Modern Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism spreads when people give up—when institutions crumble, when watchdogs stay silent, when citizens look away. But that’s not the whole story. Because even now, in the midst of a coordinated effort to concentrate power and dismantle democratic norms, some people, some systems, and some truths are holding
Pax Americana
Trade used to be a wonky subject. It lived in white papers, congressional committees, and business schools. It was the language of economists—not campaign trail slogans. But sometime in the 2000s, all that changed. Because for millions of American workers, the promise of Pax Americana—that global trade would
Modern Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism doesn’t emerge from a vacuum. It’s not chaos—it’s strategy. Whether it’s Orbán in Hungary, Erdoğan in Turkey, Modi in India, or Trump in the United States, the pattern is shockingly consistent. These regimes don’t all look the same, but they follow a shared
Pax Americana
By the early 2000s, the U.S. had built a global trade system that promised peace and prosperity. But back home, in factory towns and rural communities, that prosperity was falling apart. Automation was reshaping industries. Trade was hollowing out entire regions. And the people who lost their jobs weren’
Modern Authoritarianism
The United States doesn’t look like Hungary. Or Turkey. Or India. We have a different history, a different constitution, and stronger institutions—at least, we used to. But modern authoritarianism is adaptable. It doesn’t require tanks or crownings. It works within the system—until it breaks the system.
Pax Americana
Yesterday, we explored how automation quietly eroded manufacturing jobs over decades. Today, we turn to something faster, sharper, and far more sudden—a shock that hit American workers and communities like a freight train: Trade liberalization with China. While automation was a slow tide, the China Shock was a tsunami—
Current Events
Why Trump’s New Executive Order Demands Our Attention On April 28, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled "Strengthening and Unleashing America's Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens." At first glance, the order frames itself as a straightforward effort to
Modern Authoritarianism
Modern authoritarianism doesn’t rise in secret. It happens in plain sight. Democracies across the globe have voted themselves into crisis—choosing strongmen who promise to restore pride, clean up corruption, or defend tradition. What follows is a pattern: leaders consolidate power, weaken oversight, attack critics, and change the rules
Pax Americana
In the story of America’s vanishing factory jobs, trade usually gets the headlines. It’s easy to blame a closed plant on a company moving production overseas. But there’s another story—quieter, slower, and harder to point at. It didn’t happen with a bang, but with a
Modern Authoritarianism
You don’t wake up one morning to find yourself in a dictatorship. That’s the oldest myth in the book. In the modern world, authoritarianism doesn’t kick down the front door. It slips in quietly—through elections, headlines, executive orders, and court decisions. It looks like patriotism. It
Pax Americana
At the dawn of the 21st century, America was still the world’s largest economy, and its factory towns were still humming—sort of. Steel was still forged. Cars were still built. Goods were still stamped “Made in the USA.” Then, seemingly overnight, it all began to vanish. Since the
Pax Americana
One of the big promises of Pax Americana was that free trade would keep the peace. This idea, often called liberal peace theory, says that countries tied together by economic interdependence are less likely to go to war. Why? Because war is bad for business—and countries with shared markets,