What Caught My Eye (no. 2)
Some interesting articles that caught my eye this week
Hope you enjoyed the first “What Caught My Eye” last week. Here’s this week’s edition of articles—some I agree with; others I very much disagree with—that I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.
Ross Douthat, O Canada, Come Join Us, New York Times, January 12, 2025. An attempt to make a serious argument about why it is in Canada’s interest to join the United States. Something to think about.
Normal Pearlstein, Trump, the Public, and the Press, Columbia Journalism Review, January 6, 2025. One of the nation’s premier journalists takes a look at what it takes to cover Trump. The subtitle says it all: “The billionaire class has proved itself a poor steward of media. Journalists must redouble their efforts to expose the threat to democracy.”
Amir Tibon, Gaza Has Become Israel's 'Forever War' and Only Trump Can End It, Haaretz, January 12, 2025. One of my favorite Israeli journalists, whose family survived October 7 attack on his Kibbutz, reminds us that “forever wars only go on forever if the politicians with the power to stop them fail to do so.”
Lawrence Freedman, Coping with Trump, Comment is Freed Substack, January 14, 2025. Britain’s insightful strategists, who coauthors a must-read substack with his son Sam, looks back at how America’s allies dealt with Trump 1.0 in how they should deal with him in Trump 2.0.
Leslie Hook, Joe Leahy, and Wenjie Ding, The China commodities supercycle is over. Will there be another?, Financial Times, January 14, 2025 and Malcolm Moore, Has China reached peak oil? Financial Times, January 15, 2025. An insightful look at how China’s boom will impact commodity supply globally. One statistic that caught my eyer: From 2000 to 2020, China produced twice as much steel as the United States did in the entire 20th century!
Martin Wolf, Trump’s threat to US liberal democracy, Financial Times, January 14, 2025. The FT’s chief economics commentator often provides the most insightful views on democracy and politics. Here, he warns about the peril to US democracy, a fear I share.
Finally, in case you missed it here are links to articles I wrote, interviews I did, and my weekly roundup of world news.
The False Promise of A Gaza Ceasefire, January 16, 2025.
World Review: Biden’s Foreign Policy Record and What Trump Inherited, January 17, 2025.
Happy reading!