Trumpian TikTok Forced sales are the wrong way to deal with Chinese tech

America needs to sort out its own data-privacy regime

摘录：

• With growing popularity has come growing scrutiny, as Sino-American tensions spread from trade to tech, and a barrage of invective from President Donald Trump.
• Touted as vital to protect Americans’ data, the crackdown is in fact a depressing example of jingoistic opportunism, more likely to chill investment in America and stoke Chinese nationalism.
• The data threat from China is real. But nationalist whack-a-mole, backed up with knee-jerk threats of expropriation, is no way to respond.
• cfius probes need to conclude more promptly; taking two years to start investigating the Musical.ly deal practically guaranteed a chaotic unwinding. And the committee’s political independence also needs bolstering.
• The tension between maintaining global trade and rightful mistrust of the Chinese government is inevitable. Digital technologies, whose connected nature opens up all kinds of hypothetical meddling, are particularly tricky. But rushed asset sales at the barrel of a gun are not the answer. America needs a response that is less arbitrary and counter-productive.■

知识点：

1. Sino-American tensions – 中美关系紧张
2. Jingoism vs Nationalism vs Patriotism – Jingoism is excessive patriotism or aggressive nationalism especially with regards to foreign policy.
3. whack-a-mole – 打地鼠 As soon as you fix one, another appears.
4. knee-jerk – 膝跳反应，想都不用想的
5. expropriation – the act of taking away money or property
6. chaotic unwinding – unwind the chaos 拨乱反正
7. bolster – support or strengthen
8. meddling – intrusive or unwarranted interference.
9. barrel of a gun – A barrel is a part of a gun. It is a long metal tube that the bullet or projectile goes through after it is fired.

总结：

标题就很明显了，经济学人这篇文章并没有赞扬特朗普打压抖音和微信的做法。站在美国的角度，也不是说不能理解，毕竟中国从来没有为Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat等等开放过任何机会。然而，一个变得越来越像中国的美国，会是一种好的出路吗？和编辑一样，我不认为美国选择了正确的方式。更可悲的是，目前的美国，越来越远离了他们自己在历史上最重要的，属于他们的优势，那就是所谓的自由民主平等立法等等。硬来，不是这个时代最好的解决问题的办法。毕竟最后也是杀敌一千，自损八百。

A bigger dose The world is spending nowhere near enough on a coronavirus vaccine

Far better to spend far too much

摘录：

• That may seem deliberately and needlessly lavish. Yet even boosting vaccine funding tenfold to $100bn or more, in line with the most ambitious proposals, pales in comparison with the $7trn which governments across the world have spent or pledged since the pandemic began in order to preserve incomes and jobs.
• The idea of deliberately overproducing something does not sit easily with politicians, especially in a world where there are so many claims on public funds. Faced with a large manufacturing capacity that turns out to be useless, politicians risk being accused of having wasted money—as the British government was when the emergency hospitals it had built early in the pandemic were not needed. Yet politicians must be rational. You buy insurance before you know what will happen, not after.

知识点：

1. pale in comparison with… – 相形见绌
2. sit with someone – to be considered by someone

总结：

这篇文章最后一段总结的非常棒。疫苗不能像鸡蛋放在一个篮子里，不能因为怕前期投入的浪费，就坐等某一个疫苗的成功，全部指望放在一个篮子里，只投钱给这个篮子。疫苗不是计算投入产出，划算得话在做。疫苗是不论怎样，必须做。而且必须大量投入资金，保证有很多后备选择。不是看到眼前利益了，再花钱。而是像买保险，你是买了保险以后，才看到会发生什么。买保险的时候，你什么也不知道。

The globalisation of gay rights As more gay people come out, tolerance will spread

Though in some countries to be open is still to risk death

摘录：

• It is easy to demonise the imaginary gay people depicted in a brimstone sermon; but much harder to fear the lesbian actuaries next door, or the gay dads cheering their daughter’s softball team. Pride parades, with their loud floats and copious flesh, are lots of fun. But learning that a sober-suited colleague happens to be gay is more likely to win over a conservative.

知识点：

1. brimstone sermon – Used as an adjective, fire-and-brimstone often refers to a style of Christian preaching that uses vivid descriptions of judgment and eternal damnation to encourage repentance especially popular during historical periods of Great Awakening.
2. pride parade – Pride parades (also known as pride marches, pride events, and pride festivals) are outdoor events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary and queer (LGBTQ) social and self acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Most pride events occur annually, and many take place around June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBTQ social movements. The parades seek to create community and honor the history of the movement.

总结：

其实正如文章里提到的，如果同性恋只是个离你遥远的泛社会问题，也许很多年轻人不加思考地投票支持这种行为。但是设想一下，如果你孩子的班主任是同性恋，你隔壁住的邻居是两个男人，你去上女厕所，遇见一个自认为是女人的男人…这么一想，一些人也会倾向保守派了。如果一个社会，完全往开放同性恋的方向发展，这当然是与神的意愿背道而驰。然而，在这个问题上，我也期待基督徒能找到一种更平衡、更智慧的方式。毕竟提起基督徒，如果总是立即联想到一副凶神恶煞，斥责同性恋们要下地狱、入硫磺火湖的神情，也是很糟糕。很多基督徒在网络上也是争吵不休，口无遮拦。与其怒火中烧文字暴力，最后变得只剩下对他人的指责谩骂，基督徒反而更应该多接触同性恋这个群体，尽可能帮助他们。总体来说，经济学人在同性恋问题上，基本所有文章的态度都是偏左的。

No way to run a country A big blast should lead to big change in Lebanon

It is past time to reform the broken state

摘录：

• What kind of government leaves a mountain of explosive chemicals lying around unsafely for the better part of a decade? The same kind that cannot agree on a budget for 11 years and that let its central bank run a Ponzi scheme to defend its unrealistic currency peg. The kind which is so deluded that it relies on aid, loans and remittances, spending far more than it collects in taxes. The kind that is controlled by an out-of-touch elite who fiddle and extort while the economy burns. In short, it is the government of Lebanon—and it is in desperate need of reform.
• Groups such as Hizbullah, a Shia militia-cum-political party, face few constraints. Foreign powers, such as Iran, which backs Hizbullah, and Saudi Arabia, which backs the Sunni elite, would surely try to scuttle reforms that diminished their clients or benefited their rivals.
• The government should do away with the power-sharing system sooner rather than later, and replace it with something more democratic and meritocratic. ■

知识点：

1. the better part of – most of
2. Ponzi scheme – a form of fraud in which belief in the success of a nonexistent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors. 庞氏骗局是对金融领域投资诈骗的称呼，是金字塔骗局（Pyramid scheme）的始祖。很多非法的传销集团就是用这一招聚敛钱财的，这种骗术是一个名叫查尔斯·庞兹的投机商人“发明”的。庞氏骗局在中国又称“拆东墙补西墙”“空手套白狼”。简言之就是利用新投资人的钱来向老投资者支付利息和短期回报，以制造赚钱的假象进而骗取更多的投资。
3. currency peg – 货币挂钩是指挂钩货币和被挂钩货币的关系是固定汇率关系。例如A国的货币有涨跌，挂钩A国的B国货币也随着比率涨跌。
4. fiddle and extort – fiddle: to act dishonestly in order to get something for yourself, or to change something dishonestly, especially to your advantage（尤指為個人利益而）篡改伪造瞎搞。fiddle作名词是小提琴的意思。extort: 敲诈勒索强求
5. Hizbullah – 真主党是1982年伊朗资助成立的什叶派伊斯兰政治和军事组织，成立宗旨為是消灭以色列，把西方势力赶出黎巴嫩。現今是黎巴嫩主要的反對派政党。除武装活动外，该党还从事一系列社会活动，如开办孤儿院、兴办学校、兴建文化中心、经营诊所和建筑公司等。該組織在黎巴嫩屬合法政黨，並在國會取得議席。另一方面，由於爭議甚多，目前，美国、英国、澳大利亚、欧盟、加拿大、阿拉伯国家联盟、海湾阿拉伯国家合作委员会、德国皆把真主党列为恐怖组织。真主党是阿拉伯语“Hizballah”的意译，“Hizba”原意为“党派、群体”。
6. Shia vs Sunni – 伊斯兰教在四大哈里发时，因内部发生了分裂而产生了什叶派和逊尼派两大派，前者居于少数，称为伊玛目派或被称为非正统派，后者居于多数，称为正统派或哈里发派。在这两大派中，各分化出若干支派，各支派之间，门户之见也很深，对所在地域的政治、经济关系都有很大影响。
7. do away with – to get rid of something or stop using something 废除
8. meritocracy – a social system, society, or organization in which people have power because of their abilities, not because of their money or social position 精英领导体制；精英管理的社会

总结：

其实阿拉伯世界的社会发展，可以说与他们的宗教信仰息息相关。每一个宗教，都曾经在历史上发生过分裂，有的甚至可以说是决裂。然而，反观基督教新教、天主教和东正教的关系，远远好过穆斯林里面水深火热的什叶派和逊尼派之争。黎巴嫩的经济问题与社会动荡，一方面归咎于领导层的无能和腐败，另一方面也是被根深蒂固的宗教从源头拖累。今天看到新闻，黎巴嫩政府已经全体离职。眼见中东永无安宁的局面，美国两党之争的龌龊，也发觉中国的安定毕竟还是难能可贵。宗教的缺席，政权的专制，却也是避免了损害国家利益的结党营私，在很多事情上都保障了效率。

经济学人在评论亚洲、尤其是中东的问题上，也总是选择性忽略西方势力，如英美对阿拉伯世界的干扰了，也许说骚扰更加贴切。毕竟是一本英国期刊。

The absent student Covid-19 will be painful for universities, but also bring change

They need to rethink how and what they teach

摘录：

• In an age when politics divides along educational lines, universities struggle to persuade some politicians of their merit. President Donald Trump attacks them for “Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education”. Some 59% of Republican voters have a negative view of colleges; just 18% of Democrats do.
• Universities are rightly proud of their centuries-old traditions, but their ancient pedigrees have too often been used as an excuse for resisting change. If covid-19 shakes them out of their complacency, some good may yet come from this disaster. ■

知识点：

1. Indoctrination – 指通过强制手段强行灌输思想、态度、认知策略或专业方法（见学说）的过程。
2. complacency – 自满

总结：

对于共和党对高等教育的态度还是挺吃惊的，居然有59%的共和党人对大学教育持负面意见。也难怪Ivy联校都是左派。不是说政客不能动教育这一块，但最好不要。美国也最好早一点意识到国际学生为他们的教育贡献了多少银子。切断国际留学生，肯定会大幅度影响到大学收入，继而影响到科研经费，继而动摇国家之本，重中之重的教育。网课能不能取代传统的教育模式？当然，疫情的冲击，是会催生出一些原来没有的火花，大学教育的某些领域和方式的确需要改革。然而，经济学人的态度不免有些过于乐观了。百年的传统，不是只催生出大学的骄傲自满，也是实力的基石，历史的选择，造就了今天大学的地位。不是改革都是百利无一害，尤其是针对教育问题。

When the facts change Economics sometimes changes its mind

The science may be dismal but it is flexible, too

摘录：

• A survey by the American Economic Association (aea) found that only 31% of economists under the age of 44 felt valued within the discipline.
• Over the past decade or two, the profession has become more relaxed about minimum wages, inflation and public debt; less relaxed about monopoly power; less enamoured of flexible exchange rates; and more open to deep, institutional explanations of wealth and poverty.
• New facts are more compelling. The persistence of low interest rates despite high public debt has left an impression, as has the pre-pandemic combination of low inflation and low unemployment. The dollar’s rally in the global financial crisis showcased its peculiar role in the international financial system, as have various emerging-market tantrums since. Fresh evidence also matters in microeconomics. New Jersey’s decision to raise its wage floor in 1992 by more than neighbouring states (despite tipping into a recession) provided the natural experiment required to change economists’ minds about minimum wages.
• To convert economists to your cause, it is not enough to give them something new to believe. You must also offer them something fruitful to do. Appeal to their hands as well as their heads. Economists will jump on a revolution that gives them new toys or techniques to play with. This may explain why they have become more enthusiastic about institutional explanations of the wealth and poverty of nations. They cannot rerun history or sprinkle institutions randomly across countries to test their long-term effects. But they have found ingenious proxies for this kind of random variation. Economists, like many others, relish the chance to display their cleverness.
• It is nonetheless striking that, in several of the areas covered by our series, vital work was done by economists who were in their 30s at the time (although all of them were already at elite institutions). According to the aea’s survey, only 5% of economists aged under 44 feel they have a great deal of power within the discipline. But the young may have one power denied to their elders: the freedom to imagine a future economics, unencumbered by too heavy an intellectual stake in its past.

知识点：

1. enamoured of – 倾心于
2. tantrum – 一般在经济学里作为恐慌的意思，比如taper tantrum是紧缩恐慌的意思，2013年宽松货币政策被宣布结束，投资者大批从新兴市场中退出。
3. unencumbered by – 不受…阻碍

总结：

年轻的经济学家越来越没有影响力。作者指出新的经济学观点并不能很大程度上改变经济学家的思维，的确是这样，理论经济学的很多发现可能过了几十年，才能被印证，和被主流接受。那么新出现的经济现象呢？比如低利率和高负债的共存，低通胀和低失业率的共存，某些州对最低工资进行的一些实验等等，也许会更吸引经济学家去研究。经济学家和其他科学家一样，也喜欢展示自己的智商。研究当然要往新的、有趣的、能实现自己价值的方向发展。数据科学和人工智能的发展，我觉得在未来，也许一些本来只能终止于理论探索的长期经济模型，被模拟实现的可能性会越来越大。经济学家也可能面临被新时代重新定义。