Eduardo Porter
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eduardoelreportero.bsky.social
Eduardo Porter
@eduardoelreportero.bsky.social
I write "Being There" on Substack and a column for The Guardian. Veteran of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Washington Post. Author of "The Price of Everything" and "American Poison." https://substack.com/@eduardoelreportero
Trump apparently wants to resurrect the Monroe doctrine, dividing the world into spheres of influence. But does it make sense for the U.S. to control the Americas and grant China control over Asia?

eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/why-does-t...
Why does Trump want to control the Americas?
Is he swapping Latin America for East Asia?
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:50 PM
China might have taken the opportunity of Trump's destructiveness to position itself as a sensible alternative to the US on the world stage. It didn't. Instead, it's going to crush the world with exports. eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/china-squa...
China Squashes Everybody
Beijing is squandering an opportunity to become a counterweight to the United States
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Trump is terrified of America's non-White population. When he warns Europe that it faces “civilizational erasure” he is offering support to Europe's ethnonationalist right, trying hard to stop Europe from following America’s multiethnic path.
eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/trump-is-e...
Trump is exporting racism
His fear of demographic change in Europe speaks to his nostalgia for a White America
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:46 PM
The war on drugs is just an excuse to inflict violence on Latin America. eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/the-war-on...
The War on Drugs is for show
Perhaps it's just a pretext to deploy violence across the hemisphere
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 1:13 PM
There is a great tension between the lust to achieve Artificial Intelligence and the fear of what our creation might do to us. eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/why-are-we...
Why are we building Frankenstein?
Wisdom is knowing when, whether and why to do what we can do. Is our pursuit of AI wise?
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 3:32 PM
If there is something valuable about the lavish philanthropy in the age of Trump is that it shines a light on philanthropists’ longstanding practice of dressing up self-serving objectives as investments in the public good. My column in @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Trump’s billionaire backers dress influence as generosity
Michael Dell’s $6.25bn gift spotlights how the super-rich use ‘charity’ to win access, favour and influence
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
First thought, non-partisan: The undead from "thriller" are rising from their graves to come feast on the planet.
Person who actually deserves a trophy is the artist who made the FIFA peace prize trophy look like everyone in the entire world holding their head in their hands out of secondhand embarrassment
December 6, 2025 at 6:29 AM
President Trump seems decided to destroy the livelihoods of MAGA’s most fervent followers.
eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/what-does-...
What does Trump have against rural America?
His policies will come down hard on rural areas
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:48 PM
That enormous AI stock market bubble? It actually looks pretty blah. eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/the-stock-...
The stock market's rising, but the dollar isn't
The S&P doesn't look quite as attractive from abroad
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:43 PM
The Artificial Intelligence gold rush could leave a lot of bad stuff in its wake. Just look at what happened after the last bubble burst. My latest on "Being There" 👇 eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/the-unimag...
The Unimaginable Cost of a Bursting Bubble
The last one arguably led to the presidency of Donald Trump
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:57 PM
From the NYT: "(Trump) went on to say his administration would “start doing strikes on land, too.” He said the strikes may not be limited to Venezuela. Anyone manufacturing drugs or “selling it into our country” is subject to attack, Mr. Trump said."
Mexico and Colombia beware
December 2, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Trump's battle against immigration will reduce the nation's population and sap the nation's power. eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/how-trump-...
How Trump Plans to Sap American Power
By shrinking the population
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:45 PM
The most important question about the A.I. bubble, as about every other bubble we've experienced since the dawn of finance, is what will it leave in its wake? Devastation or something of value? Or both? My column in today's Guardian www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
The question isn’t whether the AI bubble will burst – but what the fallout will be
Will the bubble ravage the economy when it bursts? What will it leave of value once it pops?
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Trump's xenophobia is not merely a personal psychological quirk. His racist rhetoric meshes well with the American creed. Not the one etched at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The real one. eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/why-does-a...
Why does America hate immigrants?
It's not just Donald Trump
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Why are all these young American men taking up Christianity? eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
What’s the point of faith?
Young American men are flocking to church
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Eduardo Porter
Some may take comfort in Trump not being able (yet) to jail his enemies, but these attacks are costly and deter people from opposing him. In that way, they tilt the playing field even when the efforts at retribution are not fully successful. Precisely what competitive authoritarian regimes look like
NYT: “.. Trump is facing obstacles as he tries to use the Justice Department to investigate, prosecute and jail those he targets.”

But his appointees “are harnessing a range of departments .. and rarely used powers outside the Justice Department to inflict pain.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...
November 26, 2025 at 2:23 PM
The US may be rich But it does a dismal job at distributing its riches. Check out my pre-Thanksgiving piece for “Being There.” eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/how-poorly...
How poorly does America Share its Riches?
Take a look
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Trump can learn from Argentina about fudging economic data. It doesn't end well: eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/lying-abou...
Lying about the economy: What Trump can learn from Argentina.
It doesn't end well.
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:11 PM
From Prohibition through the War on Drugs, governments have tried time and again to stop the consumption of undesirable commodities by forbidding their supply.

They have failed.

Somebody should tell the folks in the environmental movement.

open.substack.com/pub/eduardoe...
Why Climate Summits Keep Failing
The goal must be to encourage the use zero-carbon energy. Aiming to ban fossil fuels is a dead end.
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:55 PM
What environmental activists fail to understand is that cataclysmic though the prospect of climate change may be, most of the world’s people live in countries where the most critical priority is not reducing carbon emissions but accessing cheap energy.
eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/why-climat...
Why Climate Summits Keep Failing
The goal must be to encourage the use zero-carbon energy. Aiming to ban fossil fuels is a dead end.
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
The U.S. is the world's most dynamic economy, right? Innovative and productive, it defines the technological frontier. So how come it has so many poor people? My latest in The Guardian www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
China has brought millions out of poverty. The US has not – by choice
Despite the US’s economic success, income inequality remains breathtaking. But this is no glitch – it’s the system
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:02 PM
There are holes in the argument that democracy delivers superior growth. One is China's stellar track record over the last few decades. The other is Latin America, which just doesn't grow. My Substack 👇 (apologies for typo 😬. Dunno how to fix it) eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/does-democ...
Democracy failed to deliver groth in Latin America
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:55 PM
People, people, people! Beware of the guys building the AI future! eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/the-guys-b...
The guys building our AI future are dangerous.
Should we fear their sci-fi fantasies?
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:00 PM
We should worry that the Silicon Valley technorati driving the Artificial Intelligence revolution are morally guided by some flavor of sci-fi. My new column on Substack.

eduardoelreportero.substack.com/p/the-guys-b...
The guys building our AI future are dangerous.
Should we fear their sci-fi fantasies?
eduardoelreportero.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:32 PM