 113, 183, 245 3D-printed drugs, 119 and diminishing returns, 154–5 gene therapy, 119–20, 158 and nanotechnology, 131 and pace of discovery, 162–3 R&D spending, 154 Phelps, Edmund, 240–1 physics, 121–5 quantum mechanics, 123–8 and random motion, 128 and scale, 121–8 scanning tunneling microscope (STM), 128 and stickiness, 128 plague.

Billion Dollar Burger: Inside Big Tech's Race for the Future of Food by Chase Purdy

"World Economic Forum" Davos, agricultural Revolution, Big Tech, cognitive dissonance, corporate governance, Donald Trump, gig economy, global supply chain, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff, Paris climate accords, Peter Thiel, plant based meat, Salesforce, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, sovereign wealth fund, stealth mode startup, stem cell, Steve Jobs

Its many windows were illuminated, emanating a warm and inviting glow. It was the restaurant, De Hoop op d’Swarte Walvis. We were scheduled to have dinner at the restaurant, but the sight of it relit the anger Ira was feeling toward the Dutch government. The softness in her voice evaporated. With everything at stake—the changing climate, the Paris Climate Accord going into effect in less than a year, and billions of animals dying every year unnecessarily—how could her own government have been the first to strike down an attempt to get cell-cultured meat to market? If the government had been supportive, it would have sent a powerful message to the rest of the world, Ira said.

…

., 104 New York Times, 26, 89, 192, 197, 234 North American Meat Institute, 176 North Carolina State University, 35 Northern Virginia Community College, 34 Noyes, Andrew, 66, 214, 217–18, 227 nucleotides, 127–28 Oleomargarine Act of 1886, 159, 164, 165 Orchard system, 38–40 organic foods, 215, 216–17 Or ha-Hayyim, 187–88 Orthodox Union, 189–91 Oryx and Crake (Atwood), 17, 18 Ottoman Empire, 187 Oxford University, 14, 45–46 Palantir, 82 Pape, Stuart, 168–69, 170–71, 178 pareve, 189–90 Paris Climate Accord, 61 Paris World Exhibition (1866), 158 Park, Nate, 218–24 partially hydrogenated oils, 167–68 pâté, 3–5, 133 Pax Christi–Spirit of Life Plowshares, 140–44 PayPal, 82 pentobarbital, 96 Perfect Day, 12 PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), 26, 88, 145, 151–52, 195 Peter the Great, 55 PHW Group, 166 Pixar Animation Studios, 1 Plant Based Foods Association, 89 political lobbying, 168–73 Pollan, Michael, 192, 214 Polsinelli PC, 168–69 Popular Mechanics, 14 Post, Mark, 24, 26–28, 45, 110, 120–30, 162 author’s visit to Mosa Meat, 120–30 first prototype, xiii–xv, 2–3, 26–27, 122 production considerations, 125–29 Princeton University, 195 privacy rights, 153 processed foods, 42, 131 Procter & Gamble Company, 147 Purdy, Connie, 43, 213–14, 217–27 Quartz, 48, 196 Radnor High School, 70–71, 73 Rajneesh (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Osho), 20, 20n Red Cross, 19, 21 regulations.

Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy by David Frum

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, anti-globalists, Bernie Sanders, carbon tax, centre right, coronavirus, currency manipulation / currency intervention, decarbonisation, deplatforming, disinformation, Donald Trump, Edward Snowden, employer provided health coverage, fake news, green new deal, Greta Thunberg, illegal immigration, immigration reform, labor-force participation, manufacturing employment, mass immigration, microaggression, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nate Silver, obamacare, offshore financial centre, open immigration, Paris climate accords, Peter Thiel, plutocrats, QAnon, rent-seeking, Ronald Reagan, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, Steve Bannon, W. E. B. Du Bois

“We recognize we will benefit more from a strong and equal partner than from a weak one,” said Bill Clinton in January 1994.6 Trump discarded this commitment to cooperation. The Trans-Pacific Partnership had been negotiated under two previous presidencies to balance Chinese power. Trump called TPP “a rape of our country”7 and withdrew three days after becoming president. Trump quit the Paris climate accords and abandoned the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership before it could get started. Trump upended trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the South Korean agreement. He raged against the World Trade Organization. He reneged on a refugee domiciling agreement with Australia, insulted heads of government in Canada and Germany, urged the United Kingdom to exit the European Union, and then hit the British with trade penalties once they were isolated and weakened.

…

., 18 Napoleon, 65 National Enquirer, 109 National Guard, 93 nationalism, 50–51, 62–63, 196 National Lynching Memorial, 117 National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 126 National Rifle Association (NRA), 59, 61 National Security Agency (NSA), 45 National Security staff, 88, 96–97 Navajo Generating Station, 118 Naval Operations Chief, 92 Nazism, 64, 145 NBC, 24, 59 Nebraska, 184 Neller, Robert, 92 Netherlands, 133 Never Trumpers, 90 New Black Panthers, 69 New Hampshire, 76 New Jersey, 75 New Orleans, 80 Newton, Isaac, 157 New York City, 83, 163 New York magazine, 109 New York State, 75, 118, 184–86 New York Times, 41, 43, 46, 61, 65, 95, 102, 111, 118, 194 New Zealand, 55–56, 162, 177 Nicaragua, 108 Nixon, Richard, 62, 82, 85, 99–100, 105, 125, 198 No Child Left Behind Act (2002), 140 Nolte, John, 149 Noonan, Peggy, 196 Norquist, Grover, 196 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 41, 112, 178 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 45, 63, 93–94 North Carolina, 76, 78, 80, 123 North Dakota, 122, 164 Northeastern University, 55 North Korea, 44–46, 48–49, 169, 171–72 nuclear energy, 164, 166–67 nuclear weapons, 93–94, 180 Oak Ridge nuclear complex, 167 Obama, Barack, 12, 15, 64, 130–31, 136, 178, 183, 196–97 ACA and, 134–35 bin Laden and, 95–96 China and, 177 climate change and, 152 elections of 2010 and, 79 foreign policy and, 171, 179 immigration and, 21, 24, 106 Iran and, 172 Islamic world and, 53–54, 179 Obama, Michelle, 26 Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria, 147, 167 oceans, 155–56 Office of Management and Budget (OMB), 102 offshore tax havens, 102, 174 Ohio, 78, 82–83 oil and gas (fossil fuels), 42, 94, 127, 150, 153–56, 161, 163–64 One American News Network (OANN), 15 O’Neill, Brendan, 149 O’Neill, Tip, 127 Orbán, Viktor, 67, 69, 143 Oregon, 118 O’Reilly, Bill, 15 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 132 Ornstein, Norman, 77 Owens, Candace, 64 Paddock, Stephen, 55 Pakistan, 88–89, 95, 173–75, 180 Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), 60 Palin, Sarah, 83, 84 Panama, 45, 108 Paris Bastille Day parade, 90–91 Paris climate accords, 41, 162 Parnas, Lev, 89, 190 Patriot Prayer, 60 Pegler, Westbrook, 83 Pence, Mike, 4, 26, 35, 63 Pennsylvania, 82–83, 118, 186 Perkins, Tony, 3, 75 Perón, Eva, 18 pharmaceutical companies, 133 Philadelphia, 184, 186 Philippines, 44–45, 146 Pierce, William, 60 Pittsburgh, 186 synagogue shooting, 56, 61 plastics, 118, 156, 160 Playboy, 49 Poland, 50, 66–67, 89, 93, 193 polarization, 15, 130–31, 137–38, 187 political correctness, 15, 110 poll taxes, 71 pollution, 159–61 Pompeo, Michael, 47, 171 population distribution, 75–79, 83, 121–22 Prager, Dennis, 149 progressives, 107–8, 110–13 protectionism, 3, 50, 161 Proud Boys, 60–61 public schools, 136–37, 140–41 Pulse nightclub shootings, 53–55 Putin, Vladimir, 3, 32–33, 44, 48, 63–64, 89, 176, 197 QAnon, 34 Quartz, 156 race and racism, 5–6, 43, 56–58, 62–63, 65–66, 107, 111–12, 127, 140–41, 191 voting and, 71, 80–81 Reagan, Ronald, 18, 39, 51, 62, 105–6, 181, 191 real estate, 120 recessions, 12, 127, 144 recycling, 159–60 red flag laws, 117 redistricting, 84 red meat consumption, 163 reform, recommendations for consensus and, 118–19 DC statehood and, 122–23 filibuster and, 120–22 gerrymandering and, 124–25 law enforcement and, 125–26 presidential tax returns and, 119–20 regulation, 127, 188 Reid, Harry, 121 Republican National Convention 2008 (St.

The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success by Ross Douthat

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, AI winter, Apollo 13, Bernie Sanders, bitcoin, Black Lives Matter, Boeing 747, Burning Man, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, carbon tax, centre right, Charlie Hebdo massacre, charter city, crack epidemic, CRISPR, crowdsourcing, David Graeber, Deng Xiaoping, deplatforming, Donald Trump, driverless car, East Village, Easter island, Elon Musk, fake news, Flynn Effect, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Francisco Pizarro, ghettoisation, gig economy, Golden age of television, green new deal, Haight Ashbury, helicopter parent, hive mind, Hyperloop, immigration reform, informal economy, intentional community, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Islamic Golden Age, Jeff Bezos, Jeremy Corbyn, Joan Didion, Kevin Kelly, Kickstarter, knowledge worker, life extension, low interest rates, mass immigration, mass incarceration, means of production, megacity, meritocracy, microaggression, move fast and break things, multiplanetary species, Neal Stephenson, Neil Armstrong, New Journalism, Nicholas Carr, Norman Mailer, obamacare, Oculus Rift, open borders, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, out of africa, Panopticon Jeremy Bentham, Paris climate accords, peak TV, Peter Thiel, plutocrats, pre–internet, private spaceflight, QAnon, quantitative easing, radical life extension, rent-seeking, Robert Bork, Robert Gordon, Ronald Reagan, secular stagnation, self-driving car, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley billionaire, Silicon Valley ideology, Snapchat, Snow Crash, Social Justice Warrior, social web, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Steven Pinker, technoutopianism, TED Talk, the built environment, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, Tyler Cowen, Tyler Cowen: Great Stagnation, wage slave, WeWork, women in the workforce, Y2K

And it was entirely normal that the Libyan intervention, like our post-ISIS return to Iraq and our stumblebum attempts to influence the course of the Syrian civil war, lacked any specific congressional authorization, continuing a pattern of congressional abdication in foreign policy and domestic policy alike. It was entirely normal that the White House’s chief diplomatic achievements, the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accords, also lacked congressional authorization, meaning that they could be rolled back (and were) with the stroke of a successor’s pen. And it was, finally, entirely normal that every other Obama initiative—the reset with Russia, the predictable Israel-Palestine push, the “pivot to Asia”—was in tatters by the time he left the White House.

…

., 209 Napster, 105 NASA, 5 National Geographic, 38 nationalism, 86, 172–73 as escape from sclerosis, 217–18 National Security Agency (NSA), 144 Internet companies and, 146, 147 neoliberalism, 24 left-wing critique of, 30–31 libertarian critique of, 30, 31 limits of, 28–32, 219 neo-Marxism, 219–21 neo-paganism, see paganism Netanyahu, Benjamin, 218 New Age spiritualism, 101, 103, 224, 225, 226 New Deal, 68, 74 New Frontier, 181 New Journalism, 109–10 New Republic, 114 New York, 127 New Yorker, 109, 134 New York Review of Books, 6 New York Times, 60, 62, 137 Nisbet, Robert, 108–9, 110 Nixon, Richard, 24, 77 North Africa, political turbulence in, 194 nostalgia, 181, 206 “Nothing to Hide” (Twitter account), 147 nuclear war, 191 Nye, David, 36, 37 Obama, Barack, 67 and management of decadence, 181 presidential unilateralism and, 60 Obamacare, 68, 69–70, 73–74, 76 Obama presidency: foreign policy of, 70–71 political sclerosis and, 67–72, 74 Occupy Wall Street, 113 offshoring, 28, 29 Oliver, Kendrick, 231–32 opioid epidemic, 126–27 Orban, Viktor, 85, 164 Oumuamua (cosmic object), 233, 237 paganism, as path to renaissance, 224–26 Panopticon, 144, 152, 153, 154 see also pink police state pantheism, 224, 225, 226 parents, older, children of, 60–61 Paris climate accords, 71 Paris Statement (2016), 217, 219 Parsons, Jack, 231 Pascal, Blaise, 235–36 Perot, Ross, 78–79 Peterson, Jordan, 97, 224 pharmaceutical industry, 44 Phillips, Todd, 94 Piketty, Thomas, 12, 30, 57–58 Pinker, Steven, 165 pink police state, 140–54 civil liberties and, 141–42 in Europe, 143–44 marginalization of dissent in, 151–52, 153–54 playacting and performance in, 152 political discourse in, 147 soft pressure vs. hard enforcement in, 148 see also surveillance state Pizarro, Francisco, 189 plagues, impact on civilization of, 190 Poland, 85–86 polarization, 154 sclerosis and, 76–81 political discourse, in pink police state, 147 politically correct speech, 143 political parties, polarization of, 77–81 politics: declining birthrate and, 62–66 as entertainment, 153–54 historical norms of, 68–69 of sustainable decadence, 129–36 Politico, 198 polytheism, 225 popular music, decline of originality in, 91 populations, aging of, see aging populations populism, resurgence of, 12–13, 22, 27, 28, 63, 64, 78–80, 85, 86, 152, 153–54, 181, 193 immigration and, 196 as threat to liberal order, 171–73 pornography, 107, 149 addiction to, 119 Internet culture and, 120–21 in Japan, 88 sexual violence and, 119–22 and sixties-seventies social revolution, 119 virtual entertainments and, 125 postcolonial world, cultural synthesis of West and, 208–9 postmodernism, 97, 98, 135 Poulos, James, 140–41, 146, 151 pre-Columbian America, European conquest of, 189–90 Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary (Nisbet), 108–9, 110 prescription drugs, social upheaval repressed by, 149 privacy, right to: Internet and, 145, 146–47 lack of public concern about, 147, 148 productivity: aging workforce and, 57 education and, 34–35 Internet and, 41 stagnation in, 44 progress: promise vs. reality of, 1–2, 4–5, 10–11, 28, 42–46 technological, see technology see also change progressives, progressivism, cultural repetition and, 98 Protestants, Protestantism: churchgoing by, 100 evangelical, 53, 101, 119, 222 psychics, 225 publishing industry, decline of originality in, 91, 105 Putin, Vladimir, traditionalism of, 162–63 Quinones, Sam, 127 race: identity and, 205, 221 new configurations of, 208 wage gap and, 99 racism, 63, 80, 97, 205 Rahner, Karl, 110 rape, see sexual violence Rauch, Jonathan, 72, 73 Ready Player One (film), 94 Reagan, Ronald, 24, 71 Reagan Revolution, 68, 77, 90, 100 recessions, 192, 193, 194 Reeves, Richard, 31 Reformation, 222, 227, 230 regulation, proliferation of, 72 Reign of Terror, 206 religion: belief in immanent divine in, 224 birthrate and, 53, 54 communitarianism in, 216 declining formal affiliation in, 99–100 demographic change and, 222–23 Eastern forms of, 225 as path to renaissance, 221–23 post-Christian, 224 public rituals in, 225, 226 repetition in, 99–100, 180 sects in, 101–2; see also specific sects secularism’s relationship with, 221 self-help versions of, 224 unforeseen revolutions in, 223 see also paganism religious debates, repetition in, 101–4 renaissance, 205–32 as combination of scientific programs and religious revival, 230–32 as concurrence of forces, 229–32 Eurafrican scenario for, 206–10, 218, 228–29 Islam as path to, 226–28 meaningfulness as core issue in, 221 paganism as scenario for, 224–26 political scenarios for, 215–21 religious scenarios for, 221–23 technological acceleration and, 210–15 renewable energy, 35, 43 rentier class, 26, 30–31, 46 repetition, 10, 11, 66, 89–115, 236 baby boomers and, 109, 111–12 in ideological debates, 100–101 innovation vs., 9 in intellectual realm, 96–101, 180 in Internet culture, 104–7 in movies, 91, 93–95 in music, 91 in publishing, 91 in religion, 99–100, 180 in religious debates, 101–4 in television, 95 Republicans, Republican Party: as interest-group protection racket, 76 polarization blamed on, 79 populism and, 79–80 sclerosis of, 80–81 tax policies of, 29 see also conservatives, conservatism research and development, stagnation in, 44–45 right: attention seeking by, 153 media-entertainment complex of, 80 political renaissance scenario of, 217–18 see also conservatives, conservatism Rise and Fall of American Growth, The (Gordon), 33 Rise of the Meritocracy, The (Young), 170–71, 172 rituals, public, 225, 226 robots, robotics revolution, 44, 210–11 Roman Empire, 13, 157 early Christianity and, 222, 223, 237 impact of plagues on, 190 Roosevelt, Franklin, 74 Russia, czarist, 162–63 Russia, modern: traditionalist ideology of, 162–63 Ukraine interventions of, 162 and US 2016 election, 162 Salvini, Matteo, 85, 114 Sanders, Bernie, populism of, 181 Sarah, Robert Cardinal, 206–8, 209, 228 Saudi Arabia, 160, 163 Scandinavia, 85 Schmidt, Eric, 146 Schneier, Bruce, 144 school shootings, 123–24 sclerosis, political, 9, 10, 11–12, 25, 67–88 centrist view of, 76–79 conservative-friendly explanations of, 72–76 in EU, 82–86 in Japan, 86 as kludgeocracy, 75 left’s view of, 79–80 mass immigration and, 64–65 nationalism as escape from, 217–18 Obama presidency and, 67–72, 74 polarization and, 76–81 and public expectations of government action, 74–75 of Republican Party, 80–81 as result of multiple trends, 81 virtuous communities as escape from, 215–17 Scorsese, Martin, 94, 95 Second Vatican Council, 100 secularism, 222–23, 227 birthrates and, 51, 53, 54 religion’s relationship with, 221 repetition in, 102–3 sterility of, 207 self-driving cars, 21 Senate, US, 67 Senegal, 208, 209 Senghor, Léopold Sédar, 208–9 September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 114, 159 Servan-Schreiber, Jean-Jacques, 42 sex, virtual entertainments and, 128 sex bureaucracy, 142–43 sexually transmitted diseases, increased rate of, 152 sexual relations: decline in, 55, 87, 125 among teenagers, 122–23 sexual revolution, 90 birthrate and, 50, 55 sexual violence: falling rates of, 120–22 pornography and, 119–22 Shallows, The (Carr), 107 Shawn, William, 109–10 Shinto, 225 Shulevitz, Judith, 61 Silicon Valley, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 42, 143, 146, 201 foreign investment in, 193–94 space race and, 43, 213 Simon, David, 95 Simon, Julian, 43 Singapore, 216 birthrate in, 50 pronatalist policies of, 52 Singularity, 24 sixties-seventies: promise of, 1–2 sociological and cultural change in, 99, 108–9, 119 see also baby boomers Slaughter, Anne-Marie, 97 “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” (Didion), 131 Smith, Adam, 179 Smithsonian Museum, 38 Snow family, 59–60 social credit systems, 138–40 social democrats, 73 socialism, resurgence of, 27, 28 social media, 106 “soma,” 127 Sopranos, The (TV show), 95 Soumission (Submission) (Houellebecq), 155–57, 159, 160–61, 172 South Africa, economic growth in, 166–67 South Asia, migration from, 199 South Korea, 164 birthrate in, 50 pronatalist policies of, 52 space race, 181 Silicon Valley and, 43, 213 space travel: critiques of, 5–6 expectations of, 2 physical limits on, 235 revolution in, 211 as scenario for end of decadence, 236, 239–40 unfulfilled promise of, 1–3, 5–6 Spain, 84, 85 Spanish conquest, 189–90 Specter, Arlen, 67 speech, politically correct rules of, 143 Spielberg, Steven, 94 Sputnik, 2 stagflation, 24, 28 stagnation, economic, 11, 17–46, 57, 193, 236 climate change and, 180 decadence as, 8–10 demographics and, 57 in Europe, 25 in Japan, 86, 125 let’s-pretendism and, 21 and limits on growth, 32–36 mass immigration and, 64–65 median US income and, 22–23 neoliberalism and, 28–32 unemployment and, 23 stagnation, technological, 36–42, 91, 103, 104, 165–66, 180, 201, 203, 214 stalemate, 66 see also sclerosis, political Stanford University, 44–45 Star Trek (TV show), 2, 38, 214 Star Wars movies, 89, 90, 111 Stephenson, Neal, 37 Steyn, Mark, 38–40, 41, 100 stimulus package, 67, 68 Suk, Jeannie, 142 Sullivan, Andrew, 127 Summers, Larry, 33 superrich, 31 surveillance state, 201 criminality and violence discouraged by, 148–49 Internet as, 144–47 Sweden, 52 Syria, 85, 199 civil war in, 70–71 Syrian refugee crisis, 85, 161, 196 tax rates, low, 28, 29 tax reform, 70 technocrats, 192, 202–3 sustainable decadence and, 181–83 technological acceleration: renaissance and, 210–15 social and political institutions and, 213–15 technological sublime, 36–37 technology: backlash against, 229 stagnation in, 36–42, 91, 103, 104, 165–66, 180, 201, 203, 214 unanticipated consequences of, 179, 191 teenagers: anxiety and depression among, 123 sexual relations among, 122–23 Teles, Steven, 30, 31, 75, 78 television: creativity in movies vs., 94–95 decline of originality in, 95 golden age of cable on, 95–96 terrorism, 114, 150, 159 in age of sustainable decadence, 131–33 Theranos, 18–19, 21 Thiel, Peter, 12, 41, 42, 102, 168 Thompson, Hunter S., 110 Thurber, James, 109 To Touch the Face of God (Oliver), 231–32 traditionalism: cultural/political, 48, 98, 162–63, 206 religious, 101, 103, 206–7, 208 Trump, Donald, 48–49, 79, 89, 132, 154 attention as primary need of, 152–53 election of, 99, 101, 114, 182 Great Recession and, 193 immigration and, 196 incipient authoritarianism of, 80, 130 populist appeal of, 78–79, 101, 181 as product of decadence, 12, 13 transgressive behavior of, 152 Twitter use by, 130 “Western civilization” speech of, 205–7 Trump presidency, 65 policy failures of, 71, 172 Trump voters, 63–64, 171, 217 Turner, Frederick Jackson, 3–4 “Twilight City,” 56, 57, 65 Twitter, 148, 194 Trump’s use of, 130 2001: A Space Odyssey (film), 2 Uber, 19–21, 22 UFOs: theories about, 237 videos of, 233–34 Ukraine, 162 Unconditional Surrender (Waugh), 183 unemployment, stagnation and, 23 Uninhabitable Earth, The (Wallace-Wells), 195–96 United States: aging population of, 60, 193 birthrate in, 50, 54 European governmental system vs., 82, 83 impact of climate change in, 197 Mexican immigration to, 198, 199 upper class: accumulation of advantage by, 31–32 rentier capitalism and, 26, 30–31, 46 U.S.

Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by Brad Stone

activist fund / activist shareholder / activist investor, air freight, Airbnb, Amazon Picking Challenge, Amazon Robotics, Amazon Web Services, autonomous vehicles, Bernie Sanders, big data - Walmart - Pop Tarts, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, business climate, call centre, carbon footprint, Clayton Christensen, cloud computing, Colonization of Mars, commoditize, company town, computer vision, contact tracing, coronavirus, corporate governance, COVID-19, crowdsourcing, data science, deep learning, disinformation, disintermediation, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, Elon Musk, fake news, fulfillment center, future of work, gentrification, George Floyd, gigafactory, global pandemic, Greta Thunberg, income inequality, independent contractor, invisible hand, Jeff Bezos, John Markoff, Kiva Systems, Larry Ellison, lockdown, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Zuckerberg, Masayoshi Son, mass immigration, minimum viable product, move fast and break things, Neal Stephenson, NSO Group, Paris climate accords, Peter Thiel, Ponzi scheme, Potemkin village, private spaceflight, quantitative hedge fund, remote working, rent stabilization, RFID, Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan, search inside the book, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Snapchat, social distancing, SoftBank, SpaceX Starlink, speech recognition, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Steven Levy, tech billionaire, tech bro, techlash, TED Talk, Tim Cook: Apple, Tony Hsieh, too big to fail, Tragedy of the Commons, two-pizza team, Uber for X, union organizing, warehouse robotics, WeWork

Amazon was no longer just an inspiring business story but a referendum on society, and on the responsibilities that large companies have toward their employees, their communities, and the sanctity of our fragile planet. Bezos had attempted to address that latter concern by conceiving the Climate Pledge, a promise that Amazon would be carbon neutral by 2040, ten years before the most ambitious goals set by the Paris climate accords. Critics were hammering Amazon to follow other companies and reveal its carbon footprint—its contribution to the harmful gasses that were rapidly warming the globe. Its sustainability division had labored for years to create more efficient standards for its buildings and to cut down on wasteful packaging materials.

…

., holding signs that read, “Amazon, Let’s Raise the Bar, Not the Temperature,” and “No AWS for Oil and Gas,” while arguing that the company had to rethink its devotion to greater selection, faster shipping, and delighting customers, regardless of the environmental cost. It was the day after Jeff Bezos had introduced the Climate Pledge at a press conference in Washington, D.C., promising that Amazon would reach net zero in its carbon emissions by 2040, ten years before the most ambitious goals set by the Paris climate accord. Companies such as Verizon, Microsoft, and Mercedes-Benz would sign on to the initiative, and Amazon would purchase the naming rights to a new sports coliseum in Seattle and call it “Climate Pledge Arena.” The media around the world covered the employee protests, and in a far more sympathetic way than the hazy and ambitious promises of Amazon’s Climate Pledge.

…

Trade Representative, 183 Olsavsky, Brian, 246 Omidyar, Pierre, 122 O’Neill, Gerard K., 281 OnePlus, 77 Onetto, Marc, 166, 218–21, 224, 225 OneWeb, 279 Oracle, 97–99, 173, 360, 361 Oscars, 137, 322 OSHA, 224 Osowski, Lukasz, 28 Outcast Agency, 324 Overstock, 373 paddle boards, 170, 374–75 Paramount Pictures, 158 Paris climate accords, 2, 381 Parkland shooting, 301 Paull, Michael, 146 Pecker, David, 328, 331–32, 334, 337–39, 341, 342, 345 Pegasus, 344 Pelosi, Nancy, 1 Penner, Greg, 90 People’s Production Company, 142 Pérez Sagaón, Abril, 85–86 Perry, Katy, 325 Perticucci, Roy, 392 Peterson, Matt, 97 phatic speech, 34–35 philanthropy, 15, 16, 244, 288, 290, 402–4 Bezos Day 1 Fund, 49, 324, 406 Bezos Earth Fund, 402–4, 406 Blue Origin and, 269, 281–82 of MacKenzie Scott, 323–24, 346, 402–3 Piacentini, Diego, 71, 73, 77, 79, 80, 83, 100, 104 Pichai, Sundar, 359, 369 Pitt, Brad, 325 Plugable Technologies, 176, 375–76 Pluimer, Larry, 181 Poitier, Sidney, 141 Politico, 124 Poovalingam, Vinoth, 76 PopSockets, 367–68 Porter, Brad, 399 Portrait of a Nation Prize, 1–2 Prakash, Shailesh, 123, 129–30 Prasad, Rohit, 35–38, 42, 47, 52 presidential candidates in 2020 election, 351, 353–55, 364 Price, Frank, 140–41 Price, Roy, 136, 137, 140–57 Prione Business Services, 77 Prisoner (Rezaian), 131 privacy, 23, 51–52 ProPublica, 237, 240 Procter & Gamble, 202, 246, 251 Project Kuiper, 404 Puerini, Gianna, 55–57, 59, 62, 64–66, 68 Purohit, Jagdish Raj, 92 Quidsi, 9–10, 193, 209, 222 Quinn, Sally, 133 Rabbit, 195, 238–39 Raghavan, Bali, 56, 58, 62 Rakuten Intelligence, 240–41 Ramji, Shiven, 251 Rashid, Taimur, 99 Ratner, Brett, 337 Rawlings, Mike, 300, 308 Raytheon, 280 Reagan, Ronald, 124 Reddit, 52 Refn, Nicolas Winding, 152 Reid, Toni, 45, 46, 51 Reliance Industries, 93, 384 research and development (R&D) expenses, 67 Reuters, 77, 210 Reveal, 224 Rezaian, Jason, 131–32 RFID chips, 57, 225 Rhimes, Shonda, 154 Riggs, Conrad, 145 Ring, 319, 367 Rivian Automotive, 4 Robb, Walter, 185 Robertson, James, 330, 332, 333 robotics, 55, 56, 213, 222–24, 388, 389 Rodriguez, Alex, 325 Rogers, Ty, 120 Rolle, Nina, 30, 289 Rolls-Royce, 280 Romanoffs, The, 152 Ronen, Assaf, 258 Rosa, Mike, 299 Rose, Charlie, 54 Rosenstein, Barry, 186 RosettiStarr, 360 Rosseter, Megan, 207–8 Roth, Mike, 216–17, 225, 229–31, 233 Rubinstein, David, 350 Ruffin, Scott, 233 Rupp, Chris, 104–7, 112 Russell, David O., 152 Russia, 272 Ryan, Fred, 124–25, 131, 133, 343 Safeway, 186, 192, 196 St.

No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein

"Hurricane Katrina" Superdome, "World Economic Forum" Davos, Airbnb, antiwork, basic income, battle of ideas, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter, Brewster Kahle, carbon tax, Carl Icahn, Celebration, Florida, clean water, collective bargaining, Corrections Corporation of America, data science, desegregation, Donald Trump, drone strike, Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, end-to-end encryption, energy transition, extractivism, fake news, financial deregulation, gentrification, Global Witness, greed is good, green transition, high net worth, high-speed rail, Howard Zinn, illegal immigration, impact investing, income inequality, Internet Archive, Kickstarter, late capitalism, Mark Zuckerberg, market bubble, market fundamentalism, mass incarceration, megaproject, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, moral panic, Naomi Klein, Nate Silver, new economy, Occupy movement, ocean acidification, offshore financial centre, oil shale / tar sands, open borders, Paris climate accords, Patri Friedman, Peter Thiel, plutocrats, private military company, profit motive, race to the bottom, Ralph Nader, Ronald Reagan, Saturday Night Live, sexual politics, sharing economy, Silicon Valley, Steve Bannon, subprime mortgage crisis, tech billionaire, too big to fail, trade liberalization, transatlantic slave trade, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, trickle-down economics, Upton Sinclair, urban decay, W. E. B. Du Bois, women in the workforce, working poor

Then, in the name of rescuing the government and perhaps the entire economy, the White House will start checking off the more challenging items on the corporate wish list. Weather Shocks Just as Trump’s national security and economic policies are sure to generate and deepen crises, the administration’s moves to ramp up fossil fuel production, dismantle large parts of the country’s environmental laws, and trash the Paris climate accord all pave the way for more large-scale industrial accidents—not to mention future climate disasters. There is a lag time of about a decade between the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the full resulting warming, so the very worst climatic effects of the administration’s policies won’t likely be felt until they’re out of office.

…

In the UK, nearly two million people signed an official petition to block Trump from making a state visit to Britain (Trump, reportedly, is demanding a ride in the golden royal carriage). There is also a growing international movement calling on governments to impose trade sanctions on the United States for violating the emissions reduction pledges it made under the Paris climate accord. And the movement to jam the Trump brand is growing, including a global call to boycott companies that rent space in Trump’s various towers, as well as campaigns to push developers to drop the Trump name from cities’ skylines. …and around the World Nearly every country has its own white nationalist or neo-fascist movement to confront, and there are many signs that resistance is rising.

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells

agricultural Revolution, Albert Einstein, anthropic principle, Anthropocene, Asian financial crisis, augmented reality, autism spectrum disorder, basic income, behavioural economics, Berlin Wall, bitcoin, Blockadia, British Empire, Buckminster Fuller, Burning Man, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, carbon footprint, carbon tax, carbon-based life, Chekhov's gun, climate anxiety, cognitive bias, computer age, correlation does not imply causation, cryptocurrency, cuban missile crisis, decarbonisation, disinformation, Donald Trump, Dr. Strangelove, effective altruism, Elon Musk, endowment effect, energy transition, everywhere but in the productivity statistics, failed state, fiat currency, global pandemic, global supply chain, Great Leap Forward, income inequality, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invention of agriculture, it's over 9,000, Joan Didion, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, Kevin Roose, Kim Stanley Robinson, labor-force participation, life extension, longitudinal study, Mark Zuckerberg, mass immigration, megacity, megastructure, Michael Shellenberger, microdosing, microplastics / micro fibres, mutually assured destruction, Naomi Klein, negative emissions, Nick Bostrom, nuclear winter, ocean acidification, off-the-grid, Paris climate accords, Pearl River Delta, Peter Thiel, plutocrats, postindustrial economy, quantitative easing, Ray Kurzweil, rent-seeking, ride hailing / ride sharing, Robert Solow, Sam Altman, Silicon Valley, Skype, South China Sea, South Sea Bubble, Steven Pinker, Stewart Brand, Ted Nordhaus, TED Talk, the built environment, The future is already here, the scientific method, Thomas Malthus, too big to fail, universal basic income, University of East Anglia, Whole Earth Catalog, William Langewiesche, Y Combinator

It has become commonplace among climate activists to say that we have, today, all the tools we need to avoid catastrophic climate change—even major climate change. It is also true. But political will is not some trivial ingredient, always at hand. We have the tools we need to solve global poverty, epidemic disease, and abuse of women, as well. It was as recent as 2016 that the celebrated Paris climate accords were adopted—defining two degrees of global warming as a must-meet target and rallying all the world’s nations to meet it—and the returns are already dispiritingly grim. In 2017, carbon emissions grew by 1.4 percent, according to the International Energy Agency, after an ambiguous couple of years optimists had hoped represented a leveling-off, or peak; instead, we’re climbing again.

…

Often grouped together under the umbrella term “geoengineering,” this prospect has been received by the public as a worst-case scenario, nearly science fiction—and has, in fact, informed much of the recent sci-fi that has addressed itself to the climate crisis. And yet it has gained a terrific amount of currency among the most concerned climate scientists, many of whom will also note that none of the quite modest goals of the Paris climate accords can be achieved without negative-emissions technologies—at present prohibitively expensive. Carbon capture may indeed prove to be “magical thinking,” but the cruder technologies—we know these will work. Rather than sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, we could shoot pollution into the sky on purpose; perhaps the most plausible version involves sulfur dioxide.

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire by Rebecca Henderson

"Friedman doctrine" OR "shareholder theory", Airbnb, asset allocation, behavioural economics, benefit corporation, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, business climate, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, carbon footprint, carbon tax, circular economy, collaborative economy, collective bargaining, commoditize, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, crony capitalism, dark matter, decarbonisation, disruptive innovation, double entry bookkeeping, Elon Musk, Erik Brynjolfsson, export processing zone, Exxon Valdez, Fall of the Berlin Wall, family office, fixed income, George Akerlof, Gini coefficient, global supply chain, greed is good, Greta Thunberg, growth hacking, Hans Rosling, Howard Zinn, Hyman Minsky, impact investing, income inequality, independent contractor, index fund, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), joint-stock company, Kickstarter, Lyft, Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, Max Levchin, means of production, meta-analysis, microcredit, middle-income trap, Minsky moment, mittelstand, Mont Pelerin Society, Neil Armstrong, Nelson Mandela, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Paris climate accords, passive investing, Paul Samuelson, Philip Mirowski, plant based meat, profit maximization, race to the bottom, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Salesforce, scientific management, Second Machine Age, shareholder value, sharing economy, Silicon Valley, Snapchat, sovereign wealth fund, Steven Pinker, stocks for the long run, Tim Cook: Apple, total factor productivity, Toyota Production System, uber lyft, urban planning, Washington Consensus, WeWork, working-age population, Zipcar

Michael, “Trump Will Withdraw U.S. from Paris Climate Agreement,” New York Times, June 1, 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/climate/trump-paris-climate-agreement.html. 52. Andrew Winston, “U.S. Business Leaders Want to Stay in the Paris Climate Accord,” Harvard Business Review (Feb. 27, 2018), https://hbr.org/2017/05/u-s-business-leaders-want-to-stay-in-the-paris-climate-accord. 53. www.wearestillin.com/. 54. Adam Bonica and Michael McFaul, “Opinion / Want Americans to Vote? Give Them the Day off,” Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-americans-to-vote-give-them-the-day-off/2018/10/10/5bde4b1a-ccae-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html?

How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations With Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason by Lee McIntyre

2021 United States Capitol attack, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Alfred Russel Wallace, An Inconvenient Truth, Boris Johnson, carbon credits, carbon tax, Climategate, cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, coronavirus, correlation does not imply causation, COVID-19, crisis actor, different worldview, disinformation, Donald Trump, Dunning–Kruger effect, en.wikipedia.org, Eratosthenes, experimental subject, fake news, false flag, green new deal, Higgs boson, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), lockdown, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Shellenberger, obamacare, off-the-grid, Paris climate accords, post-truth, precautionary principle, Recombinant DNA, Richard Feynman, scientific mainstream, selection bias, social distancing, sovereign wealth fund, stem cell, Steven Levy, the scientific method, University of East Anglia, Upton Sinclair, Virgin Galactic, WikiLeaks

Simon Carraud and Michel Rose, “Macron Makes U-turn on Fuel Tax Increase, in Face of ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests,” Reuters, December 4, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-protests/macron-makes-u-turn-on-fuel-tax-increases-in-face-of-yellow-vest-protests-idUSKBN1O30MX. 16. Mufson, “A Kind of Dark Realism.” 17. Brady Dennis, “Trump Makes It Official: U.S. Will Withdraw from Paris Climate Accords,” Washington Post, November 4, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/04/trump-makes-it-official-us-will-withdraw-paris-climate-accord/. 18. David Roberts, “The Trump Administration Just Snuck through Its Most Devious Coal Subsidy Yet,” Vox, December 23, 2019, https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/12/23/21031112/trump-coal-ferc-energy-subsidy-mopr. 19.

Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America by Cass R. Sunstein

active measures, affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, airline deregulation, anti-communist, anti-globalists, availability heuristic, behavioural economics, Black Lives Matter, Brexit referendum, business cycle, Cambridge Analytica, Cass Sunstein, cognitive load, David Brooks, disinformation, Donald Trump, driverless car, Edward Snowden, Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science, failed state, fake news, Filter Bubble, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Garrett Hardin, ghettoisation, illegal immigration, immigration reform, Isaac Newton, job automation, Joseph Schumpeter, Long Term Capital Management, microaggression, Nate Silver, Network effects, New Journalism, night-watchman state, nudge theory, obamacare, Paris climate accords, post-truth, Potemkin village, random walk, Richard Thaler, road to serfdom, Ronald Reagan, seminal paper, Steve Bannon, TED Talk, the scientific method, Tragedy of the Commons, Tyler Cowen, War on Poverty, WikiLeaks, World Values Survey

., clean air, pristine wilderness, reliable infrastructure, safe neighborhoods) fails because no one individual has the ability or incentive to provide it—a situation that is sometimes called a tragedy of the commons (Hardin 1968). Following Granovetter’s logic, the gravest danger of Trump’s recent decision to exit the Paris Climate Accord is not the direct impact that US noncompliance would have on global temperatures—although that could indeed be grave—but rather the second, third, and higher-order effects of the move. Just like in Granovetter’s model, if other countries hold firm, the impact of the US withdrawal may be minimal.

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Sebelius, 382–83 NFL (National Football League), 16, 138 “Night watchman state,” 38–40, 43 Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell), ix Nixon, Richard, 4, 6, 7, 78–79, 109 Non-Detention Act of 1971, 316–17 Normative threat, 179, 180, 181, 185, 186–87, 193–94, 196, 201–6, 215 North Carolina, 152–53 North Korea, viii Nudging (nudge theory), 342–43 Obama, Barack, 1, 5, 6, 7, 75, 122, 129n, 222, 323, 332, 404–5 probabilistic approach of, 351–52 Obamacare, 29–31, 345–46, 351, 382–83 Office of Government Ethics, 154–55 Oligarchy, 20, 21, 23–24, 26, 29–34 O’Malley, Edward, 85 “On ‘It Can’t Happen Here’” (Feldman), 157–74 Orbán, Viktor, 147, 151, 165, 408–10, 419 Orwell, George, ix Pagès, Jean-Pierre, 291 Paine, Thomas, 331–32 Pakistan, 107 Palmer, A. Mitchell, 436–37 “Paradoxes of the Deep State” (Goldsmith), 105–33 Paris Climate Accord, 345, 346 Party system, 152–53, 168, 396–97, 405 gradual breakdown of, 21–22 intolerant communities and, 238 Trump’s attacks on, 12–14 Patel, Marilyn, 317 Patronage system, 12, 13–14, 16 Paxton, Robert O., 46–47 Payer, Jean-Baptiste, 290 Peer effects, 343–44 Pence, Mike, 33 Pentagon Papers, 78–79 “Person-situation interaction,” 179 Physics, 339–40 Pildes, Richard, 24 Pinochet, Augusto, 48 Pizzagate, 87–88, 99–100n Plot Against America, The (Roth), ix Poland, 149–50, 171, 406–7, 408–13, 420 Polarization, 22–23, 28, 395, 420 mutually reinforcing intolerances, 246–50 oligarchy and, 25, 28, 29 Polish Law and Justice Party, 149–50 Political assassinations, 393–94 Political bots, 86–90 Political correctness, 240, 241–42, 245, 246 Political discontent, 388–95 Political economy, 159, 172, 173 Political elites.

Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism by Pippa Norris, Ronald Inglehart

affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, bank run, banking crisis, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter, Boris Johnson, Brexit referendum, Cass Sunstein, centre right, classic study, cognitive dissonance, conceptual framework, declining real wages, desegregation, digital divide, Donald Trump, eurozone crisis, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, feminist movement, first-past-the-post, illegal immigration, immigration reform, income inequality, It's morning again in America, Jeremy Corbyn, job automation, knowledge economy, labor-force participation, land reform, liberal world order, longitudinal study, low skilled workers, machine readable, mass immigration, meta-analysis, obamacare, open borders, open economy, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Paris climate accords, post-industrial society, post-materialism, precariat, purchasing power parity, rising living standards, Ronald Reagan, sexual politics, Silicon Valley, statistical model, stem cell, Steve Bannon, War on Poverty, white flight, winner-take-all economy, women in the workforce, working-age population, World Values Survey, zero-sum game

Accordingly, Trump’s rhetoric stimulated racial resentment, intolerance of multiculturalism, nationalistic isolationism and belligerence, nostalgia for past glories, mistrust of outsiders, sexism, the appeal of tough leadership, attack-­dog politics, and racial and anti-­Muslim animosity. Part I Introduction 77 The Trump campaign rally cry ‘Build the Wall’ and ‘America First’ perfectly encapsulates the notions of isolationism and protection against threats from outsiders. Similar sentiments underpin his policies to renegotiate or scrap NAFTA, to pull out from the Paris climate accord, and his demands that NATO member states increase their defense spending. Those favoring Britain leaving the European Union echoed similar sentiments, arguing that Brexit would restore national sovereignty, allow Britain to regain control of its borders and restrict the flow of refugees and migrants, and eliminate the UK’s financial contributions to the EU.47 Debate continues about what threats to security are most likely to activate authoritarian values in such societies as Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK that have long-­established cradle-to-grave welfare states, comfortable living standards, and relatively high per capita incomes.

…

But Trump has also followed economic protectionism for American industry, imposing tariffs on trade, renegotiating NAFTA, and seeking to restore coal-­mining jobs.12 Similarly, in international affairs, President Trump may be seen as an isolationist. His ‘America First’ rhetoric has signaled US withdrawal from multilateral agreements and alliances, such as the TPP, the Paris climate accord, the Iran accord, and America’s leadership role of the free world, as well as tearing up the State Department’s investment in democracy promotion, human rights, and the United Nations. President Trump has sharply attacked the G7, NATO, and the European Union, breaking diplomatic norms and deeply undermining the pillars of the liberal world order.

…

He also delivers to his base symbolically through executive actions, signed in the Oval Office with much flourish, on key issues fulfilling campaign pledges, such as attempts to tighten border security against perceived threats of Muslim terrorists, to implement more aggressive ICE deportation of illegal immigrants, and to roll back environmental protection such as by withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, eliminating protection of public lands in the American West, and lifting restrictions on building the oil pipeline from Canada. This perspective emphasizes that Trump’s support can be explained largely as a social psychological phenomenon, reflecting a nostalgic reaction among social conservatives and older sectors of the electorate seeking a bulwark against long-­term processes of value change, the ‘silent revolution’ that transformed American culture during the second half of the twentieth century.

The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It by Robert B. Reich

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Adam Neumann (WeWork), affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Alan Greenspan, Bernie Madoff, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, Boeing 737 MAX, business cycle, Carl Icahn, clean water, collective bargaining, Cornelius Vanderbilt, corporate governance, corporate raider, corporate social responsibility, Credit Default Swap, crony capitalism, cryptocurrency, Donald Trump, ending welfare as we know it, financial deregulation, Glass-Steagall Act, Gordon Gekko, green new deal, Greta Thunberg, immigration reform, income inequality, independent contractor, Jeff Bezos, job automation, junk bonds, London Whale, Long Term Capital Management, market fundamentalism, mass incarceration, Michael Milken, mortgage debt, Occupy movement, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Paris climate accords, peak TV, Ponzi scheme, race to the bottom, Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan, Savings and loan crisis, shareholder value, Sheryl Sandberg, stock buybacks, too big to fail, trickle-down economics, union organizing, WeWork, women in the workforce, working poor, zero-sum game

Despite its avowed concern about climate change, Google has made large donations to some of the most notorious climate change deniers in Washington, including the Heartland Institute, an anti-science group that has attacked teenage activist Greta Thunberg for “climate delusion hysterics,” and Heritage Action, which has alleged that the Paris climate accord is supported by “cosmopolitan elites.” Presumably, Google has made these donations because such groups don’t want government intruding on corporate America, especially Google. I’m aware of a nonprofit devoted to voting rights that decided not to launch a campaign against big money in politics for fear of alienating the wealthy donors it courts, and a liberal-leaning Washington think tank that released a study on inequality that failed to mention the role big corporations and Wall Street have played in weakening the nation’s labor and antitrust laws, presumably because the think tank didn’t want to antagonize its corporate and Wall Street donors.

Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts by Jill Abramson

"World Economic Forum" Davos, 23andMe, 4chan, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Alexander Shulgin, Apple's 1984 Super Bowl advert, barriers to entry, Bernie Madoff, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, Cambridge Analytica, Charles Lindbergh, Charlie Hebdo massacre, Chelsea Manning, citizen journalism, cloud computing, commoditize, content marketing, corporate governance, creative destruction, crowdsourcing, data science, death of newspapers, digital twin, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, East Village, Edward Snowden, fake news, Ferguson, Missouri, Filter Bubble, future of journalism, glass ceiling, Google Glasses, haute couture, hive mind, income inequality, information asymmetry, invisible hand, Jeff Bezos, Joseph Schumpeter, Khyber Pass, late capitalism, Laura Poitras, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, move fast and break things, Nate Silver, new economy, obamacare, Occupy movement, Paris climate accords, performance metric, Peter Thiel, phenotype, pre–internet, race to the bottom, recommendation engine, Robert Mercer, Ronald Reagan, Saturday Night Live, self-driving car, sentiment analysis, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Silicon Valley startup, skunkworks, Snapchat, social contagion, social intelligence, social web, SoftBank, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Steven Levy, tech billionaire, technoutopianism, telemarketer, the scientific method, The Wisdom of Crowds, Tim Cook: Apple, too big to fail, vertical integration, WeWork, WikiLeaks, work culture , Yochai Benkler, you are the product

She was hired to be the environment correspondent, though she had no background in environmental policy. The day I met her she was dressed in a hip blue jacket with matching blue desert boots, her hair closely buzzed. Biracial, she identified as black. She almost missed one of the most important stories on her beat, President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, because she had just gotten married and was still on her honeymoon. She rushed back and managed to get a story on the air, one that focused on the implications for the climate, not Trump or the political angle. Another new hire was the blond and soft-spoken Elle Reeve. She’d interviewed with Tyrangiel at Bloomberg, and he called her to audition.

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paid subscriptions to, 4–5, 193–94, 276–77, 373, 389, 397, 416, 425, 427 separate editorial staff of, 196 “Snow Fall” story on, 204–5, 211 traffic to, 373 “Trump bump” and, 397 2016 election and, 372 Upshot blog of, 248, 290 virtual reality and, 398–99 Nguyen, Dao, 113, 114, 116, 121, 144 Nieman Journalism Lab, 119, 124, 134 Nike: Peretti’s emails with, 16–17, 19 viral Ronaldinho ad of, 53 Nir, Sarah Maslin, 210 Nisenholtz, Martin, 73–74, 192, 194 Nixon, Richard, 225, 226 Nolan, Hamilton, 138, 164, 348 North Face, 161 Notopoulos, Katie, 130 Nunberg, Sam, 306 NYTimes.com, see New York Times, websites of Obama, Barack, 210, 252, 300, 323 BuzzFeed’s native advertising campaign for, 136–37 Shane Smith’s interview with, 179, 180 Trump’s lies about, 309 in 2012 election, 136 Obama, Michelle, 179 Obama administration, criminal leak investigations by, 9, 214 Occupy movement, 130 Ochs, Adolph, 77, 429 O’Keefe, James, 286, 338 Old Blue Last (London pub), 153 Oliver, John, 389 Onion, 119 Oregonian, 246 O’Reilly, Bill, 80, 361, 392 Ostrovsky, Simon, 179, 355 kidnapping of, 174, 357 Palmieri, Jennifer, 380–81 Panic 2012 (Hastings), 133 Paris climate accord, 351 Parker, Ashley, 376–77, 406, 407, 411 Pearl, Danny, murder of, 208, 209 Pentagon Papers, 64, 82, 225, 326, 402 Peretsman, Nancy, 257, 258 Peretti, Chelsea, 13, 17, 19, 107 Peretti, Jonah, 4, 8, 219, 242, 283 Ben Smith hired as head of BuzzFeed news department by, 127–28 Blackpeopleloveus.com and, 17, 19 on BuzzFeed mix of entertainment and news, 132 BuzzFeed started by, see BuzzFeed on Chartbeat, 247 childhood and adolescence of, 13–14 computing as early interest of, 14 contagious media and, 18, 285 and doubts about BuzzFeed’s entry into news industry, 143–44 dyslexia of, 13 explosion of social media anticipated by, 30–31, 103 at Eyebeam, 18–19 Facebook criticized by, 343 Facebook worldview adopted by, 103–4 and gaming of Google search system, 29, 30 as Huffington Post cofounder, 21–25, 29, 30, 33, 285 importance of BuzzFeed News to, 317 Lerer and, 20–21 at MIT Media Lab, 16, 18 Nike Sweatshop meme inadvertently created by, 16–17, 19 as proselytizer for machine learning, 330–31 reaction buttons introduced by, 302–3 Rejection Line meme created by, 17, 19 in search for new revenue sources, 344 Steele dossier publication approved by, 323, 328 as teacher at Isidore Newman School, 14–15 as untroubled by blurring of advertising and news content, 121–22, 137 and use of Facebook “sentiment data,” 304 video production as focus of, 328–29 virality and, see virality wealth of, 123 Perpich, David, 193, 394–96, 398 PETA, 38 Pew Foundation, 182 Philadelphia Daily News, 233 Piano, Renzo, 81, 187 Pilhofer, Aron, 197 Pincus, Walter, 92–93 Pinterest, 178 Plame, Valerie, 93 Playboy, 42 Plepler, Richard, 178, 179, 180 and Vice News Tonight, 350, 353, 355 Plunkett, Chuck, 424 Podesta, John, 381 hacked emails of, 319, 381 Politically Incorrect (TV show), 44 political polarization: Facebook and, 273–74, 279–80, 281, 282–83, 312 right and, 282–83 Politico, 98–99, 124, 130, 140, 144, 189, 197, 230, 237, 251, 263, 374, 406 Ben Smith at, 126, 131, 134 critical article on Abramson in, 211 “Salongate” story broken by, 240, 241 Powell, Colin, 93 Powers That Be, The (Halberstam), 3–4 Poynter Institute, 95, 109, 140, 309, 310 Prakash, Shailesh, 263, 266–67, 413–14 press, freedom of, see First Amendment Preston, Julia, 402 Priest, Dana, 233 ProPublica, 77, 141, 142, 237, 389, 408 Proud Boys, 368 Pruitt, Scott, 390 psychographics (psychometrics), 278–79, 286 Pulitzer Prizes, 3, 4, 82, 211, 233, 268, 392, 411, 416, 426 100th anniversary celebration of, 1–5, 402 Punch, Tom, 160 Purdy, Matt, 205, 378 Putin, Vladimir, 289 quality news, 9–10 see also investigative journalism; long-form journalism Quest Education Corporation, 90 Raines, Howell, 67, 78, 184, 186, 217, 385, 429 Rather, Dan, 60 Rattner, Steven, 65, 73, 188, 189 Ravitch, Joe, 154 Reagan’s War (film), 285 Rebel Media, 368 Reddit, 313 Redstone, Sumner, 154 Reeve, Elle, 351–52 Charlottesville violence covered by, 353–55 Regret the Error (blog), 310 Reid, Harry, 384 Reines, Philippe, 133 Rejection Line meme, 17, 19 relatability, virality and, 115–16 Remnick, David, 88, 209 Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 327, 427 Republican National Convention (2016), 315–16 Republicans, news media distrusted by, 386–87 Reston, James, 397 Rezaian, Jason, 407 Rice, Condoleezza, 79 Rich, Frank, 75 Richardson, Terry, 59, 176 Ricks, Thomas, 93, 230 Risen, James, 92, 215, 384, 402 Roberts, Jim, 135 Robinson, Janet, 86, 193 Abramson’s relationship with, 198, 199, 202 business-side job cuts by, 191 news staff cuts resisted by, 70–71, 186 paywall on website urged by, 192, 193 print advertising department protected by, 73 Sulzberger’s firing of, 202–3 as Times’s CEO, 62–63, 65 Rodman, Dennis, 167 Rogers Communications, 358, 365 Rolling Stone, 130, 133 Romney, Mitt, in 2012 election, 129, 131–32, 136 Ronaldinho, viral Nike ad of, 53 Rose, Charlie, 417, 425 Rosen, Jay, 7, 76 Rosenthal, Abe, 75, 78, 185, 193, 390 Rosenthal, Andrew, 78, 192–93, 215 Rosenthal, Elisabeth, 402 Rotten, Johnny, 43 Rovere, Richard, 4 /r/The_Donald (subreddit), 405 Rubin, Alissa, 209–10 Rubio, Marco, 132 Run-Up, The (podcast), 370, 372–74, 375 Russia: Trump’s business connections with, 383–84 2016 election interference of, 289, 326, 341–42, 381, 382, 383, 420 Rutenberg, Jim, 374 Ryan, Carolyn, 370, 371, 374, 378, 379 Ryan, Fred, 98, 263, 264, 403–4 as Post publisher, 263–64, 430–34 St.

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., 3–4 “Times Innovation Report,” 218–20, 394, 400 Times Insider, 250 Times Journeys, 401 Times Mirror, 67, 71 Times Select, 68, 74, 191–92, 193 Time Warner, 348 Title IV student loans, 91 Today (TV show), 146 Todd, Chuck, 339 Too Big to Fail (Sorkin), 190 Tozzi, Lisa, 141, 315 Tracy, Marc, 135 “traffic farms,” 282–83 Tremaine, Jeff, 51 Trend-Detector, 34, 38 Tribune Company, 71, 88, 182 Tronc, 414, 425 Trump, Donald: Access Hollywood tape and, 370, 377 Bezos and Amazon attacked by, 418–19, 426 border wall and, 293 on BuzzFeed’s publication of Steele dossier, 324 charitable giving claims of, 408–11 and Charlottesville violence, 354–55 election of, 224, 370–71 entertainment value of, 288 “fake news” term co-opted by, 340 Haberman’s relationship with, 388–89 as media creature, 6–7 Muslim country travel ban of, 326–27 political rise of, 288–89, 305 Post investigations of, 407–8, 426 Russian business connections of, 383–84 sexual harassment charges against, 370 Steele dossier on, 323–24 Times coverage originally craved by, 388 Times investigations of, 376, 382, 426 tweets by, 386, 387–88, 405, 418 in 2014 BuzzFeed interview, 305–6 in war on news media, 2, 7, 9, 376, 387–89, 426–27 in withdrawal from Paris climate accord, 351 Trump, Donald, in 2016 election campaign, 279 Bannon and, 298 Breitbart News and, 289–90 BuzzFeed’s coverage of, 302, 305–6, 313–14 “crooked” Hillary rants of, 377, 379 Facebook psychographic data used by, 298 Facebook’s Dark Post tool used by, 299 fake news in support of, 277, 296, 297, 299–300, 315 journalists banned from rallies of, 307–8 media coverage monopolized by, 290, 308 voter suppression operations of, 299 Trump administration: “alternative facts” and, 339–40 Post investigations of, 416 Trump Foundation: New York State lawsuit against, 411 supposed charitable giving by, 408–11, 419 Try Guys videos, 335 Tumblr, 145 Tumulty, Karen, 249, 406 Turner, Ted, 125 Twitter, 53, 130, 237, 288, 418 BuzzFeed’s morning news show on, 343, 345 #dressgate on, 145 launch of, 32 as news platform, 291 political conversation on, 126–27, 131 Tyrangiel, Josh, 350–51, 366–67 Upshot (Times blog), 248, 290 Upworthy, 414, 415 VandeHei, Jim, 97–99 Vanity Fair, 99, 187, 223 Variety, 176 Varney, Stuart, 420 Vea snacks, 393 Veles, Macedonia, 297 Veltroni, Martina, 359–61, 362 verticals, content organized by: at BuzzFeed, 123, 132, 342–43 at Vice, 161–62, 164, 167–68 Viacom, 57, 153, 154 Vice (HBO weekly show), 167, 178–80, 347, 350, 355, 366, 426 Emmy and Peabody awards won by, 179 Mojica as overseer of, 357 Vice (magazine), 147 advertisers’ wariness of, 47, 49–50 circulation growth of, 48, 56, 150 founded as Voice of Montreal, 43–45 Morton’s first articles for, 150 Morton’s immersion stories for, 151–52 9/11 attack and, 49 “Racist Issue” of, 46 in relocation to New York, 45 transgressive ethos of, 46, 47, 48–49, 148 Vice Broadcasting System (VBS.tv), 56–57, 154 see also Vice Media, video unit of Vice Canada, 358–59, 365 Vice Guide to Travel, The (video series), 57–58, 152 Viceland, 355, 359, 364, 365, 366, 367 Vice Media, 4, 8 ad agency of, see Virtue advertising revenues of, 177, 178, 347 blurring of line between advertising and news at, 158–66, 367 clients’ censorship of stories at, 164–65 coming-of-age of, 150–51 content creation as focus of, 154 Creators Project of, 162–63, 347 ethical standards as lacking at, 147, 171–72 extravagant spending on events and drugs by, 175 as failing to make lasting impact on visual journalism, 426 financial problems of, 349–50, 365 Fred Stanton Award won by, 180 Freston as full-time advisor to, 154–55 Gross Jar at, 149–50 institutionalized sexism at, 176–77, 348–49, 362, 363–64 internal disarray of, 348 investments in, 154, 177, 349 investor and advertiser defections from, 365–66 Jonze’s repositioning of, as video brand, 50 as lacking legitimacy as news brand, 158 licensing fees charged by, 177, 178, 180, 347, 367 low wages paid by, 175, 348, 357 McInnes’s exit from, 58, 181, 369 Morton hired by, 147–48 Morton named website editor of, 150 need for continuing growth at, 169, 180 new business model of, 160 nondisclosure agreements demanded by, 177, 349, 360, 361, 368–69 out-of-court settlements paid by, 361, 363 overseas revenues of, 178, 347, 367 prized youth demographic of, 347 quality news and, 10 record label of, see Vice Records reporters’ safety training ignored by, 172–73 retail stores of, 46, 150 sexist culture of, 59 sexual harassment at, 349, 361–65, 368, 426 steep learning curve of, 5 Szalwinski and, 45–46, 47 tension between transgressive ethos and corporate goals of, 59 traditional news media challenged by, 2, 4, 6 unionization of, 349 valuation of, 177, 329, 349, 365 Veltroni’s lawsuit against, 361, 362 verticals of, 161–62, 164, 167–68 Vice Media, video unit of, 329 “Chicago Interrupted” documentary of, 166 controversial Liberia documentary of, 169–70 “cool” as operative word at, 147 enormous output of, 346–47, 367 growing audience of, 59 “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” documentary of, 166, 173 as immersive journalism, 155–58, 174 “Islamic State” documentary of, 174–75 Jonze in creation of, 56–58, 152 North Korean documentaries of, 166–67 risks taken by reporters of, 172–75 Times profile of, 60–61 Vice Guide to Travel series of, 152 YouTube as platform for, 153–54, 158, 178, 368 see also Vice News Vice News, 178, 350 alt-right investigations of, 346 awards won by, 356 Charlottesville violence covered by, 353–55 Emmys won by, 355 HBO shows of, see Vice (HBO weekly show); Vice News Tonight as lacking connection to Washington insiders, 352 lack of security training at, 357–58 as loss leader, 357 Mojica replaced by Tyrangiel as head of, 350, 352, 356, 360 overtaking CNN as goal of, 346, 348, 369 Shane Smith’s vision for, 346, 369 and Trump’s election, 353 Vice News Tonight (HBO nightly show), 350–55, 366 Vice Records, 46, 56, 150, 155 video, pivot to, 328–29, 347 BuzzFeed and, 332, 336 Facebook and, 332 Vice and, 50 Vietnam Moratorium, 84 Vietnam War, 4 Village Voice, 130, 141 Vine, 332 virality, 76 as BuzzFeed’s organizing logic, 35–36, 111–12, 113–19 cats and, 36 evangelism and, 115 Marlow and, 16 native advertising and, 122–23 news media transformed by, 13 Nguyen and, 113–14 Peretti’s early experiments with, 8, 16–19 political dimension of, 18 relatability and, 115–16 Watts and, 15–16 see also contagious media Viral Rank, 35 Virtue (advertising agency), 158, 160–61, 165, 347, 369 Vladeck, Anne C., 217 Voice of Montreal, 43–45 in relocation to New York, see Vice (magazine) Volvo, 161 Vox, 239, 248, 266, 275, 405 Wallace, David Foster, 57, 168 Wall Street Journal, 64, 70, 159, 160, 189, 228, 349–50, 365, 375, 391 Abramson at, 195–96 as Chartbeat client, 245 expanded coverage of, 183 Facebook Instant Articles program eschewed by, 281 international reach of, 83 Murdoch’s acquisition of, 67, 183, 226, 229 paying digital readers of, 183, 192 Times’s rivalry with, 183 Wang, Peggy, 15, 37, 121 Warren, Denise, 215 Warrick, Joby, 92 Warzel, Charlie, 312–13, 320, 321, 338 Washington Post, 3–4, 66, 208, 220, 377, 381, 389, 391 Arc technology of, 267, 414 banned from Trump rallies, 308 Bezos’s expansion of news staff of, 404 Bezos’s purchase of, 1–2, 5, 257–61 blogs of, 23 broken business model of, 226 Buffett and, 83, 88 building scale emphasized by, 412 Chartbeat metrics used by, 245 classified advertising in, 83 Coll’s exit from, 88, 90 declining advertising revenues of, 8, 89, 254 declining reputation of, 251–52, 255–56 “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan of, 421 Don Graham era at, see Graham, Donald E.

How Democracy Ends by David Runciman

barriers to entry, basic income, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, bitcoin, blockchain, Brexit referendum, Cambridge Analytica, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, centre right, crowdsourcing, cuban missile crisis, disinformation, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, Dr. Strangelove, Edward Snowden, fake news, first-past-the-post, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, full employment, Internet of things, Jeremy Corbyn, Jon Ronson, Joseph Schumpeter, Kickstarter, Large Hadron Collider, loss aversion, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Zuckerberg, money: store of value / unit of account / medium of exchange, mutually assured destruction, Network effects, Nick Bostrom, Norman Mailer, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Panopticon Jeremy Bentham, Paris climate accords, Peter Thiel, post-truth, power law, precautionary principle, quantitative easing, Russell Brand, self-driving car, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Steve Bannon, Steven Pinker, the long tail, The Wisdom of Crowds, Travis Kalanick, universal basic income, Yogi Berra

As Arendt implied, modern politics makes it possible to be in a manic state and to be in a trance at the same time. When it comes to climate change, democracy increasingly looks like the spell, not the cure. The arrival of Trump in the White House, and his professed wish to take the United States out of the Paris climate accord (leaving the country in a minority of one) has redirected some of the political energy against the doubters. But it has done nothing to dispel the miasma of mistrust. If and when the fictions of environmental disaster turn to fact, democratic politics can be expected to snap out of it. That is one of democracy’s strengths: chaos and violence bring out the best in it.

The Sport and Prey of Capitalists by Linda McQuaig

anti-communist, Bernie Sanders, carbon footprint, carbon tax, clean water, Cornelius Vanderbilt, diversification, Donald Trump, energy transition, financial innovation, Garrett Hardin, green new deal, Kickstarter, low interest rates, megaproject, Menlo Park, Money creation, Naomi Klein, neoliberal agenda, new economy, offshore financial centre, oil shale / tar sands, Paris climate accords, payday loans, precautionary principle, profit motive, risk/return, Ronald Reagan, Sidewalk Labs, Steve Jobs, strikebreaker, Tragedy of the Commons, union organizing

There’s definitely something of a contradiction, however, between Norway’s proactive approach in weaning its own citizens off fossil fuels and its eager production and sale of oil to the rest of the world. Greenpeace Norway has gone to court to stop the Norwegian government from issuing permits to drill in the Arctic, insisting that this amounts to a violation of Norway’s obligations under the Paris climate accord. So Norway’s environmental record is far from perfect. Still, even as an oil producer, Norway takes steps to be responsible, imposing an activist safety regime that empowers workers to shut down any practice they deem unsafe, thereby reducing the risk of oil spills as well as protecting workers.

Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria

"there is no alternative" (TINA), 15-minute city, AlphaGo, An Inconvenient Truth, anti-fragile, Asian financial crisis, basic income, Bernie Sanders, Boris Johnson, butterfly effect, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, car-free, carbon tax, central bank independence, clean water, cloud computing, colonial rule, contact tracing, coronavirus, COVID-19, Credit Default Swap, David Graeber, Day of the Dead, deep learning, DeepMind, deglobalization, Demis Hassabis, Deng Xiaoping, digital divide, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, Edward Glaeser, Edward Jenner, Elon Musk, Erik Brynjolfsson, failed state, financial engineering, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, future of work, gentrification, George Floyd, gig economy, Gini coefficient, global pandemic, global reserve currency, global supply chain, green new deal, hiring and firing, housing crisis, imperial preference, income inequality, Indoor air pollution, invention of the wheel, Jane Jacobs, Jeff Bezos, Jeremy Corbyn, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, John Snow's cholera map, junk bonds, lockdown, Long Term Capital Management, low interest rates, manufacturing employment, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Martin Wolf, means of production, megacity, Mexican peso crisis / tequila crisis, middle-income trap, Monroe Doctrine, Nate Silver, Nick Bostrom, oil shock, open borders, out of africa, Parag Khanna, Paris climate accords, Peter Thiel, plutocrats, popular capitalism, Productivity paradox, purchasing power parity, remote working, reserve currency, reshoring, restrictive zoning, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, secular stagnation, Silicon Valley, social distancing, software is eating the world, South China Sea, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Steven Pinker, Suez crisis 1956, TED Talk, the built environment, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, The Spirit Level, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas L Friedman, Tim Cook: Apple, trade route, UNCLOS, universal basic income, urban planning, Washington Consensus, white flight, Works Progress Administration, zoonotic diseases

Big, developed cities are beginning to think of themselves as independent actors on the world stage. As major metro areas have seen their economies and populations grow, mayors have sought to exercise greater political power at the national and even international levels. When President Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords in 2017, the leaders of Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles pushed ahead with the agreement anyway. Climate change, terrorism, and, yes, the pandemic have driven home the notion that cities face common challenges and should work together to tackle them. While the biggest cities receive much of the attention, a lot of the action is happening in smaller cities.

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World by Jeff Goodell

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Airbnb, Anthropocene, carbon footprint, centre right, clean water, climate change refugee, creative destruction, data science, desegregation, Donald Trump, Dr. Strangelove, Elon Musk, failed state, fixed income, Frank Gehry, global pandemic, Google Earth, Higgs boson, illegal immigration, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Large Hadron Collider, megacity, Murano, Venice glass, negative emissions, New Urbanism, ocean acidification, Paris climate accords, Pearl River Delta, Peter Thiel, planetary scale, Ray Kurzweil, Richard Florida, risk tolerance, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, smart cities, South China Sea, space junk, urban planning, urban renewal, wikimedia commons

The cavernous room was one of several at Le Bourget that had been remodeled for the Paris climate talks, and now, on the final night of the negotiations, it was packed with people from virtually every nation in the world, a sea of black and brown and white faces, some dressed in business attire, some in ceremonial robes and gowns. Standing among them, I watched French president François Hollande stand at the podium in the front of the hall and slam the gavel down, marking formal acceptance of the 2015 Paris climate accord. Everyone cheered. Some cried. To my surprise, I hugged the person next to me, a young Asian woman I had never met or talked to. I felt her pull away, perhaps shocked that a stranger would grab her so suddenly, but then she hugged me back. I never learned her name or even what country she represented, but our shared expression of the power of the moment was genuine.

Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Albert Einstein, Anthropocene, Arthur Eddington, butterfly effect, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, Cepheid variable, colonial rule, Colonization of Mars, Columbian Exchange, complexity theory, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, creative destruction, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, demographic transition, double helix, Easter island, Edward Lorenz: Chaos theory, Ernest Rutherford, European colonialism, Francisco Pizarro, Haber-Bosch Process, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, Isaac Newton, James Watt: steam engine, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, Joseph Schumpeter, Kickstarter, Kim Stanley Robinson, Large Hadron Collider, Late Heavy Bombardment, Marshall McLuhan, microbiome, nuclear winter, Paris climate accords, planetary scale, rising living standards, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, Stuart Kauffman, TED Talk, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, trade route, Yogi Berra

Finally, in a capitalist world, most enterprises are governed by the need to make profits, and at present profit-making all too often points in different directions from the quest for sustainability. So what chance is there of an emerging global consensus on the importance of the quest? One of the most hopeful signs is the speed with which a scientific consensus has been reached, reflected in documents such as the UN sustainability goals and the Paris climate accords. Thirty years ago, such declarations would have been inconceivable. We may also be close to an economic tipping point at which the quest itself turns out to be profitable and compatible with an evolving global capitalism. If that happens, the colossal innovative and commercial energies of modern capitalism and the power of governments that depend on the wealth generated by capitalism may swing behind the quest and give it the sort of boost that capitalist governments gave to the industrial revolution.

The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel

affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, Boris Johnson, Brexit referendum, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, centre right, coronavirus, COVID-19, Credit Default Swap, Deng Xiaoping, Donald Trump, ending welfare as we know it, facts on the ground, Fall of the Berlin Wall, financial deregulation, financial engineering, financial innovation, global supply chain, helicopter parent, High speed trading, immigration reform, income inequality, Khan Academy, laissez-faire capitalism, meritocracy, meta-analysis, Nate Silver, new economy, obamacare, Occupy movement, open immigration, Paris climate accords, plutocrats, prosperity theology / prosperity gospel / gospel of success, Rishi Sunak, Ronald Reagan, smart grid, social distancing, Steve Jobs, Steven Levy, the market place, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, W. E. B. Du Bois, Washington Consensus, Yochai Benkler

But the “elephant” in the room was climate change. What Obama meant is that it is hard to have a reasoned debate about climate change with people who deny its existence, or the human role in bringing it about. Obama surely had in mind that his successor, abetted by climate change deniers, had withdrawn the United States from the Paris climate accord that he, Obama, had signed. He attributed this not only to ideological disagreement but to a rejection of science by Trump and his Republican supporters. In fact, the slogan “I believe in science” has become a rallying cry for Democrats. Hillary Clinton proclaimed it in her speech accepting the nomination in 2016, Obama used it as president, and a number of candidates seeking the 2020 presidential nomination made it a refrain on the campaign trail.

The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People - and the Fight for Our Future by Alec Ross

"Friedman doctrine" OR "shareholder theory", "World Economic Forum" Davos, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, air gap, air traffic controllers' union, Airbnb, Albert Einstein, An Inconvenient Truth, autonomous vehicles, barriers to entry, benefit corporation, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, big-box store, British Empire, call centre, capital controls, clean water, collective bargaining, computer vision, coronavirus, corporate governance, corporate raider, COVID-19, deep learning, Deng Xiaoping, Didi Chuxing, disinformation, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump, Double Irish / Dutch Sandwich, drone strike, dumpster diving, employer provided health coverage, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, future of work, general purpose technology, gig economy, Gini coefficient, global supply chain, Goldman Sachs: Vampire Squid, Gordon Gekko, greed is good, high-speed rail, hiring and firing, income inequality, independent contractor, information security, intangible asset, invisible hand, Jeff Bezos, knowledge worker, late capitalism, low skilled workers, Lyft, Marc Andreessen, Marc Benioff, mass immigration, megacity, military-industrial complex, minimum wage unemployment, mittelstand, mortgage tax deduction, natural language processing, Oculus Rift, off-the-grid, offshore financial centre, open economy, OpenAI, Parag Khanna, Paris climate accords, profit motive, race to the bottom, RAND corporation, ride hailing / ride sharing, Robert Bork, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, Salesforce, self-driving car, shareholder value, side hustle, side project, Silicon Valley, smart cities, Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits, sovereign wealth fund, sparse data, special economic zone, Steven Levy, stock buybacks, strikebreaker, TaskRabbit, tech bro, tech worker, transcontinental railway, transfer pricing, Travis Kalanick, trickle-down economics, Uber and Lyft, uber lyft, union organizing, Upton Sinclair, vertical integration, working poor

Companies respond to incentives, so we need to provide incentives for them to stop the race to the bottom on everything from environmental damage to workers’ rights. Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has suggested that this approach be extended to executive compensation as well, saying that banks should link executive pay to climate risk management. The more a company does to contribute to goals set out in the Paris climate accord, the more its executives get paid. Economic inequality and environmental destruction are concrete problems, and addressing them this decade and beyond will require equally concrete strategies. For a company to actually understand the positive and negative impacts of its decisions, it needs data.

Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics by Peter Geoghegan

4chan, Adam Curtis, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, American Legislative Exchange Council, anti-globalists, basic income, Berlin Wall, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, Boris Johnson, Brexit referendum, British Empire, Cambridge Analytica, centre right, corporate raider, crony capitalism, data science, deepfake, deindustrialization, demographic winter, disinformation, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, East Village, Etonian, F. W. de Klerk, fake news, first-past-the-post, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Frank Gehry, Greta Thunberg, invisible hand, James Dyson, Jeremy Corbyn, John Bercow, Mark Zuckerberg, market fundamentalism, military-industrial complex, moral panic, Naomi Klein, Nelson Mandela, obamacare, offshore financial centre, open borders, Overton Window, Paris climate accords, plutocrats, post-truth, post-war consensus, pre–internet, private military company, Renaissance Technologies, Robert Mercer, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, Snapchat, special economic zone, Steve Bannon, surveillance capitalism, tech billionaire, technoutopianism, Torches of Freedom, universal basic income, WikiLeaks, Yochai Benkler, éminence grise

The deregulation of Ronald Reagan and George H. and George W. Bush often came straight from blueprints drawn up by libertarian institutes. Donald Trump campaigned to “drain the swamp”; in office he rolled back roughly 85 environmental rules and regulations in his first two years.9 The US pulled out of the Paris climate accord and loosened domestic laws on toxic air pollution. These moves were applauded by the foundations and very rich activists, like the Mercer family, who backed Trump’s 2016 campaign. Could Richard Fink’s dark money playbook travel across the Atlantic? In many ways, it already has. After Washington, London is home to the largest concentration of libertarian think tanks.

Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex by Rupert Darwall

1960s counterculture, active measures, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Albert Einstein, Bakken shale, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, California energy crisis, carbon credits, carbon footprint, centre right, clean tech, collapse of Lehman Brothers, creative destruction, decarbonisation, deindustrialization, dematerialisation, disinformation, Donald Trump, electricity market, Elon Musk, energy security, energy transition, facts on the ground, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Garrett Hardin, gigafactory, Gunnar Myrdal, Herbert Marcuse, hydraulic fracturing, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invisible hand, it's over 9,000, James Watt: steam engine, John Elkington, Joseph Schumpeter, Kenneth Rogoff, Kickstarter, liberal capitalism, market design, means of production, megaproject, Mikhail Gorbachev, mittelstand, Murray Bookchin, Neil Armstrong, nuclear winter, obamacare, oil shale / tar sands, Paris climate accords, Peace of Westphalia, peak oil, plutocrats, postindustrial economy, precautionary principle, pre–internet, recommendation engine, renewable energy transition, rent-seeking, road to serfdom, rolling blackouts, Ronald Reagan, shareholder value, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley billionaire, Solyndra, Strategic Defense Initiative, subprime mortgage crisis, tech baron, tech billionaire, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Tragedy of the Commons, women in the workforce, young professional

Uniquely, America’s Constitution and its separation of powers provide checks against it. This, ultimately, is what is at stake in the battle of Paris and the climate war. It is a fight for America’s soul. Notes 1Government of Italy, “Declaration of the Italy, Germany and France on the announcement of the USA to leave the Paris Climate accord,” June 1, 2017. 2Tom Steyer tweet, May 28, 2017, https://twitter.com/tomsteyer/status/869018773453291521 (accessed June 19, 2017). 3Bill McKibben, “The New Battle Plan for the Planet’s Climate Crisis,” Rolling Stone, January 24, 2017, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/bill-mckibbens-battle-plan-for-the-planets-climate-crisis-w462680 (accessed June 19, 2017). 4Tom Steyer tweet, June 1, 2017, https://twitter.com/TomSteyer/status/870368866949488640 (accessed June 19, 2017).

The Levelling: What’s Next After Globalization by Michael O’sullivan

"World Economic Forum" Davos, 3D printing, Airbnb, Alan Greenspan, algorithmic trading, Alvin Toffler, bank run, banking crisis, barriers to entry, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, bitcoin, Black Swan, blockchain, bond market vigilante , Boris Johnson, Branko Milanovic, Bretton Woods, Brexit referendum, British Empire, business cycle, business process, capital controls, carbon tax, Celtic Tiger, central bank independence, classic study, cloud computing, continuation of politics by other means, corporate governance, credit crunch, CRISPR, cryptocurrency, data science, deglobalization, deindustrialization, disinformation, disruptive innovation, distributed ledger, Donald Trump, driverless car, eurozone crisis, fake news, financial engineering, financial innovation, first-past-the-post, fixed income, gentrification, Geoffrey West, Santa Fe Institute, Gini coefficient, Glass-Steagall Act, global value chain, housing crisis, impact investing, income inequality, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), It's morning again in America, James Carville said: "I would like to be reincarnated as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.", junk bonds, knowledge economy, liberal world order, Long Term Capital Management, longitudinal study, low interest rates, market bubble, minimum wage unemployment, new economy, Northern Rock, offshore financial centre, open economy, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Paris climate accords, pattern recognition, Peace of Westphalia, performance metric, Phillips curve, private military company, quantitative easing, race to the bottom, reserve currency, Robert Gordon, Robert Shiller, Robert Solow, Ronald Reagan, Scramble for Africa, secular stagnation, Silicon Valley, Sinatra Doctrine, South China Sea, South Sea Bubble, special drawing rights, Steve Bannon, Suez canal 1869, supply-chain management, The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, total factor productivity, trade liberalization, tulip mania, Valery Gerasimov, Washington Consensus

Today it is worth considering the words of Norwegian statesman Gunnar Knudsen during the award ceremony (Roosevelt didn’t make it to the Nobel Foundation until 1910): “The United States of America was among the first to infuse the ideal of peace into practical politics. Peace and arbitration treaties have now been concluded between the United States and the governments of several countries.”17 Yet with America now pulling back from an internationalist stance—for example, recently cutting its contribution to the United Nations, pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, effectively ignoring Latin America (e.g., ignoring the Venezuelan refugee crisis), degrading relations with neighbors and trading partners from Canada to the European Union, and maintaining ambivalent relations between the White House and Russia, to name just a few developments—it may fall to China to perform the role of underwriter of international public goods.

The Abandonment of the West by Michael Kimmage

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, Brexit referendum, British Empire, Charles Lindbergh, City Beautiful movement, classic study, deindustrialization, desegregation, disinformation, Donald Trump, European colonialism, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, global pandemic, global supply chain, Gunnar Myrdal, interchangeable parts, Isaac Newton, It's morning again in America, Mahatma Gandhi, mass immigration, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, Monroe Doctrine, Nelson Mandela, Paris climate accords, Peace of Westphalia, profit motive, public intellectual, Ralph Waldo Emerson, RAND corporation, road to serfdom, Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: Tear down this wall, Silicon Valley, South China Sea, Suez crisis 1956, Thomas L Friedman, transatlantic slave trade, urban planning, W. E. B. Du Bois, Washington Consensus

According to Pew polling, Obama finished his presidency with global confidence in the United States at 64 percent and with the same percentage of global confidence in the American presidency.38 In President Obama’s two terms, the liberal international order made considerable advances. As a rules-based community of consensus, the EU existed because nationalism and balance-of-power approaches to diplomacy had been set aside. Two of the main initiatives of the Obama administration, pursued in tandem with the EU, were the Paris Climate Accords and the Iran nuclear deal. Both involved intricate negotiation; both required the highest degree of multilateralism; and both were proof that an international society could be used to address policy challenges on par with global warming and nuclear proliferation. Many of the Europeans who had opposed the Iraq War were delighted to encounter a different style of leadership in President Obama, one that seemed intrinsically more European, though it was as much Wilsonian or Achesonian as it was twenty-first-century European.

The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power by Max Chafkin

3D printing, affirmative action, Airbnb, anti-communist, bank run, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, bitcoin, Black Lives Matter, Black Monday: stock market crash in 1987, Blitzscaling, Boeing 747, borderless world, Cambridge Analytica, charter city, cloud computing, cognitive dissonance, Cornelius Vanderbilt, coronavirus, COVID-19, Credit Default Swap, cryptocurrency, David Brooks, David Graeber, DeepMind, digital capitalism, disinformation, don't be evil, Donald Trump, driverless car, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Elon Musk, Ethereum, Extropian, facts on the ground, Fairchild Semiconductor, fake news, Ferguson, Missouri, Frank Gehry, Gavin Belson, global macro, Gordon Gekko, Greyball, growth hacking, guest worker program, Hacker News, Haight Ashbury, helicopter parent, hockey-stick growth, illegal immigration, immigration reform, Internet Archive, Jeff Bezos, John Markoff, Kevin Roose, Kickstarter, Larry Ellison, life extension, lockdown, low interest rates, Lyft, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Maui Hawaii, Max Levchin, Menlo Park, military-industrial complex, moral panic, move fast and break things, Neal Stephenson, Nelson Mandela, Network effects, off grid, offshore financial centre, oil shale / tar sands, open borders, operational security, PalmPilot, Paris climate accords, Patri Friedman, paypal mafia, Peter Gregory, Peter Thiel, pets.com, plutocrats, Ponzi scheme, prosperity theology / prosperity gospel / gospel of success, public intellectual, QAnon, quantitative hedge fund, quantitative trading / quantitative finance, randomized controlled trial, regulatory arbitrage, Renaissance Technologies, reserve currency, ride hailing / ride sharing, risk tolerance, Robinhood: mobile stock trading app, Ronald Reagan, Sam Altman, Sand Hill Road, self-driving car, sharing economy, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley billionaire, Silicon Valley ideology, Silicon Valley startup, skunkworks, social distancing, software is eating the world, sovereign wealth fund, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Steven Levy, Stewart Brand, surveillance capitalism, TaskRabbit, tech billionaire, tech worker, TechCrunch disrupt, techlash, technology bubble, technoutopianism, Ted Kaczynski, TED Talk, the new new thing, the scientific method, Tim Cook: Apple, transaction costs, Travis Kalanick, Tyler Cowen, Uber and Lyft, uber lyft, Upton Sinclair, Vitalik Buterin, We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters, Whole Earth Catalog, WikiLeaks, William Shockley: the traitorous eight, Y Combinator, Y2K, yellow journalism, Zenefits

There were other issues of concern that the tech CEOs could have raised with the soon-to-be most powerful man in the world. They might have questioned him about his threats to use antitrust law to break them up, or they could have asked if he realized how damaging his anti-immigrant rhetoric was to their existing workforces. They might have brought up Trump’s promise to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, or about his plans, which he’d first tweeted about in 2014, to end net neutrality—repealing a law that many in the room regarded as fundamental to the modern internet—or about the numerous ways that Trump had seemed, during the campaign, hostile to technology, science, and the future. But the room ignored all of that, steering the conversation to Trump’s signature issue, China.

The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America by Victor Davis Hanson

"World Economic Forum" Davos, 2021 United States Capitol attack, 23andMe, affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, airport security, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, Boeing 737 MAX, borderless world, bread and circuses, British Empire, business climate, business cycle, carbon footprint, centre right, clean water, coronavirus, COVID-19, creative destruction, currency manipulation / currency intervention, defund the police, deindustrialization, deplatforming, disinformation, Donald Trump, Dr. Strangelove, drone strike, El Camino Real, fake news, Ferguson, Missouri, fixed income, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, future of work, George Floyd, Gini coefficient, global pandemic, Herbert Marcuse, high-speed rail, Honoré de Balzac, illegal immigration, immigration reform, income inequality, Jeff Bezos, Joseph Schumpeter, laissez-faire capitalism, lockdown, Mark Zuckerberg, mass immigration, mass incarceration, Menlo Park, microaggression, military-industrial complex, mortgage debt, Nate Silver, new economy, New Urbanism, obamacare, old-boy network, Paris climate accords, Parler "social media", peak oil, Potemkin village, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Mercer, Ronald Reagan, school choice, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley billionaire, Skype, social distancing, Social Justice Warrior, tech worker, Thomas L Friedman, transcontinental railway, upwardly mobile, vertical integration, WikiLeaks, working poor, Yom Kippur War, zero-sum game

But it has arguably lost “police actions,” like the troubled Vietnam intervention and withdrawal and the 1983–1984 misadventure in Lebanon, neither of which were always supported by the citizenry. Well beyond the redefinition of war making, recent administrations have also more often tried to circumvent the constitutional right of the Senate to ratify treaties, most recently in the case of the so-called Iran Deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and the Paris Climate Accord. In fact, in 2015, the Obama administration proposed shared national climate-change commitments with the Chinese government that were to be sent on to the United Nations as a veritable treaty without need for Senate ratification. The administration was not shy about abrogating the Constitution on grounds that the Senate would be essentially unqualified to consult with the president about or eventually ratify the treaty or would illogically oppose the entire agreement.

Shutdown: How COVID Shook the World's Economy by Adam Tooze

2021 United States Capitol attack, air freight, algorithmic trading, Anthropocene, Asian financial crisis, asset-backed security, Ayatollah Khomeini, bank run, banking crisis, Basel III, basic income, Ben Bernanke: helicopter money, Benchmark Capital, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, bitcoin, Black Lives Matter, Black Monday: stock market crash in 1987, blue-collar work, Bob Geldof, bond market vigilante , Boris Johnson, Bretton Woods, Brexit referendum, business cycle, business process, business process outsourcing, buy and hold, call centre, capital controls, central bank independence, centre right, clean water, cognitive dissonance, contact tracing, contact tracing app, coronavirus, COVID-19, credit crunch, Credit Default Swap, cryptocurrency, currency manipulation / currency intervention, currency peg, currency risk, decarbonisation, deindustrialization, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, energy transition, eurozone crisis, facts on the ground, failed state, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, fear index, financial engineering, fixed income, floating exchange rates, friendly fire, George Floyd, gig economy, global pandemic, global supply chain, green new deal, high-speed rail, housing crisis, income inequality, inflation targeting, invisible hand, It's morning again in America, Jeremy Corbyn, junk bonds, light touch regulation, lockdown, low interest rates, margin call, Martin Wolf, mass immigration, mass incarceration, megacity, megaproject, middle-income trap, Mikhail Gorbachev, Modern Monetary Theory, moral hazard, oil shale / tar sands, Overton Window, Paris climate accords, Pearl River Delta, planetary scale, Potemkin village, price stability, Productivity paradox, purchasing power parity, QR code, quantitative easing, remote working, reserve currency, reshoring, Robinhood: mobile stock trading app, Ronald Reagan, secular stagnation, shareholder value, Silicon Valley, six sigma, social distancing, South China Sea, special drawing rights, stock buybacks, tail risk, TikTok, too big to fail, TSMC, universal basic income, Washington Consensus, women in the workforce, yield curve

The same moment saw a sudden surge in geopolitical tension with Russia. After four years of frantic firefighting on both sides of the Atlantic, there was a brief period of stabilization between 2012 and 2014, demarcated by Draghi’s “whatever it takes,” Obama’s reelection, and the run-up to the Paris climate accords. But this stabilization proved short-lived. Between 2014 and 2016 the status quo was rocked by the Ukraine crisis, the commodity price collapse, the Syrian refugee crisis, Greece’s near default, China’s near-miss financial meltdown, Bernie Sanders’s unexpectedly strong challenge to Hillary Clinton, Brexit, Trump’s victory, and the Gilets Jaunes explosion in France.

Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America's Fifty-Year Fall--And Those Fighting to Reverse It by Steven Brill

"Friedman doctrine" OR "shareholder theory", "World Economic Forum" Davos, 2013 Report for America's Infrastructure - American Society of Civil Engineers - 19 March 2013, activist fund / activist shareholder / activist investor, affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, airport security, American Society of Civil Engineers: Report Card, asset allocation, behavioural economics, Bernie Madoff, Bernie Sanders, Blythe Masters, Bretton Woods, business process, call centre, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, carbon tax, Carl Icahn, carried interest, clean water, collapse of Lehman Brothers, collective bargaining, computerized trading, corporate governance, corporate raider, corporate social responsibility, Credit Default Swap, currency manipulation / currency intervention, deal flow, Donald Trump, electricity market, ending welfare as we know it, failed state, fake news, financial deregulation, financial engineering, financial innovation, future of work, ghettoisation, Glass-Steagall Act, Gordon Gekko, hiring and firing, Home mortgage interest deduction, immigration reform, income inequality, invention of radio, job automation, junk bonds, knowledge economy, knowledge worker, labor-force participation, laissez-faire capitalism, low interest rates, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Milken, military-industrial complex, mortgage tax deduction, Neil Armstrong, new economy, Nixon triggered the end of the Bretton Woods system, obamacare, old-boy network, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, paper trading, Paris climate accords, performance metric, post-work, Potemkin village, Powell Memorandum, proprietary trading, quantitative hedge fund, Ralph Nader, ride hailing / ride sharing, Robert Bork, Robert Gordon, Robert Mercer, Ronald Reagan, Rutger Bregman, Salesforce, shareholder value, Silicon Valley, Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits, stock buybacks, Tax Reform Act of 1986, tech worker, telemarketer, too big to fail, trade liberalization, union organizing, Unsafe at Any Speed, War on Poverty, women in the workforce, working poor

In 2009, energy industry donors, led by David and Charles Koch, who own energy giant Koch Industries, began pouring money into candidates’ campaigns almost solely on the basis of their willingness to deny climate science and even block solutions that had been championed by many Republicans—such as cap and trade, a plan to encourage clean energy by allowing corporations to trade carbon emissions credits and debits. As a result, when President Trump withdrew from the Paris climate accords in 2017, most Republicans were solidly behind him, even as headlines related to the warming planet—flooding in southeast Florida, abnormally severe hurricanes in the South, droughts and apocalyptic fires in the Southwest and West—were starting to become a staple of the day’s news. True, a coalition that included some major oil companies as well as environmental groups had formed after the Paris accords withdrawal to push for a carbon tax; and many American states, cities, and corporations were proceeding with their own climate initiatives.

The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House by Ben Rhodes

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, agricultural Revolution, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, Boris Johnson, Brexit referendum, British Empire, centre right, cuban missile crisis, David Brooks, demand response, different worldview, disinformation, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump, drone strike, Edward Snowden, eurozone crisis, F. W. de Klerk, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Ferguson, Missouri, illegal immigration, intangible asset, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Bouazizi, Nelson Mandela, no-fly zone, Paris climate accords, Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: Tear down this wall, Silicon Valley, Skype, South China Sea, Steve Bannon, trickle-down economics, uranium enrichment, WikiLeaks

NATO patrolled the skies over Estonia. Mohamed Morsi sat in an Egyptian prison cell. American-backed forces inched closer to Raqqa. A compound once occupied by Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad was no more. American troops guarded the perimeter of Bagram Airfield. Scientists researched new methods to meet the targets set by the Paris climate accord. Colombian guerrillas planned to turn in their weapons. A Cuban shopkeeper took stock of his inventory. A young person in Kenya who had participated in a U.S. exchange program went to work building a community organization back home. The congregants of a black church in Charleston accepted God’s grace.

Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections by Mollie Hemingway

2021 United States Capitol attack, active measures, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Airbnb, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, coronavirus, corporate governance, COVID-19, critical race theory, defund the police, deplatforming, disinformation, Donald Trump, fake news, George Floyd, global pandemic, illegal immigration, inventory management, lab leak, lockdown, machine readable, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Zuckerberg, military-industrial complex, obamacare, Oculus Rift, Paris climate accords, Ponzi scheme, power law, QR code, race to the bottom, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, Snapchat, statistical model, tech billionaire, TikTok

Unlike so many Republican politicians who claim they will govern as conservative during Republican primaries but move to the left for the general campaign and in office, Trump honored his stated commitment to conservative policies. He appointed conservative judges and justices, exited from the Paris climate accord, led a massive deregulatory effort, got the economy roaring, didn’t start any new wars, and aggressively defended American interests abroad. His actions earned the support of the party’s voters. Despite these policy accomplishments, or in some cases because of them, powerful elements of the Republican Party and conservative media establishment continued to resist his presidency.

There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century by Fiona Hill

2021 United States Capitol attack, active measures, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, algorithmic bias, barriers to entry, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, blue-collar work, Boris Johnson, Brexit referendum, British Empire, business climate, call centre, collective bargaining, company town, coronavirus, COVID-19, crony capitalism, cuban missile crisis, David Brooks, deindustrialization, desegregation, digital divide, disinformation, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump, Fall of the Berlin Wall, financial independence, first-past-the-post, food desert, gender pay gap, gentrification, George Floyd, glass ceiling, global pandemic, Great Leap Forward, housing crisis, illegal immigration, imposter syndrome, income inequality, indoor plumbing, industrial cluster, industrial research laboratory, informal economy, Jeff Bezos, Jeremy Corbyn, Kickstarter, knowledge economy, lockdown, low skilled workers, Lyft, Martin Wolf, mass immigration, meme stock, Mikhail Gorbachev, new economy, oil shock, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Own Your Own Home, Paris climate accords, pension reform, QAnon, ransomware, restrictive zoning, ride hailing / ride sharing, Right to Buy, Ronald Reagan, self-driving car, Silicon Valley, single-payer health, statistical model, Steve Bannon, The Chicago School, TikTok, transatlantic slave trade, Uber and Lyft, uber lyft, University of East Anglia, urban decay, urban planning, Washington Consensus, WikiLeaks, Winter of Discontent, women in the workforce, working poor, Yom Kippur War, young professional

Jobs meant votes. But saying he was going to do something proved easier than actually doing something. Between 2017 and 2020, Trump made good on some of the policy aspects of these promises to the men of coal and steel—although not the massive infrastructure projects. He pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord in June 2017. He then removed environmental regulations targeted at reducing the use of coal in American power plants and curbing the dumping of wastewater and other pollutants into rivers and streams. In 2018, Trump slapped 25 percent tariffs on Chinese and other international producers exporting cheap steel and aluminum to the United States.

Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order by Colin Kahl, Thomas Wright

"World Economic Forum" Davos, 2021 United States Capitol attack, banking crisis, Berlin Wall, biodiversity loss, Black Lives Matter, Boris Johnson, British Empire, Carmen Reinhart, centre right, Charles Lindbergh, circular economy, citizen journalism, clean water, collapse of Lehman Brothers, colonial rule, contact tracing, contact tracing app, coronavirus, COVID-19, creative destruction, cuban missile crisis, deglobalization, digital rights, disinformation, Donald Trump, drone strike, eurozone crisis, failed state, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, fear of failure, future of work, George Floyd, German hyperinflation, Gini coefficient, global pandemic, global supply chain, global value chain, income inequality, industrial robot, informal economy, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Internet of things, it's over 9,000, job automation, junk bonds, Kibera, lab leak, liberal world order, lockdown, low interest rates, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Wolf, mass immigration, megacity, mobile money, oil shale / tar sands, oil shock, one-China policy, open borders, open economy, Paris climate accords, public intellectual, Ronald Reagan, social distancing, South China Sea, spice trade, statistical model, subprime mortgage crisis, W. E. B. Du Bois, World Values Survey, zoonotic diseases

There is also the opportunity to restructure economies around the world in ways that would reduce risks associated with other existential transnational threats—especially, climate change. The global economic downturn produced by the pandemic created a brief reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, but despite the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord, emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases continue to increase. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the international body of thousands of experts that represents the scientific consensus on climate, the world is on track to warm by around 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century—a rate and magnitude of change that scientists warn could be cataclysmic.

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker

3D printing, Abraham Maslow, access to a mobile phone, affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, agricultural Revolution, Albert Einstein, Alfred Russel Wallace, Alignment Problem, An Inconvenient Truth, anti-communist, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Eddington, artificial general intelligence, availability heuristic, Ayatollah Khomeini, basic income, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, biodiversity loss, Black Swan, Bonfire of the Vanities, Brexit referendum, business cycle, capital controls, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, carbon footprint, carbon tax, Charlie Hebdo massacre, classic study, clean water, clockwork universe, cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, Columbine, conceptual framework, confounding variable, correlation does not imply causation, creative destruction, CRISPR, crowdsourcing, cuban missile crisis, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, dark matter, data science, decarbonisation, degrowth, deindustrialization, dematerialisation, demographic transition, Deng Xiaoping, distributed generation, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock, double helix, Eddington experiment, Edward Jenner, effective altruism, Elon Musk, en.wikipedia.org, end world poverty, endogenous growth, energy transition, European colonialism, experimental subject, Exxon Valdez, facts on the ground, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, first-past-the-post, Flynn Effect, food miles, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, frictionless, frictionless market, Garrett Hardin, germ theory of disease, Gini coefficient, Great Leap Forward, Hacker Conference 1984, Hans Rosling, hedonic treadmill, helicopter parent, Herbert Marcuse, Herman Kahn, Hobbesian trap, humanitarian revolution, Ignaz Semmelweis: hand washing, income inequality, income per capita, Indoor air pollution, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invention of writing, Jaron Lanier, Joan Didion, job automation, Johannes Kepler, John Snow's cholera map, Kevin Kelly, Khan Academy, knowledge economy, l'esprit de l'escalier, Laplace demon, launch on warning, life extension, long peace, longitudinal study, Louis Pasteur, Mahbub ul Haq, Martin Wolf, mass incarceration, meta-analysis, Michael Shellenberger, microaggression, Mikhail Gorbachev, minimum wage unemployment, moral hazard, mutually assured destruction, Naomi Klein, Nate Silver, Nathan Meyer Rothschild: antibiotics, negative emissions, Nelson Mandela, New Journalism, Norman Mailer, nuclear taboo, nuclear winter, obamacare, ocean acidification, Oklahoma City bombing, open economy, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, paperclip maximiser, Paris climate accords, Paul Graham, peak oil, Peter Singer: altruism, Peter Thiel, post-truth, power law, precautionary principle, precision agriculture, prediction markets, public intellectual, purchasing power parity, radical life extension, Ralph Nader, randomized controlled trial, Ray Kurzweil, rent control, Republic of Letters, Richard Feynman, road to serfdom, Robert Gordon, Rodney Brooks, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, Rory Sutherland, Saturday Night Live, science of happiness, Scientific racism, Second Machine Age, secular stagnation, self-driving car, sharing economy, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Simon Kuznets, Skype, smart grid, Social Justice Warrior, sovereign wealth fund, sparse data, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Steve Bannon, Steven Pinker, Stewart Brand, Stuxnet, supervolcano, synthetic biology, tech billionaire, technological determinism, technological singularity, Ted Kaczynski, Ted Nordhaus, TED Talk, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the scientific method, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, The Spirit Level, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, The Wisdom of Crowds, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, Thomas Malthus, total factor productivity, Tragedy of the Commons, union organizing, universal basic income, University of East Anglia, Unsafe at Any Speed, Upton Sinclair, uranium enrichment, urban renewal, W. E. B. Du Bois, War on Poverty, We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters, women in the workforce, working poor, World Values Survey, Y2K

Then alien secular forces subverted this harmony and brought on decadence and degeneration. Only a heroic vanguard with memories of the old ways can restore the society to its golden age. * * * Lest you have lost the trail that connects this intellectual history to current events, bear in mind that in 2017 Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord under pressure from Bannon, who convinced him that cooperating with other nations is a sign of surrender in the global contest for greatness.125 (Trump’s hostility to immigration and trade grew from the same roots.) With the stakes this high, it’s good to remind ourselves why the case for neo-theo-reactionary-populist nationalism is intellectually bankrupt.