China watch: Why Wall Street’s Getting Out
“One should not invest in China,” a top Goldman Sachs honcho declared this month — another sign, argues Gordon Chang at The Hill, that Wall Street thinks “China has become ‘uninvestible’ ” as its “economy is crumbling fast, and Xi Jinping, the mighty leader, is determined to take China in the wrong direction.” His rule has “cast doubt on the soundness of China’s equity markets and, more broadly, on the long-term viability of the country’s private sector.” Other damning evidence: “Xi’s broad-based attack on foreign business became evident with the forced closure of the Beijing office of U.S.-based Mintz Group last March.” And “the regime amended its counterespionage law,” effectively criminalizing “everyday business information gathering, making investment in China even more risky.” Plus, “draconian COVID-19 lockdowns devastated the Chinese economy,” while Beijing has yet to “unveil a substantial plan to stimulate consumption, thought to be the only sustainable path forward.”
City desk: NYC’s Progressive Regression
“New York City is regressing” because it’s a “crucible of progressivism,” explains City Journal’s Nicole Gelinas: “A walk around town reveals no enlightened, well-funded urban oasis” but “a twenty-first-century version of Frank Capra’s dystopian Pottersville.” From 2019 to 2021, “murders in the city soared 53 percent, the highest short-term spike in history.” Since 2020, “the city’s population losses” are “second only to San Francisco’s.” Why? “Twenty-first-century progressives forgot” that “law and order are essential for progress of any kind.” So “until New Yorkers can vote what they really think about progressive lawmakers,” “we’ll be stuck with this: the biggest-spending state and local government in America, with a daily life that often looks as though no government is in charge at all.”
Gaza war: Teaching Israel To Distrust US
“The joke around Jerusalem is that while Biden once worked to help Israel after Oct. 7, he’s now working on the ‘two-state solution’: Michigan and Nevada,” quips The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn. Israelis see that Biden “rarely speaks of defeating Hamas anymore” but instead “bashes Israel under the cover of bashing its Prime Minister.” There are delays in US weapons transfers, leaked threats of arms cutoffs and quiet efforts to stop other countries from arming Israel. Israelis are seeing “the U.S. can’t be relied on.” Democrats can’t ignore their anti-Israel wing, and how long will even Republicans, who’d “abandon Ukraine,” continue to back Israel?
Albany beat: Another Hochul Donor Scores
Records show that New York “awarded $29 million in ‘distressed’ provider funding to a politically active medical group in the Bronx,” reports the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond. Somos Community Care, a physician network, got the 2022 grant via “the Vital Access Provider Assurance Program,” or VAPAP — set up to aid “financially unstable hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities” but expanded by Gov. Hochul to cover “independent practice associations” and “accountable care organizations” such as Somos. Seems the change was made with Somos in mind, as the enacted 2022-23 budget summary shows “$29 million allocated for ‘Somos VAPAP.’ ” Meanwhile, “Somos-linked individuals and organizations contributed more than $400,000” to the campaign accounts of Hochul and her running mate.”
Libertarian: Seattle’s ‘Help’ Slams Delivery Drivers
Since Seattle’s “minimum earnings floor for app-based food delivery drivers” took effect in January, “the main result has been customers deleting their delivery apps en masse, food orders plummeting and driver pay cratering,” notes C. Jarrett Dieterle at Reason. “The delivery companies were forced to add a $5 fee . . . to cover the sudden labor cost increase. On cue, news stories started popping up of $26 coffees, $32 sandwiches, and $35 Wingstop orders.” In theory, drivers now make over $26 per hour, but they’re “barely logging any hours as a result of the drastic decrease in demand.” “While the desire to protect delivery drivers may be based on good intentions, the solutions pushed by progressive politicians too often hurt more than help.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board