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Nationalization Took Time It took a few decades for a truly national approach to health services to emerge after the creation of the National Health Service in Britain. The NHS produced a bevy of medical infrastructure just as the political forces to dismantle it were gaining strength.
Olympian Contradictions The NHS represents the contradiction between the idealized history and the creaking present of the UK.
Half-Assing the Belt & Road The Belt and Road Initiative was pitched by Xi Jinping as “the project of the century.” Ten years in, it has hardly lived up to the hype. What happened?
FDR Had Macro Tools, We Need Micro Tools With the development of Gross Domestic Product, New Deal state planners had the macroeconomic tools they needed to take on the Great Depression. To better direct its firehose of public investment, the modern state needs new microeconomic tools and its own mechanics to work with them.
Harold Ickes's Watchful Eye Harold Ickes—FDR’s Interior Secretary and director of the Public Works Administration—was a contradictory figure: a true believer, consummate cynic, loyal public servant, and fiercely independent malcontent. We’ll need many more bureaucrats like him if we want large, effective public programs again.
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