AmPhoenixTrade

Liberalism’s Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated Why the crisis everyone mourns reveals liberal tradition at its most vital

“When oligarchs can capture regulatory systems, when tech platforms can shape electoral outcomes, when concentrated wealth can buy political influence—you’re arguing about whether democratic majorities have authority to constrain private power at all.”

open.substack.com/pub/mikebroc...

Terrific essay. Pope Francis was unequivocal in his rejection of neoliberalism (Fratelli Tutti), and Pope Leo is emphasizing the need for an economy that works for the have-nots. These positions are consistent with a return to Catholic social teaching.

It was also connected to the Milton Friedman/Chicago School focus on the consumer, a shift away from the more holistic New Deal (and Founding Father) focus on protecting against concentrated economic power. It’s why trade and antitrust conversations are traveling a similar path.

Public Citizen surfaces concerns about what’s in these agreements and whether they reinforce a deregulatory model. We’re heading into USMCA review season. Is this what we should expect?

i don’t think you can maximin vote share with polls and spreadsheets, and i think it is a problem that the most prominent and influential political commentators right now are more devotees of data than experts in narrative

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Listen to @theameilee.bsky.social and @toddntucker.com talk about trade policy & what’s really at stake. It’s not just about stuff, it’s about people.

Always thought it was sad that Ayn Rand—one of the most successful authors of children's fantasy books of all time—had little enough saved in the bank in her old age that she had to rely on public assistance until her death, but I'm glad it was there for her.

I think USTR under Biden made huge inroads in opening up public engagement, but there's always more to do. If we get the chance to rebuild from the ashes, hopefully we can hire back a more diverse and representative policy workforce, and thus a more pluralistic and democratic one as well.

It explains the relentless push for TPP in 2016, even though the Admin was told repeatedly it would alienate blue collar workers in swing states (and divide the Democratic Caucus).

this was totally obvious to everyone who was actually watching the whole time, glad to see it in print

New USW Leaders Prepare to Take Office - United Steelworkers A historic new slate of officers will take over leadership of the United Steelworkers (USW) in March following the union’s regular four-year nomination and election process that took place this fall.

Excited for the new leaders @steelworkers.bsky.social. Congrats to Roxanne Brown and team!
usw.org/press-releas...

A left wing politics that is oriented around your rights and identity as an individual consumer instead of your responsibilities as a member of a social or political community is basically a left aesthetic pasted onto an internalized neoliberal ontology.

Where the United States dismissed the relevance of manufacturing in favor of services, the EU didn’t. Nor should Europe start now, when it has to build defense capabilities while also dealing with less access to the US market + increased imports from Chinese exports previously destined for the U.S.

For context, 13 million jobs in one manufacturing sector in the EU is the same as the total number of manufacturing jobs in the United States.

7/9
For global economic growth, in other words, what really matters is not whether exporting ships lowers freight costs, but whether their production raises or reduces total production by boosting or repressing global demand. The benefits of trade cannot be isolated and measured incrementally.

The ACA had plenty of kludges & complexities. But it's good that it used multiple tools in parallel to achieve its goal, in part because its sponsors *didn't know what was going to work*.

They did not know that the Medicaid expansion would end up far more consequential than the mandate.

That's ok!

Bloomberg headline that reads: Canada to Start Financial-Crimes Agency to Fight Surge in Online Scams.

You deserve to know that your hard-earned money is secure.

We’re tackling fraud and financial crimes head-on — to protect your savings, your retirement, and your loved ones.

America’s rare earth delusion [FREE TO READ] China’s critical minerals chokepoint has been hiding in plain sight for decades

My latest column: on.ft.com/4o1WELP America’s rare earth delusion

It's also important to have a conversation about what "centrism" is. A lot of today's "centrist" Democrats are way to the right of Dwight Eisenhower, without realizing it. But some prominent ex-neocons are now defining themselves as social democrats. Things are changing.

Small reminder that whilst rare earths are a key chokehold, the cost of doing industrial policy to build European capacity - from uptake guarantees to price floors - should be within the realm of the reasonable.

It’s not a massive market in dollar terms, just an important one.

“You can win elections by tacking to the middle; lots of people have. But you can also win elections by staking a moral position and convincing people to agree with you. You can earn support by demonstrating what is important to you instead of just being determined to nod along with what you hear.”

With the caveat that in some cases trade agreements might run contrary to those policies.

America Bet the Farm on Soybeans. Then Came Trump. Collapsing soybean exports reveal an agricultural sector rife with longstanding problems.

The soybean crisis may have been induced by tariffs, but it's the *culmination* of a lack of resiliency in the farm economy, with overdependence on exports and single crops and self-perpetuating bailouts. Great breakdown from Naomi Bethune:
prospect.org/politics/202...

Surveying the new economic geography with Peterson Institute's Adam Posen YouTube video by AtlanticCouncil

Posen acknowledges the existence of neoliberalism *and* that economists missed the problem of concentration risk in goods and services.

He still thinks TPP is a good idea, but perhaps he'll eventually see that it aggravates exactly that kind of risk.

www.youtube.com/live/kNiZYVd...

Great conversation with you and Charles!

If you are around Oxford (UK) I'm giving a talk at the law school this Thursday at 12 at the IECL seminar room. Topic is: "The Servile State revisited" -- it is reconsideration of distributism as an alternative to brutal capitalism and communism. Open to public

We can restructure debt for humanitarian ends Poor and middle-income countries are spending money on interest payments that could go towards essential public goods

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David Miliband argues that a program that reduces the external debt of very poor countries "is financial engineering that provides a triple dividend: governments can get breathing room on...
www.ft.com/content/f48d...

America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom The outcome of these trends has huge implications for workers, wealth and the future of America’s economy.

The AI boom is masking a manufacturing decline.

@aarongregg23.bsky.social and @federicacocco.bsky.social have the story, with comments from @markmuro1.bsky.social @michaelrstrain.bsky.social and me.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Capitalism and Democracy Often Clash in America. They Usually End Up Better for It. Economic booms sparked by capitalism can lead to inequality and then political upheaval. Democracy and capitalism, however, tend to improve as a result.

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Interesting piece by Jonathan Levy, who argues that the current "polarization" in American politics, in which capitalism and democracy have seemed at cross purposes for over a decade, is neither new nor necessarily a bad thing.
@_jonlevy
www.wsj.com/politics/uni...