I love reading through the ideas you're looking to commission, and there are several I'm eagerly waiting to read. It would be great if you could periodically update the old lists with links to the published pieces, and maybe share some insight into why the other ideas were abandoned
I would love to read about Stein-Hardenberg. But it's going to be a challenge. These were not limited administrative reforms such as Northcote-Trevelyan or Pendleton. It was full restructuring of the society, including abolition of serfdom, economic, political and military reforms, etc. More akin to Meiji restoration.
> How Emmanuel Macron undermined the French growth machine. Until the late 2010s, French physical growth was legendary. It built highways, high-speed rail, industrial areas, homes, and energy infrastructure at a pace to inspire envy. But since Macron reformed local property taxes in 2018, this growth machine seems to have disappeared. What happened? What did the reform change, why, and is there a path back?
A good old "Macron-bashing" will surely bring you a few readers, but I'm surprised of the link you infer between the specific policy change (removing the "taxe d'habitation" in particular, but I suspect you're interested in the general reduction of funding for the local administration ?) It surely had an impact on what towns and cities can build, but in this case, how would it affect "highways", "high speed rails", etc... which are rarely decided purely at a town or city level ?
For buildings in general, I suppose the "no net artificialization" did not help, and the lack of funding is good lead.
I hope someone will get to dive into the details, and find the right culprits in each case (though my intuition is that it started earlier than that, and might have to do with NIMBYism, region restructures, price of energy, etc....) Can't wait to read the article :)
I could write something about how the "great creation" of plastics is actually our worst nightmare and thus possibly -- and quite literally -- our worst creation ever, if you like?
In short, about how the enormous short-term benefits of plastics don't outweigh the infinite, ultimate costs of what happens when you introduce literal mountains of non-degrading substances into the biosphere, eg. mankind's catastrophically plummeting fertility rates. Plastics now constitute 0.5% of our brain mass.
What does the question mean? Are all the countries he mentions western? Is the writer western? Is the logic of the question fundamentally grounded in western societal something or other?
Moreover, what is the point of the discussion? Is there a point you're trying to make? Is it a problem to ask questions without mentioning Asia or Africa?
I studied in Bhutan for 6 months and can answer a few of those questions. Zoning codes strictly enforce traditional designs. It is also partially influenced on there being a small county and so there only a few people who build buildings so there are social pressures to conform. Bhutanese are generally very supportive of policies to protect their cultural heritage. There are some examples of buildings that have modernist style incorporated like the national bank.
Great list. I'm particularly hoping that you get a good response to the Korean question. I think South Korean growth is a fascinating question. Not just compared to the North but relative to both it's prior history and other countries (in the region and outside)
The credit question in Europe is interesting. Bank credit is definitely constrained due to the effect of risk weights on capital allocation. But there's a huge volume of other forms of credit, particularly short term, company-to-company credit (open account) or factored receivables. In fact, Europe is the heaviest user of factoring of any region by far with over of EUR 2.5tn annually.
I love reading through the ideas you're looking to commission, and there are several I'm eagerly waiting to read. It would be great if you could periodically update the old lists with links to the published pieces, and maybe share some insight into why the other ideas were abandoned
I would love to read about Stein-Hardenberg. But it's going to be a challenge. These were not limited administrative reforms such as Northcote-Trevelyan or Pendleton. It was full restructuring of the society, including abolition of serfdom, economic, political and military reforms, etc. More akin to Meiji restoration.
What kind of compensation do you offer for articles?
Also, Dutch cycling infrastructure was largely the result of a big bottom up campaign. Good article here:
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/531-de-fiets-is-niets/
> How Emmanuel Macron undermined the French growth machine. Until the late 2010s, French physical growth was legendary. It built highways, high-speed rail, industrial areas, homes, and energy infrastructure at a pace to inspire envy. But since Macron reformed local property taxes in 2018, this growth machine seems to have disappeared. What happened? What did the reform change, why, and is there a path back?
A good old "Macron-bashing" will surely bring you a few readers, but I'm surprised of the link you infer between the specific policy change (removing the "taxe d'habitation" in particular, but I suspect you're interested in the general reduction of funding for the local administration ?) It surely had an impact on what towns and cities can build, but in this case, how would it affect "highways", "high speed rails", etc... which are rarely decided purely at a town or city level ?
In particular, for highways, the timing does not seem obvious: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_projets_autoroutiers_en_France#Projets_abandonn%C3%A9s_ou_en_suspens
For buildings in general, I suppose the "no net artificialization" did not help, and the lack of funding is good lead.
I hope someone will get to dive into the details, and find the right culprits in each case (though my intuition is that it started earlier than that, and might have to do with NIMBYism, region restructures, price of energy, etc....) Can't wait to read the article :)
I could write something about how the "great creation" of plastics is actually our worst nightmare and thus possibly -- and quite literally -- our worst creation ever, if you like?
In short, about how the enormous short-term benefits of plastics don't outweigh the infinite, ultimate costs of what happens when you introduce literal mountains of non-degrading substances into the biosphere, eg. mankind's catastrophically plummeting fertility rates. Plastics now constitute 0.5% of our brain mass.
Then again, these articles are all over the place, eg. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/27/microplastics-found-every-human-placenta-tested-study-health-impact
The real question is whether you're interested in reality or not. Most people are not.
Have you managed to get LLMs to write anything passable on these subjects?
a great piece on Brazil's Embrapa, how it was set up and it's success: https://blog.karthiktadepalli.com/p/embrapa
The bit on inflation seems to be solely from a Western perspective. A lot of African nations have crazy inflation levels.
Most of these are not the most stable countries, though?
And one must imagine that the political change inflation causes is larger when it emerges from a period of stability than when it's somewhat endemic.
I do not think we need to cry western bias here.
Well noted. But is the bit on inflation solely from a Western perspective, yay or nay?
What does the question mean? Are all the countries he mentions western? Is the writer western? Is the logic of the question fundamentally grounded in western societal something or other?
Moreover, what is the point of the discussion? Is there a point you're trying to make? Is it a problem to ask questions without mentioning Asia or Africa?
I studied in Bhutan for 6 months and can answer a few of those questions. Zoning codes strictly enforce traditional designs. It is also partially influenced on there being a small county and so there only a few people who build buildings so there are social pressures to conform. Bhutanese are generally very supportive of policies to protect their cultural heritage. There are some examples of buildings that have modernist style incorporated like the national bank.
Is there a way of seeing which articles have been successfully pitched already (such that it’s not worth now spending the time to do so)?
Great list. I'm particularly hoping that you get a good response to the Korean question. I think South Korean growth is a fascinating question. Not just compared to the North but relative to both it's prior history and other countries (in the region and outside)
The credit question in Europe is interesting. Bank credit is definitely constrained due to the effect of risk weights on capital allocation. But there's a huge volume of other forms of credit, particularly short term, company-to-company credit (open account) or factored receivables. In fact, Europe is the heaviest user of factoring of any region by far with over of EUR 2.5tn annually.
This list is very enticing — I’m really looking forward to reading some of these future articles!
I’d also be curious to get an outside perspective on the Swiss industrial system and how it evolves compared to other industrial economies.
Great list. I would also love to see an article about whether Herasight, the embryo selection technology, should be made free.