Marty Manley on economics, politics, technology, and culture

Archive for September, 2006

Political Entrepreneurs: Schwarzenegger, Lieberman, and Gingrich

Public political leadership freezes many people, which is why most politicians sound like jukeboxes with a small set of records they play again and again. As a result, there is little I admire more in political leaders than the ability to learn, grow, and change. It is a powerfully dynamic and complex world out there [...]

Green nuclear power?

Glenn Reynolds, aka da Blogfadda, makes a layman’s case for pebble bed nuclear reactors at TCS. His opening views echo mine exactly: Whether or not you believe that we’re in the midst of an episode of anthropogenic global warming, it seems to me that burning fossil fuels when there are alternatives is obviously a bad [...]

Tony Blair's Farewell Speech

Below, my excerpts from an extraordinary farewell speech given yesterday by Tony Blair to Britain’s Labour Party Congress. It will be remembered as one of his finest speeches ever and a powerful exit by the man who in 1997 became the youngest Prime Minister of Great Britain since Lord Liverpool in 1812 by ending eighteen [...]

The Wal-Mart Saliva Test

There used to be an easy way to detect enthusiastic Democrats who had spent a bit too much time breathing each other’s exhaust: just say anything favorable about George Bush. Even trivial statements work fine. Try "Do you know, that at age 60 he has the at-rest heart rate of a professional athlete because he [...]

Oriana Fallaci

The lioness is dead. She didn’t die as a teenage resistance fighter when, as a member of the Tuscan anti-fascist underground, she carried messages and explosives in Nazi Florence. She did not die at the execution wall in Mexico City in 1968, although she was shot and left for dead. She didn’t die reporting from [...]

6. Walling and Ducking

Beijing and Hong Kong, China Veterans of Beijing business travel early on coined a term for the experience of being received by Chinese hosts: "walling and ducking". Calvin was right when he told Hobbes that "verbing weirds language", but there is a good case for an exception here. We did our share of walling and [...]

5. The Ashtray of History

Beijing, China Outside of Tienamen and the national currency, Mao Zedong has now been reduced to a cultural relic. Mao ashtrays are the height of Beijing kitsch, available in the local flea markets. Mao statuary, posters, and Little Red Books are available as well, but these sell mainly to tourists. Vendor: "Get Little Red Book! [...]

4. Party On: The Evolution of Government in China

Beijing, China Urban development. Xintiandi is a famous upscale bar and restaurant scene in a revived Shanghai neighborhood. I ate a killer lunch there one rainy afternoon. Xintiandi was developed by Shui On Land, a high profile and innovative property developer whose CEO Vincent Lo shared his development vision at a dinner I attended in [...]

3. Soldiers and Soap Operas: Notes on moving around in China

Beijing, China Bikes. Some people pay instinctive attention to buildings; others notice sounds, hemlines, or textures. I always notice bikes. My kids tease me because I often notice the make and model of oncoming bicycles while driving. I clearly recall the black Flying Pigeons and Phoenix beasts that dominated Chinese cities and countryside in 1974. [...]

2. The New Mandarins: Lifestyles of the Rich and Communist

Beijing, China China today still claims to be a communist country but bears absolutely no resemblance to Marxism-Leninism, to Maoism, or to any other known flavor of communism (well-placed rumors even have the CCP discussing a name change. I’d be happy if they just took Mr. Genocide off of the currency). To be sure, China [...]

1. The Finger Factory

Shanghai, China By November of 1974, Shanghai was down and out. The Great Leap Forward with its backyard steel mills and mass starvation and the Cultural Revolution with its rejection of culture, breakup of schools and families, and utter disruption of remaining Chinese economic life had left the city shabby — a rock star after [...]

China, After 32 Years

I visited China for about 25 days in November of 1974. Nixon had opened the country with his visit to Mao in 1971, the US ping-pong team played in Beijing in 1972, but generally "Red China" was as closed to visitors during the reign of Mao as North Korea is today. My visit occurred during [...]

Democrats Suddenly Organize for Victory

Bill Smith at Tech Central Station got me laughing with his "Democrats Organize for Victory" column. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), flanked by former Senator Zell Miller (D-GA), Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and other Democratic leaders announced today that the long awaited Democrat plan for victory in the 2006 Congressional elections had [...]