Ruminations

Behind the screen

Category: Politics

  • The Tilted Playing Field

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    Kyle
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    American Producers Were Set Up To Lose Part of the “To Boldly Go” Austrian Economics Series The trade war debate produces a lot of heat and very little light — mostly because it focuses on the wrong variable. The standard analysis compares Chinese wages to American wages, finds a large gap, and concludes that the…

  • A Circus Past Its Prime

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    Kyle
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    The stool has four legs. Three are already broken. On the morning of July 31, 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sat at a Camp David cabinet meeting with a notepad visible to Reuters photographers. It read: “To Do — Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil.” The Treasury acted within hours. The New York Fed executed…

  • AI Data Center Supply Constraints

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    Kyle
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  • Global Supply Lost by the Strait of Hormuz Closure

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    Kyle
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    Share of global supply tied to the Hormuz region Helium 33%, Sulfur/sulfuric acid feedstock 24%, Naphtha 24%, Oil 21%, LNG 20%, Aluminum 9%.

  • Super-Governmental Organizations, part 2

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    Kyle
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    Pseudopods of the Blob Who wins this? This is the 2nd half of the Super-Governmental Organizations article. Part 1. XII. The Mandate Economy: Government Without Spending The standard measure of government’s economic footprint is spending as a percentage of GDP — approximately 36% at federal, state, and local combined. That measure misses the most important…

  • Escaping the Chains of the US Constitution

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    Kyle
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    When Government Goes Rogue “Move along. Nothing to see here.” “…in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.” — Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 I. So Much Mischief The preceding article, “Super-Governmental Organizations”, described…

  • Same Oligarchs, Different Accent

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    Kyle
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    The Russian Mirror “Not this play again!” “We are being de-modernized.” — Russian lawyer, 1990s, as quoted by Catherine Austin Fitts Series Context This article is part of the “In a Stranger Land” series. It should be read alongside: I. The Horrifying Epiphany It happened slowly, in a London conference room, over the ordinary business…

  • Super-Governmental Organizations, part 1

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    Kyle
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    Pseudopods of the Blob If only the lie were so easily ended. “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” — James Madison, Federalist No. 47, 1788 I.…

  • The Financialization Coup

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    Kyle
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    The banquet of consequences is not fully served yet. “The process by which financial markets, financial institutions, and financial elites gain greater influence over economic policy and economic outcomes is not a side effect of capitalism. It is the replacement of capitalism.” — Gerald Epstein, Financialization and the World Economy, 2005 I. The Bait and…

  • The Revolution Will Not Be Verified

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    Kyle
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    From Pravda to Goldstein — Truth as a Managed Product If only it were as easy as putting on some sunglasses. “I predict straw horses will be beaten.” — Kyle Davenport, ZeroHedge comment, Mar 27, 2025, re: an ATF entrapment sting later exposed as a possible honeypot I. Reading Pravda Soviet citizens developed a sophisticated…