Month: November 2019

To whom or to what am I loyal?

I am an American. I believe strongly and am loyal to the principles of individual freedom and limited government embedded in the American Constitution. I have also been a Republican all of my life because I judged that the Republican Party best reflected the above principles. But in 2016 I changed my party registration to Libertarian because I no longer believed that the Republican Party remained faithful to my political beliefs.

I have followed the testimony in the Impeachment hearings investigating high crimes and misdemeanors by President Trump. Generally, I have relied on press summaries but I watched the live full testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Jenniffer Williams, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, David Holmes and Fiona Hill.  Ambassador Sondland was a large contributor to the Trump campaign and was rewarded with the appointment as Ambassador to the European Union, an assignment that included Ukraine.  Amb. Sondland has no foreign policy experience. His testimony, however, set a high standard for frankness and openness. He came across as very bright and (now) well informed. In his testimony, however, he obviously wished to justify the role he played in attempting to persuade the Ukrainian President to agree to Trump’s request for a “favor.”

The testimony of Ambassador Sondland and the others (including Bill Taylor, George Kent, and Kurt Volker) left no doubt whatsoever that President Trump, operating through Rudy Giuliani, tried to bribe Ukraine’s new anticorruption President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to publicly announce an investigation of Ukraine’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and of the Biden’s involvement with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.  Hunter Biden–former Vice President and current Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son–served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company, from 2014 to 2019.  “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Pence and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney were among those whom Ambassador Gordon Sondland said were aware of the pressure on Ukraine for probes that could damage President Trump’s political opponents” Sondland said there was a quid-pro-quo

It is common for our foreign policy relations and aid to be based on quid pro quos. That is to say that we provide aid when conditions are met that we think service American interests.  What is involved here, however, is President Trump using American tax payers money and the powers and influence of his office for his personal political advantage.  In fact, his actions toward Ukraine are quite contrary to our American interests (which is a stronger, less corrupt Ukraine on the border of Russia).  In my opinion the now well known facts of Trump’s behavior visa vie Ukraine is impeachable.

For a while I still held out hope that there would be Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee who would honestly seek the truth of Trump’s behavior. I was sadly disappointed. Congressman Devin Nunes couldn’t get beyond repeating old discredited claims and his demand that the whistleblower testify. The idea that the secondhand claims by the whistleblower of impropriety by Trump would add anything to the firsthand testimony we have now heard doesn’t pass the laugh test. The council leading the questioning for the Republicans is pathetic–a real embarrassment. He seemed to only strengthen the case against Trump.

In my opinion many of the policies being advanced by many of the Democrat presidential candidates need to be effectively countered. I am losing hope that the Republican party is still capable of doing that.

 

 

 

Protecting Jobs

Protecting jobs sounds like a good thing to do (if you don’t think very carefully about what it means). Free markets protect jobs that are performing desired tasks better than someone else can. President Trump’s protection of steel workers’ jobs by imposing tariffs on competing sources of steel (mainly Canada) is protecting a relatively inefficient industry and thus “protecting” a lower standard of living for our country at large. “Protectionism” protects us from innovation and exciting technical changes that we eagerly embrace when offered in the market.

This week’s Economist magazine has an interesting article on the latest economic disruption (known to economists as “creative destruction”).  “Today the latest bonanza is in full swing, but instead of steel and sand it involves scripts, sounds, screens and celebrities.” https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/11/14/who-will-win-the-media-wars

Movies (cinema or film for the more sophisticated) were only available in movie theaters when I was a kid more than half a century ago and yes they were already talkies (don’t be a smart ass). Then there was TV and we could watch movies there if we could stay up late enough. Cable TV packages greatly broadened the choice of channels.  Then video players and cassettes meant that we could choose what movies we wanted to watch and when.  We used to get CDs from Netflix in the mail.  I think I still have an unreturned diskette somewhere.  Maybe I will frame it so that my grandchildren can marvel at such historic relics.  In 1985 Blockbuster Video opened and we could skip the mail and browse thousands of films for rent.  They filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and the last two stores (in Alaska) closed last year.

“This week Disney launched a streaming service which offers “Star Wars” and other hits from its vast catalogue for $6.99 a month, less than the cost of a DVD. As the business model pioneered by Netflix is copied by dozens of rivals, over 700m subscribers are now streaming video across the planet. Roughly as much cash—over $100bn this year—is being invested in content as it is in America’s oil industry…. This binge is the culmination of 20 years of creative destruction (see Briefing). New technologies and ideas have shaken up music, gaming and now television.” The Economist

We can look at these amazing technical and business innovations in several ways:  1. A lot of jobs were destroyed as newer technologies replaced older ones and the jobs associated with them.  2. Fortunately no one succeeded in “protecting” them and we, the consumers–the targets of greedy profit seeking capitalists, enjoyed the greater benefit of more entertainment, more conveniently delivered and costing less.  3. New jobs were created to provide these new services.

“Disruption has created an economic windfall. Consider consumers, first. They have more to choose from at lower prices and can pick from a variety of streaming services that cost less than $15 each compared with $80 or more for a cable bundle. Last year 496 new shows were made, double the number in 2010. Quality has also risen, judged by the crop of Oscar and Emmy nominations for streamed shows and by the rising diversity of storytelling. Workers have done reasonably. The number of entertainment, media, arts and sports jobs in America has risen by 8% since 2008 and wages are up by a fifth. Investors, meanwhile, no longer enjoy abnormally fat profits, but those who backed the right firms have done well. A dollar invested in Viacom shares a decade ago is worth 95 cents today. For Netflix the figure is $37.” The Economist

Such dramatic disruptions can be painful for some–those whose jobs were lost or whose investments lost value. We need to adopt policies that minimize that pain. But thank God we didn’t try to protect those jobs and share values and the older ways they reflected.