Policy and Government

Fascinating piece by former Soviet propaganda executive Dima Vorobiev at Quora explains President’s Gorbachev’s epic failure in trying to save communism and losing the USSR rather than saving the USSR and elimination communism:

Looking back from 2019, we know that some influential people in the KGB started to mull rolling back the Communist project and considered something like the Chinese “SOE Capitalism” probably as early as the late 1950s. In the 1960s, they even commissioned theoretical discussions about the matter, low-key but not secret. Gaidar, Chubais and other whizkids of our State-oligarchical Capitalism from the 1990s cut their theoretical baby teeth in the late 1960s and 1970s—all under the parental supervision of the KGB and men in the Party and the government with KGB connections among friends and family.

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Instead of saving the USSR and transforming it into a State-oligarchical one-party Capitalist system like modern-day China, Gorbachev went about saving Communism.

This was a dead man’s journey (here’s why). What Gorbachev should have done instead, was try to roll back the Communist project, introduce a market economy, and steer away from nationalist unrest and the resistance from Stalinists in the Party. This was a totally different task that required a set of skills that Gorbachev turned out not to have.

Steve Forbes shares with us bold lessons from the most powerful banker on the planet: Stephen Schwarzman

In the Washington Examiner, Tim Ryan discusses the economic arguments for his long shot Presidential bid.

Monetary

Anbound says Beijing needs to prepare for the emergence of a new global monetary system.

In the WSJ, Dave Michaels and Paul Vigna believe the dollar will face a currency war against digital assets.

Fortune covers the Fed’s $400 billion bailout of the repo market.

At Forbes.com, John Tamny explains why falling oil prices would be bullish for the U.S. economy.