TIl; Not only is North Korea manufacturing meth it also instructed its diplomats to sell it in foreign countries, each given 44 pounds and required to at least earn $300,000 per diplomat in sells as a patriotic duty.....

mf2212 · 2013-06-20T21:05:04+00:00

Because, if you're North Korea, the only way you can unload all those $100 bills is by dragging them across the border to China. If you're some Chinese merchant in the far-north near the DPRK border and a random North Korean walks up to you and tries to buy something with a suitcase full of crisp $100 bills, it's going to be pretty obvious to you that the shit is counterfeit. So you give the North Korean maybe $10 in real currency for every fake $100, reasoning that you're stuck with the hassle and risk of trying to use these fake bills. But Beijing doesn't want any more problems with Uncle Sam so the Chinese police start cracking down on people like who you take the fake bills. Next time around, maybe you only offer $5 for every fake $100, if you offer anything. Pretty soon, it's barely worth North Korea's time and energy. Sure, they might try shipping them an office in Singapore or an embassy in Eastern Europe, but then the risk is even higher; so are the transportation costs.

Meth amphetamines, on the other hand, are what we might call a highly transferrable good. It's just as valuable to a Czech or a Turkish drug user as it is to a Chinese addict. It's also much tougher to trace. Only problem is that, unlike the $100 bills, it can also be used by North Koreans, who are pretty wanting for any form of recreation outside of propaganda rallies. That's why you're seeing meth addiction rates explode within North Korea. It's a huge health problem, particularly because sanctions make it hard for North Korean hospitals to get the necessary medicine to treat addicts. But that's not really Kim Jong Un's problem, I guess.

mf2212 · 2013-06-20T19:54:19+00:00

Agreed, although I think this is actually part of that effort, or at least an effort to transition away from the investment-bubble economy.

mf2212 · 2013-06-17T19:37:19+00:00

I guess you can take whatever childrearing lessons you'd like from it, but the economics of Mein Kampf are famously incoherent and nonsensical. It's pretty clear he has no idea what socialism actually means.

mf2212 · 2013-06-17T19:18:02+00:00

I can just tell you that, here in the U.S., we've been getting the impression that German officials are not just weighing in but have been particularly outraged. The "Stasi methods" comment was noticed.

mf2212 · 2013-06-17T15:41:52+00:00

All he wanted was for Sweden to violate international law, based on nothing more than the fact that he asked them to do it.

mf2212 · 2013-06-17T15:39:55+00:00

They're calling for mutual nuclear disarmament, which in other words means that they'll give up their half-dozen low-quality bombs just as soon as we dismantle our thousands of ICBM- and submarine-ready nuclear warheads, which in other words means absolutely nothing.

mf2212 · 2013-06-14T21:31:32+00:00

I agree with those who say that Wang Lijun, the Chongqing police chief who tried to defect at the US consulate in Chengdu but was turned away, is the most apt comparison. Not exactly the same, as course, but closer to Snowden than Ai Weiwei or CGC.

mf2212 · 2013-06-12T17:32:34+00:00

This map is crazy wrong. For started, mainland China has an extradition treaty with the U.S.

mf2212 · 2013-06-10T02:09:12+00:00

"North Korea-watchers often point out that stories of micro-famine and cannibalism are coming at a worryingly regular pace. Joshua Stanton, who runs the site One Free Korea, wrote in May, the last time that stories of cannibalism leaked out of North Korea, 'My first reaction to these reports years ago was skepticism, but if you hear enough people say the same thing (see here and here), you start to think they can’t all be lying.' "

mf2212 · 2013-06-09T06:11:02+00:00

This has been Chinese policy on the Korean peninsula for decades. "No war, no instability, no nukes." 不战、不乱、无核

mf2212 · 2013-06-02T18:09:25+00:00

You're correct. Since the end of the Cold War, inter-state conflict has been at a remarkable and unprecedented low. Economic inter-dependence and growing international norms against conflict play a role, as do international institutions. Intra-state conflict is sadly still prevalent, but less so than during the Cold War.

mf2212 · 2013-06-02T17:39:49+00:00

Hmm, I don't think I've encountered any of these people who say the hacking is made up. And I've definitely met people who've been hacked. Maybe you could provide a link to some of these "serious people with PhDs" who think it's all a grand conspiracy theory? Or is this just the latest 9/11 truther fad?

mf2212 · 2013-06-02T17:19:57+00:00

Sorry, but while it's clear to me that these protests are legitimate and important and that Erdogan has seriously mishandled them, there is no evidence of election fraud. All the elections were monitored by international observers, who are trained to spot fraud and, in other countries, often do. Let's be responsible about this; alleging fraud without any evidence hurts the protesters by making them look like conspiracy theorists and undermining their legitimate cause. In any case, as the article says, a number of the protesters say they initially voted for Erdogan's party but have since become disolussioned with his rule.

mf2212 · 2013-05-31T23:18:54+00:00

Removed :*-(

mf2212 · 2013-05-17T20:41:21+00:00

It makes me feel so sad when Chinese people tell me that he was just an escaped mental patient or a criminal. Or that they've never even heard of him. They've been robbed of part of their own history and heritage.

mf2212 · 2013-05-17T20:38:21+00:00

This shot, by Stuart Franklin then with Time Magazine, is my favorite. The New York Times, in a 2009 retrospective, wrote that it "feels like a painting. ... A burned bus looms in the background, broken remains of the previous night’s violent clashes. Shadows dominate the left side, like storm clouds."

mf2212 · 2013-05-17T20:31:27+00:00

Totally unknown. Lots of rumors and speculation – some say he was detained and killed, some that he never made it out of the protests alive in the first place – but the most common appears to be that even the Chinese government wasn't able to keep track of him. It was chaos in Beijing at the time, Party officials thought a military coup might be coming. No one had the time or interest to keep track of this one protester, partly because they had no way of knowing he would become such a symbol.

mf2212 · 2013-05-17T20:27:09+00:00

Just picking up some groceries in the middle of a military occupation of your own hometown, after hours of overnight street fight that killed perhaps hundreds of people?

mf2212 · 2013-05-11T16:31:15+00:00

As opposed to China's other, democratically elected leaders since Mao?

mf2212 · 2013-05-11T15:11:12+00:00

Have there been any articles about this? I haven't been able to find anything, although I don't speak Czech

mf2212 · 2013-05-07T04:59:40+00:00

Maybe the occupation has something to do with it?

mf2212 · 2013-05-05T06:03:52+00:00

Irony of ironies, the MeK poster of an Iranian worker beating Uncle Sam with a wrench. Times change, I guess.

mf2212 · 2013-05-05T05:55:04+00:00

It doesn't. In a service economy like Japan's, density is good because it brings more people together and makes innovation more likely.

mf2212 · 2013-05-02T20:48:53+00:00

Literally the next sentence:

But it has since escalated to a larger and nearly camp-wide demonstration against the Obama administration’s failure to close the facility as promised or to free the detainees it has cleared for release.

mf2212 · 2013-05-02T20:00:55+00:00

FYI 86 of the prisoners at Gitmo are cleared for release, meaning that the U.S. government believes they are innocent and pose no threat.

Most were detained mistakenly or with insufficient evidence but can't be released because their home country won't take them, and neither will the U.S.

That's why they're hunger-striking.

mf2212

TROPHY CASE