Gaza, Israel, International Law

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Saturday January 03, 2009 · 10:30 PM PST

2009/01/03 · 22:30

I believe international law matters. When I read the Yoo torture memos, the arguments underpinning Guantanamo Bay, the white-wash of superior officers and civilian authority over Abu Ghraib, the dissenting reactionary opinions on the seminal Supreme Court decisions in Hamdan, Hamdi, Boumediene, etc. - I was struck by how similar the Neocon (for want of a better categorisation) arguments were to the discussion that took place in Europe, particularly Germany, around WW I: At the time, legal positivists argued that there was no international law; that the constitution was supreme and could not be limited by international law; that the constitution was whatever the words said - change the words, change the constitution.

These academics were not Nazis; but when the Nazis came along and changed the constitution to deprive Jews - German citizens, decorated WW I veterans, internationally renowned authors, academics, artists and musicians - of their dignity, their citizenship, their property, their liberty, and then their lives, these academics said: It's legal.

This is the danger. This is why I care. This is why it's important.

halef

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Thursday November 06, 2008 · 4:10 AM PST

2008/11/06 · 04:10

I'm Swiss, my wife's American, and I'm currently sitting in Switzerland reading and listening to US news and comment about how the election of Mr. Obama has changed America.

To you, it may feel like that. For me, and I think I speak for many Europeans, it does not feel like change, it feels more like a return to the America we and our parents experienced and always knew existed.

While there is some anti-Americanism in Europe, most Europeans know enough Americans and about America to distinguish between the people and its government of the day. We also don't always agree, but there's nothing wrong with respectful disagreement among friends.

halef

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Monday October 20, 2008 · 6:46 AM PDT

2008/10/20 · 06:46

In today's NYT, William Kristol wrote a piece titled Here the People Rule.

In it, Kristol seems to argue:

"Vulgarisation" of politics is actually a compliment, as "vulgus" means "people" and "vulgarisation" means "people rule".

Though the people aren't always right, they usually are - for instance, they don't blame the Wall Street fat cats for the financial fiasco they engineered. They may be supporting Obama right now (which proves the people are not always right), but they may wake up, smell the sulphur and vote for McCain.

halef

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Saturday October 18, 2008 · 12:37 PM PDT

2008/10/18 · 12:37

The UK Guardian in today's edition wrote that the top six Wall Street investment banks have collectively set aside US$70 billion for salaries and - mostly - bonuses for the geniuses who did so well for the banks.

halef

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Thursday October 16, 2008 · 11:12 AM PDT

2008/10/16 · 11:12

If you want confirmation that US academic writing is in crisis, look no further than Francis Fukuyama (he of the End of History and adherent of the Remnant Ronald Reagan Church of Latter-Day Neocons). His latest piece in Newsweek and the London Times is par for the course: His still strong historicist ideology interwoven with historical un- and half-truths and leavened with rather trite received wisdom.

If I had submitted something like this in university, getting laughed out of the room would have been the least of my worries.

halef

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Monday September 22, 2008 · 1:21 PM PDT

2008/09/22 · 13:21

Post WWII, Germany's banks held worthless Third Reich government bonds as practically their sole asset. To get the banking sector going again, the German government allowed the banks to rate these bonds as capital, but the banks were obliged to write them off over time. In the meantime, the bonds were not redeemable and bore no interest.

halef

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Tuesday July 01, 2008 · 3:20 PM PDT

2008/07/01 · 15:20

Business news sites nowadays like to ask: Do you think the economy will get better, worse, or more of the same? If those are the only options, it can’t get better. It can only get better if there is fundamental change.

The US economy has been quite deliberately moved toward a planned economy, only the planning is not done by an official central committee of the ruling party, but by a combination of large private organisations and government regulation that "accidentally" suppresses small market participants.

The great chance – but in my view also the only hope – for the US, its citizens, breadwinners and voters, is to break out of the "big is better" mindset and return to "small – even if messy – is beautiful".

halef

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Friday June 27, 2008 · 5:59 AM PDT

2008/06/27 · 05:59

One of the most annoying oxymorons bandied about in discussions at all levels is the term "free market" and its derivatives. There is no such thing.

"Free-marketers" argue that, for an economy to operate at optimum efficiency, resources need to be optimally allocated. Resources will be optimally allocated if the goods and services produced with these resources are correctly priced, as an incorrect price leads to an inefficient allocation of resources.

The correct price in turn – being the price that leads to the most efficient allocation of resources – will most reliably result from a balance of supply and demand. The mechanism that allows a price to be established through the balancing of supply and demand is a market, and it is free so long as there are no extraneous forces acting on either supply, demand or price.

That is the definition of the IDEAL free market. "Ideal" is epistemological code for saying: This construct BY NECESSITY AND DEFINITION cannot exist in the REAL world. To make it work even approximately in the REAL world, regulation is a definitional requirement. Regulation is not a contradiction to the principle of markets, but an existential necessity.

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Gaza, Israel, International Law

Not Change, But Renewal

Kristol - Fails Latin 101 and Constitution 101

US$70 billion in Wall Street Bonuses

Latest Skit in the Fukuyama Follies

Recap'ing the banks - postwar Germany lesson

The (potentially) bright future for the US Economy

Regulation: The Essence of A Free Market