Sizing up the New Axis - by Noah Smith - Noahpinion
I’m traveling today, so here’s one from the archives. Back in 2022, following the start of the Ukraine War, I wrote a bunch of posts about how the U.S. economy would have to change to meet the challenges of a new era of geopolitical conflict. The most important of these was probably the post in which I compared the combined economic might of the “New Axis” of Russia and China against that of America and its allies.
Since I wrote that post, three big things have happened. First, it has become abundantly clear that the New Axis is a real partnership instead of a speculative one. Second, the New Axis has become increasingly aggressive in its actions and strident in its rhetoric:
And third, the Biden Administration took a number of important first steps to deal with this new economic reality — industrial policy, export controls, and tariffs on Chinese products.
Anyway, an election is approaching very soon. Foreign policy and geoeconomics haven’t gotten a lot of air time in this race, but I think it’s very important for everyone to think about the seriousness of the external challenge America is facing, and which candidate would do more to prepare America’s economy to resist that challenge. Anyway, here’s my post from 2022.
