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I'll see your assemblyman and raise you three consecutive speakers of the house from my proud home state. But still, these guys are in the minor leagues--tens of thousands of dollars. We have much to learn from our "friends" about how to engage in graft on the order of magnitude of tens or...

The dirty secret of the US is that it is a business-oriented country. Calvin Coolidge famously said, "the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world." That is why, despite our ideological...

I don't deny that the US has its own problems with corruption, but we do have an independent judiciary that has a fairly good record of prosecuting criminals. The reason for the American fascination with corruption in Russia and China is the sheer scale--I can't think of an American billionaire...

In a certain sense, this crisis presents a great opportunity for Russia to restructure and diversify its economy. Russia has already tried the easy solution (gas deal with China), but since that will not compensate for the loss of trade with Europe due to the Crimea sanctions, it needs its...

Certainly, that was just my snarky comment mocking those on PDF (including Russian and Chinese nationalists) who believe American only acts out of evil intent, but their own countries only act out of noble intent. I agree with you, that all geopolitics is based on national interest.

@SvenSvensonov Excellent series, thank you. What a pleasure it is to read long-form investigative journalism, which is all too rare these days. Some thoughts, though not necessarily related to each other except through the overall theme of corruption in Russia today: -When Russia interferes...

I've looked and looked, and have yet to find a scientific consensus, or even a majority opinion, that states that GMO is harmful to human health. That's why I call it superstition, because the opposition to GMO is yet to be founded on science. Perhaps science will prove that GMO is harmful at...

What do you think of the analysis of Vietnam's strategy so far (self-restraint, deference to China, and internationalization of the issue)? It seems like the deference to China cannot continue after the oil rig incident, and yet Vietnam isn't strong enough militarily to resist. At the same...

@Chinese-Dragon @Edison Chen @hans @Sanchez @Carlosa @Viet @Nihonjin1051 @SvenSvensonov I found this to be a thorough and compelling article about the struggle over the SCS. I would be curious to hear your feedback (or pushback, if that is the case). --- Vietnam, the US, and Japan in the...

I like the author's approach to analyzing the topic. If I may summarize his analysis, it will provide a helpful framework for the discussion. The "on the one hand... but on the other hand..." approach is a bit frustrating, but here are the views of the various schools of thought: Liberal...

The United States is more sophisticated and less bound by backward superstition, so with TPP, at the very least, we will be available as a market for your exports.

Sometimes British humor is just brilliant.

I wanted to follow up on my previous post to further reinforce the absurdity of the anti-GMO camp--it is driven by social values and geopolitics, not science or economics. Here's an article about the debate over GMO in China and the dilemma it creates, and it becomes clear that while GMO would...

To all PDF users: I appear to be a bit late to this realization, but the IMG tags work again, and images can be pasted directly into posts without using the upload/attach file method. In other words, this thread appears to be obsolete, as the method of posting images in use previously has been...

Another follow-up to the fallout from the oil price decline, providing a more comprehensive view. --- http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2014/11/25/em-oil-producers-risk-ratings-downgrade-on-low-crude-price/ EM oil producers risk ratings downgrade on low crude price James Kynge Author alerts |...

A follow up to illustrate this point, as well as the "South Korea is doomed" assertion. S Korea chaebol growth model hits limits - FT.com November 19, 2014 9:03 pm S Korea chaebol growth model hits limits Song Jung-a South Korea is good at overcoming short-term crises but the...

I'm not in a position to render a professional opinion, but I would find it surprising if the tail section of a helicopter contributed materially to the J-31 given that China already stole a substantial amount of technical data about the far more relevant F-35.

Thanks for posting this. It's an important issue to discuss, and I hope Vietnam is able to achieve success in its agriculture industry. Unfortunately, journalists cannot be trusted to explain the issue truthfully, and instead subordinate the discussion to their anti-GMO superstitions. Please...

No, he has it backwards. When Iran stops sponsoring Hezbollah and eliminates the Quds forces, normalization will be possible, not the reverse. Iran doesn't deserve trust, then verify. It must be verify, then trust. And no rapprochement is possible until Iran apologizes for the embassy...

No one will notice I'm gone, but @AUSTERLITZ provides unique value with his knowledge of military history, and his violation of the rule was for noble purposes--not to glorify death, but in fact to disabuse those who worship Nazism of their delusions. It was worth a shot. My respect for...