Browser Newsletter 1145
Best of the Moment
The End Of Hypocrisy
By Henry Farrell & Martha Finnemore | Foreign Affairs | 23rd October 2013
Leakers such as Manning and Snowden make their impact not so much by means of the new information they reveal, as with the documented confirmation they provide of what the United States is actually doing and why. This public evidence undermines Washington’s ability to act hypocritically and get away with it. It becomes harder for allies to overlook Washington’s covert behavior, and easier for adversaries to justify their own
Chinese Provinces And Indian States on The World Stage
William Antholis | Brookings | 22nd October 2013
Highly devolved systems of government in China and India give local leaders power on a global scale: the Indian state of Gujarat has 60m people, the Chinese city of Chongqing has 30m people. Any country that size would get an American embassy and consulates. States are used to dealing with states: but dealing effectively with countries as big as China and India means understanding the internal dynamics of regions
What We’ve Learned From The Financial Crisis
Justin Fox | Harvard Business Review | 16th October 2013
There's been a general lowering of confidence in the efficiency of markets. At the academic level, three shifts in thinking stand out: (1) Macroeconomists are realising that it was a mistake to pay so little attention to finance. (2) Financial economists are wrestling with some of the broader consequences of market misbehaviour (3) The principal-agent model is no longer presumed to work so well in the corporate world
The Case For Hate Speech
Jonathan Rauch | The Atlantic | 23rd October 2013
Don't boycott the film Enders' Game, despite the anti-gay views of Orson Scott Card, who wrote the book. Minorities do better to accept hate speech as part of the free speech environment which allows their own arguments to be heard. "Not long ago, gays were pariahs. We had no real political power, only the force of our arguments. But in a society where free exchange is the rule, that was enough. We had the coercive power of truth"
Face
Tara FitzGerald | Vela | 22nd October 2013
What happens when your loveable Basset hound suddenly turns on you and rips a chunk out of your face? You lose a lot of blood, go to ER, get bandaged together, find a plastic surgeon, and, with luck, come out three or four operations later with a face very close to the original, if not quite as symmetrical. As for the dog: You wish there was another way, but there isn't. He gets a last meal of beef soup and peas
Video of the day: Russell Brand And Jeremy Paxman
Thought for the day:
"My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers"— Tom Stoppard