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Weekly poll results: a clear favorite emerges from the Google Pixel 11 family
And it certainly isn't the Pixel 11 Pro Fold - the pricey foldable is getting overlooked in favor of other foldables or other Pixel 11 models.
Deals: the Pixel 11 series is now on sale, the Galaxy Z8 foldables come with gift cards
Amazon is offering gift cards and trade-in bonuses for all four Pixel 11 models and all three Galaxy Z 2026 foldables. The Google Pixel 11 series went on...
I’m now sure the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has already wiped the floor with the foldable iPhone
Foldable fans are losing trust in Apple’s ability to launch an interesting device.
Preserving Processes: How Capturing Workflows Can Supercharge a Business Manual
They capture what employees click, type, and navigate as procedures unfold, helping preserve both the steps and the “whys” of how a company does what it does.
iPhone Ultra lands September 18 at $2,000 and kills the visible crease
Every foldable phone you have ever held has a crease in the middle of the display, and that crease has been the category's most embarrassing open secret since 2019. Samsung has refined it, minimized it, and shot their devices in lighting specifically designed to hide it. Google's Pixel Fold was a little better. The Honor
Pixel 11 Pro Fold is changing how I multitask on a foldable with ‘App Handles’ [Gallery]
Google is launching a new Android feature with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, "App Handles," which is changing how I use foldable multitasking.
How States Leverage Policy to Build Up Community Health Workers
Learn how states are bolstering CHWs through training, funding, and more in this Health Policy Update.
The wide-screen phone trend is expanding beyond foldables
HUAWEI has launched the Pura X View, bringing a wide 16:9.5 aspect ratio display and 7,000mAh battery to non-foldable glass-slab phones.
Eritrea’s Buffer Zone Politics from Eastern Sudan to Ethiopia's Tigray
The most consequential development in the Horn of Africa may not be taking place in any of its capitals. It is unfolding instead across a chain of borderlands stretching from the Red Sea through Kassala and further eastern Sudan to South and south-eastern to Ethiopia’s…
Scientists say the human family tree may need a major rewrite
The human family tree may be due for a major rewrite. Researchers argue that Australopithecus and Paranthropus should be folded into the genus Homo because new fossils have blurred many of the traits once used to separate them. The proposed shake-up could provide a simpler, more accurate picture of our surprisingly complicated evolutionary past.
Google Messages RCS breaks with ‘3100’ error for some, especially Galaxy switchers
An issue with Google Messages appears to be breaking RCS for some users, with much of the problem tracing back...
Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold feels like the end of an era
Google has some catching up to do.
Apple Accidentally Leaked More Than 10 New Products in macOS Update
Apple on Monday seeded the macOS 26.7 Release Candidate, and the upcoming software update has seemingly leaked more than 10 new Apple products. macOS 26.7's code contains references to AirPods with infrared cameras for Visual Intelligence, the long-rumored foldable iPhone, an all-new Apple smart home hub, the first-ever MacBook and iPad mini models with OLED displays, an updated Siri Remote for a next-generation Apple TV, and more, according to MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris.
Samsung Galaxy owners just got a care and repair hub right in their phone settings
Will roll out with One UI 9
iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra: New Details Leak as Apple Event Nears
"iPhone Ultra" supply will be very limited when the foldable device is first released later this year, according to Fixed Focus Digital, a known leaker on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The account also claimed that the iPhone 18 Pro's A20 Pro chip will be up to 18% faster and up to 30% more power efficient compared to the iPhone 17 Pro's A19 Pro chip.
New iPhone Ultra leaks cover release timing, availability, and name
Apple’s foldable iPhone Ultra will be unveiled soon, and new leaks cover expected release timing, availability, and the product’s name.
Samsung is reportedly building an even wider Galaxy Z Fold 9 for video viewing
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an absolute smash hit and, with that in mind, Samsung is reportedly doubling down...
8 Foldable Finds From Home Depot That Are Great For Camping Trips
Small and lightweight gear is essential when camping, which makes these folding tools and gadgets a great choice.
9 Of The Best Bluetooth Keyboards For Your Tablet
From foldable models to keyboards with built-in trackpads, these are the best tablet kayboards for typing, working, and staying productive on the go.
Face Unlock on Pixel 11 series works better in low light
The Pixel 11 series now offers Face Unlock that “recognizes you more easily in low light.” Since the Pixel 8...
Perez Hilton created the internet culture that watched his mental health crisis unfold
The celebrity gossip blogger became as famous as the stars he covered before social media upended his business model.
Deals: the Google Pixel 11 series is now on pre-order with gift cards and trade-in bonuses
The Galaxy Z8 foldables have similar offers, though, and the Galaxy S26 models are cheaper than the respective Pixel phones.
Deals: Pixel 11 series goes on pre-order, Galaxy Z8 foldables and S26 models drop prices
The new Pixels will be available from August 20, but Samsung is already trying to undercut the newcomers. Google launched its new Pixel 11 series earlier...
I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and it has a problem. It's called the Galaxy Z Fold 8
It's an excellent phone, but there's more fun elsewhere
I don’t think the foldable iPhone stands a chance against the Galaxy Z Fold 8
Apple appears so mired in problems that getting ahead of Samsung feels impossible.
Best Pixel 11 cases: Pixelsnap-ready, metal, protective, customizable, deals, more
The Pixel 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL, and 11 Pro Fold pre-order deals are still flying but many of our favorite case...
Leak uncovers design changes coming with One UI 9.5 to Galaxy phones
A fresh One UI 9.5 leak reveals subtle design polish and AI search in the Phone app coming soon to Samsung Galaxy devices.
Miles ahead: China team boosts atom entanglement distance record fourfold
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: The ultra foldable with an ultra price
Samsung didn't have to change much this year because its hardware is just that good.
With a planned layoff of hundreds, an old name in Chicago business gets set to fold
The former United Stationers, now part of Staples, is expected to shut down this fall.
One UI 9.5 will finally bring app lock feature to your Galaxy phone or tablet
While Samsung phones offer an excellent way to secure your apps and media using Secure Folder, they lack a simple option to lock an app or game that you want to
One UI 9.5 shows up on a Galaxy phone before Samsung is even done with One UI 9
A tipster has shared screenshots revealing that they managed to install an early build of One UI 9.5 on their Galaxy device.
Deals: Pixel 11 up to $350 credit + trade, FREE Pixel Watch 5, Pixelsnap cases 20% off, Google charger 50% off, more
The best deals on Pixel 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL, and 11 Pro Fold pre-order are still rolling with...
Underrated 49ers Signing Could Pay Huge Dividends in 2026
The San Francisco 49ers' wide receiver has seen some big changes this offseason. Mike Evans was brought in to be the No. 1 receiver, and old favorite Deebo Samuel was brought back into the fold. Fellow receiver Ricky Pearsall went down for the year, which was a big blow.
iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra: When is the Next Apple Event?
It is now mid-August, meaning that Apple's annual iPhone event is just around the corner. Below, we take a look at when the event might be held this year. This September, Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and an all-new foldable iPhone that will reportedly be named the iPhone Ultra. The regular iPhone 18, a lower-end iPhone 18e, and the iPhone Air 2 are not expected to be announced until around March 2027, as part of a new launch strategy.
Samsung’s $1,900 Z Fold 8 is still vulnerable to pocket lint
iFixit’s teardown of the Galaxy foldable scrutinizes its IP48 rating.
iPhone Ultra could launch in US only at first, per report
iPhone Ultra is almost here, and a new report claims the initial rollout could be extremely limited, including being US-only at launch.
'iPhone Ultra' Could Face Staggered Country Rollout Like Vision Pro
Apple's foldable "iPhone Ultra" may get a Vision Pro-style staggered country-by-country launch over several months, with initial availability limited to the U.S. market, according to an Australian publication. In a report labeled "exclusive," ChannelNews said today it has been told by local carriers and one major retailer that Apple's first foldable iPhone will be a "no show" when the iPhone 18 Pro models launch in September, despite being unveiled together.
Google Has a Secret Weapon It Didn’t Use on the Pixel 11, and I Don’t Know Why
Commentary: Google has a team dedicated to creating beautiful photo filters. Why didn't it use them on its new phone?
iPhone Ultra’s cameras might get very unorthodox placement, per leak
iPhone Ultra will be unveiled next month, and a new leak indicates the device’s front cameras could be positioned in unusual spots.
We're Live at Made By Google Sharing Every Pixel 11, Pro Fold, and Watch 5 Announcement
Several celebrities are set to make appearances on Aug. 12 to help introduce Google's 11th-generation flagship. Here's what to expect from the Pixel 11 and Pixel Watch lineup.
8 Best Uses For The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8's Wide Screen
With its wide 4:3 inner screen, the passport-shaped Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 makes it easier than ever to read, write, game, and even work on mobile.
'iPhone Ultra' Screen Protectors Reveal Asymmetric Corners
The leaker known as "Ice Universe" today shared images and a hands on video of screen protectors for Apple's rumored "iPhone Ultra," and the leak appears to confirm two of the most discussed details about the foldable's front design. The leaked accessory has square corners on the side that would sit next to the hinge, and rounded corners on the opposite edge.
Alleged iPhone Ultra screen protector surfaces online
The foldable iPhone is expected to launch this September. Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to debut this September with a design similar to the...
‘Everyone’ at Apple uses iPhone Ultra name, says Mark Gurman
Mark Gurman says that ‘iPhone Ultra’ is the name widely used within Apple when referring to the upcoming foldable model.
iPhone Ultra will have two features that ‘Pro’ users should love
iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone Ultra? That’s the decision upgraders will soon face. Here are two iPhone Ultra features that ‘Pro’ users should love.
Galaxy Z Fold 8’s wider shape still survives bend test, teardown shows off titanium and poor Qi placement [Video]
Durability is perhaps the single-biggest hesitation about folding phones, but Samsung has proven time and time again that its foldables...
iOS 27 code reveals six unreleased iPhone 18 models
iOS 27 beta 5 references six unreleased iPhones, from the iPhone 18 lineup to the foldable iPhone Ultra. Here's the full roadmap.
New Purdue AD had the guts to rip Indiana. Then he folded
Purdue's new AD leaned into Indiana rivalry with one comment. What should worry Boilermaker fans isn't what he said. It's how quickly he took it back.
Report: Samsung is increasing the Galaxy Z Fold8 production target for this year by 1 million units
The new wide format foldable has already proven to be more successful than even Samsung had hoped. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 has proven to be more...
I spent a week with Samsung’s $2,100 Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra to see if it’s worth it
Our tech reviewer spent a week with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra to see how it compares against the new Z Fold 8 and other foldable phones.
Apple's Foldable iPhone Ultra Faces a Surging Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
Apple's foldable iPhone is expected to arrive in September against a rival already outrunning its own forecasts. ETNews reports Samsung is building an extra one million Galaxy Z Fold 8 units, after the 4:3 device took 70 percent of a record 1.44 million Galaxy Z8 series pre-orders. ETNews reports Samsung is building an extra one million Galaxy Z Fold 8 units, after the 4:3 device took 70 percent of a record 1.44 million Galaxy Z8 series pre-orders.
Samsung will reportedly make an extra one million Galaxy Z Fold 8 units
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an absolute smash hit, it seems, as Samsung will reportedly make an extra one...
Macau Gaming Supplier Asia Pioneer Entertainment (8400.HK) Issues Profit Alert: H1 Net Profit Surges Nearly 90-Fold
Spike Driven by Core Electronic Gaming Equipment DemandHONG KONG and MACAU, Aug. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings Limited ("APE" or the "Group"; Stock Code: 8400.HK), a Macau-based electronic gaming equipment (EGE) supplier listed on the GEM market of the Hong Kong Stock…
Foldable 'iPhone Ultra 3' Rumored to Feature Larger Displays
Apple is already making plans for its third-generation foldable iPhone, with launch expected as early as 2028, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said the first foldable iPhone is about to get what he called the device's first "truly revolutionary design change" this year, and that Apple already has a roadmap extending two generations beyond it.
Apple Watch Rethink Could See Debut of Round Model, Screenless Fitness Tracker, and More
Apple is re-evaluating the Apple Watch lineup and considering a host of radical new designs, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In today's edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman compared plans for the Apple Watch's evolution to the "revolutionary design change" that the foldable iPhone represents. It will be "something that transforms the product for a new era".
Made by Google 2026 Launch Live: Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 5, Gemini, and all the news
The Pixel event is happening next week, and we're tracking all the news and everything you need to know!
Deals: Galaxy Z Flip8 gets a discount out of the gate, Z Fold8 and Z Fold8 Ultra also on sale
The Z Fold8 duo briefly had a massive discount at checkout, but Amazon reconsidered. We also have a look at Motorola's Razr foldables.
7 Best Tech Gadgets of August 2026
August arrives with a lineup that feels genuinely considered. Not every gadget this month is chasing a headline spec or fighting for shelf space. Some of the most interesting things landing right now are smaller, quieter, and more honest about what they actually do — a folding mouse that disappears into a shirt pocket, a
Does the Galaxy Z Fold 8 owe its success to the iPhone Ultra?
Is Apple the reason the Fold 8 turned out so great?
Millions Of Galaxy Phones Are Weeks Away From Free Samsung Upgrade
Samsung's One UI 9 is spreading to millions more Galaxy phones. The Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, S26 and S25 are all next in line. Here's the full timeline.
Best Launch Deals for Galaxy Z Fold 8, New Galaxy Watches
It's national availability day for Samsung's new Galaxy Z8 series and new Galaxy smartwatches. The deals for these devices change ever so slightly when going from pre-order to general...
Visit Jersey Shore Farmers Markets for Local Produce, Entertainment
A network of Jersey Shore farmers markets continues to unfold throughout the summer. Multiple towns host weekly events showcasing fresh produce, baked goods, crafts, and family-friendly entertainment. The Philadelphia Inquirer offers…
Samsung cuts Galaxy Z Fold 8 trade-ins & deals on release day – here’s where to get the best price now
Galaxy Z Fold 8 release day has arrived and, with it, cuts to the deals available on Samsung's new foldables. Here's what you should know.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Release Date, T-Mobile Free Phone Deals, Price
Fresh off its silver screen debut and record-breaking pre-order numbers, the buzzy new device is coming to T-Mobile customers at no cost. Here's how to claim the carrier's best phone deal to date.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra
We compare Samsung's new form factor foldable to the already established one. Which one is a better fit for you? Now that Samsung has a new form factor in...
Samsung Galaxy Z series is breaking pre-order records
Will we finally see foldable phones enter the mainstream?
Galaxy Z Fold8 duo and Flip8 exceed Samsung's pre-order targets in Europe
They go on sale starting August 7. Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Flip8, the Galaxy Z Fold8, and the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra on July 22, and all three of them...
Samsung insists the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is ‘perfect’ for ‘full-screen’ video
As Samsung’s pre-order perks for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 come to an end, the company continues to advertise its...
Google Contacts reveals what colors Pixel 11 HiLight will support
Ahead of the Pixel 11 launch, Google Contacts for Android has gained strings detailing upcoming support for HiLight.
iPhone Ultra sounds truly deserving of the ‘Ultra’ name
Apple’s first foldable iPhone is coming soon, and based on rumors about the product, it sounds very much deserving of the ‘iPhone Ultra’ name.
Foldable Smartphone Sales to Rise 20% This Year Due to 'iPhone Ultra'
Global foldable smartphone shipments are expected to grow 20% in 2026 compared to last year, with Apple's first entry into the category cited as one of the factors driving the increase, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes. The report notes that the broader smartphone market is contending with tighter supply of upstream logic chips and higher memory prices, but says the foldable segment is expected to keep expanding regardless.
Chartbook 464 The"China squeeze" - the politics of development counterfactuals.
There are three types of China shock discourse. Each has a distinct temporal register. China shock 1.0 was a phrase coined by US academics in the 2010s to retrospectively summarize the impact on particular US labour markets, which they identified through painstaking empirical investigation. China shock 2.0 on everyone’s lips in Europe in the mid 2020s is an alarm raised by trans-Atlantic policy thinkers warning of a coming disaster which they project onto Europe’s ailing car industry. The third type of China shock discourse - commonly known as the “China squeeze” launched most recently by Indian economists Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian in the pages of Foreign Affairs - mobilizes a different, more speculative temporal register: the counterfactual realm of alternate history. The China squeeze argument asks not what has happened, or what is going to happen, but what might have been. Specifically, what options for economic development might have been open to Global South economies like India or the economies of sub-Saharan Africa, had it not been for China’s spectacular industrialization since the late 1990s and the persistent competitiveness of China’s manufacture in low-skilled segments. Chatterjee and Subramanian’s argument is that whilst China has built a powerful position in electrical machinery and other high-skill manufacturing, which is now delivering China Shock 2.0, it also continues to run a trade surplus in low-skill, labour-intensive manufacturing. This surplus is large and has remained largely unchanged in fifteen years. Indeed, in the 2010s, in trade with low-income countries, China’s surplus rapidly increased. On their reading, this squeezes low-income producers in low-skill sectors in which they “should” be able to compete. Source: “China’s Mercantilist Squeeze on Developing Countries” Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian. Peterson Institute for International Economics 26-7 May 2026 Chatterjee and Subramanian’s wording is telling: (emphasis mine) The canonical trajectory of economic development in the post-World War II period is for countries to transition from agriculture to manufacturing, first in low-skilled manufacturing and then later on to high-skill manufacturing (Herrendorf, Rogerson, and Valentinyi 2013). At the global level, this implies that high-income countries (HICs) that once specialized in low-skilled activities cede manufacturing export space to poorer countries that come along to occupy that space. In 1965, advanced economies accounted for about 60 percent of global value-added exports in four key low-skilled manufacturing sectors, i.e., apparel, leather, textiles, and footwear. Over time this share declined and began to be occupied first by the East Asian tigers and, beginning in the late 1990s, by China. Today China accounts for about 50 percent of the global market. The question is whether China, with its rising prosperity, is continuing to behave like its richer counterparts and ceding export space to poorer followers or to behave unlike them and continuing to occupy space. In terms of the conceptual maneuvers it performs, of the three China shock discourses, the “China squeeze” argument is by far the most ambitious. After all, it bases its critique of China on a counterfactual imagining of the world. Like any counterfactual argument, to construct this alternative reality it must rely on a heuristic model. To make their argument Chatterjee and Subramanian mobilize two key claims. The first reference point is the actual history of rich-country industrialization, what they refer to as the “canonical path”. The idea is that countries transition from agriculture to light industry and low-skilled manufacturing and from there up the value chain. To make this useful as a standard of comparison and a means to construct a normative standard, they adjust sectoral export shares for two factors: 1. the underlying level of economic development of the exporting country, as measured by national income and 2. the degree to which the sector in question is internationalized. The idea being that for a high income country to have a high export share in low-skill sectors is anomalous and even more so if that particular product is highly internationalized and thus suitable for being “conceded” to lower-income competitors. Where should this process end? Here Chatterjee and Subramanian introduce their second benchmark. Their normative idea of a global development path is one in which, in due course, low-skill manufacturing exports are distributed in proportion to a country’s share in the global labour force. They imagine, in other words, a world of proportional, polycentric global development without much national specialization in low-skill manufacturing. A useful benchmark is that, in labor-intensive manufacturing sectors, a country’s share of world exports should be broadly commensurate with its share of the world’s low-skilled labor endowment. … In the Heckscher-Ohlin model, this would be true if value added per worker and export propensities, i.e., fraction of output that is exported, are the same across countries. It is this pleasant liberal vista of orderly global development, progressing towards a general distribution of low-skilled manufacturing against which they judge reality and conclude that the low-income countries are suffering a “China squeeze”. China is not exiting low-skill sectors fast enough Allowing for its gdp level and the degree of globalization, China’s share of low-skill manufacturing exports is far higher than it “should” be. Relative to population, its low-skill share of exports is far too high. That in turn yields the conclusion that huge numbers of jobs - the authors suggest tens of millions - are being hoarded by China. For the four sectors captured in figure 4, this excess in value-added exports is $110 billion in 2022. For all low-skilled sectors overall captured in appendix figure D.1, excess value-added exports amount to $365 billion. The crowding out of LMIC exports by China is therefore substantial. Both these claims have in common that they are strong structuralisms. The first is that development paths ought to resemble each other. The second is that broadly speaking as far as low-skilled manufacturing is concerned, all countries are alike. If the world currently diverges from the distribution of trade implied by these assumptions, if China is not following the advanced economy path and has huge exports, this must be the result of “policy”, which the authors then put in question as illegitimate or unfair. Thus the naturalistic construction of a canonical path leading to a “level” distribution of low-skilled manufacturing reveals itself to be a polemical tool. From the point of view of China shock polemics, this discourse is no doubt welcome. But as an account of economic history, it must surely be regarded as nothing short of bamboozling. Development paths do not follow a regular, natural sequence. As David Fishman put it aptly, “development is not a queue”. They are always and everywhere, through and through political. Development is not so much a process, as a project. Each such project is more or less well adjusted to its context. As Gerschenkron taught uneven and combined development implies differentiation rather than simple imitation on a single parth. It may be true that Europe and the US exited relatively early from low-skill work. But clearly technology has changed. As C&S themselves point out, China no longer enjoys a low wage environment. Do they really believe that such huge differences can be accounted for either by industrial policy, which as they admit does not operate powerfully in low-skill sectors, or by exchange rate manipulation? What is overwhelmingly dominant in explaining the persistence of “low-skill” manufacturing in China are surely the network effects of complex supply chains. Indeed the label of “low-skill” may miss the point. The degree of globalization which Chatterjee and Subramanian decide to conjure away in their model of the development path - to allow for the fact that Europe and American textiles exporters did not enjoy just-in-time logistics in the 1950s - obscures the point that the networks through which Chinese factories supply the world are themselves key parts of the low-skill industrialization project. China isn’t knocking out 1970s style “cheap”. It has redefined the entire product cycle. C&S’s casual reference to “T-shirts” is telling. In today’s “fast fashion”, there is weight on both terms. Fashion and fast. China’s success in delivering on both at unprecedentedly high speed and at unprecedentedly low cost, isn’t a low-skill operation at all. If we see development trajectories not as the serial repetition of the same, but as distinctive, crafted projects that cumulate in complex agglomerations of skill, technology and labor, then this explains why the assumption that low-skilled manufacturing should follow the distribution of population flies in the face of all experience. As countless cases attest, low-wage, low-income developed economies are not by themselves the makings of a competitive production base. As Leon Liao puts it quite fairly: “International trade has never been allocated according to population. A country’s population gives it no natural claim to an equivalent share of global exports." And the remarkable fact is that Subramanian alone and with co-authors has long been making this point, not to pillory China, as is the case of the tendentious _Foreign Affair_s and Peterson pieces, but to highlight the great counterpart to China’s industrial success, namely India’s relative failure. The much-quoted Foreign Affairs piece showed low-skill export shares only for China, not for India. If you put both countries in the picture as Chaterjee and Subramanian have done on other occasions, the picture looks like this. China is far above the line, but India, almost as large in terms of population, is no less anomalous, just in the opposite direction. As far as global populations are concerned, and the imagining of tens of millions of “squeezed” jobs, it is this Sino-Indian pair that account for a huge share of the action. What this graph reveals is not China’s cheating, but India’s “greatest development failure”, at least this is the argument made Arvind Subramanian, this time in co-authorship with Devesh Kapur, in their major book, A Sixth of Humanity. Independent India’s Development Odyssey which appeared with Oxford University Press earlier this year. In this highly critical work on India’s development, China is repeatedly evoked, not to criticize but as a benchmark against which to illuminate what India’s political economy has not delivered i.e. large-scale formal employment for hundreds of millions of citizens. Kapur and Subramanian leave no doubt, if you want to understand why China, not India was the main driver of manufacturing globalization from the 1980s, don’t look to slots opening up in the division of labour thanks to the liberal mindedness of advanced economies, look to the contrasting political economy of the Maoist PRC and India’s post-independence political economy. As Kapur and Subramian note: The great divergence between China and India did not begin in 1978 with the Deng reforms—it was well underway by then. In one of the great ironies of modern history, the conditions created by Maoism turned out to be a great launching pad for industrial globalization. As the comparison of India and China in 1980 makes clear, to imagine manufacturing would be equally distributed when populations are so differently endowed in terms of educational and nutritional is fanciful. Here is the data from Kapur and Subramanian, data which I explored back at the very beginning of Chartbook. As Kapur and Subramanian insist, the striking fact is that even as India’s growth accelerated from the 1980s, structural change has not. Formal employment in India lags woefully behind. Why? As Kapur and Subramanian note, the path-dependent impact of India’s poor early start was devastating. The list of factors they mention is long and weighty: We argue for a new five-fold explanation applicable at different stages of Indian history: in the initial stages, the legacy of two key pre-1980s policies, the neglect of agriculture and the strangling of the domestic private sector, were critical. The failure of broad-based agricultural growth militated against rural industrialization, which would have been devoted to satisfying local needs that would have necessarily been labour intensive. Then, when the boom came after 1980, the thicket of regulation and broader labour protections that were legislated prematurely in a nascent democracy, underpinned by a deep ideological aversion to private capital in general and big capital specifically, became a barrier to attaining the size that would be necessary to compete globally. Similarly, the reforms after 1991, while wide-ranging, did not quite encompass non-tradeable inputs critical to manufacturing, namely, land, logistics infrastructure and power. A combination of low investment (logistics infrastructure), regulation (land) and the continued monopoly supply by state governments (power), combined with residual socialism, kept costs at 75–100 per cent above efficient supply. These factors were compounded on the supply side by the government, which dominated the formal labour market and established exorbitantly high wages at the lower end of the skill spectrum. This made their employment in the labour-intensive sector by the private sector less attractive. Finally, when the services sector and its exports boomed, wages soared even further via a Dutch Disease effect: one successful tradeable sector killed and cannibalized another less-skilled tradable sector, namely, manufacturing. Thus, scarcity-inducing policies of the planning era, precocious democracy and a Gandhian aversion to size; inefficient, monopolistic supply of critical non-tradable inputs; the behemoth of government; and super-successful skill-intensive services successively undermined India’s unskilled labour employment opportunities. The employment failure seems to have been over-determined. … Less quantifiable but no less important are some of the sociological factors that have undermined manufacturing and factory jobs. Take the impact of the success of the IT sector—located in urban areas with better working conditions, such as air-conditioned offices, good schools for children and attractive entertainment options. It became a more attractive place for engineering and management graduates to flock to. … Consider manufacturing and female employment. Indian society makes it difficult for women to work, reflected in India’s unusually low female labour force participation (elaborated in Chapter XIII). Indian society, in particular the routine harassment of women in public spaces, makes it even more difficult for them to travel long distances to take up work.37 Combined with onerous regulations on creating hostels and dormitories for women—which, in turn, prevents multiple shifts of operation—factories need to be located in areas with a large female labour pool. While firms can take apparel plants to female labour or bring them to the plants by building large-scale dormitories, this raises costs. If there was a case for subsidies to encourage labour-intensive manufacturing, housing subsidies to build dormitories for women workers would be a good place to start. All of this meant, that when opportunities did open up, in part thanks to adjustments in China, India was in no position to take advantage. Here is the account of the 2020s from Kapur and Subramanian. It stands in dizzying contrast to the one-sided, “China squeeze” argument delivered in the Peterson and Foreign Affairs pieces: In 2022, for example, India’s share of global exports in clothing (the canonical labour-intensive sector) was 3.1 per cent compared to 32 per cent for China. This is extremely disappointing because China started vacating export space in this sector after the Global Financial Crisis as its wages started rising; it then vacated further space in the aftermath of geopolitical developments that led investors to seek alternative investment locations. Between its peak and today, China lost about 7.5 percentage points of global export share (worth about $43 billion in 2022); over this period, India’s export share remained stagnant at 3 per cent, while that of Vietnam and Bangladesh rose by 3.5 to 4 percentage points. China’s loss did not translate into any gain for India in terms of low-skill exports and employment. Put differently, when the conditions for dynamism and prosperity were established after 1991, and even more tantalizingly when the global export opportunities opened up, it was as if India was a high-wage economy and only skilled labour could benefit from the dynamism. It had converted its physically abundant unskilled workforce into an economically expensive resource, penalizing its use. It is not my mission here to argue for or against Kapur and Subramanian’s interpretation of India’s development trajectory. The point in this context is simply that the “China squeeze” such as it is can only be understood, in relation to the heavy burden of domestic constraints that Kapur and Subramanian so unsparingly enumerate. I am concentrating here on India because it is the great counterpart to China and the unspoken reference point of the “China squeeze” discourse. But the point is more general. Can anyone with a straight face suggest that the main problems afflicting the development of South Africa or Nigeria, the great centers of mass underemployment in sub-saharan Africa, are cheap competition from China driven by Beijing’s industrial policy and an undervalued RMB? Likewise, is the main problem of the American working-class the threat of Chinese competition or the manifest crisis of social reproduction in the United States itself? The point here, as in the discourse around China shock 2.0 in Europe, is to insist that we should not normalize the world and pathologize China, without actually investigating what is going on in America’s industrial wastelands, the German car industry, or India’s lopsided labour market. One-sided pathologization should be understood for what it is, a polemical gesture. Concepts like China shock and China squeeze are, what Reinhart Koselleck, following Carl Schmitt, would have described as “asymmetrische Kampfbegriffe”, or “asymmetrical counter-concepts” or “asymmetrical combat concepts”. If the function of arguments like the “China squeeze” is to alert elites in the rest of the world of the need to rejuvenate and energize their development projects, so be it. But let us see the resulting discourses as the mobilizing interventions that they are. Interestingly, a significant slice of China’s public sphere - the so-called industrial party - have been obsessed for the last twenty years with precisely these questions of counterfactual economic history. Since the mid 2000s, a massive online discourse developed around an alternative history in which Chinese techno-patriots were asked to imagine how they would proceed if they had the possibility of traveling back in time to transport modern technology into the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) thus averting the “great divergence” of the 18th and 19th centuries. It is a fantasy of course, but also a goad. The point was not directed at Westerners. The alternate history is dramatically nationalist, but few n the West had even heard of it until recently. The adherents of the industrial party are not liberal moralists. They don’t project natural ladders of international development and ask why others don’t cede space. They take the Realpolitik of global economic development for granted. Their pointe was directed against fellow Chinese. The rallying cry of the alternative narrative was this: Now that we are beginning to gain steam and push forward on our national development path, now that we are breaking out of the inferior position assigned to us even in the early years following WTO accession, do not lose yourself in humanistic imaginings about better futures. In the spirit of Deng, they called on China to embrace the hard truth of development. Perhaps one might of the Industrial Party as a cultural trend born out of desire for symbolic revenge against those who had inflicted the century of humiliation. In terms of the various temporalities of the “China shock” - retrospective, prospective and counterfactual - one might think of the Industrial Policy discourse as truly speculative, conjuring up the China shock that never was. Or perhaps one might better think of it as imagining a world in which a powerful China was no shock at all, but simply a defining fact of modern history. I love putting out Chartbook. I am particularly pleased that it goes out for free to thousands of subscribers around the world. But, writing this newsletter takes a lot of work. If you are enjoying it and would like to support the project, sign up for one of the subscription options here. It is the equivalent of a fancy cup of coffee per month! Subscribe
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