When US President-elect Donald Trump takes office this month, Americans will be more divided than they have been in years. Never before has an American presidential inauguration been met with so many hosannas from the country’s oldest foe, Russia, and with such nervous anguish from its closest allies.
OXFORD – When US President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month, Americans will be more divided than they have been in years. Never before has an American presidential inauguration been met with so many hosannas from the United States’ oldest foe, Russia, and with such nervous anguish from its closest allies.
And never before has a US president been elected with such a popular-vote deficit: 2.8 million and counting. The leader of a government that is supposed to be of, by, and for the people has been elected by a clear minority of those people. It is fitting that only the Kremlin shares this idea of democracy.
Of course, educated observers know that US presidential elections are not decided by the popular vote, but by the Electoral College. The Founding Fathers created this system as a compromise between the popular vote and a vote by Congress, to balance the influence of each state. Alexander Hamilton reckoned that the Electoral College would prevent unqualified candidates with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” from being elected. This rather confirms my view that the men who drafted the US Constitution had a sense of irony.
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Sergei Guriev
assesses the strength of the Russian president’s grip on power, predicts that Xi Jinping’s embrace of personalist rule will lead to policy missteps, urges the West to pursue a strategy of “adversarial engagement” toward modern dictators, and more.
Artificial intelligence is being designed and deployed by corporate America in ways that will disempower and displace workers and degrade the consumer experience, ultimately disappointing most investors. Yet economic history shows that it does not have to be this way.
worry that the technology will be deployed to replace, rather than empower, humans.
Amid labor-supply constraints and economic shocks, the case for productivity-boosting interventions is clear. Unless US policymakers use a combination of investment and incentives to reverse negative productivity trends, the US will achieve modest growth, at best.
urge policymakers to pursue interventions aimed at reducing supply constraints in the non-tradable sector.
OXFORD – When US President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month, Americans will be more divided than they have been in years. Never before has an American presidential inauguration been met with so many hosannas from the United States’ oldest foe, Russia, and with such nervous anguish from its closest allies.
And never before has a US president been elected with such a popular-vote deficit: 2.8 million and counting. The leader of a government that is supposed to be of, by, and for the people has been elected by a clear minority of those people. It is fitting that only the Kremlin shares this idea of democracy.
Of course, educated observers know that US presidential elections are not decided by the popular vote, but by the Electoral College. The Founding Fathers created this system as a compromise between the popular vote and a vote by Congress, to balance the influence of each state. Alexander Hamilton reckoned that the Electoral College would prevent unqualified candidates with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” from being elected. This rather confirms my view that the men who drafted the US Constitution had a sense of irony.
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