Low Fertility in High-Income Countries

What’s Really Behind the Baby Bust?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/28/inconceivable-the-impossibility-of-family-in-an-age-of-uncertainty-anna-louise-sussman-book-review
People say they want more children than they’re having. Is modern life stopping them—or have our ideas about a good life changed?
 
Kearney, Melissa S., and Phillip B. Levine. 2026. "Why Is Fertility So Low in High-Income Countries?" Journal of Economic Literature 64 (3): 907–49.
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/pdf/doi/10.1257/jel.20261786 

Author Min Jin Lee

‘I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first’: Pachinko author Min Jin Lee
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/oct/03/i-thought-if-im-going-to-die-im-going-to-write-a-book-first-pachinko-author-min-jin-lee

Min Jin Lee was Underestimated for Half Her Life. Then She Started to Write.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/magazine/min-jin-lee-american-hagwon.html
A torch bearer for the great 19th-century tradition of social realism, she’s become one of the most important novelists of her generation.
 
Min Jin Lee on “American Hagwon,” Her First Novel After the Phenomenon of “Pachinko”
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/min-jin-lee-on-american-hagwon-her-first-novel-after-the-phenomenon-of-pachinko

American Millionaires

The Wealthiest—and Stealthiest—Class in America
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/21/the-everywhere-millionaire-owen-zidar-and-eric-zwick-book-review
America’s everywhere millionaires built fortunes from hot dogs, car dealerships, medical practices, and convenience stores. Then they learned how to protect them.
 
The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
https://www.everywheremillionaire.com 

Fukuyama's Take

He Warned That the End of History Could Be Rough. Maybe Now People Will Listen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/books/review/francis-fukuyama-in-the-realm-of-the-last-man-end-of-history.html
Francis Fukuyama’s famous take on the post-Cold War world was widely misunderstood. In a new memoir, he tries to set the record straight. 

Jonathan Haidt versus Social Media

A $17.1 Billion Vote of Confidence That Jonathan Haidt Was Right
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/style/meta-jonathan-haidt-anxious-generation.html
In “The Anxious Generation,” he laid out the evils of social media for kids. The landmark Meta settlement seems to agree.  

Related:
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-adverse-effects-of-social-media.html
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2024/05/tech-and-teen-anxiety.html

The Odyssey

The Odyssey (Rest is History Podcast)
https://youtu.be/X9BdAIn-WoE 

A Tragic Development

The End of Reading Is Here by Rose Horowitch
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/
Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history. 

Profile of a Permabear (Jeremy Grantham)

We’re in the biggest stock market bubble ever, warns British investment oracle
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/05/03/biggest-stock-market-bubble-ever-british-investment-oracle/
Jeremy Grantham says the inevitable correction could be as grim as the Great Depression. 

Iran War - Geopolitics and Strategic Shifts

It's time to end the world's delusions over the Iran energy crisis
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/its-time-end-worlds-delusions-over-iran-energy-crisis-2026-04-07/

Electrostates vs. Petrostates
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/23/climate-change-world-order-green-transition-fossil-fuel/
China is building a new green bloc, while the United States is doubling down on oil.

The Iran War Is Making the American Economy More Dominant Than Ever
https://www.wsj.com/economy/the-iran-war-is-making-the-american-economy-more-dominant-than-ever-287f9569
America’s role as a major oil-and-gas exporter tempts President Trump to walk away from the Strait of Hormuz and wield leverage over others.
 
A New Oil Shock Accelerates a Return to Nuclear Power
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/business/nuclear-energy-iran-war.html
Shocks to natural gas supplies are spurring countries in Asia and elsewhere to rethink their rejection of nuclear energy after the 2011 disaster in Fukushima, Japan. 

 
Iran War Effect
Fareed's Take: https://youtu.be/w2FoG5s1WGQ
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/03/iran-war-trump-hormuz-mistake/
 
The Iran Shock
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/iran-shock
And the Dangerous Allure of Energy Autarky. 

The West cannot understand Iran
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2026/03/the-west-cannot-understand-iran
Complacent commentators are obscuring the realities of the conflict.

Big Picture View:

The Follies of Predicting War

https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/20/book-review-war-and-power-phillips-payson-obrien/

One excellent contribution to this debate is a recently published book by Phillips Payson O’Brien. In War and Power: Who Wins Wars—and Why, O’Brien, who is a professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, reminds us that the outcome of war may indeed be influenced by aspects beyond guns, air power, and the number of soldiers. He argues that a more holistic approach to how military might is usually measured will improve our understanding of who wins wars and why—and potentially even deter states from going to war in the first place.

Origins of Monotheism

How God Got So Great
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/03/09/how-god-got-so-great
What monotheism means is surprisingly hard to pin down, but there’s a reason it swept the world. 

Huntington's Clash of Civilizations

The Clash of Civilizations Was an Inside Job
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/clash-civilizations-huntington-wrong/685950/ 

Profile of Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver Infuriates the Literary World. That’s Fine by Her.
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/lionel-shriver-infuriates-the-literary-world-thats-fine-by-her-09448e53 

Immigration policy should discriminate by Lionel Shriver
https://spectator.com/article/immigration-policy-should-discriminate/?edition=us
No one is safe from a wealth tax by Lionel Shriver
https://spectator.com/article/no-one-is-safe-from-a-wealth-tax/?edition=us

Revisiting Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises

The Brilliance and the Badness of “The Sun Also Rises”
https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/the-brilliance-and-the-badness-of-the-sun-also-rises
Although Ernest Hemingway’s novel makes positive claims about what one should be—brave, admiring of nature and grace—its architecture is held up primarily by hatred. 

India's Economic Ascent

India’s Game-Changing Digital Money Model
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/indias-digital-payments-infrastructure-is-a-model-for-the-world-by-rishi-suri-2026-02
Over the past decade, India has built the world’s largest real-time payments system. By using public infrastructure to expand financial inclusion, it offers a model for other developing countries that want to modernize payments without being dependent on a few multinational corporations.

The ascent of India’s economy
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/01/22/the-ascent-of-indias-economy
Related: 
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/01/22/an-audacious-new-book-about-a-precocious-country

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/cracks-india-model-aiyar

 
The remarkable recovery of Narendra Modi
https://www.economist.com/asia/2026/01/21/the-remarkable-recovery-of-narendra-modi
Related:
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/01/22/the-odd-thing-about-modis-mojo 

Can Modi Turn India into a Developed Economy by 2047?
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/india-developed-country-status-effort-faces-significant-headwinds-by-anne-o-krueger-2025-11
Achieving Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious goal will require far more than accelerating economic growth. Without stronger institutions, improved education, and updated infrastructure, India’s current momentum will not be enough to sustain long-term development.  

Narendra Modi plans to free up India’s giant labor force
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/11/27/narendra-modi-plans-to-free-up-indias-giant-labour-force

India has undermined a popular myth about development
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/02/27/india-has-undermined-a-popular-myth-about-development
Extreme poverty in the country has dropped to negligible levels.

A New History of Capitalism

What Does “Capitalism” Really Mean, Anyway?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/01/capitalism-a-global-history-sven-beckert-book-review
In a new global history, capitalism is an inescapable vibe—responsible for everything, everywhere, all at once. 

Masculinity in an Era of Big Cultural Shifts

What Did Men Do to Deserve This?
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/what-did-men-do-to-deserve-this
Changes in the economy and in the culture seem to have hit them hard. Scott Galloway believes they need an “aspirational vision of masculinity.” 

Dostoyevsky on the Nature of Human Existence

The Light of “The Brothers Karamazov”
https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/the-light-of-the-brothers-karamazov
Although Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote with wildness and urgency, he patiently insisted on asking an essential question: What are we living for? 

The dark prophet of our times
https://www.newstatesman.com/the-weekend-essay/2023/11/fyodor-dostoevsky-dark-prophet-of-our-times
In The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky dares to ask the question few will: do people truly desire freedom?

Dalrymple on Ancient India

On GPS: A secretly influential ancient civilization
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/12/world/video/gps-1012-influential-ancient-civilization-india
Fareed talks to historian William Dalrymple, author of a new book about the debt the world owes to ancient India, which was the origin of key ideas and innovations like the number zero, the game of chess and the idea that the earth revolves around the sun. 

The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/01/hidden-story-ancient-india-west-maths-astronomy-historians
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/sep/07/the-golden-road-how-ancient-india-transformed-the-world-william-dalyrmple-review 

Ancient Myths

The Hunt for the World’s Oldest Story
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/20/review-the-roots-of-ancient-mythology-books
From thunder gods to serpent slayers, scholars are reconstructing myths that vanished millennia ago. How much further can we go—and what might we find? 

2025 Nobel Prize in Economics: Innovation-Led Growth

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2025 was awarded "for having explained innovation-driven economic growth" with one half to Joel Mokyr "for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress" and the other half jointly to Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt "for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction."
 
From stagnation to sustained growth
https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025/10/popular-economicsciences2025-1.pdf
https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025/10/advanced-economicsciencesprize2025.pdf 

Why Joel Mokyr deserves his Nobel prize
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/10/13/why-joel-mokyr-deserves-his-nobel-prize

Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on How Technology Drives Growth
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/business/nobel-prize-economics.html
Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won the prize for showing how “society must keep an eye on the factors that generate and sustain economic growth,” an award committee member said.