Convenience Big Store: The dangerous myth of American decline

18 December, 2023

In the headlines

Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, will meet Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv today, where he is expected to push the Israeli PM to scale back the invasion of Gaza to small raids aimed at taking out Hamas leaders and rescuing hostages. France, the UK and Germany all stepped up calls for a ceasefire over the weekend. A "game-changing" drug that prevents hot flushes has been approved for use in the UK, says The Guardian. Veoza, also known as fezolinetant, could help hundreds of thousands of menopausal women, around 70% of whom experience the symptom. A balcony in South Kensington has been sold for £35,000 to a buyer who needed a parking permit. The new owner, who will also pay a £1,300 annual service charge, had bought a property nearby that did not come with parking.

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Leonardo DiCaprio splashing the cash in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

The dangerous myth of American decline

"Most Americans think their country is in decline," says Fareed Zakaria in Foreign Policy. The share who are "satisfied" with the way the country is going has not risen above 50% in 20 years; today it stands at a miserable 20%. Donald Trump won in 2016 by capturing this mood and preaching "doom and gloom". Now he's at it again – three months before entering the 2024 presidential race, he released a video titled "A Nation in Decline". The Biden administration isn't much better, blaming decades of globalisation for "hollowing out" American industry and exporting manufacturing jobs. The suggestion is that poor old Americans need protecting with epically expensive subsidies and stiff tariffs.

Yet for all the talk of "dysfunction and decay", the reality is that American supremacy has never been greater. In 1990, US per capita income was 17% higher than Japan's and 24% higher than Western Europe's. Today, it's 54% and 32% higher respectively. The US economy was roughly the same size as the Eurozone's in 2008; today, it is nearly twice the size. Nine of the 10 most valuable firms in the world are American, up from only four in 1989, and the US is the world's largest producer of oil and gas. As for the industries of the future, American AI startups have attracted six times more venture funding than their Chinese equivalents. Why don't we hear more about any of that? If Washington keeps turning inward, tyrants will be emboldened and the rest of the world will suffer. The only danger to American dominance is the myth that it's on the wane.

Photography

Red Bull has announced the winners of this year's Illume competition for extreme sports photography. Top shots include a super-sized swell in Tahiti above the world's deadliest surfable reef; a climber ascending a bright orange sandstone cliff in Utah's Castle Valley; a BMX rider navigating a pastel-coloured geometric apartment complex in Spain; and a free diver in Mexico illuminated by a shaft of sunlight coming through a hole in a cave. See more here.

Inside politics

In a recent press conference with Volodymyr Zelensky, Joe Biden made a striking and "entirely true" point, says Anatol Lieven in Responsible Statecraft: Ukraine has "already won a great victory" against Russia. By scuppering Moscow's plan to subjugate the whole country, and keeping 80% of its terrain independent, Kyiv has broken with 300 years of dominance by its neighbour. Its achievement echoes that of Finland, which avoided being annexed by the USSR during World War Two at the expense of surrendering a small portion of territory. This, surely, should be at the heart of a "new narrative" that could help the West, and Kyiv, to present a peace deal with Russia as a qualified success.

On the way back

Instagram/@slowroasted

The Watergate Salad is having a renaissance on TikTok, says The New York Times. Made using "pistachio pudding mix", Cool Whip, pecans, mini marshmallows and canned pineapple, the dish first became popular in the 1970s around the time of the eponymous scandal. Last month, the curious concoction was googled nearly 400,000 times – twice the number of searches at the same time last year – and one video of a woman attending a party in Dallas with a vat of the "mint-green fluff" has racked up 18 million views. It may be "cloyingly sweet", but, incredibly, it is not a dessert – it's usually enjoyed as a Thanksgiving side dish.

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Blanc: "a slippery slope". Lance McMillan/Toronto Star/Getty

There is no such thing as "good racism"

The list of companies I am boycotting because of their "stupid, adolescent grandstanding on fashionable political issues" grows by the week, says Rod Liddle in The Sunday Times. The latest addition is the insurance company Aviva, whose boss Amanda Blanc recently announced that no white male is promoted to a senior position without her explicit approval. She vets them all, she says, to ensure that the process has been "diverse", and not just a "phone call to a mate saying, 'Would you like a job? Pop up and we'll fix it up for you'".

This policy seems to imply that the "phone call to a mate" system would actually be perfectly ok if the candidates were, say, black women. "It's just the white men she has a problem with." The trouble is – and this really shouldn't need spelling out – "discriminating against someone on the grounds of their gender is sexist and doing so because of their skin colour is racist". If she'd said, "Oh, and if anyone was thinking of employing a black woman, they'd have to run it by me first," there would – rightly – be outrage. If you're tempted to think discrimination is sometimes justified because it is "well intentioned" and meant to iron out inequities in society, "you are on a slippery slope". There is no "good racism" or "good sexism". There's just racism and sexism.

Quirk of history

Fresh coffee beans: better than soap? Getty

The earliest mention of coffee dates to the Abbasid Empire – which dominated the Middle East and north Africa – in the 9th century, says Gastro Obscura. But bunk, as it was then called, wasn't a beverage. People used the beans to make "dry, aromatic compounds" that could mask the smell of sweat and food – handwash, effectively. It wasn't until the 15th century that it became a popular drink, first for medicinal purposes and later to stay awake.

Letters

To The Economist:

It is interesting to note that your article on Brazilian drug gangs felt it necessary to explain that Lisbon was the capital of Portugal, but didn't feel that the slang word "blow" required clarification. I fear I may be out of touch with the lifestyle of the average Economist reader now.

Mike Ward, London

Snapshot

Snapshot answer

It's Eve Gilles, who has just been crowned Miss France – much to the disappointment of traditionalists. The 20-year-old maths student from Quaëdypre, near Dunkirk, was the first woman with a pixie cut to reach the final in the pageant's 103-year history, says The Daily Telegraph. She finished third in the public vote, but was the pick of the seven-woman judging panel – prompting complaints on social media that the contest had gone "woke". "We're used to seeing beautiful Misses with long hair, but I chose an androgynous look with short hair," Gilles said after her victory. "No one should dictate who you are."

Quoted

"Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years to know whether or not it was funny."