nice to get a magazine and know who in your feed wrote the piece. good piece about how we’ve exported the war, so to speak reader.foreignaffairs.com/2025/08/19/t...
W/Henry Farrell, Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy (Holt 2023/Penguin); Georgetown; This is a private account.
8,231 followers 318 following 1,115 posts
view profile on Bluesky
nice to get a magazine and know who in your feed wrote the piece. good piece about how we’ve exported the war, so to speak reader.foreignaffairs.com/2025/08/19/t...
Denmark announced earlier Friday that it will be purchasing MBDA's SAMP/T system rather than the Patriot system.
"Asking us to build factories and invest then arresting and detaining. Is this what an ally does?" -- Protest sign at airport where South Korean workers, including engineers with work visas, were returned www.wsj.com/world/asia/c...
13/Initial data is in. DC occupation = sudden stop to economy. Foot traffic, bike share usage, hotels all see fall. Some up to 20%. Mass scale deterrence scares people from engaging in daily life. Businesses and economy take the hit. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/u...
The wonderful Catherine DeVries has a substack about writing and how all sorts of things are at work to destroy it. She interviews writers about what and how they write. I'm up this week: catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-...
It is wildly unusual for lower-court judges to so publicly express frustration with the Supreme Court’s *behavior* (versus, say, a confusing ruling in a specific case). But the number of *different* examples is completely unprecedented—and pretty powerful evidence that something is seriously wrong.
I needed this so bad.
For months, we had heard officials refer to the investment pledges. Now published, in draft form at least, by Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat, the MOU is our first opportunity to understand the architecture for foreign investments in the US. I try to answer some questions @worldtradelaw.bsky.social
Extraordinary report by Leo Lewis @urbandirt.bsky.social in FT, who has seen the Japan-US MOU on investment. It’s extortion basically. Japan commits to invest hundreds of billions in the US. Trump decides the investments. US keeps 90% of the profits.
12/ Internal military documents show that DC occupation also undermines troop morale as it spreads fear among citizens. “Mentions of Fatigue, confusion, and demoralization — ‘just gardening,’ unclear mission, wedge between citizens and the military.” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
1/Details of Japan investment deal could transform US politics and not in a good way. Early reports suggest it would create a half a trillion dollar slush fund for Trump. Could create major distortions in the economy and turn into a political weapon. www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...
2/ This is not state capitalism (technocratic targeting of investment to advance economic development). As @nytimes.com reports, "Some have privately likened the treatment to tactics used by the Mafia. “The whole thing strikes me as kind of a shakedown,” Greg Mankiw" www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...
1/Details of Japan investment deal could transform US politics and not in a good way. Early reports suggest it would create a half a trillion dollar slush fund for Trump. Could create major distortions in the economy and turn into a political weapon. www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...
“The documents reveal, too, with a rare candor in some cases, that military officials have been kept apprised that their mission is viewed by a segment of society as wasteful, counterproductive and a threat to long-standing precedent” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
I was going to cite this myself, but found Prof. Newman had beaten me to it. The intentionality of all of it - Russian interference and support, Federalist Society & Leonard Leo, McConnel, Project 2025 and so much more - becomes stark once one pays attention.
Shreveport, LA, the largest city in Speaker Mike Johnson's district, has a murder rate more than twice Chicago's, and a crime rate considerably higher than both the state and national average. And Johnson isn't calling for the military to invade it. One of many ways we know this isn't about crime.
Korea Herald editorial: "Three South Korean battery companies are constructing plants at 10 US locations. Their combined investments amount to $43 billion. If it remains difficult for employees to travel to the US ... investment plans will be frozen or put off." www.koreaherald.com/article/1057...
"Every administration is forced to build the plane as it flies, but this is the first one to pull random parts from the engine at 30,000 feet." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
"BIS has also lost at least 30 percent of the staff that work on export control policy and license applications to DOGE cuts and resignations ...Major administration policies such as the chip design software export controls were drafted without the involvement of BIS staff. "
11/ DC real estate market hit by Trump crackdown. www.axios.com/local/washin...
@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social episode is so powerful because of the realization that the Roberts Court is not allowing the authoritarian takeover to happen but willed it into existence. Given Klein’s penchant for measured analysis implications are stark and a must listen. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/o...
The New Yorker asked me “how bad” today’s Supreme Court ruling was. I boiled it down to one paragraph: link.newyorker.com/view/5bda429...
File under "Arbitrary rule is bad for business"
New Transatlantic Tremors: Security Guarantees for Ukraine, Nawrocki in DC, Mercosur Deal after 25 years? open.substack.com/pub/transatl...
Raid of Hyundai/LG battery plant huge threat to FDI in frontier tech. From batteries to chips, US doesn't have the skills. Companies like LG/TSMC bring home grown suppliers to US and over time this has potential to indigenize a supply chain. Raids kill the strategy. www.yahoo.com/news/article...
Lot of focus on how governments regulate digital services -- privacy/content/IP. But firms often play bigger role. New w/@gbeaumier.bsky.social @poppublicsphere.bsky.social we show how private regulation not only impacts public policy but expands platform power. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
¡¡VOLUME 23, ISSUE 3 IS NOW OUT!! www.cambridge.org/core/journal... www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Featuring work by: @natekelly.bsky.social, @janamorgan.bsky.social, @annkristinkolln.bsky.social, @felixlehmann.bsky.social, @feligsantos.bsky.social, @abenewman.bsky.social & ....,
Yes DC!
The crowd has no beginning and no end as it begins its march to the White House
With @dahlialithwick.bsky.social the growing—and possibly unprecedented—lower court revolt against the Supreme Court: slate.com/news-and-pol...
Check out the MASSIVE crowd in DC marching to the White House to protest the federal takeover of the city! #FreeDC!
The We Are All DC march to protest against Trump admin’s takeover of DC is currently heading toward the White House: Via @benjalvarez1.bsky.social
Exclusive: Bill Pulte accused Fed Governor Lisa Cook of fraud. His relatives filed housing claims similar to hers. Via Reuters
Manufacturing employment as share of non-farm employment since Trump came to office
"Among those detained were South Korean employees on business travel.... "The raid could raise concerns for South Korean companies that are sending personnel to the US and hiring locally." It comes weeks after Hyundai pledged $26 billion in US investments. Gift link ⬇️ www.wsj.com/us-news/u-s-...
The U.S. has lost 78k manufacturing jobs this year
I thought Lutnick's comments might signal the numbers were going to be bad. Guess that instinct was right U.S. economy added just 22,000 jobs in August. And post-revisions, we lost jobs in June for first time since the pandemic (Dec 2020)
Gauging the true state of Russia's economy is hard, but recent data all point in the same direction - for @foreignpolicy.com I outline how the civilian economy is in a recession, banks fear a financial crisis and oil revenues are not enough to plug the fiscal hole foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/04/r...
My latest article in @poppublicsphere.bsky.social is officially out and in open access. Together with @abenewman.bsky.social, we show how digital platforms govern in important public domains through their control of critical infrastructures. Check it out 👇 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
We are headed for a real crisis in the rule of law. Federal Judiciary starting to balk at Supreme Court use of shadow docket.
"Pentagon officials were still working Wednesday on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...
A suspected Ebola outbreak is occurring in DRC. This is bad at any time! But it’s particularly worrisome now when US capacity to detect and respond to deadly biothreats has been purposefully dismantled. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
US manufacturers and farmers squeezed by tariffs. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/b...
CBS should build into its budget a $16 million/month payment to the Trump administration
10/ And there we have it: Vichy DC. Bowser allows indefinite federal takeover. www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...
NEW: DC grand jurors reject more Justice Dept cases Former DOJ attorney: “Not only have I never heard of this happening, I've never heard of a prosecutor who's heard of this happening” www.cbsnews.com/news/d-c-gra...
FOX BUSINESS: “My goodness. $5 BILLION. Eye-popping numbers… crypto-friendly legislation coming from the president who is in turn cashing in on crypto. A conflict of interest.” Even Fox sees how insanely corrupt Trump’s crypto grift is. (H/T @ab21.bsky.social )
One can detect Trump’s “see no evil” policy in the State Department’s human rights reports on his authoritarian allies, eg El Salvador and Hungary. But the nonjudgmental approach shifts dramatically when it is describing democratic countries whose leaders are at odds with Trump. wapo.st/4nahJCH
"Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio has warned Donald Trump’s America is drifting into 1930s-style autocratic politics — and said other investors are too scared of the president to speak up." www.ft.com/content/b86b...
🧪 And House appropriators say: no cuts to NIH budget! House subcommittee version just came out (link below). Holds NIH flat at $48 billion. To be clear: this is far from over. But a good sign that science still matters across both sides of aisle. YOUR VOICE MATTERS!!
Republican governors have sent National Guard troops to Democratic-led Washington, D.C., even though cities in their states all have higher rates of violent crime than the nation’s capital. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/u...
professor @abenewman.bsky.social with 🧵 about DC occupation
* Trump Family Amasses $6 Billion Fortune After Crypto Launch @wsj.com
9/Partisan invasion and occupation of DC cover up for desperation in many home states which are left to fester. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/u...
Inside Trump world, expect this to be among biggest foreign policy failures. Not because India is working with China, but because most powerful personalistic regimes on planet met without him. He has been ostracized from the club. Erratic behavior likely response. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/w...
Inside Trump world, expect this to be among biggest foreign policy failures. Not because India is working with China, but because most powerful personalistic regimes on planet met without him. He has been ostracized from the club. Erratic behavior likely response. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/b...
I have an opinion piece in the New York Times today on how the labor movement has failed to step up to the moment in countering Trump, even as Trump unilaterally strips public sector workers of collective bargaining. Labor will die as a movement if this continues. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
The real evidence that something is up with Trump. His silence at the India-Russia-China bromance. This is the exact type of politics that he wants to be the center of and the images show his exclusion. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/w...
Half a year of Trumpian diplomacy on display. Where will we be after 4 years? edition.cnn.com/2025/09/01/w...
'Various participants described the outlook for US monetary policy as “horrible”, “chaos”, and a “disaster”.' on.ft.com/4n3d3yA
9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
🧵
8/DC crackdown does not hold up in court as government fails to get grand jury convictions. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
For folks who are Hungary-dooming, (a) Orban was genuinely popular, and (b) very far from a done deal, but "was" has been the operative adjective for some while - www.reuters.com/world/hungar...
Since I’ve lived in DC, two pedestrians have been killed on my block. High speed chases endanger all of us here in DC and MUST STOP: “Ten car chases. Six crashes. Park Police have new rules in Trump’s D.C.” www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
7/New extreme tactics of park police put citizens at risk. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
Time for a headline fix: Cowardice And given @dziblatt.bsky.social new in @foreignaffairs.com it will only end badly. on.ft.com/47ls0Yq The calculated silence of America’s business and finance leaders
Interesting that w/ Trump out of sight, news story around CDC developing like a traditional news cycle crisis. Press reports, opeds, elite reinforcement. Don’t let new distractions divert from stakes involved — our health and safety.
Thanks Zak!
Great discussion with @abenewman.bsky.social @himself.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Adding a parochial note here, but there were questions in Japan as to why Ishiba wasn't taking a more personalist/chummy approach to Trump like Abe had or like Modi was doing, and the reason is that a personalist approach doesn't work either because nothing "works" with Trump
For those not following, we are in a diplomatic crisis/ trade war with India because of Trumps braggadocious claims about ending wars and Trump-Modi ego war.
Two would be authoritarians have a falling out because Trumps wants vanity Nobel and Modi won't stan for him.
Where is world politics going? Back to great power politics/spheres of influence? Trump-Modi dispute signals something much more transformative ie how international affairs work when personalistic regimes sit at its center. We urgently need new models. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/u...
1/blockbuster decision on Trump tariffs. Regardless of what happens at the Supreme Court, stretching national security laws to their limit, Trump has put the cornerstone of US coercion at risk. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Remember St Louis has the highest homicide rate in the country. Three times that of Chicago. Where is governor Kehoe. www.newsweek.com/map-cities-h...
4/regardless of how Supreme Court lands, increasingly clear that courts want in on the action and that will gum up our response to real national security crises. michiganlawreview.org/journal/the-...
3/Administration after administration passed off the tools and built bureaucratic capacity. Trump stripped out the experts and turned coercion into an all purpose ratchet. now the courts have called him on it. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
2/For decades, US grew its economic security state out of national security law and courts deferred. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
1/blockbuster decision on Trump tariffs. Regardless of what happens at the Supreme Court, stretching national security laws to their limit, Trump has put the cornerstone of US coercion at risk. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
🧵
Big worrying scoop from the FT: Trump suggested deploying Chinese troops as peacekeepers in postwar Ukraine as part of a peace settlement with Russia, backing yet another idea floated by Vladimir Putin on.ft.com/4mZ4y7y
6/Just to reiterate, Moody's already sees DC slipping into a recession because of federal policy. qz.com/moodys-chief...
Just to reiterate, Moody's already sees DC slipping into a recession because of federal policy. qz.com/moodys-chief...
5/Fall in tourism, economic activity, employment will hit city revenue, which will create a cycle of cuts. The city is about to experience a crisis like COVID but not due to a random shock but a targeted intervention.
4/At the same time, DC facing highest unemployment in the nation due to Trump policies. www.axios.com/local/washin...
3/And families that fear going to school. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
2/Its not just tourism but restaurants that have seen business decline. www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-s...
1/DC occupation/Trump policies causing a sudden stop to regional economy. These policies are not creating a sense of safety but far reaching harm to families, workers, and the nation. www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-n...
EU readies new economic battle plan but leaves its old guns holstered My report on whether the EU's upcoming "economic security doctrine" risks bringing a knife to a gun fight www.scmp.com/news/china/d...
Glad that it resonated!
Worth a listen.
2/Here is the article in @foreignaffairs.com w/ @himself.bsky.social. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
1/Great conversation w/ Daniel Kurtz-Phelan @foreignaffairs.com on the weaponization of the world economy. As the economic weapon proliferations, is the US or the world ready? Not if you decapitate the expertise needed to navigate this new world. www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/ris...
WSJ Page One: @wsj.com www.wsj.com/business/ret...
Listen to the latest episode of “The Foreign Affairs Interview,” featuring @himself.bsky.social and @abenewman.bsky.social on how the United States has weaponized economic interdependence for decades—and why the tables are turning today: https://fam.ag/45VUghA
Caterpillar warns 2025 tariff headwind will be larger than previously anticipated — $500-600MM, vs. prior guidance of $400-500MM). It now expects FY adjusted operating margin to be near bottom of the range. (h/t Vital Knowledge) $CAT d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-00000182...
"extremism never triumphs on its own. It succeeds because others enable it—because of their ambition, because of their fear, or because they misjudge the dangers of small concessions." @dziblatt.bsky.social www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/hitl...
Lots to digest on Transatlantic Tremors this week: Attack on EU Digital Regulation, New Sanction Package in Planning and US Interference in Greenland open.substack.com/pub/transatl...
“.. democracy often erodes slowly at first .. But with each concession, autocrats become bolder.. and reversal becomes harder. Responses that, early on, can feel pragmatic—waiting it out, remaining silent, cutting a deal—only embolden ..” @dziblatt.bsky.social www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/hitl...
