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Qz.com: Business News for the Secessionist Rich

In his widely read essay for TAC, Mike Lofgren, author of The Party is Over, recounted a conversation he had back in 1993: I was having lunch with a staffer for one of the rare Republican congressmen who opposed the policy of so-called free trade. To this day, I remember something my colleague said: “The […]

In his widely read essay for TAC, Mike Lofgren, author of The Party is Over, recounted a conversation he had back in 1993:

I was having lunch with a staffer for one of the rare Republican congressmen who opposed the policy of so-called free trade. To this day, I remember something my colleague said: “The rich elites of this country have far more in common with their counterparts in London, Paris, and Tokyo than with their fellow American citizens.”

That was only the beginning of the period when the realities of outsourced manufacturing, financialization of the economy, and growing income disparity started to seep into the public consciousness, so at the time it seemed like a striking and novel statement.

The just-launched digital business news platform Quartz is targeted precisely at this globally mobile set whose existence, 20 years removed from NAFTA, now seems old-hat.

David Carr has a nice write-up about the new Atlantic Media-owned publication in today’s New York Times. He explains:

Quartz is the company’s effort to take advantage of a changed environment, not just in publishing, but in the world at large. The editorial product is aimed at the front half of airplanes that crisscross from Zurich to São Paulo to Singapore, serving executives who are increasingly having similar conversations no matter where they land. It was built for tablets, conceived as a mobile product for mobile people.

“This is a global audience, one that is growing very rapidly,” [Justin] Smith said. “When you walk through a busy Asian airport, nobody is talking about or thinking about the American economy. The world has gotten much bigger than that.”

Over to you, Mr. Lofgren.

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