More fun and games in the UK this week as we move towards a new Prime Minister. I might write out a short blog post with some thoughts on what I hope they do (that hopefully isn’t just: do whatever I want). The worry right now is that it seems like Burnham is the frontrunner without much opposition and is unlikely to have a serious political program ready, aside from some comments about public control over energy, housing, water, and transport. What do these mean in practise for the UK, and what is his political philosophy behind them – how do you handle the inevitable losers from these?
Anyway, this may rumble on for awhile yet. In the meantime, here are the usual links of the week.
https://overcast.fm/+ABUJDaIKzeg
- This episode of The Critic focuses on what the British vision of government is, and isn’t. What’s interesting is that for all the criticism of the Starmer government, there are clear tenets: namely, commitment to international law and net zero. The problem is that these have led nowhere economically, and now we’re back to square one.
- The problem is that the UK economy hasn’t ‘worked’ properly since probably around the mid-2000s – even before the financial crisis, we were spending well above our means, which is partially why the Financial Crisis of 08 hit us so badly.
- Our big issue that Hill and Bayliss note is that both the major political parties, Labour and Conservative, governed almost as a uniparty – the Conservatives ultimately did not reject the state left by the Blair era, but failed to recognise that that era benefited from generous growth, solid energy production and prices, and a gentle international climate.
“No one wants to have higher wage costs, which means higher costs for services. Nobody wants to raise taxes. And so therefore, you import people and you allow the accruing debt of all of the social, economic and political consequences of those decisions, they’re tomorrow’s problem.”
- I can’t help but feel we’re at the logical endpoint for this economic system, given its sheer political unpopularity and inability to generate durable growth. Having said that, because growth is so precious, we’ve never been more split on what we need to do. Given what’s happened with Starmer this week, I can’t help but be extremely worried that we’re about to go full on 1970s here.
https://substack.com/inbox/post/196162842
- Tibor Rutar explores why Northern Italy is so much more developed than Southern Italy in this fascinating piece.
- There’s a lot in here, including the mafia, geography, malaria, and religion, which all blend together to lead to wildly different outcomes, even within the same country.
- As some of the comments say, it would be interesting to explore why these differences even now haven’t narrowed, despite fiscal transfers and other European support measures. Presumably, in this day in age, the social element (i.e., a weak state, and lack of inclusive wealth institutions) is leading to the main differences now, but this is just speculation from my end.
https://substack.com/inbox/post/196541031
- Slightly more of a personal link for me, given I’ve got my own form of anxiety.
- Brewer takes issue with our delivery of treatment for anxiety and other similar mental health issues, namely that, as he puts it, we do prescriptions, education, and willpower.
- Naturally, of course, the last point is particularly unhelpful – trying to will yourself to calm when in the middle of an anxiety episode can only get you so far.
- Instead, he emphasises we need to move to what works best – rewards based learning:
The mechanism that does seem to address rumination is awareness applied to the loop itself. Noticing the trigger. Watching the behavior of worrying as it unfolds. Feeling clearly what the actual reward, or lack of reward, of worry is in the body. In trials from my lab and others, this kind of awareness training has produced clinically meaningful reductions in anxiety symptoms, and the proposed mechanism is exactly the one I’ve been describing: updating the reward value of worry in the orbitofrontal cortex so that your brain stops reaching for it. That’s a different approach that may get at the underlying driver of anxiety itself, and is quite different than being told to take a few deep breaths when you’re stressed.
- So, stop trying to fight the brain, and instead ask why you are anxious and what it is doing for you, i.e. relying on curiosity. Quite hard to do in the moment, but I’ve found it does help a fair bit.
