: ‘China’s former Premier Li Keqiang has died of a heart attack, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.nThe 68-year-old passed away in Shanghai…. Li’s role diminished once Xi moved key economic policy decisions to a series of party committees led by himself and his trusted economic aide, Liu He. Li in turn spent much of his time responding to crises and ensuring that officials followed the Chinese leader’s decisions. The Chinese official was replaced as premier by Li Qiang in March this year…","body_json":{"type":"doc","attrs":{"schemaVersion":"v1"},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Central Country"},{"type":"text","text":": "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Ex-Premier Li Keqiang does not fall out a window, or be taken by the arms by security and removed from the conference:"}]},{"type":"paragraph"},{"type":"blockquote","content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","text":" "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bloomberg News"},{"type":"text","text":": China Former Premier Li Keqiang Dies of Heart Attack, CCTV Says <"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"[www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-27/china-former-premier-li-keqiang-dies-of-heart-attack-says-cctv)","target":"_blank","rel":"nofollow ugc noopener","class":"note-link"}}],"text":"[www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-27/china-former-premier-li-keqiang-dies-of-heart-attack-says-cctv)"},{"type":"text","text":">: ‘China’s former Premier Li Keqiang has died of a heart attack, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.nThe 68-year-old passed away in Shanghai…. Li’s role diminished once Xi moved key economic policy decisions to a series of party committees led by himself and his trusted economic aide, Liu He. Li in turn spent much of his time responding to crises and ensuring that officials followed the Chinese leader’s decisions. The Chinese official was replaced as premier by Li Qiang in March this year…"}]}]}]},"restacks":0,"reaction_count":0,"attachments":[{"id":"0ae0eca3-2d86-42bc-89c4-4b7d88daece5","type":"link","linkMetadata":{"image":"[substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/im...](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6c98c626-218e-4bdf-9007-7a129c0a32b6_1200x800.jpeg)","title":"China Former Premier Li Keqiang Dies of Heart Attack, CCTV Says","description":"China’s former Premier Li Keqiang has died of a heart attack, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.","url":"[www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-27/china-former-premier-li-keqiang-dies-of-heart-attack-says-cctv)","host":"bloomberg.com"},"explicit":false}],"name":"Brad DeLong","user_id":16879,"photo_url":"[bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/im...](https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ea5ae644-9822-4ca5-ac6b-e18c017d8fbc_1189x1208.png)","user_bestseller_tier":100}}" data-component-name="CommentPlaceholder">

: ‘I have no quarrel with optimistic tech pragmatists. You think the “Green Vortex“ is setting us on a path to reverse the worst impacts of the climate crisis, and so you’re gonna work tirelessly to promote policies that further those efforts? That’s awesome. Let me buy you a beer. I also find common cause with pessimistic tech pragmatists. You think the near-term impacts of generative AI are going to be terrible, because we are basically just delegating decision-authority to a handful of tech elites who will chase short-term payouts? Yeah… I’m right there with you. First round is on me. But that’s not the type of techno-optimism that Andreessen is calling for! The main thematic point of Andreessen’s techno-optimist manifesto is that the “techno-capital machine” will inherently improve all our lives, so long as regulators and journalists and trust & safety professionals and sustainability advocates stay out of the way…","body_json":{"type":"doc","attrs":{"schemaVersion":"v1"},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Neofascism"},{"type":"text","text":": "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Dave Karpf has a nice comment on Noah Smith’s attempt to shape and tame Andreesen’s latest rant into something not-bonkers. Perhaps behind Karpf’s boiling-down of Andreesen to an attempt to assemble an entrepreneurial coalition that will die on the hill of immunity from all forms of accountability for Silicon Valley princelings is correct. One way to read Andreesen over the past 10 years is that his enthusiasm led him to become a willing cheerleader and participant in the huge sequence of pump-and-dump schemes that together made up crypto, that people—regulators, prosecutors, and many of his own investors—may be angry and coming for him, and that he needs to find allies. Perhaps that is the way to read it. Perhaps not:"}]},{"type":"paragraph"},{"type":"blockquote","content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","text":" "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Dave Karpf"},{"type":"text","text":": A reply to Noah Smith: tech optimism vs tech pragmatism, cont'd <"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/a-reply-to-noah-smith-tech-optimism?publication_id=387131&post_id=138309035&isFreemail=true&r=d0v","target":"_blank","rel":"nofollow ugc noopener","class":"note-link"}}],"text":"https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/a-reply-to-noah-smith-tech-optimism?publication_id=387131&post_id=138309035&isFreemail=true&r=d0v"},{"type":"text","text":">: ‘I have no quarrel with optimistic tech pragmatists. You think the “Green Vortex“ <"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/06/climate-change-green-vortex-america/619228/","target":"_blank","rel":"nofollow ugc noopener","class":"note-link"}}],"text":"https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/06/climate-change-green-vortex-america/619228/"},{"type":"text","text":" is setting us on a path to reverse the worst impacts of the climate crisis, and so you’re gonna work tirelessly to promote policies that further those efforts? That’s awesome. Let me buy you a beer. I also find common cause with pessimistic tech pragmatists. You think the near-term impacts of generative AI are going to be terrible, because we are basically just delegating decision-authority to a handful of tech elites who will chase short-term payouts? Yeah… I’m right there with you. First round is on me. "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":"But that’s not the type of techno-optimism that Andreessen is calling for!"},{"type":"text","text":" The main thematic point of Andreessen’s techno-optimist manifesto is that the “techno-capital machine” will inherently improve all our lives, so long as regulators and journalists and trust & safety professionals and sustainability advocates stay out of the way…"}]}]}]},"restacks":0,"reaction_count":0,"attachments":[{"id":"4f2f1582-6818-4a89-8eb8-6c3ab8953bae","type":"link","linkMetadata":{"image":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e77f58af-461a-46be-b6fc-8004b370223e_960x504.gif","title":"How the U.S. Made Progress on Climate Change Without Ever Passing a Bill","description":"A “green vortex” is saving America’s climate future.  ","url":"https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/06/climate-change-green-vortex-america/619228/","host":"theatlantic.com"},"explicit":false}],"name":"Brad DeLong","user_id":16879,"photo_url":"[bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/im...](https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ea5ae644-9822-4ca5-ac6b-e18c017d8fbc_1189x1208.png)","user_bestseller_tier":100}}" data-component-name="CommentPlaceholder">

: ‘To treat Andreessen’s essay as an argument misses the point. It’s a vibe. And the vibe is reactionary…. The Republican Party’s collapse into incoherence reflects the fact that much of the modern right is reactionary, not conservative…. This is not a coalition that cares about tax cuts. It’s a coalition obsessed with where we went wrong: the weakness, the political correctness, the liberalism, the trigger warnings, the smug elites. It’s a coalition that believes we were once hard and have become soft; worse, we have come to lionize softness and punish hardness. The story of the reactionary follows a template across time and place… The Silicon Valley cohort Andreessen belongs to has added a bit to this formula. In their story, the old way that is being lost is the appetite for risk and inequality and dominance that drives technology forward and betters human life…","body_json":{"type":"doc","attrs":{"schemaVersion":"v1"},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Neofascism"},{"type":"text","text":": "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":"The hallmark of a reactionary is to seek to return to some old days—when, as the saying goes, men were men and ewes were nervous. You know, back when a jar of imported fish sauce from the Black Sea did not cost more than a yoke of oxen. Ezra sees Andreesen as a collision between 1940s-style futurism—when a lone inventor could conquer the universe in his self-built ship "},{"type":"text","text":"The Skylark of Space"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":"—with loser-patriarch reactionary longing for the old days when people took real combat sports seriously—the world of Conan in which bravery and skill with a sword wins you wealth and a harem too. I am not sure this is right. But I admit I really do not know what to think of the post-crypto Andreesen we have on our hands these days:"}]},{"type":"paragraph"},{"type":"blockquote","content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ezra Klein"},{"type":"text","text":": The Chief Ideologist of the Silicon Valley Elite Has Some Strange Ideas <"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"[www.nytimes.com/2023/10/2...](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/opinion/marc-andreessen-reactionary-futurism.html)","target":"_blank","rel":"nofollow ugc noopener","class":"note-link"}}],"text":"[www.nytimes.com/2023/10/2...](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/opinion/marc-andreessen-reactionary-futurism.html)"},{"type":"text","text":">: ‘To treat Andreessen’s essay as an argument misses the point. It’s a vibe. And the vibe is reactionary…. The Republican Party’s collapse into incoherence reflects the fact that much of the modern right is reactionary, not conservative…. This is not a coalition that cares about tax cuts. It’s a coalition obsessed with where we went wrong: the weakness, the political correctness, the liberalism, the trigger warnings, the smug elites. It’s a coalition that believes we were once hard and have become soft; worse, we have come to lionize softness and punish hardness. The story of the reactionary follows a template across time and place… The Silicon Valley cohort Andreessen belongs to has added a bit to this formula. In their story, the old way that is being lost is the appetite for risk and inequality and dominance that drives technology forward and betters human life…"}]}]}]},"restacks":0,"reaction_count":0,"attachments":[{"id":"e8032188-febc-41d4-9b89-7aa5173c5d7c","type":"link","linkMetadata":{"image":"[substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/im...](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a7d4a9fd-5d04-4cca-b778-6c142fed2200_1050x549.jpeg)","title":"Opinion | The Chief Ideologist of the Silicon Valley Elite Has Some Strange Ideas","description":"The reactionary futurism of Marc Andreessen.","url":"[www.nytimes.com/2023/10/2...](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/opinion/marc-andreessen-reactionary-futurism.html)","host":"nytimes.com"},"explicit":false}],"name":"Brad DeLong","user_id":16879,"photo_url":"[bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/im...](https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ea5ae644-9822-4ca5-ac6b-e18c017d8fbc_1189x1208.png)","user_bestseller_tier":100}}" data-component-name="CommentPlaceholder">

: … Brad DeLong: “So after I read this will I understand how it was that Kosygin—who could move soviet industry out of the way of the nazis and get it running again at breakneck speed—could not deliver communist economic abundance?” That’s right! It’s such a good way of putting things. My argument is the USSR is set up for mobilization but it’s not able to move on from that and eventually chooses demobilization with nothing to replace that mechanism! Could perform miracles of mass action and rapid construction. Could not figure out a way to deleverage out of history’s most epic middle income trap…","body_json":{"type":"doc","attrs":{"schemaVersion":"v1"},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Economics"},{"type":"text","text":": "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Looking forward to this by Yakov Feigin very much: "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Feigin, Yakov"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":". Forthcoming. "},{"type":"text","text":"Building a Ruin: The Cold War Politics of Soviet Economic Reform"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":". Cambridge: Harvard University Press:"}]},{"type":"paragraph"},{"type":"blockquote","content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Yakov Feigin"},{"type":"text","text":": ‘It's real and maybe it's spectacular? <"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https://bsky.app/profile/buddyyakov.bsky.social/post/3kcjixivd3q2n","target":"_blank","rel":"nofollow ugc noopener","class":"note-link"}}],"text":"https://bsky.app/profile/buddyyakov.bsky.social/post/3kcjixivd3q2n"},{"type":"text","text":">: <"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674240995","target":"_blank","rel":"nofollow ugc noopener","class":"note-link"}}],"text":"https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674240995"},{"type":"text","text":">… "},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Brad DeLong"},{"type":"text","text":": “So after I read this will I understand how it was that Kosygin—who could move soviet industry out of the way of the nazis and get it running again at breakneck speed—could not deliver communist economic abundance?” That’s right! It’s such a good way of putting things. My argument is the USSR is set up for mobilization but it’s not able to move on from that and eventually chooses demobilization with nothing to replace that mechanism! Could perform miracles of mass action and rapid construction. Could not figure out a way to deleverage out of history’s most epic middle income trap…"}]}]}]},"restacks":2,"reaction_count":2,"attachments":[],"name":"Brad DeLong","user_id":16879,"photo_url":"[bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/im...](https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ea5ae644-9822-4ca5-ac6b-e18c017d8fbc_1189x1208.png)","user_bestseller_tier":100}}" data-component-name="CommentPlaceholder">