If only we had some adults in charge! Instead we have the United States being led by impulsive 12-year olds. We have Israel being led by a man who will sacrifice his entire country in order to stay out of prison.
And we along with the rest of the world can only look on in horror as these people lurch from one catastrophe to the next.
I dismissed the notion this was a suicide just about the moment it was announced. Not credible. But the maximum likelihood that many people are relieved he's silenced is credible; think of what pretrial discovery could have unearthed. Nonetheless the sins of the dead come back to haunt - this is not over. But back to the Middle East.......
When I read about the suicide, that's what I thought of. A suicide, with all the watches that were supposed to be going on. Nope. Tell a 7 year old what briefly happened and my guess is they'd say the same thing. Not atypical for someone that scared, insecure, and deranged to do it.
The problem in his megalomaniacally trying to control the world is that Trump has now broken something that he has no idea how to fix…
All of his bellicose instincts on what to do only make the crisis worse. Obama had the solution ten years ago with the Iran nuclear deal, but Trump doesn’t like Black people so he tore it up and now we all suffer.
Just from the standpoint of psychology, it would be interesting to know whether Trump ever has moments of clarity during which he realizes, as you so aptly say, that "he has broken something he has no idea how to fix" or whether he is just a full-on egomaniac incapable of self-critical awareness.
I dunno and I don't know how we'll ever know (other than the one story that his niece was called to him and wife at a party where "Unc" told told her a long lie. She asked why and he said if he told the story without embellishing it, it wouldn't be interesting).
I understand how he (or others using him) create scenarios where the outcome will be he's respected or will be seen as a brilliant strongman but he never is either. I know "malignant narcissist" and how it breaks down so you can see the different mentally ill issues in the DSM codes. "Egomaniac" was confusing since the "orange thing" has no ego to differentiate between right and wrong. Here you go.
I am pretty sure he is aware of lying when he does that, although it HAS become his second nature. But I wonder if he ever realizes that he has made a mistake or that he doesn't know what to do to fix it. Or does he just immediately blame someone else and move impulsively and confidently to the next forceful blunder?
Yes. Trump, Republicans and oligarchs are trying to control the domestic and world economy. Krugman is totally correct that the world economy now operates with interdependency called hyper globalization. Interdependency was the result of economic specialization. Economic specialization is a strategy where individuals, firms, or nations focus their labor and resources on producing a limited range of goods or services, rather than attempting to produce everything. This division of labor boosts efficiency, drives productivity, and fosters trade through comparative advantage, allowing for higher overall output.
After FDR saved America fronm the Great Depression caused by Republicans and won WW2, globalization helped stabilize global peace with interdependency and trade. However, globalization has caused problems such as job losses in manufacturing and the collapse of supply chains after COVID.
Job losses in manufacturing attributed to globalziation were a key factor in Trump getting elected by lying about the interdependency required in the global economy and by lying that he would bring manufacturing jobs back to American with tariffs which appealed to his MAGA idiots. The manufacturing jobs have decreased under Trump and costs have increased. Reports indicate that nearly 100,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Trump’s first full 12 months back in office (following the 2025 "Liberation Day" tariffs), with 89,000 lost in the initial 10 months of those policies. However, Democrats without help from corporations had never adequately explained to voters from 2020 to 2024 the realities of economic specialization and the shift of the American industrial age economy from manufacturing jobs to service jobs in the American information age economy. Democrats from 2020 to 2024 never offered a viable solution to the lack of jobs for the working class with non-college educated workers. Now AI is threatening jobs. What will Democrats do?
Core Components of Economic Specialization:
• Division of Labor: Coined by Adam Smith, author of the famous Book, The Wealth of, Nations, the division of labor is the foundation of specialization, where workers focus on specific tasks, increasing proficiency and speed. Henry Ford applied the principle to create the automobile assembly line that dramatically reduced the cost of the model-T.
• Comparative Advantage: Businesses, countries and groups of workers specialize in producing goods with the lowest opportunity cost, enabling them to produce more efficiently than others. Opportunity cost is the potential benefit or value of the next-best alternative that you must forgo after deciding how to operate. Comparative Advantage recognizes the trade-offs necessitated by scarcity and considers both explicit monetary costs and implicit, non-monetary issues such as technology expertise, and worker skill, or time-related sacrifices such as lengthy delivery delays.
• Economies of Scale
By focusing on one area, companies can reduce production costs, often leading to lower prices for consumers. Global markets are larger than domestic markets.
• Trade: Because specialized entities only produce a limited range of products, they must trade with others to acquire other goods.
Some good points. I wrote a post above which touches on the pros and cons of globalization. My hypothesis is that globalization plus republcian tax cuts are the drving forces behind the increasing wealth gap in the US. What is your opinion?
I agree that Republican tax cuts were a driver, but wealth inequality has other Republican and corporate management drivers including a lack of affordability and a lack of good paying jobs for the working class. Republican actions since 1971 have attacked democracy with expanded massive lying by elected Republicans including from campaign finance liberalization, attacked FDR's New Deal policies that included fair taxes, creating jobs, protecting wages with unions, protecting jobs with regulations on Wall Street. Remember Republican policies caused crash of the economy in 2008 causing massive job loss and home loss and Obama saved Wall Street and GM but not homeowners. Republicans attack healthcare and even Social Security. Republican economics priveleges profits t corporations, eliminates regulations. Republican politics has gutted protections in the legal system for workers . But let me talk specifically about what caused a loss of manufacturing jobs because I have extensive personal experience having worked as a senior executive at the heart of creating competitive manufacturing automation to save American jobs and as an executive developing new products to be manufactured to save a company and having analyzed manufacturing as a consultant. American manufacturing companies ahve been totally mismanaged with CEO's for decades several ways. First, for decades America CEO's resisted adopting Japan's just in time manufacturing for quality, constant innovation and much greater efficiency. Second, CEO's have permitted idiots to run manufacturing without innovation or quality. Third, CEO's have failed to invest in innovation to maximize profits. I did a study of what caused the American steel industry to collapse and it was a lack of investment in innovation.with the money directed into profits in compliance with Republican economics (Milton Freidman). When I became a published author and expert consultant on innovation, the leading Chinese steel company, Baosteel hired me and asked me to give the annual speech to their top 200 executives. Korean company, Samsung, did the same - hiring me, asking me to speak at their annual meeting and treating me as a god with my photo enlarged to 50' by 100' and hung on buildings. Now AI is theatening jobs but American executives and politicans are clueless as what to do other than invest in AI. They are clueless because they don't understand that the technology in AI is just math to extrapolate what's happened and is known but can't innovate because the math doesn't understand how knowledge operates to get created and shared with innovation. Asian culture, finance, and management values knowledge management, and ownership of knowlege and innovation by individuals , whereas American finance and management ignores knowledge and laws direct all ownership of innovation to corporations. Therefore, unless Americans wake up, Asians will inherent the earth. Asians understand knowledge has two parts - explicit and tacit and two dimensions - individual and shared. And I'm an American trying to save America.
And thanks to the GOP, he has been enabled to surround himself with idiots who are every bit as self-aggrandizing as he is and are more than willing to carry out nuke orders.
State level is constantly being ignored. While he's not immune in a democratic republic with a Constitution being followed we're not exactly there at this time. Doesn't mean we can't get there but we're not now.
If the AGs of IL, DE, VT, VA, CA, or RI issue warrants for misprision (felony or treason), DC metro police will arrest all of the underlings since those state laws render them mandated reporters. They can be detained in city jails for up to 30 days pending extradition. What are they waiting for?
Don't be absurd. He's never going to be hauled up before the ICC. And no state is going to try to prosecute him again. You would have to have an Epstein victim with a 100% solid story involving Trump (plus some workaround of the state's statute of limitations) for it to happen. That's just not in the cards.
If we didn't have supporters all over who pretend to be leaders, I'd believe it. Brazil's equivalent to Congress didn't support Bolsonaro and did the right thing. If Nixon's republicans supported him, he likely would've survived as a crook in the WH.
I agree, ISO. It's the mantra that Kamala's husband or the law firm ignored and way too many others. I voted for her (what else was I going to do) and this really pissed me off ... of all people he caves and if he had an issue with it, I didn't see it.
I really think Trump's motivations are intrinsic fear of personal failure and loss of respect (as he defines them). It's miserable inside his own head and he lives off of instinctive but transient emotional rewards in the form of dominance, retribution and flattery. His fundamental insecurity has him responding to any negative event with panic-fueled anger.
Trump has always believed his unpredictability was an asset. But as president and most powerful person on the planet (scary!) it's just puregrade chaos.
Since he can't predict himself what he will do tomorrow, and because nothing is off the table no matter how immoral...
He's like Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles except that instead of a gun pointed at you-know-who, he's got his finger on a nuke, and there is nothing remotely funny or self-aware about it.
When you think about it, both countries are being led by men trying to stay out of prison. Which inescapably leads to the next question: what has made it possible for such men to lead these two democracies? And the answer, sadly I submit, is all of us. So what now?
We need something different. "They've" repeatedly said "he" doesn't care (maybe he does and maybe he doesn't ... that the line often used. But it does love positive and negative attention.
Impulsive 12 year olds who are none too bright - being egged on by a terrible toddler. At the end of 4 years, the US Government will consist of nothing but his Gestapo, an extraordinarily large military, his cabinet of dunces.
Yes, I fear Israel has been irretrievably harmed by Netanyahu. Like Trump, he indulges those who want instant gratification by making impulsive and poorly thought out decisions. And I say this as a strong supporter of Israel, with numerous family members living there. My cousin was twice wounded in the Hamas attack at the festival. Luckily he survived
But the sacrifices of thousands of IDF members are being ignored and disparaged by Netanyahu and the religious fanatics he cultivates. And let's not forget how he got there: by shamelessly capitalizing on the fame of his brother, Yonatan, who led, and was the only IDF member killed in the raid on Entebbe.
That be our concern. I eat junk and less processed but can live without organic. Spouse has to have very specific things or she will get more ill than she is. She's experimenting with different foods as the chains dry up again but it will be a major problem that nothing but real food will help.
I think the connection made between Trump's upbringing and Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" explains a lot about Trump's "we don't need no stinkin' facts" full-speed-ahead behavioral history. It has served him well, allowing him to self-market and survive all of his many, many failures (bankruptcies, legal problems, etc.) throughout his life. It's basically a recipe for getting the most out of relentless bullshitting, especially if you are stupid and have zero practical skills.
When it comes to corrupt politicians with a penchant for autocracy, I think we should have learned from both Bibi and Donald just how much better off the world would be now if both of them had been granted clemency in exchange for getting out of politics permanently. Prevention of chaos is far more valuable than revenge.
It seems we’re coming up to the moment when he says, as old whatsisname did, “The people of this country have proven themselves unworthy of me.” As we all know, two hours later old whatsisname shot himself in the head. Now, I’m not suggesting anything. Just sayin’
It could be worse. MAGA could have given us a competent fascist. Then it would have taken decades for the administration to fail.
Yes, Trump is painful. But the world after Trump will be more resilient, and fascism has left a bad taste in the mouths of a new generation who only know old whatsisname as somebody else's story.
And unfortunately we shall likely see, in the person of JD Vance. I fear that the US electorate will give him and his fellow fascist Republicans a chance in the following election, enabling them to complete the destruction of our government.
We need a powerful, smart, and electable D for 2028. Not sure yet who that would be--someone who could prevail in spite of the bigotry and misogyny, someone who is a good speaker a la Obama, someone smart and of good character, someone who doesn't carry a lot of baggage from previously mismanaging a government leadership role. Anyone come to mind?
Agreed. And someone of Obama’s caliber would be outstanding. But… We need a massive voter turnout, and voters who would vote for any Democrat, period. I’ve lost patience with the opinions that Democrats are just as bad as republicans. No, they’re not. No comparison. Zilch. This would be such a better world today with Gore, or Hillary, or Kamala, or with anyone who wins the Democratic nomination. This is the reality, not blind faith or adoration. Many moderate and progressive voters not understanding this is partly why we’re here in this nightmare.
I agree completely: Democrats are not as bad as republicans! Those who say, "yes, but, the other side is bad too" are engaging in sloppy thinking, or non-thinking. There's definitely too much of that going around. It must be contagious!
I like Talarico. I'm atheist myself but appreciate his sincerity (& intelligence with empathy) & think he could bring on board a lot of ordinary still church going Americans.
Alas, some of my fellow Democrats would rather score points than win elections. Let's hope sanity invades the DNC and party members and we nominate someone who can win.
I hope you're right but for almost three more years we will be led by an ignoramus with a severe case of dementia and other serious medical issues that he's had for a while now that can only get a whole lot worse. He has the keys to the nukes.
As I recall, there was a series of public trials that resulted in executions and long-term prison sentences. Maybe America could stage an encore. Hegseth would look really good in an orange jumpsuit.
Not really. My analysis comes from having been a hostage, literally. I can look into the world and evaluate it from a perspective quite different from Rohms. I’m not thinking of power, but of resilience. One thinks differently when caged, and therefore openly offers sentiment. Around the globe there are many who seek power. Their need for control is their very underpinning. Trump will be no different.
The main problem is, if Trump shot himself in the head (the Hitler option) the bullet would either ricochet or stage an ineffective pass-through. Although it might help if the bullet was silver.
Clym, the guy would never do himself in. No fear over your statement. Thousands of us earmark similar sentiments on a daily basis. It is a normal response to any hostage. Our whole world is held hostage by this lunatic and his feeble-minded grifters.
something like it -- google can't find that exact quote, but did find: "If the German people lose the war, then they will have proved themselves unworthy of me."
Just noticed interesting difference -- in the quote including the bit about the *german people* losing the war, there's a familiar shifting of responsibility. The buck stops at the Supreme Leader.
Trump is too much of a coward to do that. Maybe he'll drown himself in clear lake looking at his reflection and wanting to kiss it by putting his face in the water and keeping it there.
Wow! Not Rameses XII? Not Rameses XI? How about Aethelred the Unready? King Zog? Maximilian II, perhaps? I’m thinking the Dauphin François would qualify - if he said it - do you disagree? Apparently the breadth of your knowledge exceeds mine, since I know nothing of Emirs and Sultans and almost nothing about the Indian Subcontinent, but are you absolutely sure?
Another insightful, informative Krugman post, being read only by members of the Choir of the Ever Faithful Informed. And thanks to right wing and corporate control of electronic media and antisocial media algorithms designed to release neurotransmitters which keep people in their (dis)information lane, "the needle" moves towards sanity and decency with the speed of a glacier.
As a middle school guidance counselor, I was immersed in chaos all the time and learned to carve channels of order. Through that lens, I’d like to see the following:
1. National boycott of all nonessential air travel until the masked men funded by our tax dollars are removed.
2. AGs of VT, VA, DE, IL, RI, and CA issue warrants for underlings. State-level “misprision” laws render them mandated reporters of felonies and treason. As soon as DC Metro Police receive the warrants, they’ll detain them in city jails for up to 30 days pending extradition. Presidential pardons don’t apply.
3. I’ve posted the 50 planks amended by readers and submitted them to my governor, senators, congressional rep and, most importantly, DNC. I’ve asked them to assign one plank per state and direct the experienced incumbents and enthusiastic candidates to collaborate on a plan of action, including timelines and budgets. If DNC holds a virtual midterm convention in October, states can present their findings before we vote in November. These problems won’t solve themselves. There may be better ideas for addressing them but, so far, I haven’t heard any.
Regime change in the US is overdue, and could happen quickly if even just a fraction of gop delegates in the Capitol were to acquire a spine. The world cannot wait till November.
During the initial Chinese pause in shipping, clinical trials were put on hold because API was stuck in Chinese ports. Start-up pharma companies, the real engine of innovation, had to eat the costs of keep sites going, waiting for product to be released, because shutting down and restarting sites is incredible expensive.
I think of chaos theory - Trump, the attractor event, can lead to a domino effect that could topple the world economy.
And the reason a domino effect is possible is because American-led hyper capitalism has so many market defects. One key one being that consumers are forced into too much debt. Meanwhile Trump has again lowered the reserve requirements for banks.
I have to wonder if plummeting retirement accounts will move the needle with the trump faithful. For me, it's just another of so many reasons to hate him more.
I haven't had the courage to look at my retirement account balance since the Dow started sliding. As of Friday, it had slid about 10% from where it was during Bondi's "50,000 DOLLARS" screech. Why aren't major media outlets writing big, bold headlines about that?
Sorry to state the obvious... but publishing news the reading public lacks the courage to look at doesn't sell advertising. I say this as someone who also hasn't had the courage to look at my retirement account balance.
One of the things Trump had been boasting about is that the stock market was doing great. Now he lost that too. I wonder when people will start noticing.
Well, he goosed the markets this morning by lying about promising negotiations with Iran over the weekend. Does anyone really believe that he wasn't orchestrating massive insider trading?
I just worry that he'll impulsively decide to nuke Tehran because his demented old brain thinks it would just shock the world into bending the knee. What would be the most likely response (because a nuke or two wouldn't destroy a country as big and populous as Iran)? We know Iran has lots of sub-weapons-grade enriched uranium, heretofore unknown long-range missiles (increasingly able to penetrate depleted interception systems), and thousands of drones.
Dirty bombs could render the Middle East essentially uninhabitable in a matter of days, and no retaliatory strikes could undo it. Just the threatened attacks on desalinization facilities would be an unimaginable disruption, the ultimate in asymmetrical warfare. Some of those neighboring states are 100 percent dependent on desalinization.
There's not a soul in his inner circle capable of grasping the unmitigable horror of a Persian Gulf clogged with flaming tankers, radioactive rain everywhere, and no freshwater.
After Trump’s attempted coup, the MAGA movement became more popular than it was in 2015, when Trump started his first presidential campaign. My hope — and many others — was that when Trump won reelection, his term would be disastrous. So disastrous that it would permanently splinter the MAGA movement. So, today’s article about choke points, IMO, is about what any educated person about global politics and trade would know: the world is now full of them. But MAGA didn’t.
And when gas reaches $5/gallon, this may cause the ultimate splintering of MAGA. Trump can’t do the one thing that everyone thought he would do: keep the US out of war and the economy strong. So, it appears that my hope of MAGA destroying itself is coming to fruition.
MAGA still does not know about "chokepoints", would not understand them and would, most likely. call them "fake news". It is like watching a bad remake of "Idiocracy".
Certainly after Covid, or even after Russia attacked Ukraine, there is zero excuse to not know about this concept. People should have known before that. Where something is made is on all of our products - shirt, phone, food. I think people do know, generally speaking, that “goods” come from all over. What they don’t realize is the depth of that (ie components), the actual flow lines (ie Hormuz), and that none of it can be changed quickly. Even so, no one should have been surprised that this illegal war would upset flow nor that future events around the globe will also upset things. Look at a map! “Hmm, what about this little spot *right* here that ships pass through?” That is where the ignorance and arrogance comes in. To not understand how intertwined economies are is inviting incompetence, destabilization, tragedy, etc into not just one’s own life and country and of those being attacked but also the world. This isn’t a pebble’s ripple, it’s an effing boulder dropped from a hundred feet.
I seem to remember that one of the benefits of global trade was it raised the bar for hostilities. You are less likely to attack someone you depend on for goods and supplies.
We are now living through a non-theoretical proof of this concept.
Dr. Krugman asks, "Does anyone know what our Iran policy will be a week from now, or even tomorrow?" I don't even know what our Iran policy is today. I know what a lot of ol' orange face's emotions and instincts are toward Iran, but if there is an actual policy buried in there I am not smart enough to discover it.
A deeply interconnected economy benefits everyone. In the 1950s the world was much poorer, much hungrier, much sicker than it is now (not that that work is done). As the US led the free world and organized this global rules based order, the US and its citizens reaped immense economic benefits. The MAGAts have worked diligently to unravel 75 years of that hard won success proving that destroying is much easier than building.
Globalization requires a level of trust between nations whose perceived interests do not always align. That is a feature, not a bug. When economies are so interconnected it acts as a calming effect on all. We don't want to start a circular firing squad, right?
Someone else observed that T.Rump had forgotten to update his brain (rather like the attack on the school in Iran being based on outdated target info) and he is behaviour today is based on the old 1970s thinking that Oil is King so here we are.
In reality as you say, it is now way more complicated because of hyperglobalization and that is no bad thing providing the superpowers behave in predictable ways.
. T.Rump is clearly out of control and dragging both the US and the rest of the world to a lesser extent down. There is one actor who can stop this and it’s the US people. The US needs regime change now, not in November, now. Unplug US from Israel immediately.
I don’t think Impeachment, I don’t think Epstein files. I think extremes are needed ….Article 3.3? Treason.
“The whole world ‘to a lesser extent’ down”. To a lesser extent? How about Greenland, Iran, the entire effing Middle East, Venezuela, Cuba, Canada…? You can’t possibly think they’re all having an EASIER time of it? Tell that to the over 100 dead school girls in Minab. The orange man that America elected TWICE is destroying the whole world. And none of us appreciate this lesser than status you’ve arbitrarily assigned us. Please, for the love of all that is sacred, kindly recognize that this mayhem is reverberating across all nations and most profoundly right now in the Middle East.
Completely agree and I think you misread. Facts are some countries more affected than others though. I did recommend that T.Rump should be charged with Treason. In my ideal world Netanyahu would be no more too.
This particular reply is directly related to hyperglobalisation. Can discuss human impact elsewhere but I can tell you I am completely aligned and there’s no need to harangue.
The US is even more vulnerable than other countries because of our cult-like worship of free market capitalism (and associated hostility to government intervention).
China and even Europe have active industrial policies where activist governments harness and regulates the profit driven private sector. Whenever capitalist entities act in ways that are counter to the national interest their governments will intervene with incentives and/or regulations to secure the public interest.
China has been most effective at harnessing the insatiable short-term profit beast, but Europe is also much better than US. In US we have allowed that beast to take over our government and now it's like a bull in a China shop, using legalized grift to destroy everything that doesn't serve its insatiable appetite.
In the same way that Ukraine was Putin’s overreach failure, perhaps Iran is Trump’s overreach failure. Both expected a quick capitulation and ended up with a mess with no face saving exit. TACO here we come!
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it odd that this “war” with no defined goals is fiscally enriching Russia (sanctioned lifted) and now Iran- who is supporting Russia’s efforts in the Ukraine? Really do any of us think individuals loyal to the Orange one think far enough ahead to anticipate global disruptions, or even to care if they do? It really seems like the actions being taken with this regrettable “war” are being directed by someone else who benefits and the Orange one is simply following orders. Follow the money and the gold spray paint.
Our strength derived from the mutually beneficial alliances we built with other countries. Trump's disruption of those alliances, which many Republicans disdained even before Trump took office, have made us weaker.
If only we had some adults in charge! Instead we have the United States being led by impulsive 12-year olds. We have Israel being led by a man who will sacrifice his entire country in order to stay out of prison.
And we along with the rest of the world can only look on in horror as these people lurch from one catastrophe to the next.
Trump too is trying desperately to avoid …something. Prison, exposure, ruin. Something. He’s desperate.
I am highly suspicious that he had something to do with Epstein's "suicide" and the shredding of documents by prison officials in 2019.
Sure would love a full and thorough investigation of all these threads.
and jean-luc brunel's suicide
I dismissed the notion this was a suicide just about the moment it was announced. Not credible. But the maximum likelihood that many people are relieved he's silenced is credible; think of what pretrial discovery could have unearthed. Nonetheless the sins of the dead come back to haunt - this is not over. But back to the Middle East.......
no doubt he was involved
When I read about the suicide, that's what I thought of. A suicide, with all the watches that were supposed to be going on. Nope. Tell a 7 year old what briefly happened and my guess is they'd say the same thing. Not atypical for someone that scared, insecure, and deranged to do it.
Trump wants to live forever. If he can control the world, or at least more of it, he imagines he can control his mortality.
He is demented, and he wants to bring the rest of us down with him.
The problem in his megalomaniacally trying to control the world is that Trump has now broken something that he has no idea how to fix…
All of his bellicose instincts on what to do only make the crisis worse. Obama had the solution ten years ago with the Iran nuclear deal, but Trump doesn’t like Black people so he tore it up and now we all suffer.
Just from the standpoint of psychology, it would be interesting to know whether Trump ever has moments of clarity during which he realizes, as you so aptly say, that "he has broken something he has no idea how to fix" or whether he is just a full-on egomaniac incapable of self-critical awareness.
I dunno and I don't know how we'll ever know (other than the one story that his niece was called to him and wife at a party where "Unc" told told her a long lie. She asked why and he said if he told the story without embellishing it, it wouldn't be interesting).
I understand how he (or others using him) create scenarios where the outcome will be he's respected or will be seen as a brilliant strongman but he never is either. I know "malignant narcissist" and how it breaks down so you can see the different mentally ill issues in the DSM codes. "Egomaniac" was confusing since the "orange thing" has no ego to differentiate between right and wrong. Here you go.
https://www.powerofpositivity.com/egomaniac-behaviors/
I am pretty sure he is aware of lying when he does that, although it HAS become his second nature. But I wonder if he ever realizes that he has made a mistake or that he doesn't know what to do to fix it. Or does he just immediately blame someone else and move impulsively and confidently to the next forceful blunder?
Acela
Yes. Trump, Republicans and oligarchs are trying to control the domestic and world economy. Krugman is totally correct that the world economy now operates with interdependency called hyper globalization. Interdependency was the result of economic specialization. Economic specialization is a strategy where individuals, firms, or nations focus their labor and resources on producing a limited range of goods or services, rather than attempting to produce everything. This division of labor boosts efficiency, drives productivity, and fosters trade through comparative advantage, allowing for higher overall output.
After FDR saved America fronm the Great Depression caused by Republicans and won WW2, globalization helped stabilize global peace with interdependency and trade. However, globalization has caused problems such as job losses in manufacturing and the collapse of supply chains after COVID.
Job losses in manufacturing attributed to globalziation were a key factor in Trump getting elected by lying about the interdependency required in the global economy and by lying that he would bring manufacturing jobs back to American with tariffs which appealed to his MAGA idiots. The manufacturing jobs have decreased under Trump and costs have increased. Reports indicate that nearly 100,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Trump’s first full 12 months back in office (following the 2025 "Liberation Day" tariffs), with 89,000 lost in the initial 10 months of those policies. However, Democrats without help from corporations had never adequately explained to voters from 2020 to 2024 the realities of economic specialization and the shift of the American industrial age economy from manufacturing jobs to service jobs in the American information age economy. Democrats from 2020 to 2024 never offered a viable solution to the lack of jobs for the working class with non-college educated workers. Now AI is threatening jobs. What will Democrats do?
Core Components of Economic Specialization:
• Division of Labor: Coined by Adam Smith, author of the famous Book, The Wealth of, Nations, the division of labor is the foundation of specialization, where workers focus on specific tasks, increasing proficiency and speed. Henry Ford applied the principle to create the automobile assembly line that dramatically reduced the cost of the model-T.
• Comparative Advantage: Businesses, countries and groups of workers specialize in producing goods with the lowest opportunity cost, enabling them to produce more efficiently than others. Opportunity cost is the potential benefit or value of the next-best alternative that you must forgo after deciding how to operate. Comparative Advantage recognizes the trade-offs necessitated by scarcity and considers both explicit monetary costs and implicit, non-monetary issues such as technology expertise, and worker skill, or time-related sacrifices such as lengthy delivery delays.
• Economies of Scale
By focusing on one area, companies can reduce production costs, often leading to lower prices for consumers. Global markets are larger than domestic markets.
• Trade: Because specialized entities only produce a limited range of products, they must trade with others to acquire other goods.
Some good points. I wrote a post above which touches on the pros and cons of globalization. My hypothesis is that globalization plus republcian tax cuts are the drving forces behind the increasing wealth gap in the US. What is your opinion?
967571
I agree that Republican tax cuts were a driver, but wealth inequality has other Republican and corporate management drivers including a lack of affordability and a lack of good paying jobs for the working class. Republican actions since 1971 have attacked democracy with expanded massive lying by elected Republicans including from campaign finance liberalization, attacked FDR's New Deal policies that included fair taxes, creating jobs, protecting wages with unions, protecting jobs with regulations on Wall Street. Remember Republican policies caused crash of the economy in 2008 causing massive job loss and home loss and Obama saved Wall Street and GM but not homeowners. Republicans attack healthcare and even Social Security. Republican economics priveleges profits t corporations, eliminates regulations. Republican politics has gutted protections in the legal system for workers . But let me talk specifically about what caused a loss of manufacturing jobs because I have extensive personal experience having worked as a senior executive at the heart of creating competitive manufacturing automation to save American jobs and as an executive developing new products to be manufactured to save a company and having analyzed manufacturing as a consultant. American manufacturing companies ahve been totally mismanaged with CEO's for decades several ways. First, for decades America CEO's resisted adopting Japan's just in time manufacturing for quality, constant innovation and much greater efficiency. Second, CEO's have permitted idiots to run manufacturing without innovation or quality. Third, CEO's have failed to invest in innovation to maximize profits. I did a study of what caused the American steel industry to collapse and it was a lack of investment in innovation.with the money directed into profits in compliance with Republican economics (Milton Freidman). When I became a published author and expert consultant on innovation, the leading Chinese steel company, Baosteel hired me and asked me to give the annual speech to their top 200 executives. Korean company, Samsung, did the same - hiring me, asking me to speak at their annual meeting and treating me as a god with my photo enlarged to 50' by 100' and hung on buildings. Now AI is theatening jobs but American executives and politicans are clueless as what to do other than invest in AI. They are clueless because they don't understand that the technology in AI is just math to extrapolate what's happened and is known but can't innovate because the math doesn't understand how knowledge operates to get created and shared with innovation. Asian culture, finance, and management values knowledge management, and ownership of knowlege and innovation by individuals , whereas American finance and management ignores knowledge and laws direct all ownership of innovation to corporations. Therefore, unless Americans wake up, Asians will inherent the earth. Asians understand knowledge has two parts - explicit and tacit and two dimensions - individual and shared. And I'm an American trying to save America.
Very insightful. This is one of the dynamics of narcissism.
So desperate he wouldn’t hesitate to nuke some country.
Perhaps Prof. Krugman's CODA should have been Randy Newman's song, POLITICAL SCIENCE?
Brilliant song.
For those that dinnae ken it. Released 55+ years ago, if ye can Adam&Eve it.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=olOk5cK4lqQ&si=HV2RWnTcxrfcH-UW
And thanks to the GOP, he has been enabled to surround himself with idiots who are every bit as self-aggrandizing as he is and are more than willing to carry out nuke orders.
Vought to GOP in 2010 - said don't elect leaders (and it's somewhere on the internet). They're doing what was requested or demanded.
All of the above, imho. 47 has been through enough battles to know what’s coming. He shares Bolsonaro’s future.
or Ceaușescu's
Now that, Mr. Prah, would be a kind of poetic justice.
Why do you say that? SCOTUS has declared him immune from prosecution for official acts. He's not going to jail.
He’s not immune from ICC prosecution. He’s also not immune from state-level prosecution.
State level is constantly being ignored. While he's not immune in a democratic republic with a Constitution being followed we're not exactly there at this time. Doesn't mean we can't get there but we're not now.
If the AGs of IL, DE, VT, VA, CA, or RI issue warrants for misprision (felony or treason), DC metro police will arrest all of the underlings since those state laws render them mandated reporters. They can be detained in city jails for up to 30 days pending extradition. What are they waiting for?
Don't be absurd. He's never going to be hauled up before the ICC. And no state is going to try to prosecute him again. You would have to have an Epstein victim with a 100% solid story involving Trump (plus some workaround of the state's statute of limitations) for it to happen. That's just not in the cards.
We’ll find out.
If we didn't have supporters all over who pretend to be leaders, I'd believe it. Brazil's equivalent to Congress didn't support Bolsonaro and did the right thing. If Nixon's republicans supported him, he likely would've survived as a crook in the WH.
We can’t surrender in advance, imho.
I agree, ISO. It's the mantra that Kamala's husband or the law firm ignored and way too many others. I voted for her (what else was I going to do) and this really pissed me off ... of all people he caves and if he had an issue with it, I didn't see it.
🙏
I really think Trump's motivations are intrinsic fear of personal failure and loss of respect (as he defines them). It's miserable inside his own head and he lives off of instinctive but transient emotional rewards in the form of dominance, retribution and flattery. His fundamental insecurity has him responding to any negative event with panic-fueled anger.
I don't think he has control of any of it.
Trump has always believed his unpredictability was an asset. But as president and most powerful person on the planet (scary!) it's just puregrade chaos.
Since he can't predict himself what he will do tomorrow, and because nothing is off the table no matter how immoral...
He's like Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles except that instead of a gun pointed at you-know-who, he's got his finger on a nuke, and there is nothing remotely funny or self-aware about it.
When you think about it, both countries are being led by men trying to stay out of prison. Which inescapably leads to the next question: what has made it possible for such men to lead these two democracies? And the answer, sadly I submit, is all of us. So what now?
And that's why it's imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊🇺🇸
The next nationwide No Kings rally is next Saturday, March 28. Be there or be square!
https://www.nokings.org/
We’ve added to the NO KINGS list of locations in Southern PA with another dot on the map in Kennett Square. This Saturday will be huge.
👍
One day of massive protests will not be enough. This regime needs a daily massive protest work shutdowns (No essential services) across the country.
We need something different. "They've" repeatedly said "he" doesn't care (maybe he does and maybe he doesn't ... that the line often used. But it does love positive and negative attention.
3.5% Rule! Resist! Almost there!
It's not all of us. It's that both countries have too many crackpots and religious fanatics. But I really liked your point.
Impulsive 12 year olds who are none too bright - being egged on by a terrible toddler. At the end of 4 years, the US Government will consist of nothing but his Gestapo, an extraordinarily large military, his cabinet of dunces.
Unless people do something to stop it. Start by holding sit ins at GOP offices.
Remember, you elected the psychotic 10 year old leader of the American "pack".
I voted for Harris. Given the constraints of democracy as it's practiced in the U.S., that was all I could to to try and prevent this.
You certainly tried, you voted. Too many others did not.
Misogyny, racism or rigged are the only things I can come up with. And since, with Trump, every accusation is an admission. I lean towards rigged.
So did I. And ActBlue has my credit card number.
Or simply didnae get aff yer backside tae prevent it. The 30% are just as, if not more, guilty of bringing forth this monstrosity on the world.
Disruption and weakening by design. Putin is smiling.
I feel so bad for Zelensky and he said the war in Iran is helping Putin which is a duh and I'm glad he said it.
I feel like we are hostages rather than citizens of a democracy.
Absolutely, but I'd say he's more like a five-year-old. Twelve is giving him too much credit.
You’re still too generous. A tired two-year old is more like it.
"Terrible twos". That works. "NO NO NO NO". Had a sister that young and read Dr. Spock. That's part of the picture.
Yes, I fear Israel has been irretrievably harmed by Netanyahu. Like Trump, he indulges those who want instant gratification by making impulsive and poorly thought out decisions. And I say this as a strong supporter of Israel, with numerous family members living there. My cousin was twice wounded in the Hamas attack at the festival. Luckily he survived
But the sacrifices of thousands of IDF members are being ignored and disparaged by Netanyahu and the religious fanatics he cultivates. And let's not forget how he got there: by shamelessly capitalizing on the fame of his brother, Yonatan, who led, and was the only IDF member killed in the raid on Entebbe.
Trump’s assault on farmers threatens our food supply. Soon we may feel like hungry hostages.
Farmers who voted for him overwhelmingly.
That be our concern. I eat junk and less processed but can live without organic. Spouse has to have very specific things or she will get more ill than she is. She's experimenting with different foods as the chains dry up again but it will be a major problem that nothing but real food will help.
Rather than childlike, they're actually a band of clinical narcissists.
I agree. In that this was all Hegseth's fault he must be replaced a soon as possible.
Sen Tammy Duckworth summed it up a year ago. “Pete Hegseth is a f*cking liar and needs to resign in disgrace.” We’re still waiting. https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/duckworth-hegseth-endangering-troops-with-singular-stupidity
People need to take to the streets! Not just on one day this weekend.
Well said and true.
I think the connection made between Trump's upbringing and Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" explains a lot about Trump's "we don't need no stinkin' facts" full-speed-ahead behavioral history. It has served him well, allowing him to self-market and survive all of his many, many failures (bankruptcies, legal problems, etc.) throughout his life. It's basically a recipe for getting the most out of relentless bullshitting, especially if you are stupid and have zero practical skills.
If only we had Republicans, who control Congress, willing to put the good of the country ahead of their own desire to hang onto power at any cost.
When it comes to corrupt politicians with a penchant for autocracy, I think we should have learned from both Bibi and Donald just how much better off the world would be now if both of them had been granted clemency in exchange for getting out of politics permanently. Prevention of chaos is far more valuable than revenge.
Too late! Now, revenge is all we have left.
For those two. This dynamic will recur. Ordan, Putin, future criminal operators who enter politics....
It seems we’re coming up to the moment when he says, as old whatsisname did, “The people of this country have proven themselves unworthy of me.” As we all know, two hours later old whatsisname shot himself in the head. Now, I’m not suggesting anything. Just sayin’
It could be worse. MAGA could have given us a competent fascist. Then it would have taken decades for the administration to fail.
Yes, Trump is painful. But the world after Trump will be more resilient, and fascism has left a bad taste in the mouths of a new generation who only know old whatsisname as somebody else's story.
Good point. Of all the damage an incompetent Trump has done, a competent one would have been so much worse.
And unfortunately we shall likely see, in the person of JD Vance. I fear that the US electorate will give him and his fellow fascist Republicans a chance in the following election, enabling them to complete the destruction of our government.
We need a powerful, smart, and electable D for 2028. Not sure yet who that would be--someone who could prevail in spite of the bigotry and misogyny, someone who is a good speaker a la Obama, someone smart and of good character, someone who doesn't carry a lot of baggage from previously mismanaging a government leadership role. Anyone come to mind?
Agreed. And someone of Obama’s caliber would be outstanding. But… We need a massive voter turnout, and voters who would vote for any Democrat, period. I’ve lost patience with the opinions that Democrats are just as bad as republicans. No, they’re not. No comparison. Zilch. This would be such a better world today with Gore, or Hillary, or Kamala, or with anyone who wins the Democratic nomination. This is the reality, not blind faith or adoration. Many moderate and progressive voters not understanding this is partly why we’re here in this nightmare.
I agree completely: Democrats are not as bad as republicans! Those who say, "yes, but, the other side is bad too" are engaging in sloppy thinking, or non-thinking. There's definitely too much of that going around. It must be contagious!
Yes. At this point, when I see someone say "But kamala and gaza!" etc, i just block them immediately.
I like Talarico. I'm atheist myself but appreciate his sincerity (& intelligence with empathy) & think he could bring on board a lot of ordinary still church going Americans.
Thanks for the suggestion and rationale! We need to think seriously about who could win, and he might be able to.
His campaign gets a few bucks from me every month.
Alas, some of my fellow Democrats would rather score points than win elections. Let's hope sanity invades the DNC and party members and we nominate someone who can win.
Please, please no. I'm going on the hope he's sharp enough tae cut himself.
Yeah, but there is real damage being done by agents that are using the chaos for cover.
Good point, infused with much needed optimism when it's easy tae give intae a council of despair.
Look at the Cabinet and Line of Succession! They're all bought and paid for. T2 falling out a window isn't impossible!
I hope you're right but for almost three more years we will be led by an ignoramus with a severe case of dementia and other serious medical issues that he's had for a while now that can only get a whole lot worse. He has the keys to the nukes.
I'd like to see it without a replacement mentally-ill person but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon (and not in my lifetime left).
And several of his gang took cyanide - others came to a bad end as well.
As I recall, there was a series of public trials that resulted in executions and long-term prison sentences. Maybe America could stage an encore. Hegseth would look really good in an orange jumpsuit.
The required degree of courage is not present anywhere in either government.
That wailing being heard all across Washington this morning is Marco Rubio: “I’m not going to get Cuba, am I?”
Speaking of Cuba … the Russians are delivering oil to the island, as reported in The Guardian. Are we going to bomb the Russian tanker fleets?
I won’t if you don’t
The administration is promising to take them by assault like they did the Venezuelan tankers.
Really feel for the Cubans. Their stoicism has been remarkable up tae this point, but things are truly dire now.
"My daddy will be so disappointed in me."
Not really. My analysis comes from having been a hostage, literally. I can look into the world and evaluate it from a perspective quite different from Rohms. I’m not thinking of power, but of resilience. One thinks differently when caged, and therefore openly offers sentiment. Around the globe there are many who seek power. Their need for control is their very underpinning. Trump will be no different.
The main problem is, if Trump shot himself in the head (the Hitler option) the bullet would either ricochet or stage an ineffective pass-through. Although it might help if the bullet was silver.
No, it would have to be gold.
Clym, the guy would never do himself in. No fear over your statement. Thousands of us earmark similar sentiments on a daily basis. It is a normal response to any hostage. Our whole world is held hostage by this lunatic and his feeble-minded grifters.
You’re thinking Ernst Rohm, are you?
I'd suggest what ye allude tae in a heartbeat. My pacifist principles have taken a beating.
Trump will never do that.
That quote is certainly from Hitler
something like it -- google can't find that exact quote, but did find: "If the German people lose the war, then they will have proved themselves unworthy of me."
Correct! Same effect.
Just noticed interesting difference -- in the quote including the bit about the *german people* losing the war, there's a familiar shifting of responsibility. The buck stops at the Supreme Leader.
Thanks Pat! In order to avoid the invocation of ‘Godwin’s Law’, I had to generalize the quote, hadn’t I?
Not any more. Trump threw out Godwin's Law with the rest of the laws. At least here.
Trump is too much of a coward to do that. Maybe he'll drown himself in clear lake looking at his reflection and wanting to kiss it by putting his face in the water and keeping it there.
ooo, i do love that visualization!
No historical figure ever said, “The people of this country have proven themselves unworthy of me.”
Hitler...
Wow! Not Rameses XII? Not Rameses XI? How about Aethelred the Unready? King Zog? Maximilian II, perhaps? I’m thinking the Dauphin François would qualify - if he said it - do you disagree? Apparently the breadth of your knowledge exceeds mine, since I know nothing of Emirs and Sultans and almost nothing about the Indian Subcontinent, but are you absolutely sure?
Another insightful, informative Krugman post, being read only by members of the Choir of the Ever Faithful Informed. And thanks to right wing and corporate control of electronic media and antisocial media algorithms designed to release neurotransmitters which keep people in their (dis)information lane, "the needle" moves towards sanity and decency with the speed of a glacier.
Those who don’t read Mr. Krugman’s posts will nevertheless soon experience the truth of them — as will we all.
As a middle school guidance counselor, I was immersed in chaos all the time and learned to carve channels of order. Through that lens, I’d like to see the following:
1. National boycott of all nonessential air travel until the masked men funded by our tax dollars are removed.
2. AGs of VT, VA, DE, IL, RI, and CA issue warrants for underlings. State-level “misprision” laws render them mandated reporters of felonies and treason. As soon as DC Metro Police receive the warrants, they’ll detain them in city jails for up to 30 days pending extradition. Presidential pardons don’t apply.
3. I’ve posted the 50 planks amended by readers and submitted them to my governor, senators, congressional rep and, most importantly, DNC. I’ve asked them to assign one plank per state and direct the experienced incumbents and enthusiastic candidates to collaborate on a plan of action, including timelines and budgets. If DNC holds a virtual midterm convention in October, states can present their findings before we vote in November. These problems won’t solve themselves. There may be better ideas for addressing them but, so far, I haven’t heard any.
I’m tired of false hope, empty promises, and maintaining a status quo of privilege for my elected representatives. I’ve read that both sides enjoy sending their kids to posh private schools and living in gated communities. Meanwhile, half a million US households lack running water. Enough already. They work for us. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/27/water-almost-half-million-us-households-lack-indoor-plumbing
Nice work here! A follow on effort has to address all the $ issues - graft, bribes, a war awarding the other side $14.B, endless list.
Regime change in the US is overdue, and could happen quickly if even just a fraction of gop delegates in the Capitol were to acquire a spine. The world cannot wait till November.
During the initial Chinese pause in shipping, clinical trials were put on hold because API was stuck in Chinese ports. Start-up pharma companies, the real engine of innovation, had to eat the costs of keep sites going, waiting for product to be released, because shutting down and restarting sites is incredible expensive.
I think of chaos theory - Trump, the attractor event, can lead to a domino effect that could topple the world economy.
For those like me, API: Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient.
lol… hey, it’s 3:00 AM my time and I’m awake with Trump anxiety. Take it easy on me! 😁
Thanks for anticipating the question.
And the reason a domino effect is possible is because American-led hyper capitalism has so many market defects. One key one being that consumers are forced into too much debt. Meanwhile Trump has again lowered the reserve requirements for banks.
I wonder if Jeb Bush knew just how prescient he was when he said DJT would be "the chaos President", way back in 2016 (perhaps 2015)?
I have to wonder if plummeting retirement accounts will move the needle with the trump faithful. For me, it's just another of so many reasons to hate him more.
I haven't had the courage to look at my retirement account balance since the Dow started sliding. As of Friday, it had slid about 10% from where it was during Bondi's "50,000 DOLLARS" screech. Why aren't major media outlets writing big, bold headlines about that?
Sorry to state the obvious... but publishing news the reading public lacks the courage to look at doesn't sell advertising. I say this as someone who also hasn't had the courage to look at my retirement account balance.
Small matters of bombs ripping people & homes apart.
And shortage of fertilizer getting worse by the day.
It's sadly inevitable that news focus is limited. There are so many aberrations and outright tragedies happening world wide.
One of the things Trump had been boasting about is that the stock market was doing great. Now he lost that too. I wonder when people will start noticing.
Well, he goosed the markets this morning by lying about promising negotiations with Iran over the weekend. Does anyone really believe that he wasn't orchestrating massive insider trading?
I just worry that he'll impulsively decide to nuke Tehran because his demented old brain thinks it would just shock the world into bending the knee. What would be the most likely response (because a nuke or two wouldn't destroy a country as big and populous as Iran)? We know Iran has lots of sub-weapons-grade enriched uranium, heretofore unknown long-range missiles (increasingly able to penetrate depleted interception systems), and thousands of drones.
Dirty bombs could render the Middle East essentially uninhabitable in a matter of days, and no retaliatory strikes could undo it. Just the threatened attacks on desalinization facilities would be an unimaginable disruption, the ultimate in asymmetrical warfare. Some of those neighboring states are 100 percent dependent on desalinization.
There's not a soul in his inner circle capable of grasping the unmitigable horror of a Persian Gulf clogged with flaming tankers, radioactive rain everywhere, and no freshwater.
All because of Epstein and insatiable greed.
I don't think he'd care at how much of a horror it would be. Indeed, he'd probably get off on it.
After Trump’s attempted coup, the MAGA movement became more popular than it was in 2015, when Trump started his first presidential campaign. My hope — and many others — was that when Trump won reelection, his term would be disastrous. So disastrous that it would permanently splinter the MAGA movement. So, today’s article about choke points, IMO, is about what any educated person about global politics and trade would know: the world is now full of them. But MAGA didn’t.
And when gas reaches $5/gallon, this may cause the ultimate splintering of MAGA. Trump can’t do the one thing that everyone thought he would do: keep the US out of war and the economy strong. So, it appears that my hope of MAGA destroying itself is coming to fruition.
MAGA still does not know about "chokepoints", would not understand them and would, most likely. call them "fake news". It is like watching a bad remake of "Idiocracy".
Certainly after Covid, or even after Russia attacked Ukraine, there is zero excuse to not know about this concept. People should have known before that. Where something is made is on all of our products - shirt, phone, food. I think people do know, generally speaking, that “goods” come from all over. What they don’t realize is the depth of that (ie components), the actual flow lines (ie Hormuz), and that none of it can be changed quickly. Even so, no one should have been surprised that this illegal war would upset flow nor that future events around the globe will also upset things. Look at a map! “Hmm, what about this little spot *right* here that ships pass through?” That is where the ignorance and arrogance comes in. To not understand how intertwined economies are is inviting incompetence, destabilization, tragedy, etc into not just one’s own life and country and of those being attacked but also the world. This isn’t a pebble’s ripple, it’s an effing boulder dropped from a hundred feet.
Hitler died in 1945 and we still have Nazis. The MAGA movement will still be going long after Trump is dead.
MAGA has been splintering for a while. The war has increased it.
That everyone thought he would do? You're kidding, right?
I seem to remember that one of the benefits of global trade was it raised the bar for hostilities. You are less likely to attack someone you depend on for goods and supplies.
We are now living through a non-theoretical proof of this concept.
We are now living through a non-theoretical proof that the concept only applies to sane, intelligent people.
Dr. Krugman asks, "Does anyone know what our Iran policy will be a week from now, or even tomorrow?" I don't even know what our Iran policy is today. I know what a lot of ol' orange face's emotions and instincts are toward Iran, but if there is an actual policy buried in there I am not smart enough to discover it.
A deeply interconnected economy benefits everyone. In the 1950s the world was much poorer, much hungrier, much sicker than it is now (not that that work is done). As the US led the free world and organized this global rules based order, the US and its citizens reaped immense economic benefits. The MAGAts have worked diligently to unravel 75 years of that hard won success proving that destroying is much easier than building.
Globalization requires a level of trust between nations whose perceived interests do not always align. That is a feature, not a bug. When economies are so interconnected it acts as a calming effect on all. We don't want to start a circular firing squad, right?
Someone else observed that T.Rump had forgotten to update his brain (rather like the attack on the school in Iran being based on outdated target info) and he is behaviour today is based on the old 1970s thinking that Oil is King so here we are.
In reality as you say, it is now way more complicated because of hyperglobalization and that is no bad thing providing the superpowers behave in predictable ways.
. T.Rump is clearly out of control and dragging both the US and the rest of the world to a lesser extent down. There is one actor who can stop this and it’s the US people. The US needs regime change now, not in November, now. Unplug US from Israel immediately.
I don’t think Impeachment, I don’t think Epstein files. I think extremes are needed ….Article 3.3? Treason.
“The whole world ‘to a lesser extent’ down”. To a lesser extent? How about Greenland, Iran, the entire effing Middle East, Venezuela, Cuba, Canada…? You can’t possibly think they’re all having an EASIER time of it? Tell that to the over 100 dead school girls in Minab. The orange man that America elected TWICE is destroying the whole world. And none of us appreciate this lesser than status you’ve arbitrarily assigned us. Please, for the love of all that is sacred, kindly recognize that this mayhem is reverberating across all nations and most profoundly right now in the Middle East.
Completely agree and I think you misread. Facts are some countries more affected than others though. I did recommend that T.Rump should be charged with Treason. In my ideal world Netanyahu would be no more too.
This particular reply is directly related to hyperglobalisation. Can discuss human impact elsewhere but I can tell you I am completely aligned and there’s no need to harangue.
Lifting the sanctions on Iranian oil certainly looks like giving aid and comfort to the enemy...
The US is even more vulnerable than other countries because of our cult-like worship of free market capitalism (and associated hostility to government intervention).
China and even Europe have active industrial policies where activist governments harness and regulates the profit driven private sector. Whenever capitalist entities act in ways that are counter to the national interest their governments will intervene with incentives and/or regulations to secure the public interest.
China has been most effective at harnessing the insatiable short-term profit beast, but Europe is also much better than US. In US we have allowed that beast to take over our government and now it's like a bull in a China shop, using legalized grift to destroy everything that doesn't serve its insatiable appetite.
In the same way that Ukraine was Putin’s overreach failure, perhaps Iran is Trump’s overreach failure. Both expected a quick capitulation and ended up with a mess with no face saving exit. TACO here we come!
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it odd that this “war” with no defined goals is fiscally enriching Russia (sanctioned lifted) and now Iran- who is supporting Russia’s efforts in the Ukraine? Really do any of us think individuals loyal to the Orange one think far enough ahead to anticipate global disruptions, or even to care if they do? It really seems like the actions being taken with this regrettable “war” are being directed by someone else who benefits and the Orange one is simply following orders. Follow the money and the gold spray paint.
Ha, ha - “odd hardly describes it!” There are so many elements that echo putin’s war in Ukraine.
Our strength derived from the mutually beneficial alliances we built with other countries. Trump's disruption of those alliances, which many Republicans disdained even before Trump took office, have made us weaker.