Saturday, March 16, 2024

My Amazon Review of Ian Buruma's "Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah"

Cancelled

At a time when cancel culture is running rampant in the West, it is useful to note that pernicious as it is, it is not new. In Dutch born Ian Buruma’s biography we find the 23-year-old Baruch Spinoza banned from his Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam for his heretical ideas about G_d and the origins of the Bible. At the time Spinoza had yet to publish anything, but his ideas were so powerful that he threatened both the Jewish and Christian communities alike. Mind you this occurred in 1656 at the height of the Dutch enlightenment. Along the way we learn much about life in the milieu of the Dutch Republic.


Spinoza would go on to write a major book on the philosophy of Descartes and later several books on his own philosophy. He was part of a coterie of intellectuals that viewed him as a cult figure; a reputation that was enhanced by his ascetism and celibacy.


Spinoza’s god was nature itself. Thus, to study nature in the spirit of open scientific inquiry was the pathway to finding G_d. For espousing freedom of thought, Spinoza was cancelled. Although Spinoza did not believe in organized religion, he did believe that it served the purpose of inculcating the values of justice and charity within the broader population.


Buruma himself was cancelled as the editor of the New York Review of Books in 2018 because he didn’t bow down the #MeToo orthodoxy. In writing about Spinoza, Buruma has exacted a modicum of justice against the radical hyenas of the Left. 

For the full amazon Review see: Cancelled (amazon.com)

Friday, March 8, 2024

President Biden's State of the Union: Strong on Form Weak on Substance

Very reminiscent of Harry Truman's "give'em hell" 1948 campaign, President Biden came out swinging against his nameless predecessor and the Republican House of Representatives in his state of union address. ( See: Shulmaven: New Yorker Follows Shulmaven on Biden Election Strategy. ) He was confident, strong, and relaxed and at least for the time being silenced the "bedwetters" in the Democratic Party concerned about his re-election prospects. Further I wouldn't be surprised to see a meaningful bounce in his poll numbers in the coming week.

In terms of substance there was much to be desired. He opened his speech citing Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 state of the union (see below):

In January 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt came to this chamber to speak to the nation. He said, “I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union.” Hitler was on the march. War was raging in Europe. President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary moment. 

Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world. Tonight I come to the same chamber to address the nation. Now it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union. And yes, my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either."

President Roosevelt's speech which has become to be known as his "Four Freedoms Speech" was delivered on January 6, 1941. Only a week before Roosevelt gave fireside chat where he declared the United States to be "an arsenal of democracy." The difference today is that President Biden is nowhere near declaring America as an arsenal of democracy. Indeed his proposed defense budget will show a meager 1% increase. Given the tone of his speech and the prewar environment we are now living in, he should have called for a massive increase in defense spending. (See: Shulmaven: Shulmaven Anticipates Hal Brands Foreign Affairs Article on Pre-WW II and Today) Thus his rhetoric is way ahead of his actions.

The other troubling parts of his speech is that he revived all of the old Democratic Party tropes about taxing the rich, going after big Pharma, and spending program upon spending program. He fails to understand that middle-of-the-road voters in 2020 thought they were voting for a Bill Clinton and instead got a Lyndon Johnson. This could come back to haunt Biden as his rhetoric could very well scare away the Nikki Haley voters he will need in November.

































Tuesday, March 5, 2024

My Amazon Review of Jennifer Burns' "Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative"

 The Little Giant 

Standing at exactly five feet, Milton Friedman was short in stature, but very tall intellect. Stanford historian Jennifer Burns has written a very readable biography of one of the great intellectual giants of the 20th century. From humble beginnings in Rahway, New Jersey we witness Milton Friedman scaling the heights of the economics profession as his once controversial ideas move from the fringes to the mainstream of thought that would ultimately have great effect on public policy.

 

In many respects, I am a child of his ideas. While as an undergraduate at Baruch College, I learned of the Friedman-Savage utility function, price theory from his workbook, the permanent income hypothesis, and the quantity theory of money through “A Monetary History of the United States.”  I also studied the works of his graduate students, in particular Gary Becker on human capital and David Meiselman on the term structure of interest rates. That was quite an economics education for an undergrad in the early 1960’s.

 

Friedman was blessed by having great mentors. At Rutgers and Columbia, he fell under the wing of Arthur Burns and at the University of Chicago he was fortunate to learn from Henry Simons and it certainly did not hurt to have Aaron Director, his wife Rose’s older brother in his corner. The University of Chicago was a hot house of ideas standing athwart the New Deal and Freidman was in the middle of it all. Much of this was discussed in George Tavlas’ “The Monetarists” which I previously reviewed.

 

There is much here that I did not know about Friedman. I knew he was involved in crafting payroll withholding at the Treasury Department during World War II, but I did not know he continuously represented the department at congressional hearings. Interestingly Burns makes a strong case that although Freidman took full credit for the permanent income hypothesis, it was really a joint effort of his wife, Rose and economists Dorothy Brady and Margaret Reid. Those three women had worked on family consumption patterns in the late 1930’s and the 1940’s. Perhaps most troubling was an episode in 1955 when his wife was raped in their Chicago home while Friedman was travelling in India. Initially he did not want to return home, but he had to be talked into it by Arthur Burns.

 

His conservative ideas brought him close to power as he advised Republicans Goldwater, Nixon, and Reagan. His conduit to Nixon and Reagan was Chicago dean and high government official, George Schultz. His fame brings him to Chile where his students were leading the charge to reform that nation’s economy. When he was there to advise the government, he turned a blind eye to the atrocities of the Pinochet dictatorship.

 

During the 1970’s heyday of monetarism, Friedman was the most famous economist in the world. His 1967 presidential address to the American Economic Association correctly outlined the thesis that there was no long run trade-off between unemployment and inflation proved to be correct in the stagflating 1970’s. However as financial deregulation changed the definition of money the crude MV=PY equation lost its effectiveness as a guidepost to the economy.

 

The world we live in today is very much the product of Friedman’s ideas characterized by Jennifer Burns as Chicago price theory. Those ideas include floating exchange rates, the volunteer army, the negative income tax, school vouchers and the deregulation of licensing requirements. This is the legacy that she writes so well about.


For the full Amazon URL see: The Little Giant (amazon.com)

 

 

Monday, March 4, 2024

New Yorker Follows Shulmaven on Biden Election Strategy.

On January 24th we briefly outlined a strategy for the Biden re-election campaign. (See: Shulmaven: Sleepwalking on the Road to Perdition ) 

"Further Biden has to get out of his sleepwalking mode and, if he is capable, he has to run an all-out campaign a la 1948 Harry Truman against the do nothing Congress. However, that "if" is a BFD, as Biden would say. To continue the Truman analogy, Biden should give an all-out speech calling for a big increase in the defense budget to deal with the axis of evil. Otherwise I fear that we would be sleepwalking on the road to perdition."

Today the New Yorker magazine followed us with a long article  by Evan Osnos. See the excerpt below from Politico.

BIDEN’S TRUMAN MOMENT: EVAN OSNOS ’ full New Yorker profile on Biden and his reelection mission is worth your time. But one moment stuck out to us: the parallel between the president’s pitch and that of HARRY TRUMAN .

“Biden’s opportunity is akin to the one that Harry Truman had in his 1948 campaign for reelection. Trailing in the polls, Truman railed against what he called a ‘Do Nothing Congress,’ which had failed to stop spiking prices and ameliorate a housing crisis. Much as Biden talks about the threat to freedoms worldwide, Truman spoke of a gathering Cold War, a grand mission that served to unify a fractious Democratic Party. He ultimately prevailed,” Osnos wrote.

“It was a matter of pulling together a coalition that was in even worse fragmentation,” historian SEAN WILENTZ told Osnos about Truman. “Truman did it by going to the American people, running against Congress, standing up on both the Cold War and civil rights. It’s possible that ’48 will prove a precursor to what we have now — if the Democrats take heed.”

That suggests that Biden could point, for example, to Republicans scuttling the grand bargain on immigration, and sidelining the national security supplemental for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other priorities in the process. It also suggests focusing on democracy and the rise of autocratic forces could give Biden an edge in his election narrative. (Source: Politico National Security, 3/4/2024)

The problem with the strategy is that Biden does not appear to have the energy to do the equivalent of a 100 city whistle stop tour.

Monday, February 19, 2024

Fascism in Santa Fe

Presented below is my letter to the Santa Fe New Mexican which appeared this morning. The background is that Meow Wolf, an experiential art venue, suddenly cancelled a concert by Matisyahu, a Jewish reggae performer on February 14. One member of their union complained that Matisyahu's support for Israel in its war against Hamas made her feel unsafe. That snowballed into a walkout that left the venue with insufficient staff to accommodate the sold-out audience of 400 people. The next day a Tucson venue did the same thing. Further an attempt to cancel Jerry Seinfeld's performance in Albuquerque failed and his show went on.

"Narrow ideology

In oh-so-progressive and oh-so-artsy Santa Fe, fascism is alive and well. Following the playbook straight out of 1930 Germany, a group of so-called activists pressured Meow Wolf management into canceling a sold out concert by Matisyahu, a Jewish performer whose only sin is supporting Israel in the war against Hamas. This is no different from the tactic used by the jackbooted brown shirts against Jewish artists and businesses. I guess todays Santa Fe activists no longer believe in free expression and artistic freedom, but they rather act like thugs to enforce their narrow ideology.

David Shulman

Santa Fe"




Sunday, February 18, 2024

Time for a Discharge Petition

Time is running out for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The Senate just passed a $95 billion appropriation for assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Putin's murder of Russian democrat Alexei Navalny reinforces the need for immediate action. However, Putin puppet Speaker of the House Mike Brown is holding up action on the legislation. It is he and the Putinista caucus in the Republican Party along with the anti-Israel Hamas caucus within the Democratic Party that are working against the desperately needed aid package. It is important to remember that the Hamas caucus and the Putinista caucus have one thing in common: they both hate America.

Thus when the House reconvenes from its recess on February 28th it will be time for Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies to work in concert with the remaining internationalists in the Republican Party to orchestrate a discharge petition to put the legislation up for a vote on the House floor. Sure it will take political courage for Republicans to vote against their speaker, but that is what they get paid the big bucks for.  Failure to pass the legislation will put us one step closer to the next big war. (See:  Shulmaven: Shulmaven Anticipates Hal Brands Foreign Affairs Article on Pre-WW II and Today)   

Friday, February 9, 2024

My Amazon Review of Benn Steil's "The World that Wasn't: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century"

America Missed a Bullet

 

On July 21,1944, the Democratic National Convention dumped its pro-Soviet vice president and named Senator Harry Truman as its vice-presidential nominee. With President Franklin Roosevelt operating in the background the political bosses of the Democratic Party, knowing that Roosevelt was likely to die in office, out maneuvered the labor bosses in obtaining the nomination for Truman.

 

With that the United States avoided having an administration led by a Soviet sympathizer who would have placed the communists in charge of State and Treasury, in particular Laurence Duggan at State and Harry Dexter White at Treasury. Should that have happened there would have been no intervention in Greece, no Marshall Plan, and no NATO. Further Germany would have been neutralized there would have been communist governments in France and Italy, a far cry from the Cold War history as it turned out.

 

I previously reviewed Benn Steil’s “The Marshal Plan” (See Shulmaven: My Amazon Review of Benn Steil's "The Marshal Plan: Dawn of the Cold War" )and his “The Battle of Bretton Woods,” and with this book he established himself as a leading historian of the mid-1940’s. Steil covers Wallace’s life from his early beginnings as part of an Iowa farm family and later as publisher of a leading agricultural journal. He became interested in plant genetics and founded with others Pioneer Hybrid International. The $7000 invested in 1926 turned into a nearly $10 billion equity valuation by 1999 when it was sold to DuPont. If Wallace stuck to his seed business the world would have been a much better place.

 

Wallace caught the eye of Roosevelt and became his Secretary of Agriculture. In that capacity he was an architect and follower of the New Deal farm programs that worked to prop up big agriculture at the expense of tenant farmers, ploughed under crops and destroyed millions of piglets at a time of mass starvation. Farm income hardly increased in the 1930’s. Also, during the 1930’s Wallace found a “guru” in Russian artist Nicholas Roerich. It is all very bizarre and Steil spends too much time on this.

 

In 1940 with Roosevelt needing support among farmers and the isolationist Midwest, Wallace was picked as his vice-president. In that capacity he is put in charge of the Bureau of Economic Warfare. There he clashes with Jesse Jones, the powerful head of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The seeds of his demise start here. He picked the wrong enemy. In 1944 Wallace goes on an extended trip to Siberia where he is completely taken in by the Potemkin Villages set up by the KGB. His trip was orchestrated by spy chief Lavrenty Beria. Where the reality was that of penal colonies, Wallace only saw happy farmers and miners. He didn’t return until June 1944, and he was therefore politically unprepared for the upcoming convention.

 

Truman gave Wallace a consolation prize by making him Commerce Secretary. His nomination was controversial, and the Senate stripped control of the RFC from him. His pro-Soviet leanings get the better of him in a speech at a pro-communist rally in September 1946 at Madison Square Garden where he attacks the Truman Administration as imperialist warmongers. Truman has no choice but to follow him. Much of the speech was written by his staff, many of whom were communists. From then on Wallace mouths every pro-Soviet trope in the book in attacking Truman.

 

After asking advice from of all people Soviet Ambassador Andrey Gromyko, Wallace decides to run as the nominee of the new Progressive Party which was largely staffed by communists including Harry Magdoff, Victor Perlo, John Abt and Lee Pressman. Steil highlights how closely the Soviets watched the campaign and highlighted its role in the 1948 election in Pravda. This was not the first time the Soviets took an interest in the activities of the American Communist Party.

 

After his loss Wallace fades away and later recants his pro-Soviet views. In my opinion too little too late. We now live in a time where the Russians are actively involved in our elections; only this time it is the Republican Party that is the object of their affection. It is also unfortunate that there are no party bosses in the Democratic Party that can fix its ticket, that as of today looks weak. Steil reminds us that we may very well be at another hinge of history and hopefully America will once again miss a bullet. (See: Shulmaven: Shulmaven Anticipates Hal Brands Foreign Affairs Article on Pre-WW II and Today )

For the full Amazon Review see: America Misses a Bullet (amazon.com)