M.Moon

洞见

China's broadening industrial dominance -- and its willingness to weaponize its supply to achieve political goals -- is indeed a challenge for all the other large economies. 2/ wsj.com/world/china/be…

The Guardian Interview: ‘An orgy of antisemitism is overtaking the west’. Son of Saul’s László Nemes on Hollywood hypocrisy. He talks about resurgent global prejudice – and refusing to be lectured by the odious film industry @guardian theguardian.com/film/2026/may/…

You really need to read some history. The idea that there is a "Western" view on unsustainable increases in debt that differs from the "Eastern" view is the same sort of orientalist nonsense that was said about Japan in the 1980s, and indeed about every country that followed this growth model, including Brazil in the 1970s (except there it was the "Northern view" versus the "Southern view"). It further implies that you are not terrible familiar with what leading Chinese economists say in private (and increasingly in public).

Imbalances created by smaller countries are easier to ignore, of course, but the NL's surplus is also very different from that of other surplus Europeans. Like Norway, whose large, persistent surplus is mainly driven by cheap oil, much of the NL surplus comes mot from manufacturing but rather from the so-called "Rotterdam affect", in which the country earns substantial service fees from shipping, warehousing and re-exporting. For that reason, I would argue that attempts by other major economies to expand their shares of global manufacturing are less likely to hurt NL except to the extent that they result in a decline in shipping. On the other hand, unit labor costs in NL are probably not as high as they should be. Wages are certainly high, but so is productivity, to the point, I think, where ULC in NL is actually lower than in France and Germany. I beleive that is part of the reason why NL savings are so high. Because NL exports tend to be high-value-added goods, the country could probably raise wages without undermining its competitiveness much. Unfortunately many people in NL, like in Germany, seem to associate trade surpluses with thrift and moral virtue, rather than with distortions in income distribution, and so I think there may be a political preference for higher surpluses rather than higher wages. Policymakers also think of surpluses as a form of national saving, and so hope to use the proceeds to shelter the population as it ages, but in a world in which most economies worry about aging populations, it is not clear that the value of its external saving will be worth as much when it is most needed.

10/12 Ip is right, and that's the problem. China's manufacturing expansion might be unsustainable, but an unsustainable process can go on for years, as long as there is debt capacity, and before it reverses it can cause a great deal of damage to manufacturing outside China.

3/12 Other countries have followed similar policies, but this was taken to such an extreme in China that one result has been the lowest consumption share of GDP and the highest investment share ever seen in history (no other country even came close).

"When foreigners in China are used this way, they are called a baihouzi, a white monkey." And the Asian author does not criticise this blatant racism against white people. And the Guardian condones this. Liberal hypocrisy that's beyond disgusting theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…

Forget death sentence and all the debates around it. In the UK, you kill a person, you get six years in a detention centre. At this rate, UKers can expect fully legalized murder any day. | Moment e-bike rider killed pedestrian @dailymailuk mol.im/a/15820889

Bunch of lying weasels that feel they are better than the lying Tories | "Starmer's gov has repeatedly said it will comply [to release the files] .. The gov is now expected to face intense pressure to explain why it has chosen to withhold the vetting file" theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

Better then to develop a callus on what used to be called one’s soul.

These agonies are sovereign and unredeemed. If you are fortunate, there will be pleasures in your life to offset them, or at least to soften their grip on your mind and heart. But even the most fortunate life knows a terrible measure of cruelty.

A most beautifully written tribute on the immense sufferings and grand philosophies of Charles Darwin, by Algis Valiunas, New Atlantis contributing editor and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. | Darwin’s World of Pain and Wonder @tnajournal thenewatlantis.com/publications/d…

Starmer a goner and readers of the FT are really scared. Gone was the support from these comfortable middle class political snobs for the holier-than-the-Right Labour; in its place came the intense fear of higher taxes and a stalling economy. Pitiful ft.com/content/9dd44b…

Michigan couple abused their adopted children and locked them in straitjackets and dog cages. One of their adopted kids was rushed to hospital while suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition. Two were severely underweight @dailymail dailymail.com/news/article-1…

Dag Detter on the "mirror": "In China, too much capital is mobilised without enough return discipline. In Europe, capital is available, but too few public assets are structured in ways that allow it to be deployed. One system produces excess capacity. The other produces thin project pipelines." omfif.org/2026/05/china-…

The problem is a conflict of social classes, as so many prevalent problems elsewhere are

4/6 No one should know this better than Germany, whose own global manufacturing, along with its global competitiveness, surged after the 2003-05 labor reforms that resulted in a sharp slowdown in German wage growth relative to productivity growth.

4/4 But at some point those transfers have to be allocated, and the uncertainty about how, and to whom, sets off what debt specialists call "financial distress" costs. It is these costs that explain why economic growth always drops sharply once bad debt is forced to be recognized.