Commentary on why China’s political system works (and liberal-democracy is failing), US trading short term politically motived cuts for smarter long term entitlement cuts, Nordic entrepreneurial energy, parts of the world are getting better for animals and bad diet.

This really is the other side of the debate.

Foreign Affairs -- The Life of the Party: The Post-Democratic Future Begins in China
In the next decade, China will continue to rise, not fade. Its leaders will consolidate the one-party model and, in the process, challenge the West’s smug certainty about political development and the inevitable march toward electoral democracy.

Related.

New York Times -- In China, a Vast Chasm Between the Rich and the Rest
The passing coal miners in remote Shaanxi Province took one look at our marooned Audi and walked on, leaving us stuck on the sleet-covered mountain road.

 

Financial Times -- Inside China's Inequity

Backwards.

New Yorker -- U.S. Fiscal Policy is Upside Down
Reading through the new budget outlook from the Congressional Budget Office, which was released on Tuesday, three figures made the biggest impression on me: 1.4 per cent, 2.4 per cent, and 76 per cent.

 

CBO Budget Outlook 

Angry birds and more.

Economist -- If in doubt, innovate
The Nordic region is becoming a hothouse of entrepreneurship.

Do no harm.

Project Syndicate – A New Year of Hope For Animals
The moral progress of a society, it has often been said, can be judged by how it treats its weakest members.

Bad diet.

National Post -- Poor diet on native reserves blamed for higher rate of severely overweight babies
First Nations mothers face a dramatically higher risk of giving birth to severely overweight babies than non-native Canadians, suggests a new study that sheds an unusual light on the health problems that plague many aboriginal communities.