How should the U.S. deal with Germany? The Germans did a great deal of economic damage to the U.S. (and even more to the EU) in the 2010s; they seem to lack knowledge of basic economics (e.g. countries with trade surpluses should not run large fiscal surpluses, if you punish bankrupt countries they will go even more bankrupt, etc).
How do we prevent this from happening again? What kind of pressure would best work against the German government?
Another one: "Hi again, Claire, Do you think our biggest problems are related to our small worldviews? The old Weltanschauung is not what it used to be! We know we live in the universe and all worldviews are necessarily subsumed by an integrated view of the universe. A little start as it happens when we apply base-2 to the Planck base units if we assume Planck Time is the first moment of time. There are just 202 base-2 notations from that first moment to this day and time. Most people can handle 202 steps to get a handle on everything, everywhere for all time.
But within that view many new perspective open up. Pi seems to drive everything, the best dynamic expression of continuity, symmetry and harmony. http://81018.com is where I have begun playing with these concepts."
Another one: "What practical plan is there for eventually pruning the invasive species homo sapiens back to strictly limited and severely patrolled environmental niches, restoring as many as possible myriad species to their pre-homo ecological balances?"
Another one: "Claire: I’d like your team’s view on what posture the US should take on the India/Pakistan relationship. Should it take any position? Should we treat India and Pakistan individually without regard for their enmity? Should we try to broker common interests like water supply, global warming, pandemic response, whatever? An international affairs discussion group will be convening via Zoom next Tuesday, US. Your correspondents’ thoughts would be helpful to me." We're on it!
Let me add a few questions that subscribers sent by email, presumably for anonymity:
"How does what y’all are doing differ from the mission of The Economist magazine?" (An excellent question because this weekend, we're working on our business plan, and that's part of what we're asking ourselves. Thank you, anonymous subscriber! We're on the job.)
These are sensational questions--and I'm not sure why I'm surprised. After all, who would subscribe to this publication except the kind of person who'd ask these questions? But I confess that after hitting "send," I worried, "What if I throw a party and no one shows up?" I feared no one would ask anything. So waking up and seeing all these really good, serious questions is very gratifying--for the whole team. CG seems to have exactly the right readers. You're really out there, and you're genuinely interested in exactly the kinds of questions that interest us. This will keep us going for months.
How serious are the Greece - Turkey tensions? Will they impact the Greek economy, particularly the tourist sector? Any guess when US citizens will be able to travel to the UK? Is Fall possible, or maybe not to 2022?
The Norway Wealth Fund, having amassed $1.3 Trillion from North Sea oil is taking the high road now and refusing in invest in fossil fuels, with particular opprobrium directed at Canada's oil sands. The World Bank is being encouraged to cease any investments in fossil fuels. Car makers are committing to build EVs, which will allow wealthier drivers to buy Teslas, subsidized by other tax payers. Biden forbids a pipeline supplying Canadian oil to Gulf Coast refineries that were built to process that Canadian oil, resulting in it being shipped by rail. Meanwhile, China and India buillt more coal fired plants to build on the progress made so far in bringing their masses out of abject poverty, and China offers to build same for neighbours in Asia, and in Africa. The West, struggling with the debts from dealing with Covid, takes on the Green Mantle and its cost, while advising developing counties to spurn cheap energy and build wind mills instead.
Unleash your brain trust and tell us how all this could go wrong.
TCG's assessment of the Biden administration roughly 6 weeks in. Particular (but not exclusive) attention to:
-the administration's foreign policy performance and separately, who's in charge of American foreign policy among the nominal head in the American formal governance structure, the Vice President, and the ad hoc interagency coordination group
-the administration's view of borders and national sovereignty, particularly (but not exclusively) in light of Biden's having reconstituted in large part the Obama staff and policy
Feb 27, 2021Liked by Claire Berlinski, Rachel motte
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (John Adams)
Liberal democracy is an invention of the West though it is now practiced in some nations not in the West. As an ideology it derives from the European enlightenment.
Post World Two Europe was run by Christian Democratic political parties. Mid 20th Century decolonization efforts were inspired by enlightenment values in the West and it was those same values that motivated the colonized to demand their freedom.
The United States (until recently) has been a profoundly religious nation; it’s precursor was originally established by immigrants with Calvinist ideas.
Here’s the question for the Cosmopolitan Globalists;
With the ascendency of secularism and the decline of religiosity in the West, do you believe the values you articulate as being important can survive?
How should the U.S. deal with Germany? The Germans did a great deal of economic damage to the U.S. (and even more to the EU) in the 2010s; they seem to lack knowledge of basic economics (e.g. countries with trade surpluses should not run large fiscal surpluses, if you punish bankrupt countries they will go even more bankrupt, etc).
How do we prevent this from happening again? What kind of pressure would best work against the German government?
Another one: "Hi again, Claire, Do you think our biggest problems are related to our small worldviews? The old Weltanschauung is not what it used to be! We know we live in the universe and all worldviews are necessarily subsumed by an integrated view of the universe. A little start as it happens when we apply base-2 to the Planck base units if we assume Planck Time is the first moment of time. There are just 202 base-2 notations from that first moment to this day and time. Most people can handle 202 steps to get a handle on everything, everywhere for all time.
But within that view many new perspective open up. Pi seems to drive everything, the best dynamic expression of continuity, symmetry and harmony. http://81018.com is where I have begun playing with these concepts."
Another one: "What practical plan is there for eventually pruning the invasive species homo sapiens back to strictly limited and severely patrolled environmental niches, restoring as many as possible myriad species to their pre-homo ecological balances?"
Another one: "Claire: I’d like your team’s view on what posture the US should take on the India/Pakistan relationship. Should it take any position? Should we treat India and Pakistan individually without regard for their enmity? Should we try to broker common interests like water supply, global warming, pandemic response, whatever? An international affairs discussion group will be convening via Zoom next Tuesday, US. Your correspondents’ thoughts would be helpful to me." We're on it!
Let me add a few questions that subscribers sent by email, presumably for anonymity:
"How does what y’all are doing differ from the mission of The Economist magazine?" (An excellent question because this weekend, we're working on our business plan, and that's part of what we're asking ourselves. Thank you, anonymous subscriber! We're on the job.)
These are sensational questions--and I'm not sure why I'm surprised. After all, who would subscribe to this publication except the kind of person who'd ask these questions? But I confess that after hitting "send," I worried, "What if I throw a party and no one shows up?" I feared no one would ask anything. So waking up and seeing all these really good, serious questions is very gratifying--for the whole team. CG seems to have exactly the right readers. You're really out there, and you're genuinely interested in exactly the kinds of questions that interest us. This will keep us going for months.
What’s next for India? Apocalypse, success, both - or something more low key?
Is Biden president in name only?
I’d like to know if you guys think New York City will be able to return to its recent Golden Age. Or even what use New York is anymore.
Also, do you think the USA is going to go nova in the near future?
How serious are the Greece - Turkey tensions? Will they impact the Greek economy, particularly the tourist sector? Any guess when US citizens will be able to travel to the UK? Is Fall possible, or maybe not to 2022?
The Norway Wealth Fund, having amassed $1.3 Trillion from North Sea oil is taking the high road now and refusing in invest in fossil fuels, with particular opprobrium directed at Canada's oil sands. The World Bank is being encouraged to cease any investments in fossil fuels. Car makers are committing to build EVs, which will allow wealthier drivers to buy Teslas, subsidized by other tax payers. Biden forbids a pipeline supplying Canadian oil to Gulf Coast refineries that were built to process that Canadian oil, resulting in it being shipped by rail. Meanwhile, China and India buillt more coal fired plants to build on the progress made so far in bringing their masses out of abject poverty, and China offers to build same for neighbours in Asia, and in Africa. The West, struggling with the debts from dealing with Covid, takes on the Green Mantle and its cost, while advising developing counties to spurn cheap energy and build wind mills instead.
Unleash your brain trust and tell us how all this could go wrong.
TCG's assessment of the Biden administration roughly 6 weeks in. Particular (but not exclusive) attention to:
-the administration's foreign policy performance and separately, who's in charge of American foreign policy among the nominal head in the American formal governance structure, the Vice President, and the ad hoc interagency coordination group
-the administration's view of borders and national sovereignty, particularly (but not exclusively) in light of Biden's having reconstituted in large part the Obama staff and policy
Eric Hines
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (John Adams)
Liberal democracy is an invention of the West though it is now practiced in some nations not in the West. As an ideology it derives from the European enlightenment.
Post World Two Europe was run by Christian Democratic political parties. Mid 20th Century decolonization efforts were inspired by enlightenment values in the West and it was those same values that motivated the colonized to demand their freedom.
The United States (until recently) has been a profoundly religious nation; it’s precursor was originally established by immigrants with Calvinist ideas.
Here’s the question for the Cosmopolitan Globalists;
With the ascendency of secularism and the decline of religiosity in the West, do you believe the values you articulate as being important can survive?