Unfortunately, this doesn't stop. Pay off the bandits and they come back. Don't pay off the bandits and they burn it down so you won't have anything left to pay them off with next time.
Besides -- the Republicans who think they are running this con don't give a f--- about the terms. This is not about spending cuts or anything to do with p…
Unfortunately, this doesn't stop. Pay off the bandits and they come back. Don't pay off the bandits and they burn it down so you won't have anything left to pay them off with next time.
Besides -- the Republicans who think they are running this con don't give a f--- about the terms. This is not about spending cuts or anything to do with policies or principles.
Their game is to create enough chaos to ensure they take power in the next election. The last thing they want is a "solution" -- any more than they actually want to prevent turmoil at the border. They think they can have a default-type experience, come into power again, and everything will work out to their benefit.
Of course are fooling themselves with the illusion that they will be able to control it. Hubris destroys empires.
They are like the Austrians in 1914, who imagined they could have a controlled little war in the Balkans and nothing would fundamentally change in the European system.
Millions of millions of people all over the world will be crushed in the avalanche of collapses that has now begun. (Including of course, us. Among which will be me and my family and friends. Too bad, I guess.)
I agree the Crazy Caucus wants chaos for political gain. But there are still some Republicans, including McCarthy, who know a default must be avoided. The key is getting a bill on the floor so these Republicans can join with the Dems to raise the ceiling. This will require some concessions on spending. Biden will try to roll it into the budget discussion rather than tie it to raising the ceiling. But ultimately that’s window dressing.
Getting some control over spending is good policy too. We injected $6 trillion into the economy during COVID. During the Great Recession it was around $2 trillion. Some on the left maintained that, under the unproven Mondern Monetary Theory, the US can spend as much as it wants without consequence. 9% inflation disproved that.
Well, you are partially right. But the problem is that the climate change diaster that awaits us all, relatively soon, will cost many $T more. And if we don't spend that much on solutions we will spend that much and more on cleaning messes
I would be more sanguine if I thought that the people driving this train wreck had actual policy goals -- but I see no evidence of such aims. The only apparent goal of the GOP is to foment whatever political and economic chaos they can to ensure that they take office next election, this time for good.
I suppose you might stretch the notion of "policy" to include "overthrowing electoral democracy and replacing it with a one-party, white grievance oriented kleptocracy in the tradition of what existed in the Solid South from reconstruction to the civil rights era" -- but that would be much the same as saying a drug cartel has a "policy" of promoting the use of addictive drugs.
Pretty much everyone (other than maybe the Russians and the Brits) thought that war now was better than war later--the Germans certainly did, as they saw themselves in trouble as the Russian economy and capabilities improved.
None of them thought it would be as bad as it got. Hindsight is 20/20.
All part of the hubris that fools itself into refusing to credit consequences that are plainly evident if an ill-advised course of conduct persists. This is the hubris driving its victims to take advantage of seeming opportunities to chew off some territory here or wrong-foot an opponent there -- especially if you've seen someone else do it before and get away withy it. All the European powers from the Franco-Prussian war up to August 2014 were self-deluded in this way by visions of gaining ground against the other players. Until it went wrong.
This is one of the chief melodies in the 24/7/365 opera of human folly. Just keep borrowing money and flipping houses because the prices are going through the roof and we don't want to miss out. Invade Poland, the other powers did nothing when you took the Sudetenland. Take the debt hostage, all the chicken littles were wrong about the sky falling before. Start a default so we get a recession, it will be blamed on the Democrats so we will win the next election.
It was quite the mess. Lots of incompetence and stupidity all around--and the end state basically set the stage for the reprise 20ish years later.
But it is hard to see how the ending could have gone differently/more thoughtfully given the events and costs of the war. The reality is without the entry of the US into the war, Germany had a high probability of what passed for victory--and that almost suddenly (and surprisingly) turned into defeat.
Unfortunately, this doesn't stop. Pay off the bandits and they come back. Don't pay off the bandits and they burn it down so you won't have anything left to pay them off with next time.
Besides -- the Republicans who think they are running this con don't give a f--- about the terms. This is not about spending cuts or anything to do with policies or principles.
Their game is to create enough chaos to ensure they take power in the next election. The last thing they want is a "solution" -- any more than they actually want to prevent turmoil at the border. They think they can have a default-type experience, come into power again, and everything will work out to their benefit.
Of course are fooling themselves with the illusion that they will be able to control it. Hubris destroys empires.
They are like the Austrians in 1914, who imagined they could have a controlled little war in the Balkans and nothing would fundamentally change in the European system.
Millions of millions of people all over the world will be crushed in the avalanche of collapses that has now begun. (Including of course, us. Among which will be me and my family and friends. Too bad, I guess.)
I agree the Crazy Caucus wants chaos for political gain. But there are still some Republicans, including McCarthy, who know a default must be avoided. The key is getting a bill on the floor so these Republicans can join with the Dems to raise the ceiling. This will require some concessions on spending. Biden will try to roll it into the budget discussion rather than tie it to raising the ceiling. But ultimately that’s window dressing.
Getting some control over spending is good policy too. We injected $6 trillion into the economy during COVID. During the Great Recession it was around $2 trillion. Some on the left maintained that, under the unproven Mondern Monetary Theory, the US can spend as much as it wants without consequence. 9% inflation disproved that.
Well, you are partially right. But the problem is that the climate change diaster that awaits us all, relatively soon, will cost many $T more. And if we don't spend that much on solutions we will spend that much and more on cleaning messes
I would be more sanguine if I thought that the people driving this train wreck had actual policy goals -- but I see no evidence of such aims. The only apparent goal of the GOP is to foment whatever political and economic chaos they can to ensure that they take office next election, this time for good.
I suppose you might stretch the notion of "policy" to include "overthrowing electoral democracy and replacing it with a one-party, white grievance oriented kleptocracy in the tradition of what existed in the Solid South from reconstruction to the civil rights era" -- but that would be much the same as saying a drug cartel has a "policy" of promoting the use of addictive drugs.
You have some good thoughts, we just don't have much time to put them into effect.
Did it? There are economists who argue otherwise--to a greater or lesser degree.
If the Germans hadn't dug in following the French counterattack, the pre-1914 system may have hung on a while longer.
Pretty much everyone (other than maybe the Russians and the Brits) thought that war now was better than war later--the Germans certainly did, as they saw themselves in trouble as the Russian economy and capabilities improved.
None of them thought it would be as bad as it got. Hindsight is 20/20.
All part of the hubris that fools itself into refusing to credit consequences that are plainly evident if an ill-advised course of conduct persists. This is the hubris driving its victims to take advantage of seeming opportunities to chew off some territory here or wrong-foot an opponent there -- especially if you've seen someone else do it before and get away withy it. All the European powers from the Franco-Prussian war up to August 2014 were self-deluded in this way by visions of gaining ground against the other players. Until it went wrong.
This is one of the chief melodies in the 24/7/365 opera of human folly. Just keep borrowing money and flipping houses because the prices are going through the roof and we don't want to miss out. Invade Poland, the other powers did nothing when you took the Sudetenland. Take the debt hostage, all the chicken littles were wrong about the sky falling before. Start a default so we get a recession, it will be blamed on the Democrats so we will win the next election.
Yeah, what they got was war now AND war later. What a tragic story that had such consequences for Europe that still resonate.
It was quite the mess. Lots of incompetence and stupidity all around--and the end state basically set the stage for the reprise 20ish years later.
But it is hard to see how the ending could have gone differently/more thoughtfully given the events and costs of the war. The reality is without the entry of the US into the war, Germany had a high probability of what passed for victory--and that almost suddenly (and surprisingly) turned into defeat.
Well, at least it was fun while it lasted. Right?