Conversation

Replying to
I have low expectations of useful reactions from business leaders though. Historically, when political strongmen have said “jump”, business leaders have usually said, “how high?” In US history, political pressure on business has usually been justified with “wartime needs” though
2
8
There’s a reason historically the ruling class/caste has usually (always? can’t think of any exceptions) been higher than the business class. Push come to shove, political power prevails, and business tends to kneel in the short term.
2
14
Remember Trump’s short-lived biz council? The one those generated stiff awkward photos of Tim Cook etc? The one where eventually it took employee pressure before enough left and he had to dissolve it? That’s the group that has to react to “hereby ordered” Don’t hold your breath
1
9
The power of business is like the power of wind and water. Over geological time scales water and wind carve rock. Over shorter time scales, rock channels water and wind. It takes looooong periods of political laissez faire for business to create wealth.
1
14
As Polyani said, laissez faire was planned, planning was not. It’s pretty easy for politics to remove the conditions ebsblimg laissez faire and let the natural creep of “planned” economics built out of stupid ideas like trade wars break in years what takes decades to build.
1
8
Trying to bully the Fed into managing interest rates as though it were a theater in a casually initiated trade war that’s mostly random acts of tariffs is what the beginning of the end of laissez faire looks like
1
8
If he gets a second term, I’d expect to see a licensing based corporatist regime begin to strengthen. Today we mentally associate planned economies with soviet/Chinese models, but iirc the OG planned economies were Italian/German fascist corporatism versions 🤔
5
11
Replying to
Whom do you think he’s playing to? He’s simultaneously telling the Chinese he’s willing to get ugly, and warning the business leaders that things might get ugly. And telling the citizens he’s willing to fight. It’s all theater, which is basic politics. #YouNeedToCalmDown