Dear @agmoore,
Obama took us out of the Bank debacle, and Biden took us out of the pandemic recession.
- in my opinion that is a far-fetched interpretation. The bank debacle (rather it was a debt-fueled deflation shock, caused by too low interest rates since the 1990s) was "solved" by more government debt, quantitative easing, and some productivity gains and economic growth by the IT sector. The pandemic recession, too, was deferred by a lot more debt, QE and lower interest rates (both by Trump and Biden). What government and central banks did was "kicking the can down the road". Unfortunately, the root causes weren't addressed: too much debt, too little growth, too low fertility, too much regulation.
As for regulations. These may have an impact on the pace of economic growth. However, there is an argument to be made for regulations. People die because of air pollution. People die because of industrial accidents. That is a cost. Sickness has an economic cost. A compromised youth, increased cancer rates--these have economic costs. During the Industrial Revolution in 19th century UK, economic growth soared, but so did diseases associated with that unchecked--unregulated--growth.
- I fully agree. But what do we compare that against? Before the industrial revolution (resp. substantial economic growth resp. capitalism) people starved on their farms when bad weather occurred. The average life expectancy was way lower. The industrial revolution which brought higher productivity was the prerequisite that people got free from agricultural work and could dedicate themselves to studying medicine, increasing hygiene, etc. It wasn't regulation that increased the wellbeing of the people.
- During Covid politicians decided to make lockdowns, in order to save lives. What they didn't or hardly consider was that a lockdown is accompanied by less production and less employment - which also kills people, as unemployment, debt, loneliness, etc. leading to depression and suicides, partially over many years in the future.
- Regulation may help, and it has a cost. Who knows what is the right balance here? I doubt that politicians have the right incentives to do regulation. They may get paid by big corporates that profit from regulation (regulatory capture). My impression is that the US is overregulated, but not as bad as Europe.
Another statistic that I did not cover was the loss of health insurance under Trump. Also, I cannot gloss over the pandemic. I was at the epicenter of that surge in New York. I lost friends. These were not numbers they were people. Each life lost was precious. Trump knew about the pandemic at least in January. He was warned by Navarro that it would be a national security crisis. He did nothing. His inaction led to loss of life. We were not prepared, psychologically or technically for the surge when it came. My friend Myron died in April. Maybe if he had been warned, if knew what was out there, he might have taken precautions appropriate for his age. Maybe the hospital would have been better equipped to treat him.
- I agree. He made very bad decisions related to Covid. That's probably why he lost in 2020.
October 7 slaughter was an unthinkable human calamity.
- No, that was not a calamity. A calamity is a bad event, usually caused by nature. October 7 was an attempted genocide. If Israel had not reacted decisively, the beasts from Gaza (not only Hamas, but also "civilians") would not have stopped until "Palestine" would have been "free of Jews".
- If Netanyahu made mistakes, to what extent and if/how he should have prevented this attack is an inner-Israel problem. The Israeli society will address that and we will see the consequences.
- Obama's/Biden's Iran policy enabled Iran and their proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis) to commit these atrocities.
Palestinians are an oozing soar in the heart of the Moslem world. As much as being a physical reality, they are an idea that motivates radicalism and terrorism in the region. Every child that is killed becomes a martyr in the region.
- Muslims don't care about Palestinians. They could easily take them over as "refugees". But nobody wants them. "Palestinians" caused the unraveling of Lebanon (accompanied by apartheid and lots of murder). More Palestinians were killed by Jordan (Black September) than by Israel. This whole movement has nothing to do with "pro-Palestine". It has always been anti-Jew / anti-Semite.
As long as there are state actors who will support the Palestinians, there will be no peace in the Middle East. And there will always be state actors because the Moslem world is behind the idea of the Palestinians. Peace in the Middle East, I believe, means finding a way to live in peace with Palestinians.
- I don't agree. Peace (at least a relative peace) will come when Iran's regime falls, and when the Abraham Accords are reenacted.
My biggest argument against Trump, however, is the fact that he is more than willing to break the law and violate the Constitution. He asserts as much. This is antithetical to the idea of the United States. We are an imperfect country. But through our imperfections we have always given lip service, at least, to the principles of the Constitution. Once that is gone, what are we?
- I see that also very critically. Let's see what he will do in this direction. I just can't see that Harris would have been less anti-Constitution. Walz said more than once that there is no guarantee to free speech because "misinformation". How much misinformation do mainstream media and politicians distribute? Who should be in charge to decide between information and misinformation, some Orwellian Ministry of Truth?
- The good thing is that the media are against Trump. And I can't see an autocrat that is against the domestic media. German media loved Hitler, Russian media love Putin, Turkish media love Erdogan.