Key Insights:

* The global trade network is immensely valuable…

* Friendshoring is not deglobalization, but raher shift-globlization…

* Brad was stupid in 2005 in thinking “passing the baton of hegemony” constructively and progressively was a possibility…

* Countries have no gratitude, and only remember what is convenient…

* William James sought for “the moral equivalent of war” to mobilize civilizational energies for good and progress; and a Cold War certainly counts…

* As Zhou Enlai said on similar issues: “it is too soon to tell”…

* We both hope that America and China will soon be friends again—but the balloon freakout makes us pessimistic…

* Hexapodia!!

References:

* Sophia Ankel: China flew spy balloons over the US while Trump was president, but nobody realized until after he left office, reports say…

* Steve Clemons: 🟡 The red balloon…

* Damon Linker: America the Unserious…

* Noah Smith: China's industrial policy has mostly been a flop…

* Noah Smith: Three books about the technology wars…

* Noah Smith: Friend-shoring vs. "Buy American"…

* Noah Smith: You are now living through Cold War 2…

+, of course:

* Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep <https://archive.org/details/fireupondeep00ving_0/mode/1up>