Why is this near meaningless? In 2023, China mandated banks automatically refinance mortgages for homeowners. Vast majority of mortgage in China were refinanced within the past 12 months. I wrote about this and Tweeted about it. State media even released estimates of how much

Allow me my "old man yells at the clouds" rant about China analysis today though it applies to most areas. The current state of China analysis, and yes even by the "experts" is absolutely awful and there are a couple epistemological short comings that are driving me nuts. 1.

No matter how bad you think journalists are, they are in fact so much worse

So University California, Berkley is in Atlantic Coast Conference, Oklahoma is in the South East Conference, and the Big 10 has 18 members? This is what happens when you go woke and why you should never trust experts. California identifies as east coast and they can't do math

One of my kids from the other room where all three of them are gathered: We probably should have put in more mentos Me:

Be blessed this Sunday people

These slogans remind me of how Tsinghua duped its most destitute students “Go to the mountains, go to the islands, go where the people need you most.” “Go to the grassroots. Go where the motherland needs it most.” For years, I had sponsored “poorest students w excellent academic

Other than the base assumption that "the truly wealthy pay less a lower effective tax rate than the rest of us" being totally and provably false (see footnotes), the taxing unrealized capital gains is like taking a rocket launcher solution to a lady bug. There are much more

As we face rising authoritarianism, I believe it is important we stand firm for potentially unpopular principles. So as a free speech absolutist, let me emphasize I absolutely support everyone's right to speak in agreement with me

You mean the Joe Tsai that owns the Yale and UC San Diego China centers? That Joe Tsai?

I can't believe people are arguing over whether Churchill was the good guy. They literally named an entire cigar size after the man.

It's LITERALLY the FIRST amendment. Why any American can swear an oath to the constitution and then do this is beyond me. It is the very first damned amendment

This entire point can be summed up with one line from the song If I Were A Rich Man from the movie/play Fiddler on the Roof: When you're rich, they think you really know

So I have seen two cases of foreign influence operations in the past two days. I have thoughts. 1. No matter which side or group you plan on voting for, interest group you support, or identity you carry, that collection of people is absolutely not immune to foreign influence

Gee....if only you had been warned

you know I love the revisions The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised down by 61,000, from +179,000 to +118,000, and the change for July was revised down by 25,000, from +114,000 to +89,000. With these revisions, employment in June and July combined

This is true of the targets psychology but misses the broader point of CCP strategy and thinking. Think of how CCP manages security domestically they control and have people everywhere even for unimportant people and events. That's how they operate internationally. Think back to

I think the first thing Reagan would say to Max Boot is that having foreign agents advising the US government and working in US think tanks is a bad idea.

This actually is an interesting piece by Max Boot, whose wife is literally charged with being a foreign agent but let's leave the author arguing America should not pursue muscular self interest while his wife is on the payroll of a foreign government. Let's spend a moment to look