Ezra Klein: At The Newstand

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June 09, 2005

At The Newstand

If you get a chance, pick up the latest issue of the Atlantic and read through James Fallows' article on the coming economic crash. Its alarmist, sure, and its gimmick, a look back from 2016, ensures that everything is worst case and some of it a bit far-fetched (i.e, Venezuela is not going to shut down oil exports to America, and if we crashed China would probably be hurt worse), but it's also an enormously broad overview of all the spots where our economy is weak. Well worth the read, particularly the footnotes.

By the way, when did The Atlantic become so gimmicky? Retrospectives from the future, war games towards Iran, North Korea, and China, modern-day Tocquevilles...is reality really so low-stakes that they can't think of anything to say about it?

June 9, 2005 | Permalink

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Comments

Why do you think China would be hurt worse? A while back, Kash laid out a pretty convincing case that China would come out the winner if it decided to stage a little Beijing T-Note Party.

Posted by: Brad Plumer | Jun 9, 2005 4:51:44 PM

Could be a side effect of AM's recent reorganization. They need to find their DC sea legs!

Posted by: Kriston | Jun 9, 2005 5:02:11 PM

Because China's growth is only sustainable with exports. There's still massive unemployment, especially in the countryside, and you can't pay your workers nothing and try to sell them goods at the same time. If the US crashes, so does the rest of South East Asia (and probably Europe too), which makes up a large part of China's export market. I haven't read the article, but frankly I can't see how the article can be over-pessimistic. The global economy has been teetering on the edge for some time and is massively unbalanced. The energy crisis will probably be the straw that broke the camel's back. We (as in the world as a whole) will have to be enormously lucky to avoid a largest-in-a-generation crash in the next five to ten years.

Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Jun 9, 2005 6:37:44 PM

The Atlantic's such a weird magazine. Its front and back of the book (i.e. recurring features) are pretty right of center or overdeterminedly contrarian, while it's main feature articles, at least until this year, have been among the best work done by writers on the center-left, especially the work of James Fallows and William Lang-whatever. The staff has sharp people like Jonathan Rauch and Caitlin Flanigan who are unorthodox conservatives or liberals, but also unpromising self-promoters like Ross Douhat. I would be favorable to a mag that blended smart writers from both sides, but the Atlantic does such a bad job of it.

Posted by: Mike in CO | Jun 10, 2005 3:45:21 AM

Also, if you read the piece on North Korea--how fucking insane was the former Air Force general, currently an "expert" for Fox news? Was he auditioning for George C. Scott's role in a stage production of Dr. Strangelove?

Posted by: Mike in CO | Jun 10, 2005 3:47:55 AM

They got rid of Caitlin Flanagan -- thank GOD. I almost cancelled my subscription over the crap that woman wrote. Far as I know she's now afflicting readers of the New Yorker. For now, I tolerate the annoying P.J. O'Rourke so that I can continue to benefit from the Fallows/Langewiesche excellence and the always-informative book reviews.

Posted by: nolo | Jun 10, 2005 10:39:18 AM

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