Talk World

  Just now, another “all guts, no glory” moment—France is sprinting toward the cliff edge. Today’s note will be short. A few weeks ago, in both our Knowledge Planet forum and on this page, we walked through Germany’s jam: unemployment spiking, the welfare state on the chopping block (see “Europe’s 500-Year Holiday Is Over” ). But compared with its eastern neighbor, Europe’s other pillar—France—looks even more precarious. Inside Paris, policymakers are already whispering about calling the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. Wait—IMF rescues are for emerging-market basket cases, right? France is a charter member of the rich-kids club. How did la République end up on the same ventilator as Argentina? In truth, it checked into the fiscal ICU long ago. Few outsiders realize that France has posted a budget deficit every single year since 1974—half a century of nonstop red ink. The last time Paris finished a fiscal year in the black, Gerald Ford was in the White House and disco wa...

Today feels like the morning after Columbus sailed. Only this time, the ocean is the 21st-century global order, and the fleet leaving port is Chinese. What happened on the parade grounds in Beijing a few hours ago will be scribbled into future textbooks in the margin next to 12 October 1492. The reason is simple: the Eurasian super-continent—home to 87 % of humanity—took a quiet, collective step toward knitting itself together. When that process is finished, the United States will find itself on the wrong side of the planet’s biggest moat. From cannons to containers Start with the hardware on display. Yes, the missiles are faster, the drones stealthier, the satellites sharper. But the real revolution is not the yield of any single weapon; it is the supply chain that built them. The same country that can loft a hypersonic glide vehicle can also pour more concrete in three years than America managed in the entire 20th century. The factory floor is the new battleship. When you ca...

  When China released the roster of foreign leaders coming to its 3 September military parade, one name jumped out: Kim Jong-un. Not a single leak had hinted he would appear, and until that moment most analysts assumed Pyongyang’s leader would stay home. Whether Beijing and Pyongyang had quietly sealed the invitation months ago or hammered it out at the last minute is less important than the signal the appearance itself sends. Of the 26 heads of state attending, Kim is listed second, right after Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The Chinese protocol office insists every guest is treated with equal courtesy, yet in diplomacy the order on a seating chart is never accidental. By placing Kim so close to the top, Beijing is stating—quietly but unmistably—how it still regards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: a traditional neighbor “linked by mountains and rivers,” in the Foreign Ministry’s own phrase, whose friendship China is determined to “safeguard, consolidate and develop.” Western ...