Why is the greenback still the world’s apex currency? … How can you succeed in the Chinese Communist Party? … & Will protectionism save the American auto industry? … New works, Week XXXII.
Paul Blustein on the institutional advantages that keep the U.S. dollar resilient despite ongoing expectations that it’ll collapse. … Lei Liu et al. on the “tournament-like competition” that drives cadre promotion in China. … & Adam Ozimek on why protectionism won't revive manufacturing in America.
+ Netflix’s new documentary on why the fire in London’s Grenfell Tower was so lethal. … Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen on what a psychopath actually is. … Peter Conti-Brown and Sean H. Vanatta on how the U.S. federal government is managing financial risk. … Victor Kossakovsky’s new film on why there are so many ugly buildings. … & John Cassidy on why global capitalism just keeps on going.
Music from Sofia Kourtesis, Black Sites, and VannDa. … & Who is Master Kong Nay?
Welcome to new works, The Signal’s expanded weekly curation of books, documentaries, music, and more that we could all use some good guidance on.
It’s a curious thing about our moment: Despite all its novelty and rapid change, the most revealing new works often bring out just how much remains stubbornly the same. Consider a few of this week’s items: Since World War II, over and again, the U.S. dollar has been pronounced dead, yet it keeps dominating global finance through the same institutional advantages it’s always had. Officials still climb the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party using promotion tournaments that Deng Xiaoping designed decades ago. American automaking employment today nearly matches pre-NAFTA levels. A traditional form of lute music, chapei dang veng, survived the Khmer Rouge regime’s attempt to wipe it out—along with virtually all other forms of traditional Cambodian culture and arts—and continues to influence contemporary Cambodian pop.
The most illuminating books, documentaries, and even music often work as a kind of archaeology—creating new insights and experiences while also uncovering deeper, more abiding continuities. A new volume on U.S. banking regulation traces patterns back to America’s founding. A new film about ugly buildings looks at how we’re still grappling with the same trade-offs among beauty, sustainability, and cost that have always constrained and defined construction. Even house music, almost 40 years after its defining moment, remains “vital and evolving”—which is to say, not least, recognizably itself.
—John Jamesen Gould
The Signal—your loyal guide to a changing world. New works—our concise weekly briefing on essential new books, music, and more.
J.R. Korpa
If you come at the king
Why is the U.S. dollar so resilient?
The dollar has had its worst start to a year since 1973, with its index falling by 10.7 percent. Meanwhile, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde says that if the European Union were to strengthen its financial and security structures, the euro might become a viable alternative to the dollar, as “ongoing changes” (polite European-bureaucrat speak for America’s new tariff regime) “create the opening for a global euro moment.” At the same time, the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa—work to make their trade and investment less reliant on the dollar.
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