Book Review: The fractured Age, How the Return of Geopolitics Will Sprinter the Global Economy by Neil Shearing

The book is the best I have read in deciphering splinting of the globalization after Donald Trump's 2nd term. It analyzed why, how and what will come after the ending of hyper globalization and gave logic prediction what lies ahead in 20240 for the world

中国经济现在的问题不过是历史的重复

 “90 年代中期之后，困扰中国经济的一个突出问题是所谓的内需不足。这尤

其体现在消费需求的不足上。这个严重困扰延续的时间是如此之长，以至于“提

振内需”变成了各级政府官员常年挂在嘴边的一个政治口号。那么，在国民财富

增长“一支独秀”的同时，中国内部的消费意愿以及消费能力为什么反而会变得

如此低下呢？对这个问题，许多人都从不同的角度给出了自己的解释，但“有消

费能力的缺乏消费意愿，有消费意愿的却缺乏消费能力”恐怕是对这个悖论最有

说服力的解释。显然，这个事实所透露出的信息已经远远不像“内需不足”这个

术语那么中性了。这实际上在暗示，中国社会经过25 年的改革，已经出现严重

的分配失衡。而这种失衡的持续之长及扩展之快都显示，中国的分配模式已经在

相当高的可能性被锁定，一个久别了的词汇——马太效应，正在回到中国人的生

活当中。当然，在中国改革过程中所出现的“马太效应”被注入了典型中国式的

内涵：被权力为分配轴心的模式不是将少数人，而是将大多数人趋入贫困的深渊。”

                   -- 《中国:奇迹的黄昏》袁剑 著 2008年

Book Review: Why Nation Fail, the origin of power, prosperity, and poverty by Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson

• Preface Why Egyptians filled Tahrir Square to bring down Hosni Mubarak and what it means for our understanding of the causes of prosperity and poverty
• 1. So close and yet so different, Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, have the same people, culture, and geography. Why is one rich and one poor?
• The economics of the Rio Grande
• The founding of Buenos Aires
• From Cajamarca ...
• .... to Jamestown
• A tale of two constitutions
• Having an idea, starting a firm, and getting a loan
• Path-dependent change
• Making a billion or two
• Toward a theory of world inequality
• 2. Theories that don't work, poor countries are poor not because of their geographies or cultures, or because their leaders do not know which policies will enrich their citizens
• The lay of the land
• The geography hypothesis
• The culture hypothesis
• The ignorance hypothesis
• 
  
• 3. The making of prosperity and poverty, how prosperity and poverty are determined by the incentives created by institutions, and how politics determines what institutions a nation has
• The economics of the 38th parallel
• Extractive and inclusive economic institutions
• Engines of prosperity
• Extractive and inclusive political institutions
• Why not always choose prosperity?
• The long agony of the Congo
• Growth under extractive political institutions
• 4. Small differences and critical junctures: the weight of history, how institutions change through political conflict and how the past shapes the present
• The world the plague created
• The making of inclusive institutions
• Small difference that matter
• The contigent path of history
• Understanding lay of the land
• 5. "I've seen the future, and it works": Growth under extractive institutions, what Stalin, King Shyaam, the Neolithic Revolution, and the Maya city-states all had in common and how this explains why China's current economic growth cannot last
• I've seen the future
• On the banks of the Kasai
• The long summer
• The unstable extraction
• What goes wrong?
• 6.Difting apart, how institutions evolve over time, often slowly difting apart
• How Venice became a museum
• Roman virtues...
• ... Roman vices
• No one writes from Vindolanda
• Diverging paths
• Consequencess of early growth
• 7.The turning point, how a political revolution in 1688 changed institutions in England and led to the Industrial Revolution
• Trouble with stockings, William Lee's stocking knitting Tmachine
• The glorious revolution
• The industrial revolution
• Why in England
• 8. Not on our turf: barriers to development, why the politically powerful in many nations opposed the industrial revolution
• No printing allowed
• A small difference that mattered, Spain vs England
• Fear of industry, Habsburg empire
• No shipping allowed, Ming and Qing dynasties in China
• The absolutism of Prester John, Ehiopia
• The children of samaale, Somalia
• 9.Reversing developmen, how European colonialism impoverished large parts of the world
• Spice and genocide, Southeast Asia
• The all-to-usual institution, Slave trade and slavery 
• Making dual economy. South Africa
• Development reversed 
• 10 The diffusion of prosperity, how some parts of the world took different paths to prosperity from that of Britain
• Hornor among thieves, Australia
• Breaking the barriers: The French revolution
• Exporting the revolution, Europe
• Seeking modernity, Japan
• Roots of world inequality
• 11. The virtuous circle, how institutions that encourage prosperity create positive feedback loops that prevent the efforts by elites to undermine them
• The black act ,UK
• The slow march of democracy, UK
• Busting trusts, USA
• Packing the court, FDR in USA
• Positive feedback and virtuous circles
• 12. The vicious circle, How institutions that create poverty generate negative feedback loops and endure
• You can't take the train to Bo anymore Sierra Leone
• From Encomienda to land grab Guatemala
• From slavery to Jim Crow US South
• The iron law of Oligarchy Ethiopia
• Negative feeback and vicious circles
• 13. Why nations fail today, institutions, institutions, institutions
• How to win the lottery in Zimbabwe
• A children's crusade? Siere Leone and sub-Sahara Africa's child soldiers
• Who is the state? Colombia
• El Corralito, Argentina
• The new absolutism, North Korea
• King cotton, Uzbekistan
• Keeping the playing field at an angle, Egypt
• Why nations fail
• 14. Breaking the mold, how a few countries changed their economic trajectory by changing their institution
• Three African Chiefs, Botswana
• The end of the southern extraction, US
• Rebirth in China, China under Deng 
• 15. Understanding prosperity and povery, how the world could have been different and how understanding this can explain why most attempts to combat poverty have failed
• Historical Origins
• The irresistible charm of authoritarian growth
• You can't engineer prosperity
• The failure of foreign aid
• Empowerment

Book Review: The New China Playbook, Beyond Socialism and Capitalism By Keyu Jin

 A book from a China raised scholar who is currently living in London. Her viewpoint would be a gentle introduction to westerners deeply ingrained in Western thinking, the way to look at new China from Chinese perspective. [updated 10/21/2024] She thought an extractive political system(One party rule and authoratarian system) such as China has won't hinder China's ecnomic uprising, as long as China maintains an inclusive ecnomic system.

A little light in academic, greatly enlived by interjecting her own upbringing and life experience.

[Updated on 10/21/2024] Newly minted Nobel Economy Prize winner Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson in their book Why Nations Fail had predicted an extractive political system will undermine ecnomic development.

Lowy Institute Analysis: Revising down rise of China By Raja and Leng

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