Your humble blogger is waist-deep in professional obligations, which is why blogging has been light this week.  So.... here's what you should be reading instead: 

1)  Damien Ma on what it means to be a rising public intellectual in China -- an excellent riff off of Eric X. Li's NYT op-ed praising the virtues of the China model. 

2)  While we're talking China, the China 2030 report released by the World Bank is worth perusing, as it's a partial refutation of Li's argument.  The fact that the State Council's Development Research Center co-authored the report seems.... meaningful, but damned if I know whether the new crop of Chinese leaders will use it to implement the suggested reforms.

3)  Any time I get even a little bit sanguine on the Eurocrisis, I read something like this. and the now-familiar sense of IMPENDING DOOM returns.  Ahhh....

4)  In an age in which it's ostensibly all about the social media, I find Emily Parker's essay from a few weeks ago about the importance of actual, entire books to DC policymakers somewhat comforting -- even if Parker's implicit point is that these policymakers are only reading the article-lengths version of these books.  

5)  Finally, the good people of Wyoming should feel secure that their state government is engaging in the necessary contingency planning in case of the zombie apocalypse a total collapse of the American way of life.