SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " D.C " 5,268 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel announces debut album with Mr. Aron, 'I'm So Happy'
YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel and her husband, Aron Accurso, are releasing their debut album, “I'm So Happy,” on Sept. 25. Known for her educational YouTube channel, Ms. Rachel, whose real
MSE Unveils Bold Vision for Brand-New Capital One Arena
20-year naming rights extension launches the next chapter of Capital One Arena as part of Capital One’s continued commitment to its hometown Monumental unveils fresh videos and renderings of a brand-new arena in downtown D.C. CLICK HERE FOR NEW ARENA RENDERINGS AND VIDEO Credit: Monumental Sports & Entertainment WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 11, 2026) – Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) and Capital
Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and the Misreading of Science Fiction
Beyond Elon Musk’s interpretation of ‘The Odyssey,’ Silicon Valley leaders have often misunderstood classic books like ‘Foundation’ and ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.’ It’s evident in their tech.
Ari Emanuel's Mari Acquires ATG Entertainment
Ari Emanuel's events company Mari, founded in 2025, has acquired ATG Entertainment. The West End and Broadway venue owner and ticketing company was acquired for £4.5B ($6B).
Deacon Sports Xtra: Demon Deacons Gain Meaningful Experience at 2026 ACC Unity Tou
A group of five partook in the conference's annual event, held in Washington D.C. this summer.
Saber's newest game trailer takes a shot at Gearbox's CEO, if you look closely
The first hint that something might be up with the recent debut trailer for Saber Interactive’s Rideshare Stimulator is an unusual choice of words—aside from that second one in the game’s title. “Don’t take your passengers too seriously,” the trailer’s narrator says, as he describes this upcoming game. It a car game about the gig work of driving eccentric people to their destinations, a riff on Crazy Taxi. And then, he says: “When I think I’ve met the randiest of passengers, someone even stranger gets in.” “Randiest”? That suggests “randy,” which usually means having strong sexual desire. Yet none of the oddball backseat occupants featured in the trailer seem particularly lustful. One is an old man who considers his grandson a failure, another shares the theory that birds might control traffic lights, another says he’s banned from an aquarium. A little later, there’s a license plate, shown 63 seconds into the trailer, on the front of an SUV: USB DRV It’s a Texas plate. The symbol between those letters is a cog wheel. If you know, you know. That’s a reference to Texas-based Borderlands game development studio Gearbox Software (their logo features a cog wheel). More specifically, it’s a reference to Gearbox’s CEO Randy Pitchford, who in 2018 found himself explaining the nature of video he’d saved on a USB drive that was found at a Medieval Times restaurant before being returned to the studio: “It was ‘barely legal’ porn. This girl’s handle was ‘Only 18.’” The “girl” in the video had committed a solo sex act that Pitchford, an avid practitioner of magic, found remarkable. “I realized, this is not a sex worker…This is a fucking magician.” Back then, the USB drive was central to competing lawsuits against Gearbox by the studio’s former lawyer and by Gearbox against him. A settlement in late 2019 “exonerated” Pitchford, per the Hollywood Reporter. The USB story has resurfaced at times, now in a trailer from a company that not long ago was corporate brethren with Gearbox. Saber vs. Gearbox The head of Saber told Game File that the reference is payback. “The dig is because Randy took shots at Embracer in Borderlands 4,” Saber CEO Matt Karch told me when I asked him about the license plate. “Without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living.” Having interviewed Karch during a cross-country flight in late 2024, I can confirm that Karch was unimpressed with Pitchford during their time both working in the Embracer group. I’d approached him not out of surprise that there was animosity but that it was manifesting publicly now. Gearbox was founded in 1999, worked on a port of Halo early on, and developed hit series such as the loot-based sci-fi shooter Borderlands before it was purchased by The Embracer Group in early 2021 for $363 million (with a possible earn-out of over $1 billion, if certain targets were hit by 2027). Saber was founded in 2001, worked on a remaster of Halo early on, had a big hit with zombie shooter World War Z and was purchased by Embracer in early 2020 for $150 million, with a potential earn-out of up to $375 million. For a few years, the Embracer group was a voracious acquirer of game studios. Then, as investment dried up, it choked. In March 2024, Embracer sold Saber to an investment company controlled by Saber CEO Matt Karch, and it sold Gearbox in an all-stock deal to long-time Borderlands publisher Take Two Interactive. Other studios were shut down. Hundreds of developers were laid off. Gearbox didn’t say much about their Embracer experience, nothing too direct, at least. In the summer 2024, Pitchford told reporter and occasional Game File contributor Nicole Carpenter that Borderlands 4’s story was in some way thematically connected to Gearbox’s experience at Embracer: “There’s this cultural and emotional shift in me, personally, and at the studio. What does it mean to trade some autonomy for organization?” When Borderlands 4 came out, there was something stranger: the matter of “Embracer’s Bluff,” a location in the game featuring an AI-powered toilet and a large trash dump, according to a detailed Kotaku account of the place. Gearbox never commented on it; Take Two never got back to me about it when I asked them last year. By contrast, since Saber exited Embracer, Karch has been one of Embracer’s biggest defenders, casting their management as well-meaning and supportive despite the layoffs and studio closures that resulted from their excessive expansion. Like others, Saber’s Karch saw Embracer’s as a shot. With Rideshare Stimulator’s trailer, he’s returned fire. “It’s amazing to me how fast people forget those who went above and beyond for them,” Karch told Game File. A rep for Gearbox did not comment by press time. Game File is a reader-supported publication. Your backing makes my reporting—including any coverage of trailer-based beefs—possible. Good news! I’m currently running Game File’s first big sale of 2026. You can get a one-year subscription for 23% off. Click here to take advantage of the limited-time offer. And thank you for your support! Item 2: In brief… 🚫 Wal-Mart has laid off the staff of Restart, a games media outlet launched in 2024, Aftermath reports. 🟥 A GTA VI preview is on the way, at last, via an “extended look” that will premiere, unusually, on Netflix at 3pm ET on August 27, then officially go live elsewhere six hours later. Last week, Game File noted that Take Two label Rockstar Games is overdue for showing off GTA VI, based on the timing of the initial hands-off previews of GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2. During a call with investors, Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said pre-orders for GTA VI were “unprecedented and astonishing,” but added the company can’t predict how many of those pre-orders represent bonus sales vs. sales that otherwise would have been made at launch. During the same call, Zelnick was noticeably bullish on the future of playing games over streaming cloud connections (predicting wider adoption in three or so years). He sounded unbothered by Sony’s plans to stop making discs for new games (he said the business is 90% digital already and predicted that there could still be limited edition physical editions of games “in the same way there’s still vinyl in the recorded music business.”) 👀 Take Two wrote off $43 million in their spring quarter after deciding “not to proceed with further development of an unannounced title in its pipeline from a third-party developer.” 🤔 Some rare age-demographics from a big publisher: Capcom recently told investors that “users in their 20s account for approximately half of the users of both Pragamata and Resident Evil Requiem.” Item 3: The week ahead Tuesday, August 11 Game releases: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (Switch 2; already out for PC, PS5, Xbox) continues the Bethesda strategy of putting Elder Scrolls games on everything; Royalty Free-For-All is a Smash Bros.-style fighting game featuring public domain characters such as Mother Goose brawling with Oliver Twist in a stage based on the original Little Shop of Horrors movie. Wednesday, August 12 Game release: Pro Jank Footy (PC, console) is an arcade-style Australian Rules Football game with increasingly ridiculous rules, the more you play (I enjoyed the Steam demo) Thursday, August 13 Game release: Super Mario Sunshine (Switch 2, originally released in 2002 on the GameCube) is released for Switch 2’s Nintendo Switch Online service. This game is the black sheep of 3D Mario games. It’s the successor to the breakthrough Super Mario 64 and the rare Mario game built around a single (vacation resort) theme. Mario’s got a water-spraying backpack, a Yoshi pal and a lot of blue coins to collect.
Chad reacts to his interview with Dean Phillips, talks about Iran, and laments the worst of politics today
Chad reacts to his interview with Dean Phillips, talks about the quagmire of Iran, and laments the worst of what we see in politics today. | 830 WCCO
Health alert issued for Lake Howell after toxic algae discovery
Urgent health alert for Lake Howell: Blue-green algae toxins detected. Avoid contact and protect pets.
Opinion |Boston homeowners aren’t overtaxed. So why raise taxes on businesses?
New data show Boston homeowners are already among the least-taxed in the country, while businesses carry a disproportionate share of the city’s property tax burden.
New appeals board could mean fines, stronger enforcement for businesses that violate laws, county ordinances
Cuyahoga County established an Administrative Appeals Board, enabling Consumer Affairs to impose fines on businesses violating consumer protection laws rather than just issuing warnings.
As Sky-High Health Care Costs Top Voter Concerns, Families USA’s Stop the Bleed: Cut Costs, Not Care Campaign Gains Nationwide Momentum
SEIU, MomsRising, Community Change, Popular Democracy, Main Street Alliance, Small Business Majority, and Others Join Effort to Rein in High Health Care Costs WASHINGTON, D.C. — Families USA announced today that its Stop the Bleed: Cut Costs, Not Care campaign is now officially active in all 50 states. Launched in January, Stop the Bleed is […]
The rise of managed intelligence: AI is rewriting the cybersecurity playbook
AI adoption is accelerating. Learn why governance, cybersecurity and executive oversight are essential to reduce risk and scale AI safely.
In San Francisco, turning offices into housing is a boutique business
It took multiple law changes and the perfect property to come available for a project like 150 Hayes St. to become a reality.
The AI Slop Backlash Is Actually Having an Impact
Platforms are finally recognizing that people don’t want to consume AI slop. A growing number of sites and apps now have tools and policies to flag, label, and ban AI-generated content.
The Rise of the 1 am Job Interview
An AI interview is increasingly the first step of a hiring process. Since there’s no human on the other end, candidates are scheduling them whenever—even deep into the night.
Missing a Discontinued Perfume? This Nantucket Shop Can Find It
Caroline Harding was 16 when she inherited her father's Nantucket perfume company. She'd already spent years learning to smell the world the way he did.
Michigan’s phonics push could squeeze out knowledge
Keith Kindred writes that Michigan needs the science of reading - but kids need more than the ability to decode the words.
How to find out who’s behind the political text messages you’re getting
From political advertising to polling, here are a few tips.
Nature Medicine Just Published the AI Mental Health Audit Framework the FDA Hasn’t Written Yet
Nature Medicine's clinically validated AI chatbot audit framework arrives as FDA still lacks generative AI mental health approval standards—here's what trial…
Opinion | The White House hopes AI replaces a lot of researchers
Basic scientific research gave the nation its technological edge. But the Trump administration is skeptical of the universities that do it.
Opinion | When political rhetoric clashes with the social worker’s ethics code
Those in the mental health community and adjacent to it must face what’s happening right now to our colleagues and clients, writes a regional leader of the national association of social workers.
AI panel shares business strategy, cybersecurity insights
NJBIZ panelists share strategies for adopting AI, managing cybersecurity risks and improving business efficiency.
OPINION: New Jersey liquor law reforms boost breweries, business
Opinion: New Jersey's new liquor law reforms expand opportunities for breweries, reuse inactive licenses and support business growth.
OPINION: Business formation fee cuts spur entrepreneurship
Opinion: New Jersey cut business formation fees to encourage entrepreneurship and make it easier for startups to launch and stay compliant.
Health officials urge caution for Gulf Coast beachgoers during surge of deadly bacterial infections
As many as one in five Vibrio vulnificus infections are fatal, a much higher rate than other types of Vibrio bacteria.
Passing the torch: Cleveland’s next generation of small-business owners may already be here
Cleveland’s population has fallen 60% in the past 75 years. As currents business owners approach retirement, Richard T. Herman presents a succession strategy involving the next generation.
Results Of The 39th ITMF Global Textile Industry Survey: Business Weakens Slightly, Cautiously Optimistic
ZÜRICH, Switzerland — August 4, 2026 — The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) has published the results of its 39th Global Textile Industry Survey (GTIS), conducted from 14 to 22 July 2026 among companies along the entire global textile value chain. Worldwide, 10% of participants rated their business situation as good, 53% as satisfactory and […]
Suburban business owner gets 15 months on prison for failing to pay taxes
A business owner from the Northwest suburbs was sentenced last week to 15 months in federal prison on charges he failed to pay the government more than $1 million in payroll taxes. George Dilles, 55, ...
Business Briefcase: Open-air downtown farm market underway
SHENANDOAH — Schuylkill County’s longest running seasonal outdoor downtown farm market is continuing its run from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Fridays through November along the east side of the first block of South Main Street. Launched in …
New Hampshire 2026: From first-in-the-nation to first-in-boredom
Traditionally, the Granite State is where the political action lives free. In 2026, it’s, so far, where the action has gone to die.
Pols & Politics: Former Gov. Charlie Baker to headline Dem DA candidate’s fundraiser, snubs GOP hopeful
Charlie Baker is hosting a fundraiser for a Democratic DA candidate while snubbing the GOP challenger. Plus: Spilka responds to criticism of a veteran campaign sign and another Healey endorsement.
Politics: Iowa AG talks victim support, election during Dubuque visit
During a visit to Dubuque on Thursday, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird spoke with the Telegraph Herald about her outlook on the 2026 election and her work aiding crime victims.
2 Democrats competing in congressional primary to represent SW Wisconsin
Two Democratic candidates seek their party’s nomination in Tuesday’s primary election to represent southwest Wisconsin in Washington next year.
Orlando Science Center to host charity and legacy planning event in August
Orlando Science Center hosts The Science of Your Legacy event on Aug. 21, 2026, to discuss estate planning and giving.
Country music families confront divorce, betrayal and painful health struggles
Keith Urban, Jelly Roll, Bunnie Xo and Gracie McGraw each faced emotional turning points this week as they opened up about heartbreak, healing and moving forward.
David Sinclair Launches Lifespan Media Platform for Longevity Science
David Sinclair launches Lifespan media platform to improve public understanding of longevity science research and clinical trials.
Former Braves star’s wife hospitalized after health scare
"Getting checked out is always the right choice.”
Can Gluesenkamp Perez win over the Democrats who voted against her in Washington’s primary?
Unofficial results present a mixed picture heading toward the November general election.
Dilworth business owner helps police identify suspect in random assault on woman
“It’s very disturbing,” said Paper Skyscraper owner Bill Godwin.
High-res ASUS Googlebook renders have leaked, and this thing looks gorgeous
Earlier this week, we covered the initial leaks surrounding the ASUS Googlebook CX9406 - a 2.2-pound ceramic-alloy beast packing Intel's next-gen Panther Lake (Core Ultra Series) silicon, up to...
Quiz of the week: what age of science is the US entering according to Trump?
Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out
R.I. Democratic challengers find footing with business group's multi-PAC strategy
The conservative political group spends $50K on five Democratic legislative candidates while encouraging anonymous donations.
Scientists Used AI to Create 16 New Viruses
The use of AI systems to create viruses opens up new possibilities for combating bacterial resistance. It also raises concerns about the pace at which technology is outstripping regulation.
West Nile-positive mosquitos found in Westchester. What to know
Here's what to know about the first crop of West Nile virus-positive mosquitos found in Westchester this summer, and some tips to prevent disease.
Budget Battle Erupts in Nation’s Capital Over Opioid Settlement Money
Washington, D.C.’s 2027 fiscal-year blueprint reflects a debate playing out around the U.S.: whether opioid settlement money should be used to free up taxpayer dollars by paying for existing responsibilities instead of new programs.
Opinion | A political debate that was actually civil
Democratic candidates for the Sixth District offered a glimpse of what politics can be: civil, substantive, and focused on the problems voters actually care about.
Wiener built an AI chatbot to mock Chan’s politics. Pelosi says it’s ‘sexist’ and ‘racist’
The race between state Sen. Scott Wiener and Connie Chan to succeed Pelosi in Congress is taking a turn for the personal.
One of China’s Most Powerful AI Models Has Also Broken Containment
Security researchers say that Kimi K3, an open-weight model from China, wandered off to the internet in an attempt to cheat on a test it was given.
Japanese Company Behind ATARASHII GAKKO! Launches U.S. Division
Japanese entertainment company ASOBISYSTEM, home to girl group ATARASHII GAKKO!, has launched a U.S. division with a new office in Los Angeles.
Hackers Stalked Me by Hijacking a Smartwatch for Kids
Security researchers tracked and eavesdropped on a WIRED reporter using vulnerabilities in a pink plastic smartwatch. It’s just one piece of a deeply insecure supply chain of GPS-enabled gadgets.
Legendary sports broadcaster laid off following battle with cancer
Longtime Bay Area sports broadcaster Greg Papa has been let go by KNBR just over a year after being diagnosed with cancer.
Why Normal People Aren’t Using AI Agents
The tech industry is realizing it needs to build agents based on what regular consumers want, not just what its AI models can do.
It looks like Dell’s initial Googlebook will be the XPS 13
As we continue to track the Googlebook devices currently in development ahead of Google’s expected fall launch window, watching the hardware picture come into focus has been pretty fascinating....
‘My outlook is very positive;’ Local brewery founder gives update on recent health concerns
In a statement on Thursday, founder Steve Barnhart said a Stage 2 tumor was found on one of his kidneys in early April.
Congo Ebola health workers protest unpaid wages, disrupting response as deaths top 1,800
They are the latest group to walk off their jobs since protests over pay issues began weeks ago.
Mass fish necropsy helps forecast salmon returns in Oregon
Scores of volunteer scientists perform a mass fish necropsy in Newport to help forecast future salmon returns.
Microsoft’s Quantum Chief Doesn’t Care That Scientists Don’t Believe His Results
Zulfi Alam thinks his team doesn’t need to “prove” they engineered a new state of matter in their bid to reinvent computing. Science would disagree.
Entertainment briefs | Backstreet to play at Mad River Brewery
Backstreet will perform tonight (Aug. 6) from 6 to 8 p.m. at Paskenta Mad River Brewery, 101 Taylor Way in Blue Lake.
The House Ethics Committee steps into the spotlight
Obscure for years, what woke up the House Ethics Committee?
Readers sound off on why Massachusetts has lost its competitive edge
Once a star performer, Massachusetts is losing ground to other states on job growth and new business creation.
Celebrity culture is one thing. For TMZ, Congress is the new 'reality show'
TMZ is trading Hollywood gossip for Capitol Hill scoops with a new D.C. bureau, launched in April. The online tabloid's two-man crew has brought an unconventional reporting style to the Congress beat.
France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week
Stories you may have missed from the world of business.
Celebrating Small Business: Harvard Place Shopping Center
For most of her life, Jessi Midstokke hated gyms. She wasn’t athletic, and most fitness studios made her feel like she didn’t belong.
DHS: Mass. lawmakers putting ‘politics above public safety’ with signing of Protect Act
DHS is slamming Massachusetts lawmakers after Gov. Healey signed the Protect Act into law, which limits ICE’s capabilities, saying Bay State politicians are “putting politics above public safety.”
Business confidence in Mass. rebounds to January 2025 levels
The state's business confidence index rose for a fourth straight month in July, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts said on Wednesday, amid modest expansions in the state and national economies.
ICYMI: Sen. Banks Joins the Bottom Line on Fox Business Network
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) joined The Bottom Line on Fox Business Network to discuss the Senate’s priorities ahead of the August recess, the AI race, and how AI is reshaping government and the workforce. Click the image above for the full discussion. Key Excerpts on Senate priorities: Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.): “We have a full […]
Mass. cyclospora cases spike amid national outbreak
The state reported 104 new cases in July.
Burke Airport businesses demand chance to have their say amidst closing saga
A plan to close Burke Lakefront Airport faces opposition from businesses that are connected to the airport.
Behind the Scenes of the World Cup: The South Florida Small Businesses Powering a Global Stage
When the world's attention turned to Miami for the World Cup, fans saw packed venues, vibrant celebrations and unforgettable moments on the field. What many didn't see was the network of local small businesses working behind the scenes to bring those experiences to life.
Ted Leonsis co-founded Proxy Foods AI raises $6M
D.C. startup Proxy Foods AI raised $6 million in seed funding led by Ted Leonsis to expand its artificial intelligence platform for recipe development.
Chartbook 464 The"China squeeze" - the politics of development counterfactuals.
There are three types of China shock discourse. Each has a distinct temporal register. China shock 1.0 was a phrase coined by US academics in the 2010s to retrospectively summarize the impact on particular US labour markets, which they identified through painstaking empirical investigation. China shock 2.0 on everyone’s lips in Europe in the mid 2020s is an alarm raised by trans-Atlantic policy thinkers warning of a coming disaster which they project onto Europe’s ailing car industry. The third type of China shock discourse - commonly known as the “China squeeze” launched most recently by Indian economists Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian in the pages of Foreign Affairs - mobilizes a different, more speculative temporal register: the counterfactual realm of alternate history. The China squeeze argument asks not what has happened, or what is going to happen, but what might have been. Specifically, what options for economic development might have been open to Global South economies like India or the economies of sub-Saharan Africa, had it not been for China’s spectacular industrialization since the late 1990s and the persistent competitiveness of China’s manufacture in low-skilled segments. Chatterjee and Subramanian’s argument is that whilst China has built a powerful position in electrical machinery and other high-skill manufacturing, which is now delivering China Shock 2.0, it also continues to run a trade surplus in low-skill, labour-intensive manufacturing. This surplus is large and has remained largely unchanged in fifteen years. Indeed, in the 2010s, in trade with low-income countries, China’s surplus rapidly increased. On their reading, this squeezes low-income producers in low-skill sectors in which they “should” be able to compete. Source: “China’s Mercantilist Squeeze on Developing Countries” Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian. Peterson Institute for International Economics 26-7 May 2026 Chatterjee and Subramanian’s wording is telling: (emphasis mine) The canonical trajectory of economic development in the post-World War II period is for countries to transition from agriculture to manufacturing, first in low-skilled manufacturing and then later on to high-skill manufacturing (Herrendorf, Rogerson, and Valentinyi 2013). At the global level, this implies that high-income countries (HICs) that once specialized in low-skilled activities cede manufacturing export space to poorer countries that come along to occupy that space. In 1965, advanced economies accounted for about 60 percent of global value-added exports in four key low-skilled manufacturing sectors, i.e., apparel, leather, textiles, and footwear. Over time this share declined and began to be occupied first by the East Asian tigers and, beginning in the late 1990s, by China. Today China accounts for about 50 percent of the global market. The question is whether China, with its rising prosperity, is continuing to behave like its richer counterparts and ceding export space to poorer followers or to behave unlike them and continuing to occupy space. In terms of the conceptual maneuvers it performs, of the three China shock discourses, the “China squeeze” argument is by far the most ambitious. After all, it bases its critique of China on a counterfactual imagining of the world. Like any counterfactual argument, to construct this alternative reality it must rely on a heuristic model. To make their argument Chatterjee and Subramanian mobilize two key claims. The first reference point is the actual history of rich-country industrialization, what they refer to as the “canonical path”. The idea is that countries transition from agriculture to light industry and low-skilled manufacturing and from there up the value chain. To make this useful as a standard of comparison and a means to construct a normative standard, they adjust sectoral export shares for two factors: 1. the underlying level of economic development of the exporting country, as measured by national income and 2. the degree to which the sector in question is internationalized. The idea being that for a high income country to have a high export share in low-skill sectors is anomalous and even more so if that particular product is highly internationalized and thus suitable for being “conceded” to lower-income competitors. Where should this process end? Here Chatterjee and Subramanian introduce their second benchmark. Their normative idea of a global development path is one in which, in due course, low-skill manufacturing exports are distributed in proportion to a country’s share in the global labour force. They imagine, in other words, a world of proportional, polycentric global development without much national specialization in low-skill manufacturing. A useful benchmark is that, in labor-intensive manufacturing sectors, a country’s share of world exports should be broadly commensurate with its share of the world’s low-skilled labor endowment. … In the Heckscher-Ohlin model, this would be true if value added per worker and export propensities, i.e., fraction of output that is exported, are the same across countries. It is this pleasant liberal vista of orderly global development, progressing towards a general distribution of low-skilled manufacturing against which they judge reality and conclude that the low-income countries are suffering a “China squeeze”. China is not exiting low-skill sectors fast enough Allowing for its gdp level and the degree of globalization, China’s share of low-skill manufacturing exports is far higher than it “should” be. Relative to population, its low-skill share of exports is far too high. That in turn yields the conclusion that huge numbers of jobs - the authors suggest tens of millions - are being hoarded by China. For the four sectors captured in figure 4, this excess in value-added exports is $110 billion in 2022. For all low-skilled sectors overall captured in appendix figure D.1, excess value-added exports amount to $365 billion. The crowding out of LMIC exports by China is therefore substantial. Both these claims have in common that they are strong structuralisms. The first is that development paths ought to resemble each other. The second is that broadly speaking as far as low-skilled manufacturing is concerned, all countries are alike. If the world currently diverges from the distribution of trade implied by these assumptions, if China is not following the advanced economy path and has huge exports, this must be the result of “policy”, which the authors then put in question as illegitimate or unfair. Thus the naturalistic construction of a canonical path leading to a “level” distribution of low-skilled manufacturing reveals itself to be a polemical tool. From the point of view of China shock polemics, this discourse is no doubt welcome. But as an account of economic history, it must surely be regarded as nothing short of bamboozling. Development paths do not follow a regular, natural sequence. As David Fishman put it aptly, “development is not a queue”. They are always and everywhere, through and through political. Development is not so much a process, as a project. Each such project is more or less well adjusted to its context. As Gerschenkron taught uneven and combined development implies differentiation rather than simple imitation on a single parth. It may be true that Europe and the US exited relatively early from low-skill work. But clearly technology has changed. As C&S themselves point out, China no longer enjoys a low wage environment. Do they really believe that such huge differences can be accounted for either by industrial policy, which as they admit does not operate powerfully in low-skill sectors, or by exchange rate manipulation? What is overwhelmingly dominant in explaining the persistence of “low-skill” manufacturing in China are surely the network effects of complex supply chains. Indeed the label of “low-skill” may miss the point. The degree of globalization which Chatterjee and Subramanian decide to conjure away in their model of the development path - to allow for the fact that Europe and American textiles exporters did not enjoy just-in-time logistics in the 1950s - obscures the point that the networks through which Chinese factories supply the world are themselves key parts of the low-skill industrialization project. China isn’t knocking out 1970s style “cheap”. It has redefined the entire product cycle. C&S’s casual reference to “T-shirts” is telling. In today’s “fast fashion”, there is weight on both terms. Fashion and fast. China’s success in delivering on both at unprecedentedly high speed and at unprecedentedly low cost, isn’t a low-skill operation at all. If we see development trajectories not as the serial repetition of the same, but as distinctive, crafted projects that cumulate in complex agglomerations of skill, technology and labor, then this explains why the assumption that low-skilled manufacturing should follow the distribution of population flies in the face of all experience. As countless cases attest, low-wage, low-income developed economies are not by themselves the makings of a competitive production base. As Leon Liao puts it quite fairly: “International trade has never been allocated according to population. A country’s population gives it no natural claim to an equivalent share of global exports." And the remarkable fact is that Subramanian alone and with co-authors has long been making this point, not to pillory China, as is the case of the tendentious _Foreign Affair_s and Peterson pieces, but to highlight the great counterpart to China’s industrial success, namely India’s relative failure. The much-quoted Foreign Affairs piece showed low-skill export shares only for China, not for India. If you put both countries in the picture as Chaterjee and Subramanian have done on other occasions, the picture looks like this. China is far above the line, but India, almost as large in terms of population, is no less anomalous, just in the opposite direction. As far as global populations are concerned, and the imagining of tens of millions of “squeezed” jobs, it is this Sino-Indian pair that account for a huge share of the action. What this graph reveals is not China’s cheating, but India’s “greatest development failure”, at least this is the argument made Arvind Subramanian, this time in co-authorship with Devesh Kapur, in their major book, A Sixth of Humanity. Independent India’s Development Odyssey which appeared with Oxford University Press earlier this year. In this highly critical work on India’s development, China is repeatedly evoked, not to criticize but as a benchmark against which to illuminate what India’s political economy has not delivered i.e. large-scale formal employment for hundreds of millions of citizens. Kapur and Subramanian leave no doubt, if you want to understand why China, not India was the main driver of manufacturing globalization from the 1980s, don’t look to slots opening up in the division of labour thanks to the liberal mindedness of advanced economies, look to the contrasting political economy of the Maoist PRC and India’s post-independence political economy. As Kapur and Subramian note: The great divergence between China and India did not begin in 1978 with the Deng reforms—it was well underway by then. In one of the great ironies of modern history, the conditions created by Maoism turned out to be a great launching pad for industrial globalization. As the comparison of India and China in 1980 makes clear, to imagine manufacturing would be equally distributed when populations are so differently endowed in terms of educational and nutritional is fanciful. Here is the data from Kapur and Subramanian, data which I explored back at the very beginning of Chartbook. As Kapur and Subramanian insist, the striking fact is that even as India’s growth accelerated from the 1980s, structural change has not. Formal employment in India lags woefully behind. Why? As Kapur and Subramanian note, the path-dependent impact of India’s poor early start was devastating. The list of factors they mention is long and weighty: We argue for a new five-fold explanation applicable at different stages of Indian history: in the initial stages, the legacy of two key pre-1980s policies, the neglect of agriculture and the strangling of the domestic private sector, were critical. The failure of broad-based agricultural growth militated against rural industrialization, which would have been devoted to satisfying local needs that would have necessarily been labour intensive. Then, when the boom came after 1980, the thicket of regulation and broader labour protections that were legislated prematurely in a nascent democracy, underpinned by a deep ideological aversion to private capital in general and big capital specifically, became a barrier to attaining the size that would be necessary to compete globally. Similarly, the reforms after 1991, while wide-ranging, did not quite encompass non-tradeable inputs critical to manufacturing, namely, land, logistics infrastructure and power. A combination of low investment (logistics infrastructure), regulation (land) and the continued monopoly supply by state governments (power), combined with residual socialism, kept costs at 75–100 per cent above efficient supply. These factors were compounded on the supply side by the government, which dominated the formal labour market and established exorbitantly high wages at the lower end of the skill spectrum. This made their employment in the labour-intensive sector by the private sector less attractive. Finally, when the services sector and its exports boomed, wages soared even further via a Dutch Disease effect: one successful tradeable sector killed and cannibalized another less-skilled tradable sector, namely, manufacturing. Thus, scarcity-inducing policies of the planning era, precocious democracy and a Gandhian aversion to size; inefficient, monopolistic supply of critical non-tradable inputs; the behemoth of government; and super-successful skill-intensive services successively undermined India’s unskilled labour employment opportunities. The employment failure seems to have been over-determined. … Less quantifiable but no less important are some of the sociological factors that have undermined manufacturing and factory jobs. Take the impact of the success of the IT sector—located in urban areas with better working conditions, such as air-conditioned offices, good schools for children and attractive entertainment options. It became a more attractive place for engineering and management graduates to flock to. … Consider manufacturing and female employment. Indian society makes it difficult for women to work, reflected in India’s unusually low female labour force participation (elaborated in Chapter XIII). Indian society, in particular the routine harassment of women in public spaces, makes it even more difficult for them to travel long distances to take up work.37 Combined with onerous regulations on creating hostels and dormitories for women—which, in turn, prevents multiple shifts of operation—factories need to be located in areas with a large female labour pool. While firms can take apparel plants to female labour or bring them to the plants by building large-scale dormitories, this raises costs. If there was a case for subsidies to encourage labour-intensive manufacturing, housing subsidies to build dormitories for women workers would be a good place to start. All of this meant, that when opportunities did open up, in part thanks to adjustments in China, India was in no position to take advantage. Here is the account of the 2020s from Kapur and Subramanian. It stands in dizzying contrast to the one-sided, “China squeeze” argument delivered in the Peterson and Foreign Affairs pieces: In 2022, for example, India’s share of global exports in clothing (the canonical labour-intensive sector) was 3.1 per cent compared to 32 per cent for China. This is extremely disappointing because China started vacating export space in this sector after the Global Financial Crisis as its wages started rising; it then vacated further space in the aftermath of geopolitical developments that led investors to seek alternative investment locations. Between its peak and today, China lost about 7.5 percentage points of global export share (worth about $43 billion in 2022); over this period, India’s export share remained stagnant at 3 per cent, while that of Vietnam and Bangladesh rose by 3.5 to 4 percentage points. China’s loss did not translate into any gain for India in terms of low-skill exports and employment. Put differently, when the conditions for dynamism and prosperity were established after 1991, and even more tantalizingly when the global export opportunities opened up, it was as if India was a high-wage economy and only skilled labour could benefit from the dynamism. It had converted its physically abundant unskilled workforce into an economically expensive resource, penalizing its use. It is not my mission here to argue for or against Kapur and Subramanian’s interpretation of India’s development trajectory. The point in this context is simply that the “China squeeze” such as it is can only be understood, in relation to the heavy burden of domestic constraints that Kapur and Subramanian so unsparingly enumerate. I am concentrating here on India because it is the great counterpart to China and the unspoken reference point of the “China squeeze” discourse. But the point is more general. Can anyone with a straight face suggest that the main problems afflicting the development of South Africa or Nigeria, the great centers of mass underemployment in sub-saharan Africa, are cheap competition from China driven by Beijing’s industrial policy and an undervalued RMB? Likewise, is the main problem of the American working-class the threat of Chinese competition or the manifest crisis of social reproduction in the United States itself? The point here, as in the discourse around China shock 2.0 in Europe, is to insist that we should not normalize the world and pathologize China, without actually investigating what is going on in America’s industrial wastelands, the German car industry, or India’s lopsided labour market. One-sided pathologization should be understood for what it is, a polemical gesture. Concepts like China shock and China squeeze are, what Reinhart Koselleck, following Carl Schmitt, would have described as “asymmetrische Kampfbegriffe”, or “asymmetrical counter-concepts” or “asymmetrical combat concepts”. If the function of arguments like the “China squeeze” is to alert elites in the rest of the world of the need to rejuvenate and energize their development projects, so be it. But let us see the resulting discourses as the mobilizing interventions that they are. Interestingly, a significant slice of China’s public sphere - the so-called industrial party - have been obsessed for the last twenty years with precisely these questions of counterfactual economic history. Since the mid 2000s, a massive online discourse developed around an alternative history in which Chinese techno-patriots were asked to imagine how they would proceed if they had the possibility of traveling back in time to transport modern technology into the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) thus averting the “great divergence” of the 18th and 19th centuries. It is a fantasy of course, but also a goad. The point was not directed at Westerners. The alternate history is dramatically nationalist, but few n the West had even heard of it until recently. The adherents of the industrial party are not liberal moralists. They don’t project natural ladders of international development and ask why others don’t cede space. They take the Realpolitik of global economic development for granted. Their pointe was directed against fellow Chinese. The rallying cry of the alternative narrative was this: Now that we are beginning to gain steam and push forward on our national development path, now that we are breaking out of the inferior position assigned to us even in the early years following WTO accession, do not lose yourself in humanistic imaginings about better futures. In the spirit of Deng, they called on China to embrace the hard truth of development. Perhaps one might of the Industrial Party as a cultural trend born out of desire for symbolic revenge against those who had inflicted the century of humiliation. In terms of the various temporalities of the “China shock” - retrospective, prospective and counterfactual - one might think of the Industrial Policy discourse as truly speculative, conjuring up the China shock that never was. Or perhaps one might better think of it as imagining a world in which a powerful China was no shock at all, but simply a defining fact of modern history. I love putting out Chartbook. I am particularly pleased that it goes out for free to thousands of subscribers around the world. But, writing this newsletter takes a lot of work. If you are enjoying it and would like to support the project, sign up for one of the subscription options here. It is the equivalent of a fancy cup of coffee per month! Subscribe
'Iran War Participation Trophy' for Trump is on tour, joins Instagram
A 10-foot sculpture of a golden trophy made for President Trump by the anonymous arts activist group Secret Handshake is officially on tour, with an Instagram page and appearances in D.C., New York and Minneapolis.
Critics deride US administration's 'golden age of science' report
The document comes as the administration looks to cut the science budget for 2027
Wickliffe optometrist celebrates 50 years in business
Dr. Sid Savitt has now been in business in Wickliffe for 50 years as an optometrist at Savitt’s Optometry. Located at 29610 Euclid Ave., Savitt said his practice has been a “wonderful ride” since he started it in 1976. As his mom and dad…
‘Implementing terror’: Miami business owners feeling pain of losing TPS workers
. “People are paying for a service, and you have to render that service to the highest quality and standard.”
Opinion | Trump’s NSF cuts would undercut gold standard science
Trump says he wants better science, but his NSF budget would weaken reform.
Todd Blanche confirmation: Susan Collins says she is a ‘no’
The Republican from Maine said in a statement that Blanche is a “capable lawyer” but the that Justice Department “has become increasingly political.”
Maine to award $30 million through federal rural health fund
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services said it has identified 11 rural hospitals that could participate.
Englewood Festival entertainment announced
ENGLEWOOD — Entertainment at the 52nd Englewood Art Festival promises to be another major attraction for this weekend event scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, August 8 and 9 at Centennial Park, 321 Union Boulevard.
Senators Markey, Merkley Reintroduce Legislation to Protect Healthcare for Americans Who Cannot Afford Bail
Bill Text (PDF) Washington, D.C. – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) today reintroduced the Equity in Pretrial Health Coverage Act, legislation that would protect the continuity of federal health benefits under Medicaid, Medicare, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Veterans Affairs for Americans who […]
Small business accelerator program launched in Frederick
M&T Bank has launched a free, 10-week program that will offer helpful resources and tools for business owners in the Frederick area.
Rep. Max Miller to seek ethics probe into himself over abuse claims
Rep. Max Miller is the former son-in-law of U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno.
Downtown attacks prompt civic leaders to hold public safety meetings
Leaders in government, business, and law enforcement will gather on Wednesday in the biggest summit to address the issue since last fall.
Health alert issued for popular Costco food
A recall wasn't implemented since this product isn't available for purchase anymore.
Garfinkel steps away as Dolphins president. Sillman takes on larger role. Details
Dolphins announce changes in leadership. Here’s the team’s succession plan and more.
Preserving History, Growing Business: How Two Charleston Entrepreneurs Find J.O.Y.
Small business owners find success in honoring their culture and cultivating local ties with TD.
Washington primary election voting ends today. The race for its 3rd Congressional District is just getting started
Ballots should be turned in to official drop boxes by 8 p.m. on Aug. 4.
3 officials rescind endorsements in Mass. Senate race
Here’s a political rarity: Three local elected officials are taking back their endorsement of an incumbent in the stretch run before the election.
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
Massachusetts marijuana repeal effort threatens social equity businesses
A November ballot question could end recreational marijuana sales, potentially sinking dozens of businesses in the state's social equity programs.
Millionaire tax is good for Maine businesses, good for Maine
By raising revenue to help people meet basic needs, we give them a better chance of remaining in their jobs and communities.
Capricor’s Duchenne AdCom Didn’t Fail on Science. It Failed on Statistics.
FDA's CTGTAC voted 9-3 against Capricor's deramiocel on July 30, 2026. The science wasn't the problem. The statistical methodology was — and the FDA let it get…
Former progressive Squad member Cori Bush attempts political comeback against Missouri US Representative Bell
The rematch in a heavily Democratic St. Louis district is one of several consequential primaries.
16 Weird Facts That'll Stick In Your Brain Forever
Can't wait to whip one of these out at a dinner party 10 years from now.
Healey announces first steps to lower health care costs, investment in primary care
Massachusetts is setting out to lower health care costs with steps like investing more state resources in primary care, supporting nursing recruitment, standardize out-of-network service rates and more, Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday…
Why tickets for sports events are left out of DC bill combating price gouging
Buying tickets on resale marketplaces, such as Ticketmaster or StubHub, should be cheaper for shows in the D.C. in the near future.
Democrats blink as Schumer helps GOP clear key shutdown hurdle
Chuck Schumer endorsed the continuing resolution as Senate Republicans race to clear a government funding bill before leaving Washington, D.C.
‘Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical’
When “Hair” premiered on Broadway in 1968, after two off-Broadway runs and extensive revisions, it broke new ground.
Funny Signs July 2026: Bathroom, Road, Church Signs, And More
"Register and vote because I am sick of stupid."
Business Ins & Outs: Meermin, Dehli Belly; Green Almond Pantry, 7th Street Burger
Meermin Shoes is now open at 3001 M St. NW. It is the Spanish footwear brand’s first retail location in the Washington, D.C. The business offers handcrafted