Ask any question about geopolitics, broadly defined. We — and others reading the FM website — will attempt to answer it in the comments. All answers welcomed!
- Like Jeopardy, your comments must be in the form of a question!
- Please use the REPLY button when replying to a previous comment, to keep threads together.
Questions received so far (click on the link to go directly to that thread):
- Will the Dodd-Frank bill prevent bailouts for companies “too big to fail”?
- If I were to have dinner with the Obamas, what would be the most important topic to broach?
- Does passage of the National Defense Authorization Act mark the death of the Constitution and end of the Second Republic?
- What do you feel the consequences of a strike on Iran will be?
- Will the European Monetary Union break-up?
- America produce a Julius Caesar genius level dictatator before hell freezes over?
- What is the likely future of the Taiwan question?
- Effect of our latest sanctions on Iran?
- Why is your advocay of hard work as a solution to national problems is almost always followed by outraged comments?
- A comment about philosophy.
- Is it accurate to describe the Republican Party’s leadership as revolutionaries?
- Would you mind providing more commentary on your recent post About the mysteries of the 9-11 attack?
- There is some food stamp fraud in Central OK — so Newt is right!
- Three interesting questions about the (legal) drug industry.
- Will NATO surviving in its current form? Do you think there will be more Libya-style interventions?
Articles of great interest
(a) Nobody should read these emails and retain confidence in the claims about global warming:
(b) This looks suspicious: “LPS Foreclosure Fraud Whistleblower Found Dead“, Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism, 30 November 2011
(c) What we’ve learned about the G.O.P.
- ““I’m convinced that, if NASA were a GSE, we probably would be on Mars today”, Newt Gingrich, 24 April 2007 — See details at Bloomberg.
- “People can use food stamps “for anything,” including “to go to Hawaii,” and even millionaires can qualify. – Newt Gingrich, speech in Council Bluffs IO, 30 November 2011 — See a factcheck here.
- “Paul Ryan’s solution to inequality helps the rich, does nothing for poor“, Greg Sargent, op-ed in the Washington Post, 18 November 2011 — Analysis by Tim Smeeding (Prof Economics, U Wisconsin-Madison)
- “The Republicans’ Farcical Candidates – A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses“, Der Spiegel, 1 December 2011
- “A look back: Newt’s most outlandish positions“, Justin Elliott, Salon, 2 December 2011 — “Gingrich once called for children of welfare mothers to be shipped off to orphanages”
(d) The well-publicized shortage of skilled workers is mostly propaganda. Firms want skilled, experienced workers — but at cheap wages. There is always a shortage of under-priced “goods”. A case study of Union Pacific: “Skilled Jobs Go Begging? Not Quite“, Kevin Drum, Mother Jones, 27 November 2011