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**AUGUST 25, 2023**

On the Prospect website

* David Dayen on the watered-down new rules for private equity
disclosures
<[link removed]'s then-managing editor Jonathan Guyer wrote in this
virtuoso investigative piece on WestExec
<[link removed]'s clients "have controversial interests in tech and defense
that intersect with the policies their former consultants are now in a
position to set and execute."

The revolving-door pattern is bad enough for its explicit and tacit
conflicts of interest. More insidiously, it reinforces a mentality that
gives more weight to a military conception of national security than an
economic one. It's easier to construct a hawkish foreign policy toward
China that looks at narrowly defined military and tech issues than to go
after deeper economic entanglements where the interests of U.S.
corporations and investment bankers are at stake.

Campbell initially shared the view that letting China into the global
trading system would promote its transition into a more democratic and
market-oriented nation. He is now more of a China hawk-when it comes
to narrowly defined national security.

But there has not been a parallel evolution in Campbell's views on
trade and its connection to the domestic aspirations of Bidenomics to
build a worker-centered economy. This matters because the details of
initiatives such as the proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF)
are still very much up for grabs, as are the details of Biden's
executive order on export controls.

Campbell has another intimate White House connection. He is married to
the chair of Biden's National Economic Council, Lael Brainard, another
senior economic official whose views on trade are old-school liberal
rather than new-wave progressive. So the center of gravity in this
administration tilts away from tightly linking trade policy to domestic
economic policy.

What's needed is more dissent, not more of a self-reinforcing echo
chamber. Sadly, the outliers are people who did not spend the Trump
years working as corporate consultants, such as U.S. Trade Rep Katherine
Tai, who is tougher on the need to demolish the old, corporate version
of free trade. But Tai is not a member of the club.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

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start. BY DAVID DAYEN

The Rise of Ma and Pa Paxton?
<[link removed]'s wife could prosper
even if he goes down in an impeachment trial. BY LISE OLSEN

Renewables Are Both Necessary for Carbon Reduction and Cheap
<[link removed]