Policy commentary from an econ, data science, and comparative politics perspective
Image via goodreads. This is a fantastic book. It covers the history of how the countries of the Middle East came to be, from the Great Game imperialist struggle between Britain and Russia in Asia (Fromkin has also written a great Foreign Affairs peace recounting that), to the Ottoman Empire's two-front war during WWI where… Continue reading Review of “A Peace to End All Peace”
I stared at the screen in disbelief and wonder. This was all so much more than I could have ever expected or hoped for! It was so plainly obvious to me now what I had to do. But, let me back up for a moment… It’s the early 2000s. I was a software engineer in… Continue reading How I Joined Cal RCV
From a humanitarian standpoint, American failure in Afghanistan will have serious ramifications. As the Economist aptly puts it, “Afghans were left in such a horrifying bind that clinging to the wheels of a hurtling aircraft seemed their best option.” The human rights of many Afghans, particularly women, will be disregarded as the Taliban regime is… Continue reading The Overdue Withdrawal: a tragedy for Afghanistan and a relief for the U.S.
The United States witnessed a renewed discussion on issues of racial discrimination, police brutality and criminal justice reform in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May of last year. While a number of issues came to the public fore, one issue that amassed tremendous amount of attention was Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT is… Continue reading Understanding Critical Race Theory Through the Lens of Structural Determinism
Our current plurality voting system (aka First Past the Post) is one of the least fair voting systems in the world because it gives no voice at all to minority viewpoints. Indeed, even a majority viewpoint can be underrepresented if that side of the political spectrum simply runs more candidates, thus splitting the vote (i.e.,… Continue reading On the Fairness (or lack thereof) of our Plurality Voting System
(image via goodreads) Odd Arne Westad's The Cold War is simply a must-read for anyone who wants a better understanding of the world today. Despite having lived through the Cold War -- and as someone who probably pays closer attention to current events, world politics, and history than your average American -- there was a… Continue reading Review of The Cold War: A World History
Image from goodreads.com I consider All the Devils Are Here to be the best book on the financial crisis I have read so far, edging out Nouriel Roubini's Crisis Economics and significantly better than Michael Lewis's excellent Big Short. Roubini excels more at explaining more of the economics in systemic big-picture terms and also laying… Continue reading Review of All the Devils Are Here
Image via FairVote. Originally posted at "fling93 loves fishies," my old blog. Migrated, updated links, and added featured image on 9/21/21. I’ve been carping about our two-party plurality electoral system for so long now that many of you are probably wondering what I would replace it with. This will take quite a bit of explaining… Continue reading Electoral Reform, Part I: The Problem with Plurality
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