Economic Overload

Economists often muddy the waters and like other social scientists have a tendency to overcomplicate their field with excessive use of terminology and imprecise definitions. For the lay person this can be overwhelming. What follows is a list of realities that will do wonders in removing the veil of confusion and allow you to sail past the various obfuscations.

 Increasing money supply will cause an inflationary spike if it is not met by subsequent supply of goods.

b.      Rent Control leads to housing shortages[1].

c.       Inflation is essentially equivalent to a tax on one’s life savings.

d.      Minimum wage increases are invariably passed on to the consumer which will have negative demand repercussions for non-elastic goods in particular. They can also lead to worker dismissals and a surge in unemployment numbers.

e.       Government payouts incentivize people to not work.

f.       High tax rates are the best driver for the underground economy and don’t necessarily translate into high tax revenues.

g.      Wage increases mean nothing if you ignore the rate of inflation. Only real Wages matter.

h.      Growth rates coming off bottomed out economies will initially be high. However the number is misleading as the base is so low.

i.        There is no such device as a government spending program that will reduce inflation no matter how much we wish to believe that such a program is possible.

j.        Popularly reported unemployment numbers are usually much lower than the real numbers as they often do not include the percentage of the population that has completely dropped out of the work force.

k.      High Inflation is best countered by sharp increases in interest rates but this radical therapy is very rarely carried out as the political consequence of such action are severe in the short run. The end result is that inflation persists for longer than it should.

l.        Governments will never truly control debt so long as the Federal Reserve is free to print money with limited constrains.

m.    Over time the interest on outstanding debt will take up a large proportion of the Federal budget.

n.      There are very few deficit hawks on either side of the political aisle as the inclination for either side to spend is so high. Short term thinking is a trade off of our political system.

o.      The tax code could be very much simplified however there are enough vested interests out there to ensure that it never really is.

p.      Excessive government meddling in the hope of shortening a recession invariably lengthens it.

q.      Student debt forgiveness merely passes on the debt to the entire economy as a whole so that non-students without a choice subsidise the education of others.

r.        Pumping money into an economy that is overregulated will result in stagflation (high inflation and a low growth case).

s.       Economic statistics are out of date as soon as they are published. Using them to plan is a poor substitute for the dynamics of the instant feedback market.

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[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/15/comeback-rent-control-just-time-make-housing-shortages-worse/

On the Corporate Media

Distilled to its essence the corporate media’s principal function is to reinforce a narrative. Education is a mere after thought.  Through repetition the media entities inundates the milieu with a message that reinforces a broader consensus that aligns with the vision of its ownership.  The cultivation of an echo chamber is its raison d‘etre and in this regard it is unapologetic

If internationalism,  and by extension interventionism, is the critical focal point then one can be sure that the necessary drums touting such action will be heralded.  Positions to the contrary will be marginalized. Today these same drums reverberate to the tune of policies that seek looser border restrictions, the off shoring of wealth and a Post-Westphalian order that does away with the pesky stumbling block of the nation state. The new citizen must be global and by necessity eschew all nationalism.

A radical transformation of the ethos and value system of the culture sits front and center. It is of prime importance. Media outlets advance the methodology by highlighting identity politics, outrage culture and various hysteria/crises that together take aim at the institutions of the country and its foundational bedrock. Nothing happens without purpose

In doing so it seeks to change the perception of the voting population thereby sweeping clean a pathway for the emerging paradigm. Ideas deemed to be of worth are selected, stressed and reinforced while others are tossed aside or damned. Within time the views of the Übermensch will be parroted by those that are too punch-drunk to think otherwise. The role of the media is to make sure that this happens sooner than later

A double cheer for Free Enterprise

Corporate Capitalism and Free Enterprise systems are not synonymous. The former rejoices in oligarchy. The latter detests it.

What made the US great for much of its history was a belief in its own exceptional destiny, its flexible labour market, high degree of innovation and its emphasis on individual freedom. It is also was motivated by a culture of self-reliance that eschewed the class structure of Europe. The country has a market economy and it is this adherence to free markets that have generated the wealth that underpins the success of the nation. The same is true of Hong Kong and Singapore.

So why do free markets work? Essentially they provide through the price mechanism immediate feedback that allows supply and demand of goods and services to reset in a timely manner to a new equilibrium situation. Excessive regulation, price controls and government interference (well intended or not) needlessly complicate the resetting mechanism resulting in shortages, price hikes and unstable situations.

The market aggregates knowledge in a far better way than any committee of elites or central planning forum could ever hope to do.

This does not mean of course that there isn’t a role for government on the economic front but its main purpose should be to provide a legal framework that will facilitate market economics, ensure competition and sustain a level of spending to adequately protect the most vulnerable in the society by providing necessary services.

The Demise of America

The United States is the most critical nation with respect to the immediate future of Western Civilization as it is the economic, technical and military powerhouse for the Liberal world. As it goes, so goes the civilization, for better but largely for worse. Unfortunately the country is being hollowed out at a breathtaking pace. Giant transnational corporations with little loyalty to the population have moved production facilities offshore. Rampant bureaucratic creep has complicated the market place. Public and private debt has soared and an ideologically dominated education system has seen to a fall in standards. Narcissism dominates over modesty with the country being subsumed by an epidemic of racial and gender politics that have cut across all strata of society. American exceptionality is looked on with disdain by a great deal of the population who see the country’s constitution – the role model for the protection of individual rights as an impediment to an internationalist world order that promises a new heavenly earth. If the US is an exporter of anything now it is that of bad ideas (racial essentialism, white privilege constructs, multiple genders, porous borders) that is clearly eroding family, community and national frameworks of cohesion.

For activists and internationalist elites this is deliberate, a necessary step in the tearing down that precedes the rebuild. However the Europeans have added to the deadly mix  (thart has found its way across the Atlantic) with falling birth rates, demographic transformation and surveillance state pressure. This has placed future generations at the mercy of centralized control that is as faceless as it is unanswerable to the population. Natural rights are being sacrificed to the collective will with freedom taking a back seat to authoritarianism.

Has the Frankfurt School destroyed society?

Not yet but in the absence of a push back it will. It has contributed to a significant decline already.

Cultural Marxism itself has its origins in the Frankfurt School (place of birth Frankfurt, Germany 1929) whose idealism incorporated a synthesis of Freudian, Marxist and Hegelian reasoning. It views history as march to an inevitability that can be directed by the control of institutions to facilitate necessary social change. In this way it deviates from Orthodox Marxism whose focus is largely on the economic.

Key thinkers here include Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, Habermas and Fromm. Social Emancipation and critiques of capitalism dominate the discourse and its impact across Academia (in particular the social sciences and humanities) cannot be understated. From here it has spread influencing both the biological and physical sciences, the professions and education. All of the disciplines (indeed all facets of life) are viewed as a platform that can be used to advance the necessary social change favored by the ideologues.

In the United States and other parts of the Anglosphere , this fusion of cultural Marxism and post-modernism has worked its way from the university into the mainstream. The intent is to bring in trans formative change consistent with a re-calibration will to power and by all accounts it appears to be gaining the upper hand. Push back began during the Trump era but the failure of conservative elements to seize the initiative earlier on means that the necessary resistance is playing catch up. The power dynamic has shifted to favor these authoritarian leftist ideologues and all strata of society will be the worse off for it.

Cultural Marxism envisions a restructure society in a way that opposes the capitalist infrastructure in support of a top down rearrangement that will advance outcomes that are believed to be more equitable. Critical Race Theory, the dichotomy of the oppressed and the oppressor and a general hostility to the Judeo-Christian core of Western Civilization are vital aspects of its praxis. The mode of thinking is a definite outgrowth of a metastasized leftism but unlike the radicalism of the Bolsheviks, and various State socialisms it has settled for a patience that was willing to bide its time with a slower walk through the institutions.

This walk though has picked up having fueled a ride on the globalist bandwagon that has oxygenated its outreach. It has found a necessary ally in post-Modernism deconstructionist thought, which also abhors legacy structures and tradition.

As it stands today I have very little doubt whatsoever that the West is in decline. The institutions are showing all the rot of ideological take over with identity politics dominating over merit based philosophies. The corporate, governmental, academic and educational worlds have all been infected by the mind virus of guilt ridden wokeism with the subsequent fall in standards making its presence felt ubiquitously.

But like all tunnel-visioned marches that eschew self-criticism it will forge a landscape of collateral damage. Truth will be its first victim followed only slightly by its inability to entertain contrarian initiated free speech. In this it echoes a Maoist zeal that will torch history to rewrite a narrative. Nothing is sacred, definitions are fleeting and victimhood serves as a weapon to justify what is needed. At its core it knows no constraints and if not checked will furnish a body count of lost lives and torched careers that for expedience of power will leave the gains of the enlightenment burning in a smoldering heap

What happened to Tsar Alexander I of Russia?

(My answer on Quora)

He died of typhus in December 1825 and since he had no legitimate heirs (his two daughters died in childhood) a succession crisis following his passing. This was complicated by the military supporters of the Decembrist revolt who favored Tsar Alexander’s earlier liberal reforms. The revolt failed and the Tsar was eventually succeeded by his reactionary brother Nicholas I.

It is worth noting that Alexander I ruled between 1801–1825. He was the same Tsar that helped turn Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia into a disaster for the Corsican. Although Alexander introduced reform in the early part of his reign he became increasingly despotic in the latter portion of his life and was dominated by a religious zealotry that was becoming increasingly regressive. Rumors persisted after his death that he was actually alive and was living as a hermit in Siberia. This hasn’t been substantiated.

Why is the UN useless?

 (Asked on Quora). My answer below.

Useless is a bit harsh as it has had some success on the health and political front. The campaign against polio and the military action in Korea (1950–1953) can be viewed in a positive light. The decision to divide what was left of the British Palestinian mandate (Transjordan - later Jordan - had already been cut off) into a Jewish and Arab state was another good move. It was the best of all possible options at the time.

Unfortunately there are more negatives than positives.

United Nation failures though are largely a consequence of several factors

1. The lack of a common vision. Words mean less than action. Enlightenment and Human right ideals are not shared by many of its member states even if they give lip service to it. It would be better if the UN were a league of democracies and had standards for admission
2. The politically expedient use of Veto politics that weaken security council decisions. This was a common feature during the Cold War Era and continues today.
3. Bloc Voting on Key decisions. This pigeon holes necessary debate,
4. The UN has become a platform for local vendettas that detract from the bigger picture eg. look how its anti-Racism conference in Durban was turned into a hate Israel fest.
5. It is overly bureaucratic. Red tape rules. Too many levels of organization that cut against grassroots initiatives. Ownership of deliverables disappear into the aether
6. The United Nations all too often lacks the teeth to enforce its actions on the ground. When pushed by hostile parties it often backs down.
7. Its Programs are often burdened by corruption eg. oil-for-food funds.
8. Many of its Committees have become parodies of themselves eg. Human rights abusing countries sitting on Human Rights Commissions.