Michael Olson starts off the show describing the many parallels between contemporary “Wokeism” and historical Maoism, suggesting that constant social disruption is the key to power in both cases. David Welch describes the underlying conditions that have apparently provoked a free fall in Chinese real estate. Bill Graff points out the unbalanced nature of the Paris Climate Accords, which place significant CO2 reduction targets on the West while giving China a free pass to build a massive amount of new coal fired energy production capacity through 2030. Jonty McCollyer describes the caricature of, what many critics describe as, China’s “debt trap diplomacy”, suggesting that, with such a broad scope as the Belt and Road Initiative, there may be many intentions behind the initiative, not all of which are nefarious.
Later on in the show, the conversation turns to the end of globalization, faltering neoliberalism and what the US should be doing to cope with the resultant economic upheaval.