In The News

National Review: Robot Overlords

Kevin D. Williamson October 7, 2018
People, nervous about robots taking away jobs for humans, also expect immediate and affordable information, service and comforts. Kevin Williamson, writing for National Review, describes how regulation can quickly devolve into protectionism, designed to contain rapid change and preserve traditions. He notes that an individual’s views can swing wildly between Libertarianism or fascism depending on...

3 Quarks Daily: Populism in Less Developed Countries

Pranab Bardhan August 13, 2018
Populism comes in many forms. For economists, populism represents the allure of short-term fixes that cause long-term damage; in political science, the term represents strong leaders wiling to dispense with the rule of law or minority rights. Populism of developing countries has its own traits, attracting educated, middle class and urban citizens as opposed to the uneducated, rural and working-...

Wall Street Journal: For Immigrant Families, Scars of Separation Remain

Arian Campo-Flores and Melanie Grayce West July 21, 2018
Parenting styles vary with cultures around the globe. Earlier this year, the Trump administration launched a new policy of abruptly separating children from immigrants and asylum seekers, with no warning and no plan in place for eventual reunions. A US court gave officials deadlines to organize reunions for more than 2,000 children. Another court ordered a temporary end to deportations. Parents...

Bloomberg: Why East Germans Invest and Vote Differently

Leonid Bershidsky June 12, 2018
Political ideologies wield cultural influence long after communities move on to new systems. Separate research studies suggest that people of East German demonstrate cautious investing patterns, with preference for former state companies, as well as those associated with Russia and China rather than the United States. “The eastern ‘investing identity’ is more pronounced in communities that were...

BBC: Why Humans Need Stories

David Robson May 28, 2018
Stories provide lessons for people to understand one another and their world. Some stories are region-specific, and the most popular tales can fascinate audiences around the world over the course of centuries – whether the cave paintings in France from 30,000 years ago or the Epic of Gilgamesh engraved on tablets 4,000 years ago in Babylonia. Scholars offer theories on why some themes – escapism...

ChinaFile: A Clash of Cyber Civilizations

Geoffrey Hoffman March 21, 2018
Various cultures are emerging on the internet, and “as the international system slips away from American unipolarity, a competing model of cyber sovereignty has emerged in China that seeks to bind cyber borders to online censorship and surveillance,” writes Geoffrey Hoffman for ChinaFile. Distrust also emerges, and he questions if the two models can coexist. China enforces cyber borders and that...

Washington Post: “Here Is What My #S---hole Looks Like”

Paul Schemm and Eli Rosenberg January 12, 2018
The United States is a country of immigrants. Ancestors of many citizens arrived destitute – from Europe, Asia and Africa – in search of opportunity and thrived. In a meeting, Donald Trump was reported to have rejected a legislative deal on immigration and asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” before suggesting that immigration policies focus on places...