The Globalist, May 19, 2023: Fiona Wilson, Monocle’s Asia editor and Tokyo bureau chief, tells us about Japan’s aims ahead of the G7 meeting in Hiroshima; then Florida governor Ron DeSantis is expected to enter the 2024 presidential race, and we examine the state of Cambodian democracy ahead of the July elections.
Plus: the latest from the Venice Biennale with Monocle’s Nic Monisse, and Andrew Mueller’s analysis of the week.
Rising interest rates have left banks exposed. Time to fix the system—again
Only ten days ago you might have thought that the banks had been fixed after the nightmare of the financial crisis in 2007-09. Now it is clear that they still have the power to cause a heart-stopping scare. A ferocious run at Silicon Valley Bank on March 9th saw $42bn in deposits flee in a day. svb was just one of three American lenders to collapse in the space of a week.
Binyamin Netanyahu and a constitutional crisis
When Israel’s best and brightest are up in arms it is time to worry
By saying Ukraine is not a vital American interest, Ron DeSantis emboldens Vladimir Putin
March 6, 2023: A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, how to cure obesity, Ron DeSantis’s foreign policy doctrine (10:53) and why hype can help and hinder entrepreneurs (17:00).
Where once disagreements concerned differing interpretations of liberalism’s demands or balancing liberalism’s conflicting goals of freedom and equality, now populist movements on both the left and the right are challenging the legitimacy of liberalism itself.
The money behind Ron DeSantis’s populist façade
The war in Ethiopia and its crimes against civilians
Boomers Daily 