Grand strategy for dilettantes....
More analogies than one would at first see.
BOOMERBUSTER
OLD CELLO
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
RE PIKETTY DIVERGENCE CONSTIPATION
If you have had too much wealth and income divergence exploration, from a left globalist, how about a laxative or purgative addressing convergence, the 800 pound gorilla at the other extreme of globalization, both engendered by Western Globalization?
I recommend Steingart's The War for Wealth
Steingart was less prone to candy coating than Piketty is.
While I disagree with him on many things, Steingart is at least willing to acknowledge and play the civilization card, the trump card in the 21 St Century world.
At present, it seems to me that the only 'holders' of such cards are the Sinics, the Slavs, the Hindus, and to some extent, the Muslims. I do not count the Jews as a civilization at the present time.
You will note that these are all at war, here or there, with each other, over civilizational issues.
The modern state of Israel, though not a civilization by any means, tries to act as one. Of course, it is an armed camp in the Islamic Middle East.
I recommend Steingart's The War for Wealth
Steingart was less prone to candy coating than Piketty is.
While I disagree with him on many things, Steingart is at least willing to acknowledge and play the civilization card, the trump card in the 21 St Century world.
At present, it seems to me that the only 'holders' of such cards are the Sinics, the Slavs, the Hindus, and to some extent, the Muslims. I do not count the Jews as a civilization at the present time.
You will note that these are all at war, here or there, with each other, over civilizational issues.
The modern state of Israel, though not a civilization by any means, tries to act as one. Of course, it is an armed camp in the Islamic Middle East.
Monday, April 27, 2015
STULTIFERA NAVIS MINNOW ODYSSEY GLOBALIZATION APORIA
CARTOON:
Scylla divergence, Thurston Howell
Charybdis convergence, Gilligan
Scylla divergence, Thurston Howell
Charybdis convergence, Gilligan
Sunday, April 26, 2015
RE GRAND STRATEGY FOR DILETTANTES
like me.
Let's assume, for a moment, that recent developments hail some understandings. What are they?
China is saber rattling in East and South Asia. It is also moving into Africa with abandon.
Russia is doing so in the Baltic and Ukraine, and elsewhere unknown to me.
What do you think these things mean?
Let's assume, for a moment, that recent developments hail some understandings. What are they?
China is saber rattling in East and South Asia. It is also moving into Africa with abandon.
Russia is doing so in the Baltic and Ukraine, and elsewhere unknown to me.
What do you think these things mean?
SEE DK CURRENT POST
"...Emphasizing issues like women's rights and human rights generally assumes that the world is in a relatively stable state already--and it is not...." DK
I quite agree.
With respect to domestic politics, it is indicative of what has always characterized American politics, issue and interest group fragmentations, tending toward drift in the larger scheme of things.
We have mostly just had drift, one of Nevins' favorite terms.
That was the kind of weak, high officials' numbers, high officials' turnover, amateur, federated republic that the founders thought best.
I quite agree.
With respect to domestic politics, it is indicative of what has always characterized American politics, issue and interest group fragmentations, tending toward drift in the larger scheme of things.
We have mostly just had drift, one of Nevins' favorite terms.
That was the kind of weak, high officials' numbers, high officials' turnover, amateur, federated republic that the founders thought best.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
CONVERGENCE
Is the stake in the heart of those, like Piketty, who believe in globalistically and progressively taxing global elites to fight intra national and inter national income and wealth inequalities, divergences, while nevertheless leaving global free trade convergences untouched.
The average person in the West has much more to fear from average income and wealth convergence, due also to globalization, than from income and wealth divergence.
Excuses, agendas, ideologies, and methods for raising the standard of living for poor people everywhere are legion.
It is a long list: war alliances, free trade including unilateral tariff reductions etc, missionary work and missionary aid including health organizations etc, governmental foreign aid, public development aid, technology transfers both private and public, gifts, favors, peace time alliances, investments, technological innovation not well protected, development funding, etc.
We have used them all.
If you raise their standard of living, and there are a whole lot more of them than of you, you eventually, in the not too distant future, lower yours by some very substantial amount. Don't take my word for it...look it up. It is also exacerbated by population pressure, which globalization has enabled, and by resource scarcity, same and related causes.
The average person in the West has much more to fear from average income and wealth convergence, due also to globalization, than from income and wealth divergence.
Excuses, agendas, ideologies, and methods for raising the standard of living for poor people everywhere are legion.
It is a long list: war alliances, free trade including unilateral tariff reductions etc, missionary work and missionary aid including health organizations etc, governmental foreign aid, public development aid, technology transfers both private and public, gifts, favors, peace time alliances, investments, technological innovation not well protected, development funding, etc.
We have used them all.
If you raise their standard of living, and there are a whole lot more of them than of you, you eventually, in the not too distant future, lower yours by some very substantial amount. Don't take my word for it...look it up. It is also exacerbated by population pressure, which globalization has enabled, and by resource scarcity, same and related causes.
RE PIKETTY THE WEST AND LEFT AND RIGHT GLOBALIZATION
He mainly touches on inequality.
This is what he calls divergence. He wants less divergence, (hence more global convergence).
That is the economists' pet, at least those on the so called left.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room of globalization, however,
and the one those on the right are most afraid of,
if they have any sense,
because they have most fostered it,
and it is the most harrowing,
is the opposite,
a topic he is reluctant to face head on except in passing:
global convergence.
The right elite, the upper centile, want plenty of divergence, which coincidentally, also implies global convergence of average income and wealth.
If you are a liberal economist, you suffer from the failings of both poles of the discipline, more or less, and just drift along with globalization, willy nilly.
Economics has truly been the doomsday discipline of the West,
regardless of which side you are on.
This is what he calls divergence. He wants less divergence, (hence more global convergence).
That is the economists' pet, at least those on the so called left.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room of globalization, however,
and the one those on the right are most afraid of,
if they have any sense,
because they have most fostered it,
and it is the most harrowing,
is the opposite,
a topic he is reluctant to face head on except in passing:
global convergence.
The right elite, the upper centile, want plenty of divergence, which coincidentally, also implies global convergence of average income and wealth.
If you are a liberal economist, you suffer from the failings of both poles of the discipline, more or less, and just drift along with globalization, willy nilly.
Economics has truly been the doomsday discipline of the West,
regardless of which side you are on.
Friday, April 24, 2015
RE EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY
"RE going back, for a moment, to 1776, etc, the Europeans, and the Czars, scorned French foreign policy, after 1789, for the same valid reasons that they scorned American foreign policy both before and after 1776."
One source for this, the one I used for the remark above, is Kennan's two volume work on European diplomacy in the 19th Century.
He makes scattered references to France, mainly, in that work, but the remark would presumably have applied to the US, were it a topic of the work.
One source for this, the one I used for the remark above, is Kennan's two volume work on European diplomacy in the 19th Century.
He makes scattered references to France, mainly, in that work, but the remark would presumably have applied to the US, were it a topic of the work.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
RE LIBERTY EQUALITY FRATERNITY
It seems clear from Piketty's exposition that we are moving back toward low growth, hereditary, aristocracies (plutocracies).
The big difference is that, where once the West, and its elites, had an advantage over other civilizations and theirs , that is no longer possible given Western driven globalization.
The big difference is that, where once the West, and its elites, had an advantage over other civilizations and theirs , that is no longer possible given Western driven globalization.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
PIKETTY RE THE FATE OF THE MAVERICK
Dusty: "This is the end of the trail pardner...."
"The entrepreneur always tends to turn into a rentier." Piketty
"The entrepreneur always tends to turn into a rentier." Piketty
OLD DUSTY MAVERICK JARON CARTOON
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2013/05/re-maverick-executive-hold-up.html
RE Lanier's dream world:
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2013/05/re-bbc-jaron-lanier-symbolic-analyst.html
RE Lanier's dream world:
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2013/05/re-bbc-jaron-lanier-symbolic-analyst.html
PS
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2013/05/re-enlightened-middle-class.html
There never actually was an enlightened middle class here; there was merely an accidental, unenlightened, middle class.
After, say, 1800, in Europe, there emerged a specialized, literate, middle class, but not an enlightened one, even then, even there.
There never actually was an enlightened middle class here; there was merely an accidental, unenlightened, middle class.
After, say, 1800, in Europe, there emerged a specialized, literate, middle class, but not an enlightened one, even then, even there.
FOR MY RUSSIAN GUESTS FLAWED AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY GRAND STRATEGY
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2013/05/re-jigged-when-we-should-have-jagged.html
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
RE DK'S CURRENT POST RE THE AMERICAN SO CALLED REVOLUTION
"An excess of governmental authority provoked the revolution that began in 1775; a deficit of it led to the writing of the Constitution. The Founders, in short, had learned from experience that either too much authority or too little could be fatal to liberty."
This is not my view of the situation back then, factually, at all.
In this connection, I follow scholars who argue that a lack of authority and political structure had precipitated opportunities for colonial self interest through rebellion. Of course they had an ideology, largely radical Whig, to conform to this desire.
Professor Allison at Suffolk, follows a long line of these scholars, and does teaching company lectures on this subject.
A deficit of authority, and of overall structure, of rather long standing, had made the rebellion, not revolution, possible.
It was not a revolution, because, by definition, nothing whatsoever much, structurally, happened in Britain as a result of the colonial rebellion.
This is not my view of the situation back then, factually, at all.
In this connection, I follow scholars who argue that a lack of authority and political structure had precipitated opportunities for colonial self interest through rebellion. Of course they had an ideology, largely radical Whig, to conform to this desire.
Professor Allison at Suffolk, follows a long line of these scholars, and does teaching company lectures on this subject.
A deficit of authority, and of overall structure, of rather long standing, had made the rebellion, not revolution, possible.
It was not a revolution, because, by definition, nothing whatsoever much, structurally, happened in Britain as a result of the colonial rebellion.
PAST BLAST WHAT MATTER THIS OR THAT REASON SMART SHOPPER CARTOON
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2010/07/stephanomics-tut-tut.html
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