The Essays
Europe Actually is One Country
No borders and the same currency, what more proof do you need?
Europe is Going to Sh*t
Europe cannot stay united without the United States.
If I visit America will I get shot?
Why are guns so prevalent in America and so uncommon everywhere else?
Argentina is always looking away
Argentina is the only country in the world to have successfully transitioned from developed economy to developing economy. Will the chainsaw-wielding man fix it?
To Infinity and Beyond
Britain has a new Prime Minister. Will Andy Burnham be able to stop the revolving door of PMs? Or has he just moved that door to Manchester?
Everyone Crosses at Once
In Boston every car stops and the whole intersection becomes yours. It is how London works, and almost nowhere else in America does. New England really is England, down to the…
America Doesn't Exist in the World
America is in a culture war with Australia. And nobody told the Americans.
Do trash cans actually make cities cleaner?
Surprisingly, the data says no
Ten surprises from Mexico City
Americans don’t know a lot about a country they love to talk about.
Citizen, Asterisk
An army recruitment sign in Mexico City said you had to be Mexican by birth to enlist. That sent me into the surprisingly particular world of how Mexico decides who is Mexican,…
Does Mexico love China?
I landed in Mexico City and a stranger told me to download a Chinese app. Turns out the whole country already did.
Will we make it in time?
Everyone is racing to get their AI slop product to market. Will you be done with yours before the window closes?
Do whatever you want
American individualism was once bounded by genuine community obligation. It has shed that obligation and kept the freedom. What remains is something the tradition's founders would…
The hypocrisy that is not hypocrisy
Americans hold their ideals sincerely and accept, without much distress, that the country falls short of them. Understanding why it works the way it does is the beginning of…
How to negotiate with Trump
The countries getting the best outcomes from Mr Trump are not the ones being most accommodating. The pattern is visible and consistent. Most Western governments are still not…
Someone needed to say it
Tony Blair is largely right about Labour's political crisis, wrong about America, and written from a distance from ordinary British life that he does not seem to notice. It still…
A competitor that has not noticed the consequences of winning
American capitalism sets the terms of global economic competition. The terms are unsustainable. The rest of the world cannot change them without America changing first.
Which country does Goldman Sachs work for?
Empires do not collapse suddenly. They fade, across decades, in ways that are legible only in retrospect. What will American corporations will do when the fading becomes…
The obligation J.P. Morgan understood
The Chinese government was not afraid of Jack Ma. It felt wronged. That distinction matters more than it might seem for understanding what the state is entitled to demand from its…
Playing by the rules
AI did not break higher education. Grade inflation, credential obsession, and decades of institutional cowardice did that. The students using AI to navigate the result are not the…