Mad Statists

What Do Americans Know That Their Government Doesn’t Know?

"Since morality and social order cannot be imposed by foreign attacks and aggressive wars to alter governments and entire societies, what these American intrusions have caused is death and destruction in one country after another, plus hatred and revenge visited upon the invaders. What Americans now recognize, if only by gut instinct, is that the war policy has backfired. The global war on terror has backfired. Interventionism has backfired. America has done wrong, morally and pragmatically. Americans are coming to recognize this while their leaders are still caught up in their false notions that power and their power in particular can remake the world for the better." Continue reading →

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Is the U.S. Producing Democracies?

"There is a political science literature whose research indicates that economic development fosters democratic government, as opposed to dictatorships and autocracies. This is not to say that democracies are an end to be sought, because they in turn stifle economic development. But it is to say that the U.S. and NATO policy of tearing down dictatorships does not achieve the oft-advertised aim of producing democracies. This is especially true when the means is a devastating war that destroys physical, cultural, social and human capital. Recent evidence for this includes countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya." Continue reading →

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How To Lose a War Before Even Starting It

"Events in Syria are of marginal importance to us, and on the edge of our ability to influence. Since the civil war in Syria is a major focus of the world-wide, longstanding struggle between Islam’s Sunni and Shia factions, what will happen there will be determined by Syrians and their neighbors regardless of what the US government does or does not do. The Syrian civil war’s importance to us, however, may well be that it is reminding us of how we should deal with matters of war and peace, namely: concretely, logically, un-emotionally, jealously matching the ends we seek with the means we are willing to use. American statesmen have not done that consistently for a century." Continue reading →

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Map: All the Countries John McCain Has Wanted to Attack

"Even before he was caught playing poker on his iPhone at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had already sent a message: Anything less than an extensive aerial assault on the Syrian regime by American forces would be an unacceptable approach to the conflict in the Middle East. This was hardly surprising. Over the last two decades, McCain has rarely missed an opportunity to call for the escalation of an international conflict. Since the mid-1990s, he's pushed for regime change in more than a half-dozen countries—occasionally with disastrous consequences." Continue reading →

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A Regional FED President Says the FED Is Not Inflating Enough.

"This statement was Big News. It was such Big News that the Wall Street Journal ran a story on it. Why? Because when a regional Federal Reserve Bank president says the obvious is Big News, it means that he is opposed to tapering. It means that he thinks the counterfeiting of a trillion dollars of digital money a year is for wimps. What should the rate of counterfeiting be? He did not say. They never say. Their lips are sealed. This is what is known at the Federal Reserve as transparency. Opaqueness is when an official says something incoherent, which everyone in the media knows is incoherent, and they dutifully report as meaningful." Continue reading →

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Inside Scoop on the Next Fed Chairman

"Davita Vance-Cooks is not a household name. But this will soon change. Not only will Ms. Vance-Cooks be 'the first female and the first African-American' (as The Washington Post would say) to run the central bank, but she will be the first chairman with printing experience outside the Fed itself. She is currently the public printer of the United States — as the head of the U.S. Government Printing Office (or GPO) is officially known. Before that, she had been 'acting public printer.' (The fact that she was acting did not make her less of a real public printer.) Ms. Vance-Cooks’ printing experience will be very useful at the Fed." Continue reading →

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The Fed Can’t Stop Printing Money … or Else

"Several surveys have shown that most people believe they have above-average driving skills. In fact, 93% of student drivers think their driving skills are above average. The law of averages tells us that this can’t possibly be true. It reminds me of that survey that said 84% of Frenchmen think that they are above-average lovers. Wishful thinking. Such high self-regard with respect to personal competence is known as 'overconfidence bias.' People tend to overestimate or exaggerate their abilities. This bias is inherent in all of us. But it reaches an especially high level of intensity in one central banker." Continue reading →

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Obama will address country on Syria; calls crisis ‘threat to global peace’

"President Barack Obama, facing hardened international opposition to a strike against Syria and returning home to a skeptical American public, will address the country Tuesday to make his case. Obama said that he would tell Congress and the public in coming days that any American strike would be 'limited and proportionate.' He did not directly answer a question about whether he would go forward with an attack without the approval of Congress. Military officials on Friday told NBC News that the White House asked the Pentagon for an expanded list of potential targets in Syria, and one senior official warned that it could represent 'mission creep.'" Continue reading →

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Gold and Syria

"We are confronting authoritarians with such an appetite for power that they become afraid to wield it for fear of losing it. It is a subject fit for a Dostoevsky or Shakespeare. It was a cause for rejoicing when the British Parliament refused the Queen’s Prime Minister authority to let slip the dogs of war on Syria. It was the first such refusal since 1782 when, incidentally, Parliament voted down further war against the rebellious American colonies. It will be a welcome sign of a dawning realization that the U.S. Empire has exhausted itself financially and in folly if the House refuses to pass Obama’s Syrian war resolution. But if it does approve another front in the U.S. Mideast war, buy gold with both hands." Continue reading →

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Russia warns of nuclear disaster if Syria is hit

"A military strike on Syria could lead to a nuclear catastrophe if a missile were to hit a reactor containing radioactive uranium, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman warned. The remark comes as the US continues to push for a military strike on Syria. 'If a warhead, by design or by chance, were to hit the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) near Damascus, the consequences could be catastrophic,' Aleksandr Lukashevich said in a Wednesday statement. Russia’s Foreign Ministry urged the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to complete a risk evaluation as the US continues to seek support for military action." Continue reading →

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