I wrote a piece for E-IR getting into heavier detail about Sanders’ and Clinton’s respective strategies on economic inequality. You can read it by clicking this link.
While I’m here, some blog news:
A few of you may have noticed that I’ve been writing a bit less often in April–this is because I’m preparing for my upcoming first year of PhD registration exercise at Cambridge, for which I’ve been writing a 10,000 word progress report.
You may also have noticed that some time ago I discontinued on-blog comments. I have several reasons for this:
- As my readership has expanded, the number of comments I get has increased, and I’ve found I do not have the time to moderate them or reply to them and that my efforts to do so were distracting me from writing more new material.
- A loud minority of the comments I receive contain factual errors and objectively erroneous arguments, and if I do not respond to them or delete them the size of my audience allows my blog to become a platform for people whose claims and views I have no desire to propagate.
- I am maintaining a public Facebook page and a Twitter, and I am from time to time engaging with people on those platforms, so the on-blog comments are somewhat redundant.
- Large numbers of comments made it more difficult for people to find all the goodies that are at the bottom of my pages–the search bar, the archives, information on how to follow me, etc.
- The on-site comments stopped being fun, and this is meant to be fun.
So if you want to get in touch with me or ask me a question, your best bet now is to message me on Facebook or Twitter or, if it’s really important, send me an e-mail at bmstudebaker@gmail.com (or bms47@cam.ac.uk).
Thanks again to all of you for continuing to read and share my stuff. Because of you, as of April 24 Why Bernie vs Hillary Matters More Than People Think has recorded about 725,000 hits so far, while last May’s Britain: For the Love of God Please Stop David Cameron is closing in on 900,000.
I know there are still some of you from the old days before I wrote the big pieces–a special thank you to you guys. I know I’ve been writing about the election too much at the expense of the more theoretical, issue-oriented pieces. This also happened to some extent in 2012. As the primaries wind down, I expect to get back to doing more theory. Many of those posts are personal favorites of mine. It’s difficult, because where possible I like to tie broader ideas into current events, and lately the election is monopolizing political coverage in the US to the exclusion of everything else.
I also know my British readers are looking for the Brexit post. It’s coming, but I’m timing it to give it the greatest possible reach. Look for it in early June, with follow ups leading up to the referendum on the 23rd. The working title is Britain: For Pity’s Sake Stay in the EU. For now I will tell you that the Brexit crowd is making a lot of assumptions about how other states will respond to Brexit–they’re assuming that the EU will cut nice deals with the UK, that other countries like the US will strengthen their economic ties with Britain, and so on. This is wildly optimistic. If Britain leaves, the EU will seek to punish it for leaving and the US will be livid (because it sees the UK as a conduit for American influence in Europe) and stick the UK at the back of the trade queue. There is nothing to stop the EU from slapping large tariffs on British goods, denying British citizens free movement in Europe, and who knows what else. The EU has zero incentive to include Britain in the European Economic Area because doing so only encourages additional member states to leave or to attempt to negotiate special individualized membership deals. It has to deter exits, which means if Britain exits Britain must suffer. Those are the sticks–from a carrot perspective, leaving the EU makes it much harder for the UK to deal effectively with irreducibly international problems, like climate change and tax avoidance, where international regulations are crucial. But more on this in June…
Benjamin Studebaker 