Uh it's by a friend of mine, Richard McGregor, uh long time um [snorts] Beijing correspondent for the Financial who wrote a book called The Party. And he really showed that you can't understand modern China without understanding the modern Chinese Communist Party.
Answering The Ezra Klein Show's closing question, three books to recommend, in “The China Shock 2.0” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-brad-setser.html). Quoted from the episode's YouTube auto-captions.
Um uh it's called The Volatility Machine by Michael Pettis. It is It is a thin book. It is not an easy read. Uh it is actually not even about China, even though Pettis is now very well known for his work on China. It's about how to think about financial vulnerabilities in the global economy and in emerging economies in particular. I think [snorts] it's a modern classic.
Answering The Ezra Klein Show's closing question, three books to recommend, in “The China Shock 2.0” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-brad-setser.html). Quoted from the episode's YouTube auto-captions.
And the third book, a book that exceeded my expectations, is, you know, How to Win a Trade War or by Chad Bown and Soumaya Keynes. Whatever side of the trade debate you're on, you're going to learn something. It is not a polemic. It is, I think, the best guide to a world where people are thinking about trade in terms of vulnerabilities, not just in terms of opportunities. Brad Setser, thank you very much.
Answering The Ezra Klein Show's closing question, three books to recommend, in “The China Shock 2.0” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-brad-setser.html). Quoted from the episode's YouTube auto-captions.
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Hardware, services4 years
Software5 years
Podcasts, courses, other8 years
Books25 years
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.