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California Dreaming: How the West was Won by the US
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 The nineteenth century saw the United States aggressively expand its territories, fueled by the Manifest Destiny and the notion that American expansion was a divine purpose. In 1848, this philosophy culminated in the annexation of California, which transformed the American geopolitical landscape and solidified Anglo-American domination. However, California’s annexation was more than just geographical; it also signified a dramatic transformation in which Mexican-Americans were subjugated via systematic exclusion on legal, cultural, and political levels. This heritage informs current challenges of disenfranchisement and cultural repression in Latino communities across the United States, demonstrating how conquest strategies endure in present racial inequities (Perea, 2003; Montejano, 1987). More
The Astonishing Fact Revealed by the Market Economy
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 The great economist Friedrich Hayek, a Nobel laureate, devoted his entire life to proving that the spontaneous order of the market is superior to the central planning of the economy. In his book entitled The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (1988), he states that this is not an opinion, but an “astonishing fact”. More
The Merlion’s Roar: How the Brits Created Singapore, One of the Greatest City-States in the World
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 Singapore is a symbol of global prosperity, a city-state that dominates world trade with the highest standards of living, being one of the fastest industrializing and economically developing nations in South-East Asia. The modern origins of Singapore can be traced to an acquisition initiated in 1819 and concluded in 1824, when the British purchased the island from the Sultanate of Johor for what would now be considered a trivial amount for such a territory. Long before European colonization, the island had previously hosted the Kingdom of Singapura, or the lion city, while its earlier name, Temasek (possibly Sea Town), later became the name of the country’s sovereign wealth fund. This transaction established the groundwork for Singapore’s prosperity, transforming it from an obscure island into a vital economic centre. More
Between Solidarity and Self-Interest within the European Union: Critical Technologies, Power Struggles, and Backdoor Fragmentation
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 Industrial Revolutions (IR) have fundamentally revolved around advancements in information and communication technologies (IT&C), facilitating both global integration and connectivity. The power of steam not only moved goods but also transported people and ideas across borders (IR 1.0). This was followed by the rise of electricity, mass production, and the standardization of interchangeable parts (IR 2.0). The subsequent electronic era, marked by the proliferation of microprocessors, set the stage for the widespread diffusion of the internet (IR 3.0). Today, we witness the zenith of these transformations with the emergence of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cryptocurrencies, and the metaverse (IR 4.0). More
Cajun Enlargement: How the Louisiana Purchase Turned the US into a Superpower
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 The territory that would later become Louisiana boasts a rich and complex history, shaped by the ambitions of European powers vying for control of North America. Initially explored by the Spanish, it was the French who ultimately established settlements and incorporated the region into their sprawling North American colony, New France. This vast domain stretched from the icy reaches of Eastern Canada to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, encompassing an immense and diverse landscape. Yet, despite their formal claim, the French never fully colonized or controlled this expansive territory. Instead, their primary focus—along with that of the Spanish who followed—was on commercial exploitation, particularly the lucrative fur trade. Key settlements such as Baton Rouge and New Orleans emerged under French and Spanish rule, eventually becoming pivotal hubs for political and economic development. More
Technological and Institutional (Co)Evolutions, Revisited by (Political) Economists
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 Industrial Revolutions (IR) are more than just marches of technological and scientific advancement; they are strides of profound societal transformation that defy and reshape the very structures of political, economic, and social life. The forces of technological progress, economic development, and political maturation have historically collided, for instance, with those of tradition, heritage and conservation, placing the accommodating institutional settings under significant strain. In times of transformation, societies undergo veritable “stress tests” that demand realignments, rebounds and resilience. As technological innovation pushes the boundaries of possibility, social/political/economic institutions are forced to respond, either by embracing change or opposing it, resulting a dynamic interplay between progress and stability. These periods of transformation are not just of interest to historians or theorists in economics and other social sciences; they are crucial for everyone’s understanding of the future existential trajectories – micro, meso, macro, mondo. The study of Industrial Revolutions can be set as a needed inquiry into the future of humanity itself. The current episode, Industrial Revolution 4.0 – driven by artificial intelligence (AI) as its flagship –, has already raised common sense questions regarding what systems of production and governance, of social security and civic engagement will become commonplace. Notably, the relationship between Industrial Revolutions and socio-political-economic institutions is one of co-evolution. Technological breakthroughs often drive the restructuring of social, political, and economic systems (with their norms and habits), while these systems, in turn, influence how technology is adopted, regulated, and integrated into society. The interaction between institutions (immanently, stabilizing forces) and technologies (congenitally, disruptive) is simply… complex. More
The Mirage of the New American Expansionism
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 Donald Trump has spent the last weeks before the start of his new term as US President throwing populist proposals left and right related to renaming landforms, annexing Canada, America’s ownership of the Panama Canal, and annexing Greenland. I would add to this populist trend the unrealistic proposal for NATO members to allocate 5% of GDP to defense, which serves as a bargaining chip for an acceptable level. This article aims to analyze the proposal for Panama and Greenland and to emphasize that, regardless of how realistic the non-violent and unforced annexation of these territories is, Americans have a complex strategic and historical perspective on these regions. This is not another Trump idiosyncrasy, but another case of Trump saying out loud what a faction of the American elites is thinking. The annexation of Canada does not seem credible to me in terms of the costs it would entail and the impact on American politics, and therefore represents only an attempt to bully former Prime Minister Trudeau in order to promote an ascendant pro-American right compatible with Trump. Only Alberta, among the regions with secessionist movements, would fit culturally with the United States and would have a chance of being a state compatible with Republicans and Trump’s conservative populism in the context of the political calculations that have always accompanied the debates about accepting new states. More
Immediate and Ultimate Foreign Direct Investment
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 In 2023, for the 11 EU Member States that reported inward Ultimate Investing Economy (UIE) in Foreign Direct Investment positions, the top UIE was Germany, (12.1% of total value of UIE FDI positions of the 11 reporting countries), followed by the United States (11.9%). Romania is included in the reporting EU Member States, alongside Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Italy and Portugal, which reported inward UIE FDI positions to Eurostat. More
Sovereigntists, Europeanists, and the Forgotten
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 In Romanian politics, where party lines blur as frequently as electoral promises, the stage for the upcoming elections presents an all-too-familiar tableau. Sovereigntists and Europeanists jostle for dominance, their rhetoric bold but their substance often lacking. Beneath their self-ascribed labels lies a muddled political landscape—a reflection of a society oscillating between the pull of transformation and the weight of inertia. More
Revolt of the Disdained: America’s 2016 Presidential Election
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 The 2016 presidential election hinged on the return of overlooked or marginalized middle-class and working-class Democrats and independents – many of whom had earlier supported Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan – to reinvigorate traditional patriotism and help form a new “populist-conservative fusion in rural and industrial areas” within the Republican party. Eight years later, following his successful reelection, Donald Trump’s political fortunes still rest to a considerable degree on his ability to secure broad public support while maintaining the loyalty of his original coalition of the disdained.This article is drawn from “Revolt of the Disdained: America’s 2016 Presidential Election,” The Western Australian Jurist, 9 (2018). https://walta.net.au/wajurist/vol9/revolt-of-the-disdained-americas-2016-presidential-election/.An 2020 update of the original conclusion was published as “Revolt of the Disdained: Sovereignty or Submission,” The Market for Ideas, 23 (May-June 2020). https://www.themarketforideas.com/revolt-of-the-disdained-sovereignty-or-submission-a589/. More
The Anatomy of a Media Lynching
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 This article analyses organizational aspects of media/cyber lynching, especially when performed in the yellow (sensationalist) press and passionate parts of the Internet community. Media and cyber lynching can be defined as extremely aggressive, unjustified, untrue verbal attacks, insults and discrediting in the media. One good book says: “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice”. However, we often do, maybe because we scroll brainrot media more than we read books. I try to add a drop in the ocean of medicines that our sick societies desperately need, so we might cure them without the accompanying evils of revolution. More
The Most Serene DOGE
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 The President-Elect of the United States, Donald J. Trump, has begotten an inquisitorially-minded anti-waste institution dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The bicephalous institution (an initial red flag when it comes to institutions everywhere) is jointly run by noted tech giant Elon Musk (worth 330 billion dollars or thereabouts) and the pharma entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (a mere 330 times “poorer”). The department will not be an actual government body, which presumably would require Congressional complicity in downsizing the leviathan it helped create. DOGE will be a sort of outside consultant specializing in “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies” (Trump dixit). Presented as a veritable “Manhattan project for our times”, the nascent body is born under a feeble star sign (since the President relies on bipartisan support from Congress, not just a pen, no matter what Obama claimed back in the day), while also being coupled with unrealistic and exaggerated claims of two trillion dollars in yearly savings, which is a third of all federal expenditures outside those of interest on debt. More