"The world needs a new generation of policymakers who don’t hobnob with billionaire speculators and who understand workers’ concerns. Unfortunately, the change will not come smoothly."
Andy Xie
"At the root of America's economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America's political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world."
Jeffrey Sachs
"Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence. Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding. In a community where the primary concern is making money, one of the necessary rules is to live and let live. To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it. So the wise in Wall Street are nearly always silent. The foolish thus have the field to themselves. None rebukes them.
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right."
John Kenneth Galbraith
“Although I say that wisdom is better than strength, nevertheless the common wisdom is despised, and its words are not heard. A wise man speaking quietly is worth more than the shouts of a tyrant commanding fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinful man can destroy much that is good."
Ecclesiastes 9:16-18
"Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?"
John Page, To Thomas Jefferson
The world's leadership is heavy with hubris, to the point of gargantuan madness. And in all such cases, in its own time and its own way, change is coming— and hell may be coming with it.
In a way, it is already here. Evil walks among us. But so does love. And therein lies our hope.
Below is an excerpt from a recent essay from Andy Xie in the South China Morning Post. You may read it in its entirety here.
"The lack of external checks has led to rising internal imbalances in both countries. Since the end of the cold war, the US has been marred by surging inequality, while bubbles and ignorant hubris have come to occupy the central ground in China’s economic management and political thinking.
Financial speculation and corruption have become normalised around the world. The titanic rivalry between the world’s No 1 and No 2 economies will put all on their toes. Some of the most egregious trends could be reversed...
Bubbles bursting is a necessary condition to bring sense to all players. Policymakers have been paying too much attention to asset prices. One major factor is that they hang out with speculators at places like Davos. This is why, despite incredible economic growth since 1989, most people are discontent.
The world needs a new generation of policymakers who don’t hobnob with billionaire speculators and who understand workers’ concerns. Unfortunately, the change will not come smoothly. Political turmoil in the West is very much about this. A heavy price has to be paid to bring about the change.
The Sino-US rivalry is the main driving force to bring about the needed global change. The Beijing-Wall Street axis has been driving the global economy towards speculation and inequality.
In 2008, Beijing and Washington pumped in massive amounts of money to bail out speculators in the name of saving the economy and helping workers. The reality is that they used workers’ money to enrich parasites."
Andy Xie, Can US-China trade war rivalry reverse the worst economic trends in both countries?
