February links

Russia investigation update. Roger Stone is finally indicted. It appears he was the conduit between Wikileaks and the Trump campaign. It was suspected before, but there are some juicy emails providing strong evidence. Chris Christie suggests that Trump's campaign team were so green that they didn't realize they were being worked by the Russians. Well, that's the interpretation by a CNN pundit of Christie's view. Russians are also using pieces of discovery material to create fake information to spew onto the internet. Of course they'll be doing that.

Countdown to Brexit. Ireland has prepared, businesses are not generally ready. This would make Brexit even bumpier, with greater negative effect on the UK economy. Please, admit it's time for a revote.

Attraction of alt-right politics. If you're white man, this may be your best hope for securing a place in the in-group, particularly if you're lower middle class or working class. That's how gangs recruit too.

Hard choices. A teenage girl was being molested by her foster father in a small town. She didn't feel she can get anyone to help from within her town, but got help from a fellow online gamer. However, he asked for proof of the abuse in the form of video. It sounded sick to me, but then his reason made sense. If he was going to come from out of state to pick her up, they better have very strong evidence of the abuse, like a video. So the gamer took her from her abusive home, prompting a search, discovery, etc. The savior is facing 15-30 years in jail for requiring a video.

Economic overview. Lots of debt, and lots of money (liquidity) looking for a place to go. I've been well aware since 2008 that the world is awash in money. I've been trying to figure out what it means. One thing - I'm not afraid of world-wide collapse. (The libertarian nightmares aren't haunting me.)

Facing down blackmail. Jeff Bezos reported that a tabloid (which supports Trump) was trying to blackmail him using photos of an affair he had. The email threats have been released, and they are juicier than photos, which aren't all that rare these days.

Image: davidfeldmanshow.com

Short: What do we owe to the British empire?

Answer: Almost everything about our political system.

Don't be scared off by the polemical title of this fascinating article. After reading it, you'll think a little differently about the connotations of the word 'empire' and you'll be grateful for the British empire too.

The thesis, briefly, is that the British empire gave us Americans a lot of breathing space to develop good governance. Besides that, the British also developed a form of government that was influenced by and conducive to trade and commercial wealth. This benefited lots of people, including us Americans. Since WWII, it's been our turn to provide the general peace that is the foundation for a decent life and prosperity.

These ideas aren't new to me. My first separation from liberal orthodoxy was over the role of the military in our country and the world. I had to admit that US military power seemed to be generally a boon to the world rather than a murdering, bludgeoning curse. (Generally, not always.)

This article draws the clear connection between the British empire and liberal democracy. Most liberals wouldn't even consider that there is a connection, but there is. Take that, you pinko liberals.

Image: ft.com

Hollow America

I only just realized that it's terrible we've lost so much manufacturing and so many factory jobs. Of course I was aware the manufacturing was moving out of the country--I see plenty of empty factories here in Massachusetts. But I didn't see it as a problem because it seemed like people were getting new jobs. Foreign goods, like my reliable Toyota, were a great benefit, and the competition seemed good for American products. Ford cars in the 70's were crap, but they were a whole lot better by the mid-90's. So global trade looked like a win-win situation.

As for our trade imbalance, I didn't think the statistics were true. Surely we'd be having worse economical problem if we were doing that badly. I honestly thought that the metrics were missing huge software sales or other exports of intangibles like movies or financial services. Please don't roll your eyes or wonder why you should waste any more time reading my posts, but I thought that we'd be suffering like Argentina did when they'd have one of their terrible crises, and that obviously wasn't happening.

I don't know when I finally wised up and realized that the trade imbalances were THAT BAD. It's amazing that we could get away with it, and still people would loan us money and sell us oil. And they still do.

Strangely, I don't think the biggest problem is all the debt. Instead, I think it's that we no longer make enough stuff. That makes it so much harder to strengthen our finances through exports, rebuild our economy, and get people back into work. A smaller country could devalue its currency, cut way back on the imports it could no longer afford, pay its workers less, and then export the cheaper wares to other countries. We don't seem to have that option, so I don't know how we'll lift ourselves out of this hole. Suggestions, anyone? Quick, before they turn off the electricity!

Two other questions: Could we have avoided this, and how?