The Levelling

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by Michael O'sullivan


  6. See M. O’Sullivan and D. Skilling, “From Great Britain to Little England,” Project Syndicate, March 29, 2017; also M. O’Sullivan and D. Skilling, “Britain Needs to Find a New Role,” London Times, February 6, 2018.

  7. I set out some of the choices facing these nations in a Foreign Affairs article with David Skilling: M. O’Sullivan and D. Skilling, “The Lessons of Little States: Small Countries Show the Way Through Brexit,” Foreign Affairs, June 8, 2017, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ireland/2017-06-08/lessons-little-states.

  8. “Housing Should Be for Living In, Not for Speculation, Xi Says,” Bloomberg News, October 18, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/xi-renews-call-housing-should-be-for-living-in-not-speculation.

  9. The historian Nicholas Mansergh tracks India’s development in his book Independence Years: The Selected Indian and Commonwealth Papers of Nicholas Mansergh (Oxford University Press, 2000). And Shashi Taroor’s book Inglorious Empire is worth a read in this regard.

  10. I have developed many of these themes in articles coauthored with David Skilling. For example, see M. O’Sullivan and D. Skilling, “At the G20, Look Beyond the Usual Suspects,” Wall Street Journal, September 2, 2016; D. Skilling and M. O’Sullivan, “Small Nations—Not the G-20—Lead the Way,” Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2018, http://www.wsj.com/articles/small-nationsnot-the-g-20lead-the-way-1472771969; D. Skilling and M. O’Sullivan, “Small Countries Are the Canaries in the Coalmine of the World’s Economies,” Irish Times, March 17, 2015, http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/small-countries-are-the-canaries-in-the-coalmine-of-the-world-s-economies-1.2141952.

  11. The Economist Intelligence Unit, “Democracy Index 2017: Free Speech Under Attack,” January 31, 2018, www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?camp aignid=DemocracyIndex2017.

  12. For example, the small, northern European states have issued joint opinions on European economic reforms; see Ministry of Finance, “European Finance Ministers’ Joint Statement on the Development of the Economic and Monetary Union,” http://vm.fi/article/-/asset_publisher/valtiovarainministerien-yhteiskannanotto-euroopan-talous-ja-rahaliiton-kehittamisesta.

  13. Kim and Millen, Dying for Growth.

  14. C. Wyplosz, “When the IMF Evaluates the IMF,” VOX CEPR Policy Portal, February 17, 2017, http://voxeu.org/article/when-imf-evaluates-imf.

  15. “Recommendations by the Commission of Experts of the President of the General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System,” March 19, 2009, https://www.un.org/ga/president/63/letters/recommendation Experts200309.pdf.

  16. C. von Clausewitz, On War (Barnes and Noble, 2004), xv.

  17. See the Climate Science Special Report put together by bodies such as the Department of Energy and NASA: US Global Change Research Program, Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, vol. 1, edited by D. J. Wuebbles, D. W. Fahey, K. A. Hibbard, et al., 2017, https:// science2017.globalchange.gov/.

  18. M. Mildenberger, J. Marlon, P. Howe, and A. Leiserowitz, “The Spatial Distribution of Republican and Democratic Climate Opinions at State and Local Scales,” Climatic Change 145, nos. 3–4 (December 2017), https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-017-2103-0.

  19. K. C. Seto, S. Dhakal, et al., “Human Settlements, Infrastructure and Spatial Planning,” in AR5 Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, p. 927, https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg3/ipcc_wg3_ar5_chapter12.pdf; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Livestock a Major Threat to Environment,” November 29, 2006, FAONewsroom, http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html.

  20. M. Bloomberg and C. Pope, Climate of Hope (St. Martin’s Press, 2017).

  21. “A Digital Geneva Convention to Protect Cyberspace,” Microsoft Policy Papers, https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RW67QH.

  Chapter 10: The Hamilton Project

  1. Hamilton was also in vogue in US policy circles in the early 1990s, when the Hamilton Project was created by Robert Rubin and others; see http://www.hamiltonproject.org/.

  2. A. Hamilton, “The Continentalist, No. VI, [4 July 1782],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-03-02-0031.

  3. M. K. Curtis, “In Pursuit of Liberty: The Levellers and the American Bill of Rights,” 1991, Constitutional Commentary, 737, https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/concomm/737.

  4. Credit Suisse Research Institute, From Spring to Revival: Regime Changes and Economic Transformation, November 2011, p. 15, https://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/index.cfm?fileid=88E49EF1-83E8-EB92-9D5152FC5FD1076F.

  5. A European Minister of Economy and Finance, “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council and the European Central Bank,” European Commission, December 6, 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/com_823_0.pdf.

  6. The proceedings from the Euro at 20 conference are also worth a look; see “The Euro at 20,” IMF Conference, Dublin, Ireland, June 25–26, 2018, https://www.imf.org/en/News/Seminars/Conferences/2018/05/17/the-euro-at-20-dublin. Also see “The Five Presidents’ Report: Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union,” European Commission, June 22, 2015, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/five-presidents-report-completing-europes-economic-and-monetary-union_en.

  7. Maddison Historical Statistics, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, Historical National Accounts database, University of Groningen, https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/na/.

  8. “National Security Strategy of the United States of America,” Office of the President of the United States, December 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NSS-Final-12-18-2017-0905.pdf.

  9. E. Osnos, “Making China Great Again,” New Yorker, January 3, 2018; E. Wong, “A Chinese Empire Reborn,” New York Times, January 5, 2018.

  10. “Vice President Mike Pence’s Remarks on the Administration’s Policy towards China,” Hudson Institute, October 4, 2018, https://www.hudson.org/events/1610-vice-president-mike-pence-s-remarks-on-the-administration-s-policy-towards-china102018.

  11. Claessens and Kose, “Financial Crises.”

  12. P. Pan, “China Rules,” part 1, “The Land That Failed to Fail,” New York Times, November 18, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/18/world/asia/china-rules.html.

  13. Analysis drawn from data at World Bank Open Data site, https://data.worldbank.org/; Investment Company Institute, “Research and Statistics,” https:// www.ici.org/research/stats.

  14. “Foreign Observers Comment on Xi’s Report to CPC Congress,” China Daily, October 18, 2018, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/19thcpcnational congress/2017-10/18/content_33419856.htm.

  15. Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew.

  16. Analysis drawn from data at National Bureau of Statistics of China, http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/; Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, http://english.gov.cn/state_council/2014/09/09/content_281474986284128.htm.

  17. G. Knudsen, “Award Ceremony Speech,” December 10, 1906, The Nobel Prize, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1906/ceremony-speech/.

  18. J. S. Nye Jr., “The Kindleberger Trap,” Project Syndicate, January 9, 2017, https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-china-kindleberger-trap-by-joseph-s--nye-2017-01?barrier=accesspaylog.

  19. M. Abi-Habib, “How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough Up a Port,” New York Times, June 25, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-sri-lanka-port.html.

  20. Van Creveld, More on War; Grayling, War.

  21. See General Gerasimov’s essay: G. Valery, “The Value of Science in Foresight,” Military Industrial Courier, February 26, 2013, https://www.vpk-news.ru/articles/14632; also H. Foy, “Valery Gerasimov, the General with a Doctrine for Russia,” Financial Times,
September 15, 2017, https://www.ft.com/content/7e14a438-989b-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b.

  22. The US Army Futures Command in Austin, Texas, is one of the areas of thought leadership in new aspects of warfare such as urban-based war.

  23. There are already several frameworks in existence to guide ethical work: UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (November 1997), UNESCO’s International Declaration on Human Genetic Data (October 2003), UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (October 2005), and the European Union’s Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine Concerning Genetic Testing for Health Purposes (November 2008).

  24. J. L. Yellen, “Labor Market Dynamics and Monetary Policy,” speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Symposium, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 22, 2014, https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/yellen20140822a.htm; D. Yagan, “Is the Great Recession Really Over? Longitudinal Evidence of Enduring Employment Impacts,” UC Berkley Working Paper, November 2016, https://eml.berkeley.edu/~yagan/GreatRecessionScars.pdf; G. D. Rudebusch and J. C. Williams, “A Wedge in the Dual Mandate: Monetary Policy and Long-Term Unemployment,” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper 2014-14, May 2014, http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/files/wp2014-14.pdf.

  INDEX

  Abenomics, 204

  accountability, 78, 79

  Africa, 229–230

  aging of population, 148

  Agreement of the People Twenty-First Century

  draft, 97–100

  and new entrants in politics, 103–104

  purpose, 101, 103

  “Agreements of the People”

  description, 13, 87

  first agreement, 87

  as inspiration, 4, 95

  as model for the future, 13–14, 96

  second and third agreements, 88, 89, 240

  Ahamed, Liaquat, 172

  airports, 212

  Albright, Madeleine, 64

  Aliber, Robert, 173

  Allegheny County (PA) Family Screening Tool (AFST), 46

  Allison, Graham, 224

  Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), 111

  Angell, Norman, 63

  anomie, 27, 147

  Appleby, Sir Humphrey (character), 133–134

  Arab Spring, 104, 108, 117–118

  Argentina, 61

  Ashton, Catherine, 236

  Asia

  debt and debt restructuring, 188, 202–203

  economy, 226–228

  financial approach, 202

  Quad and SCO, 244–245

  skyscrapers, 212

  wealth and expectations, 25

  See also specific countries

  Asian Tiger economies, 226–227

  Atlas Party (fictional), 124

  Australia, 217, 220

  Autor, David, 35

  Bagehot, Walter, 172

  Bancor, 265–266

  Bank of Japan, 177, 202, 203

  bankruptcies, 208–209

  banks. See central banks

  BBC, 219–220

  Berlin, Isaiah, 74

  Bernanke, Ben, 65, 175

  Bertelsmann Stiftung, 106

  Bhagwati, Jagdish, 171

  biometric program, 258

  biopoliticians idea, 128, 129–131

  birthrates and fertility, 50–51

  Bismarck, Otto von, 227

  “black swan” principle, 72

  Blair, Tony, 107

  Blinder, Alan, 108

  blockchain, 273

  Bloom, Nicholas, 143

  Bloomberg, Michael, 272

  Bloomberg Innovation Index, 260

  Bo Xilai, 231

  bodies (human), and inequalities, 48

  bond markets, 181–183

  Boston’s Big Dig, 150

  “Boy’s Weeklies” (Orwell), 246–247

  Brady, Nicholas, 190

  Brady Plan, 190–191

  Brat, David, 51

  Bretton Woods Conference, 265

  Brexit

  consequences for Britain, 244, 246, 248–251

  debate, 247–248

  and levelling, 246, 247–248

  post-Brexit scenarios for UK, 250–256

  “prophecy” of, 87

  significance, 247, 252

  Brown, Gordon, 107, 139–140

  Brunel, Isambard, 251

  Buffet, Warren, 167

  Buolamwini, Joy, 46

  Bush, George H. W., 138

  business cycle, 138–140, 142

  Cadbury, Adrian, 205

  Callaghan, Jim, 249

  Cantor, Eric, 51

  capital, and wealth inequality, 43–44

  Carrington, Lord, 127–128

  Carville, James, 181

  Case, Anne, 44

  Case, Steve, 129

  Castaneda, Jorge, 221

  central banks

  and bubbles, 173

  and crises, 172, 173

  and debt, 16–18, 174, 176–177, 189–190

  and financial crisis of 2008, 173–174, 175, 179

  forecasts, 68, 170

  future actions, 183–185

  history, 171–173

  in multipolar world, 266–267

  power and influence, 5, 168, 169–170, 171, 172–173, 179, 266–267

  as problem, 16

  and QE, 16–18, 174–179, 183, 190

  role and intervention, 170–171

  understanding of, 167–168, 170–171

  See also Federal Reserve System

  Charles I (King), 3, 81, 82, 91

  Chernow, Ron, 277

  Chidley, Katherine

  and change, 134

  and economic growth, 155–156

  learning of new role, 134–135, 164–165

  potential solutions, 149–151, 165

  reality of situation, 135–137, 148–149

  Chile, 118

  China

  central bank and house prices, 174

  Communist Party, 230–232

  consumer culture, 289, 290

  debt problem, 16, 186, 188, 192, 193–194, 198–199

  debt restructuring, 197–202

  domestic security, 232–233

  economy, 216, 227, 228–229, 232, 288, 289–290, 301

  financial services and system, 197, 291–292

  genetics and gene editing, 298

  and globalization, 216

  Hart and respect in relations, 256–257

  international influence, 294

  Levellers-type group, 232–233

  manufacturing, 34, 35

  military and navy, 292–293

  next recession, 76, 185–186, 198, 291

  as pole in multipolar world, 18–19, 222, 223–224, 279, 288–295

  power and influence, 6, 223–224, 229–230

  regional economics, 201

  rule of law, 294–295

  social stability and infrastructure, 290–292

  technology and Big Tech, 224, 231, 272–273

  as threat, 288–289

  trade and dispute with US, 33, 34–35, 216, 232

  transformation, 228–229

  wealth inequality, 42

  and Western business, 216–217

  Churchill, Winston, 7

  cities, 151, 270–272

  Citizens’ Assembly (Ireland), 110

  civic virtue and civic ethic, 152

  civil service, 133–134

  Clarke, George, 84

  Clarke, William, 84

  The Clash of Ideas (book), 73

  Clausewitz, Claus von, 267

  climate change, 9–10, 48–49, 268–272

  Colbert, Jean-Baptiste, and Colbertism, 227

  Commonwealth countries, 256–257

  communications, 49, 107

  Congressional Budget Office, 187

  constitutional democracy. See democracy

  constitutions, 280–282

  consumer culture, 289–290

  c
orporate governance, 203–205

  corruption and transparency, 262

  countries

  changes coming, 20

  economic growth and policy, 14–15

  first globalization, 60–61

  greatness and success, 153, 157

  inequality levels, 38–39, 40

  intangible infrastructure, 159–162

  microlevel and policy discovery, 163–164

  national development, 157–159

  next levelling, 77

  old order breakdown, 5–6

  rise and fall, 151, 152–156

  role in multipolar world, 18–19

  strength, 158–159, 162–165

  values and rights, 239

  wealth inequality, 42

  Crabtree, James, 43

  Crazy Rich Asians (film), 25

  crises

  and central banks, 172, 173

  and change, 104, 105–106

  and new ideas, 73

  next recession, 185–186

  politics and economics, 66, 104, 105–106

  and SDR bonds, 265–266

  See also financial crisis of 2008

  Cromwell, Oliver, 3, 81–82, 91, 94

  cryptocurrencies, 67–68

  culture, and soft power, 219–220

  currency

  Bancor, 265–266

  and Brexit, 248

  forecasting, 154–155

  and QE, 177

  rise and fall of nations, 153–154, 248

  US dollar, 154, 155, 226, 267

  Currie, Janet, 45

  cyberwarfare and cybersecurity, 264, 272, 274–275

  daily life, patterns, 50

  Dalio, Ray, 55

  Darling, Alistair, 199–200

  Davies, Jim, 42

  Dawes Plan, 191–192

  Deaton, Angus, 44, 45

  debt

  and central banks, 16–18, 174, 176–177, 189–190

  future international conference proposal, 17, 192–194, 201–202

  and IMF, 265–266

  Levellers as model, 97

  next levelling, 77, 304–305

  next recession, 185–186, 191, 192–193

  old debt, 186–187

  problem of debt and indebtedness, 16–18, 168, 186–190, 191, 205–206, 304–305

  reduction strategies, 188–190

  restructuring schemes in past, 190–192

  restructuring schemes of future, 194–202, 203

  and risks, 173–174, 184–185, 201, 205–207, 209

  solution for, 17, 184, 207–208

 

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