China is a mass of contradictions. Intellectual property thief. America’s largest trading partner. Home to 476 billionaires. Choked with air and water pollution. A rapidly aging population. And leadership eager to project its national will.
People look to the government to prevent future financial crises and too many trust that politicians and economic experts can create policies to protect us and our 401(k) plans. We shouldn’t rely on them. These experts are smart, mostly well-intentioned people but they can’t prevent the next crisis. No one can. Why is that? And why is a future crisis inevitable? I discuss these and many other questions with “Finance and Philosophy” author Alex Pollock.
Why do 53 percent of millennials prefer socialism to capitalism? Probably because they don’t know what socialism is and neither does Bernie Sanders and others who embrace it. But how bad can it get? Democrats might be moving further to the left but it’s absurd to compare them to Marxists, right? My podcast guest, Ralph Benko, says you might be surprised at how similar their beliefs really are.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Just this year, the Chinese Communist Party held an election in the Great Hall of the People where Xi Jinping was voted “President for Life.” The vote was 2,958 for and six against. With this vote they proclaimed that China is now realizing its dream of national rejuvenation, and it’s grand strategy to restore its Empire.
Every day, we’re confronted by headlines that reveal the ever-widening chasm between left and right in America. What’s driving this hyper-polarization? And are there any solutions? Thanks to a stimulating conversation with National Affairs Editor Yuval Levin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and independent scholar and economist Arnold Kling, I’m learning that there are some pretty fundamental cultural trends that we need to understand if we want to get at the roots of our frustrations. In part, they lie in what Yuval calls the “politics of nostalgia.” For Arnold, the author of The Three Languages of Politics, our speech is exacerbating America’s political divide.
How would you react if the government put facial recognition cameras everywhere and kept tabs on your every move – right down to to how many squares of toilet paper you are using? It’s happening in China, as the communist government there clamps down on freedom and ramps up its economic and territorial ambitions in its quest to become the dominant player on the world stage.
The Bill Walton Show: Episode 12 – Playwright John B. Henry and citizen actors Bill Nitze and Bruce Fein join fellow thespian Bill Walton to discuss “Republic For Which We Stand”, a new play by Mr. Henry which portrays the behind-the-scenes struggle of the Founding Fathers and Mothers in drafting the constitution to give only Congress the power to declare war.