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☆ Opinion | What Janet Yellen Needs to Tell China’s Leaders
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It would be great if Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had a copy of “The Portable Karl Marx” with her on her trip to China this week. China was “among the most unequal countries in the world” in 2018, another I.M.F. working paper released that year said. While Xi Jinping name-checks Marx, it’s clear from his behavior that what he really pursues is national greatness under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. That’s more in line with Lenin, who believed that a “vanguard” party would lead the proletariat, than with Marx or Engels.

Persons: Janet Yellen, Karl Marx ”, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, ” Marx, Xi, Marx, it’s, Lenin, Engels Organizations: International Monetary Fund, Chinese Communist Party Locations: China, Brazil

BEIJING (AP) — China’s national congress is wrapping up its annual session Monday with the usual show of near-unanimous support for plans designed to carry out ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's vision for the nation. This year's weeklong event, replete with meetings carefully scripted to allow no surprises, has highlighted how China’s politics have become ever more calibrated to elevate Xi. A key item due to be put for a ritual vote on Monday are revisions of the “Organic Law of the State Council,” China's version of a cabinet, that direct it to follow Xi's vision. The Organic Law of the State Council is being revised for the first time since it was adopted in 1982. The revision calls for the State Council, above all, to “uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China."

Persons: Xi, —, Li Qiang, ” Neil Thomas, ” Thomas, Wang Yi, Qin Gang, Mao Zedong, ” Organizations: BEIJING, —, Communist Party, State Council, Asia Society Policy Institute, Communist Party of China Locations: China, China's, U.S

NEW YORK (AP) — Wayne Kramer, the co-founder of the protopunk Detroit band the MC5 that thrashed out such hardcore anthems as “Kick Out the Jams” and influenced everyone from the Clash to Rage Against the Machine, has died at age 75. Kramer died Friday at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, according to Jason Heath, a close friend and executive director of Kramer's nonprofit Jail Guitar Doors. "Brother Wayne Kramer was the best man I’ve ever known," Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello wrote on Instagram Friday. The MC5 was more radical politically than most of its peers, and otherwise louder and more daring. Kramer would lead various incarnations of the MC5 over the following decades, and perform with Was (Not Was) among other groups.

Persons: — Wayne Kramer, Kramer, Jason Heath, Heath, Fred “, ” Smith, Rob Tyner, Michael Davis, Dennis “, ” Thompson, White Panther, John Sinclair, Brother Wayne Kramer, Tom Morello, “, Thompson, Smith, ”, Wayne, Margaret Saadi, Francis Organizations: Motor City, Marxism, White Panthers, Convention, USA, ” Locations: Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago

The Red Square mausoleum where his embalmed corpse lies in an open sarcophagus is no longer a near-mandatory pilgrimage but a site of macabre kitsch, open only 15 hours a week. The ideology that Lenin championed and spread over a vast territory is something of a sideshow in modern Russia. “As a result of Bolshevik policy, Soviet Ukraine arose, which even today can with good reason be called ‘Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s Ukraine.' The Mayakovsky poem that proclaimed Lenin's immortality was “a parting word, or a spell, or a curse,” Rudakov said. At the annual military parade through Red Square, the structure is blocked from view by a tribune where dignitaries watch the festivities.

Persons: soothed, “ Lenin, Lenin, Vladimir Lenin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vladimir Putin's, Konstantin Morozov, Gennady Zyuganov, ”, Putin, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s, ” Putin, “, VTsIOM, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's, Yuri Annenkov, Josef Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Russian Orthodox Church —, Bolsheviks —, Stalin, Trotsky, Lenin ”, ’, Vladimir Rudakov, ” Rudakov, Jim Heintz Organizations: Moscow Zoo, Communist Party, Russian Academy of Sciences, AP, Union of Russian Architects, Russian Orthodox Church, Bolsheviks, Tass, The Associated Press Locations: Soviet Union, Russia, Moscow, St, Petersburg's Finland, United Russia, Ukraine, Soviet Ukraine, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s Ukraine, Soviet, Russian, Red, USSR, Estonia

☆ The Real Reason Iran Hates Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Reuel Marc Gerecht | Ray Takeyh | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Wonder Land: The Democratic Party never expected Jew-hatred to be a feature of its coalition. Images: AP Composite: Mark KellyThe Gaza War has led to another debate about what motivates Iran’s ruling elite. At least three generations of radical Iranian clerics have viewed Israel as illegitimate, usurping sacred Islamic lands in the name of a pernicious ideology advanced by history’s most devilish and stubborn people. Using the language of French Marxism, they call Israel a Western “colonial-settler state,” and they believe Jews guide American imperialism in the Middle East. In this struggle between good and evil, Muslims have a religious obligation to resist Israel and global Jewry.

Persons: Mark Kelly The, Iran’s, Washington, Israel Organizations: Democratic Party Locations: Mark Kelly The Gaza, Saudi, Israel, Western

☆ Insider Today: You should buy a house now
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

AdvertisementAdvertisementIn today's big story, we're looking at why it's a good time to buy a house. RichLegg/Getty ImagesIt's a pretty terrible time to buy a house these days, which is why it's a good time to buy a house. AdvertisementAdvertisementInsider's Jennifer Sor detailed why it's a good time to buy a house. Part of the issue is that mortgage rates won't magically drop overnight. The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, senior editor and anchor, in New York City.

Persons: OpenAI's Sam Altman, Jennifer Sor, Jacob Zinkula, they're, that's, Gen Zers, who's, it's, Doug Haynes, Haynes, Steve Cohen's Point72, Leon Cooperman isn't, Arantza Pena Popo, carmakers, EVs, Tyler Le, Satya Nadella, Mathias Döpfner, Axel Springer, Jensen Huang, Dan DeFrancesco, Naga Siu, Hallam Bullock, Lisa Ryan Organizations: FBI, RichLegg, Norias Research, Investments, Ameriprise, Insurance, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Nvidia, ZTE Corp, Philips, NBA Locations: West Palm Beach, Fla, Tokyo, Oklahoma City, New York City, San Diego, London, New York

☆ Xi's economic policies are leaving many China watchers perplexed and confused
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Michelle Caruso-Cabrera | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Why is a nation with ambitions to become the dominant economic power in the world doing so many things to blunt that potential? Xi vs. the CCPMost, though not all, China watchers point to Xi himself as the instigator of those recent changes. "China's private sector, previously the growth engine of the Chinese economy, is paying the consequences," he told CNBC. In addition, he said "in recent months, China's National Development and Reform Commission has set up a bureau especially for private sector development." They cite external factors for weakness in the Chinese economy, including U.S. tariffs, trade restrictions, sanctions, and the sluggish post-pandemic global economy.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Lintao Zhang, Orville Schell, Schell, Jinping, Yasheng Huang, Xi, Ryan Hass, Kevin Rudd, Rudd, Anne Stevenson, Yang, Stevenson, Jack Ma, Mikhail Gorbachev, Liu Pengu, Yang Fan, Zhang Xinyu, Liza Tobin, Eric Schmidt Organizations: Political, CPC Central Committee, of People, Getty, Center, U.S, China Relations, The Asia Society, CNBC, Chinese Communist Party, Communist, MIT Sloan School, CCP, China Center, Brookings, Foreign Policy, Oxford University, J Capital Research, Communist Party, Party, U.S ., Soviet Union, National, Reform, Marxist Locations: Beijing, China, New York, U.S, Australia, United States, U.S . Congress, USSR, Soviet Union

☆ Paul Krugman warns China is headed for a 'very nasty fall' as Xi Jinping sounds more like a Republican than a communist
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Filip De Mott | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

China has reached the limit of what it can do to stave off an economic crisis, Paul Krugman wrote. "China is facing a major economic crisis, and they've run to the limits of the things that's been doing to keep its economy afloat," Krugman said. Despite leading the Communist Party of China, Krugman says the authoritarian leader seems more aligned with a conservative Republican, citing how Xi has condemned the "dangers of welfarism." AdvertisementAdvertisementIf not, the economic crisis has the potential to turn into a political one, as China's unemployed citizens begin to doubt their leadership. It preaches Marxism and equality and the coming communist utopia, and practices rapacious, highly unequal capitalism," Krugman said.

Persons: Paul Krugman, It's, Krugman, Yuan, Xi Jinping's, Xi Organizations: Service, New York Times, Communist Party of China Locations: China, Wall, Silicon, Beijing

☆ Sen. Ted Cruz is worth at least $2.6 million, according to financial disclosures
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Heidi Cruz, his wife, is wealthy in her own right too. Advertisement Advertisement Watch:Vice President Mike Pence swears Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in after his 2018 reelection while Heidi Cruz and their daughters look on. Heidi Cruz also holds at least another $500,001 in her own mutual fund. "In 2022, Sen. Cruz was a member of the Commerce Committee along with 12 other Republicans. Cruz later attacked his neighbors after someone leaked Heidi Cruz's text messages to their neighbors mentioning the trip.

Persons: Sen, Ted Cruz, Cruz, Heidi Cruz, Republican Sen, Ted Cruz of, Trump, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Alex Edelman, Goldman Sachs, Maria Cantwell, Heidi, Beto O'Rourke, Colin Allred Organizations: Service, Republican, Texas Republican, Senate, Exxon Mobil, Enterprise Products, Senate Commerce Committee, Commerce, Bank of America, Texans, Democratic, NFL Locations: Wall, Silicon, Ted Cruz of Texas, America, Houston, Cancun , Mexico

☆ Opinion | How Do We Manage China’s Decline?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Bret Stephens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Optimists think the crisis won’t affect Western countries too badly because their exports to China account for a small share of their output. Real estate and its related sectors account for nearly 30 percent of China’s gross domestic product, according to a 2020 paper by the economists Ken Rogoff and Yuanchen Yang. Last month Donald Trump described the rule of China’s president, Xi Jinping, as “smart, brilliant, everything perfect.” The truth is closer to the opposite. China’s richest people have also left the country in increasing numbers during Xi’s tenure — a good indication of where they think their opportunities do and do not lie. President Biden was off the cuff but on the mark this month when he said of China’s leaders that “when bad folks have problems, they do bad things.” In other words, as China’s economic fortunes sink, the risks to Taiwan grow.

Persons: don’t, Optimists, Ken Rogoff, Yuanchen Yang, Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Xi, “, ”, Xi’s, Biden Locations: China, Taiwan, South China, United States, Ukraine, Russia, Beijing, Taiwan Strait

The renewed discussion hasn’t done much to revive the prospects of Japan’s own Communist Party, however. Mr. Saito is not a fan of the group, which he sees as well-meaning but stale. And even in rich nations, he does not call for people to give up their creature comforts. He recently moved into a three-story home in an upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo and drives a compact Toyota. Achieving degrowth communism, he believes, is less about personal choices and more about changing overarching political and economic structures.

Persons: Saito, Mahbub ul Haq Organizations: Communist Party, Chinese Communist Party, Toyota, United Nations Locations: Soviet Union, Tokyo, G.D.P

☆ What Just Happened at West Virginia University Is Alarming - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Leif Weatherby | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

E. Gordon Gee, the president of West Virginia University, once promised that the school would have 40,000 students by 2020, but the figure is still well under 30,000 across three campuses and is projected to drop. The humanities are under threat more broadly across the nation because of the perceived left-wing ideology of the liberal arts. To resist this assault, we must provide broad access to a true liberal arts education. The campaign to overturn the liberal arts is politically motivated, through and through. I was lucky: My parents put a liberal arts education above all other goals.

Persons: Gordon Gee, Gee, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, ” Organizations: West Virginia University, West Virginians, Democratic Party, Republican Party Locations: New York

☆ Opinion | Does God Control History?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Instead, I managed to entangle myself in an argument about a different totalitarianism-related question: whether the destruction of Hitler’s Germany was a true and righteous judgment of Almighty God. The style of far-right thought involved in both stories takes Western decadence as a given, while arguing that Christianity is a weak vessel for any kind of cultural revival. Its big idea is that a conservatism that looks to classical and pagan sources, and embraces some kind of racial identitarianism could be more, well, vital in its engagement with the times. The decay and decadence of Western Christianity makes the return of right-wing Nietzscheanism inevitable. But Christians can say with some warrant that God’s judgment on that project is evident already.

Persons: —, Graeme Wood’s, “, Richard Hanania, Jordan Peterson, I’ve, Hanania Organizations: Twitter Locations: Germany

"I had no hesitation, I immediately did whatever was possible to get out," Sossinsky told Reuters in a phone interview. Fluent in three languages and still delivering classes to students in Russia via Zoom, he now expects to live out his life in exile. She fled Russia in 1923 with her mother and sisters. Alexey got his first taste of Russia in the mid-1950s, after the death of Stalin, when the family visited there on holiday. "My daughter is absolutely panicked by the thought that I will return to Russia and will be put in prison and God knows what.

Persons: Alexey Sossinsky, Vladimir Putin, Sossinsky, Putin, Ariadna Chernova, Viktor Chernov, fleetingly, Bronislav Sossinsky, Alexey, Bronislav, Stalin, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Mark Trevelyan, Peter Graff Organizations: Reuters, Constituent, Bolsheviks, White Army, Moscow State University, KGB, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine, France, United States, Istanbul, Russia's, New York, Moscow, Soviet Union

☆ How one DeSantis speech captured the dynamic that could decide 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Ronald Brownstein | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

The next 30 minutes of DeSantis’ speech then demonstrated how Biden might survive despite all the doubts about his performance and capabilities. In that way, DeSantis’ first swing through Iowa showed why Republicans are still at risk in 2024 from a key dynamic that dashed their hopes of a sweeping “red wave” in 2022. Many strategists in both parties believe that dynamic is most likely to recur in 2024 if the GOP nominates Trump. One reason, Republicans argue, is that the eventual nominee likely will talk about these issues less in a general election. Beset by all the difficult domestic conditions DeSantis highlighted, Biden will likely struggle straight through November 2024 to affirmatively convince a majority that his performance deserves another term.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Joe Biden, Biden, DeSantis, Donald Trump, ”, Sarah Longwell, MAGA Trump, “, Trump, Chris Wilson, Republican pollster, Jesse Ferguson, SRSS, “ Biden, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W . Bush, “ DeSantis, Ferguson, don’t, –, David Kochel, Kochel, can’t, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton’s, suburbanites, Nick Gourevitch, DeSantis ’, dethroning Trump, Sen, Bernie Sanders, Biden “ Organizations: CNN, Florida Gov, Biden’s, Republicans, GOP, Trump, Republican, Longwell, Biden, White House, White, Edison Research, House, Democrats, Senate, Fox News, Walt Disney Co, Democratic, eventual Locations: Iowa, Des Moines, Biden’s America, America, Florida, Arizona , Georgia, Nevada , New Hampshire , Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan

☆ National Conservatism: Why are some British Conservatives behaving like the next election is already lost?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

The list goes on, but the general theme of this conference was that British Conservatism is having an identity crisis and these ideas could be the solution. CNN spoke to several people involved in this conference as well as people inside the Conservative Party who opposed the conference and its ideas. Another group of Conservatives supporting the vocal criticisms of Sunak are, sources say, thinking beyond the election and about future leadership contests. Indeed, another Conservative conference was held at the weekend, seen widely as a “Bring Back Boris” event, which the former PM didn’t turn up to. Pro-Sunak Conservatives who still think the next election could be won are also not happy.

HONG KONG, May 10 (Reuters) - China will appoint Li Yunze as the head of a new financial regulator as part of a broader restructuring of its financial regulatory regime, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. Li, 52, a banking veteran and currently vice governor of southwestern Sichuan province, will take the helm of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), the sources told Reuters. The NFRA is a new government body under the State Council tasked to supervise the multi-trillion dollar financial industry, excluding the securities sector. Li has a relatively low-profile in the sector compared to previous financial regulatory heads. In 2018, he was appointed as vice governor of Sichuan province.

☆ ‘A Trump tribute act’: Meet Suella Braverman, the commander-in-chief of Britain’s culture wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

London CNN —Late last year, after a breakneck ascent of British politics put her in charge of the country’s migration, crime and national security agenda, Suella Braverman revealed her political fantasy. Leon Neal/Getty ImagesAnd she is an equally furious culture warrior, borrowing rhetoric from the American right when lambasting “woke” culture, transgender rights and climate protesters. Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty ImagesIt is a stance that has drawn sharp criticism – including from within the traditional wing of Braverman’s Conservative Party. Should Braverman succeed at her next bid for the party leadership, her critics fear another rightwards shift in British politics. “She’s recognized that in the current political climate, her way of creating an impact… (is) positioning herself as a Trump tribute act.

☆ Trump looks to play catch-up to DeSantis on education in 2024 race
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( James Oliphant | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The coronavirus pandemic gave rise to a host of hot-button issues surrounding education that have mobilized the Republican base in the years since Trump left the White House. DeSantis was in Iowa on Friday, speaking at a pair of political events that appear to be laying groundwork for a presidential bid. DeSantis has asked the Florida legislature to expand a ban on teaching gender-identity concepts to eighth grade from third grade currently. That could leave an opening for Trump, who made school choice a priority in his administration but lacks the track record on state-level education issues that DeSantis and other governors have. Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, another conservative parents' rights group, said DeSantis getting out ahead of Trump on the issue should not hurt the former president.

☆ Ted Cruz's publisher shaved off his mullet on the cover of his new book about 'cultural Marxism'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ted Cruz's infamous mullet was edited out of a photo on the cover of his new book by the publisher. The Texas Republican announced last week that he's writing his third book, titled "Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America." A person familiar with the matter told Insider that the decision to edit Cruz's mullet out of the picture was made by his publisher, the conservative outfit Regnery Publishing, and not the senator himself. "Is the routine touching up of a photo for a book cover considered newsworthy?" Cruz later began sporting a mullet fade as the Senate began debating impeachment charges against former President Donald Trump for incitement of an insurrection, prompting the Houston Chronicle to ask "What the hell is going on with Ted Cruz's hair?"

☆ DeSantis and other prominent Republicans blame 'woke' politics for Silicon Valley Bank's collapse instead of bankers miscalibrating risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | Nicole Gaudiano | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some Republicans blamed "woke" investment strategies for Silicon Valley Bank's downfall. Economists and banking experts so far have chalked up Silicon Valley Bank's failure to much more apolitical circumstances. Silicon Valley Bank then had to sell its assets at a loss to fork over cash it didn't have, an increasingly untenable chain reaction that ended only when regulators shut the institution down. Regulators closed the Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, a stunning break to a period of relative banking stability in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. "I don't know if making money's now woke," Baker said.

☆ China and the Population Bomb That Wasn’t
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( William Mcgurn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Doubleday once published a book with a title—“Too Many Asians”—that would never fly today. Author John Robbins argued that “if humanity is to have a future,” the West would have to see to it that fewer Asians were born in the years ahead. Robbins was but one voice in a chorus of think tanks, government aid organizations, international development specialists, environmentalists, zero-growthers, doom mongers and do-gooders who all saw population control as the cure for poverty. China’s recent announcement that its population fell by 850,000 last year, the first recorded drop since the Mao-induced famines of the early 1960s, provoked much comment on the social and economic challenges decline brings. Yet conspicuously absent was any recognition that the whole idea that Chinese moms having children threatened the country’s prosperity was, much like Marxism itself, a noxious Western import.

☆ Are There ‘Too Many Asians’?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( William Mcgurn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

☆ Former Pope Benedict was first pontiff to resign in 600 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +14 min

[1/3] Pope Benedict XVI blesses a baby as he rides around St Peter's Square to hold his last general audience at the Vatican February 27, 2013. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File PhotoVATICAN CITY, Dec 31 - Former Pope Benedict, who died on Saturday aged 95, was the first pontiff in 600 years to resign, leaving behind a Catholic Church battered by sexual abuse scandals, mired in mismanagement and polarised between conservatives and progressives. Benedict, the first German pope in 1,000 years, had good relations with his successor, Pope Francis, but his continued presence inside the Vatican after he stepped down in 2013 further polarised the Church ideologically. Although he said he would remain "hidden from the world", Benedict did not live up to that promise and in retirement sometimes caused controversy and confusion through his writings. Ganswein's role as a middleman between Benedict and the cardinal was unclear, with many believing he had misled Benedict, the cardinal, or both.

☆ Ex-academic forges a new career denying Trump's 2020 election loss
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +27 min

“The war is just getting started,” Clements told his 100,000 Telegram followers on Nov. 16. His rise in the movement began in January 2021, when a dispute with his employer, New Mexico State University, over the U.S. Capitol riot went public. ‘I will not take the jab’Clements’ swift rise in election-denier circles caused a stir at New Mexico State, where he continued to teach. Flynn co-founded the America Project, a well-capitalized right-wing group that has financed lawsuits and campaigns challenging the 2020 election results and the integrity of U.S. voting systems. One of their roles is to certify election results, which until the Trump era was typically a rubber-stamp formality.

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