On GPS, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET:
First, Fareed gives his take on China's aggressive posture on the world stage under President Xi Jinping, as its "wolf warrior" diplomats issue combative statements and as Beijing levies trade restrictions in response to perceived slights.
"What is striking about China's strategy is that it has produced a series of 'own goals'—leading countries to adopt the very policies Beijing has long tried to stop," Fareed says. "And then there is its soft power, its image in the world," which China's aggression has decimated.
Citing the broad turn China has taken under Xi, including the centralization of power and reassertion of economic control, Fareed says that "it all brings to mind another period of centralized politics and aggressive foreign policy: the Mao era. That did not end so well for China."
Next: The strongman leader of a former Soviet republic scrambled a fighter jet—but the foe wasn't a hostile neighboring nation. Rather, it was a 26-year-old opposition journalist. Fareed asks The Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum and journalist and Atlantic Council fellow Hanna Liubakova what the Belarus plane incident means for dissidents and governments worldwide.
After that: How did the US, the world's wealthiest country, bungle the pandemic so badly? Fareed asks author Michael Lewis, whose new book "The Premonition: A Pandemic Story" tells part of that tale, exploring how the scientific community, local officials, and others reacted to early viral warnings.
As Memorial Day is celebrated across the US with hamburgers and hot dogs, Fareed asks New York Times columnist Ezra Klein why he thinks we should undertake a "moonshot for meatless meat."
Finally, Fareed examines a global baby bust and what it means for the world economy.
The Looming Battle Over Post-Pandemic Work For some, the pandemic has exposed how much we dislike our jobs, Joanne Lipman writes for Time, noting that some workers have reconsidered their careers entirely. But for most of the white-collar sector, companies and workers included, it has prompted questions about how much in-office time is really necessary.
"Multiple surveys suggest Americans are eager to work remotely at least part of the time—the ideal consensus seems to be coalescing around three days in the office and two days remote," Lipman writes. "Yet the hybrid model comes with its own complexities. If managers with families and commutes choose to work remotely, but younger employees are on site, the latter could lack opportunities for absorbing corporate culture or for being mentored. Hybrid work could also limit those serendipitous office interactions that lead to promotions and breakthrough ideas. Yet if it's done correctly, there's a chance to bring balance back into our lives, to a degree that we haven't seen at least since the widespread adoption of email and cell phones. Not just parents but all employees would be better off with more flexible time to recharge, exercise and, oh yeah, sleep."
Pointing to a recent comment by WeWork's CEO suggesting remote work is most appealing to the unambitious, Lipman notes—as Joshua Chaffin did recently at the Financial Times—that a struggle between bosses and workers may soon unfold. Is Biden's Protectionism All That Different From Trump's? After former President Donald Trump blew up trade deals and threatened tariffs, President Joe Biden has taken a softer tone, but at The Atlantic, Kori Schake writes that Biden's declared "foreign policy for the middle class" bears many of Trump's protectionist hallmarks. Biden has not rejoined the Trans-Pacific Partnership from which Trump withdrew, for instance, and like his predecessor, Biden has vowed to scrutinize any new trade agreements for their impact on working-class jobs. To Schake, both Biden and Trump share in a fallacy that the American middle class has been eroded by a loss of manufacturing jobs to less-expensive overseas labor—when in reality, Schake argues, automation by US companies is the culprit.
"[T]he administration is mistaken to imply that the traditional U.S. foreign-policy role wasn't already benefiting the American middle class" by providing global stability and reducing the chance that middle-class teenagers will be drafted into war, Shake argues. "Rather than dress up bad economics and class warfare as a return to a Norman Rockwell–esque Scranton, Pennsylvania, of Biden's youth, the administration ought to champion the ways American foreign policy creates an advantageous international order, because that genuinely is good for the middle class and the American worker, in addition to being good for others." AMLO: North America's Under-the-Radar Populist As populism has swept across the globe, the likes of former US President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have gotten most of the attention, The Economist writes in a new cover story—but left-leaning Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (or AMLO, as he is known), deserves more of it.
"Mr López Obrador divides Mexicans into two groups: 'the people', by which he means those who support him; and the elite, whom he denounces, often by name, as crooks and traitors who are to blame for all Mexico's problems," the magazine writes, noting López Obrador's proclivity for calling referenda on pet issues and then claiming popular support. "He has fond memories of the 1970s, when a government-owned oil monopoly spread largesse around his home state. He is trying to recreate something similar, by all but banning private investment in hydrocarbons and forcing the grid to buy power from state sources first, no matter how costly and filthy they are. He likes railways, so he is ploughing $7bn into a diesel-burning boondoggle in his home region. Frustrated with officials who fuss about rules and putting contracts out to tender, he enlists the army to build his railway, run ports and fight crime. In other countries, inviting the men with guns to handle huge sums of public money with scant supervision has proved catastrophic, as any Egyptian or Pakistani could warn him. But Mr López Obrador is notorious for not listening to advice. His catchphrase in cabinet meetings is 'Cállate!' (Shut up)."
AMLO warrants attention right now partly because Mexican elections on June 6—which will select national legislators, local officeholders, and nearly half of Mexico's governors—could determine his ability to seize the reins more fully before his term expires in 2024. |
