China's Perfect Storm

Behind Blasts Shortcuts and Lax Rules spectacular blow up in the port city of Tianjin was a grievous and public display of government dysfunction just when Xi Jinping's government has it's hand full dealing with crony capitalist financial incompetence as well.

Zombies Stalking China

A previous post mentioned a fear of China falling into a generation long great recession and today's The Zombie Factories that Stalk China's Economy   proves it.  Paul Krugman's Keynesian remedies will prolong not relieve in this case, but China is so authoritarian they are not likely to think of any other path such as letting state owned factories fail and a free business press report free market clearing prices, Lilian Tett's observation in today's MSNBC Squawk Box, and guide the economy toward viable businesses.

Rand Paul for President

Rand Paul is the only candidate for President that understands that the Constitution of the United States is a government expressly created for the purpose of promoting an individual's sovereign right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness*.

* As described by Randy E. Barnett The Structure of Liberty: Justice & the Rule of Law

Bottoms Up

As Economies Gasp Globally, U.S. Quickens congratulates the latest U.S. growth of 3.7% yet laments the slow recovery.  What is great about our economy is its bottom up and therefor credible bubble free growth that will be looked on as part of a long streak of growth similar to the post war economy of the 1950's.
China's authoritarians on the other hand dealt with the economic crisis of 2008 by over investing in housing and  recently the stock market to manage statistics that give the illusion of growth. The consequence is that the apparatchik has zero credibility and is without an economic messenger the likes of Standard and Poors and Dun and Bradstreet that self developed in the U.S. in the 19th century to help free markets guide China forward.  One observation that China may suffer a lost generation to recession similar to Japan's is quite astute and until Xi Jinping decides to shift gears by embracing a business free press there will be no track for the locomotive to drive his economy above it's current plateau.

Many Donors and Volunteers, Not Money

Bernies Sander's Small Beer Donors makes the handwringing over too much money in politics and decrying the Citizens United  Supreme Court decision for allowing billionaires to express themselves with as much money as they wish amusing. The raising of many small donations is not only democratic, it’s politically effective.  Donors commit themselves to candidate.  The more donors, not money, a candidate garners the stronger they become. Stronger to field volunteers to knock on doors and get out the vote for their candidate. Candidates that rely on a few fat cat donors will fail.  Schemes that try to level the supposed money advantage with matching funds from the public just keeps the politician’s eye off the ball of recruiting many donors and volunteers.   

Air Power Destabilizes Again

America's Dangerous Bargain With Turkey is trading a Kurdish alliance for an air base near the border with Syria. It's a tactic that would not be supported by a grand strategy to pacify the region, rather it does the opposite.  As usual in the Middle East the U.S. get the "friend of an enemy is my enemy and the enemy of my enemy is my friend" dynamic all wrong.  Turkey's Erdogan hates the Kurds enough to be a friend of ISIS!

Oasis of Sanity

Inquiry Weighs ISIS Analysis and Ideal Syrian Ally for U.S. are two headlines that show the dearth of thought in American middle east policy.  Without a sane political union on our side we have nothing to leverage.  In Syria we have to start from the beginning protecting and funding refugees in the South East along Jordan's border to develop into an oasis of sanity while the rest of Syria drops off the end of the earth.