BOOK REVIEW: The Art of Not Being Governed

Louis

BOOK REVIEW: THE ART OF NOT BEING GOVERNED

the following is a book review: of JAMES C. SCOTT. 

The Art of not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia

The State of the State of Nature: Modernity and the Closing of the World

The modern state has come closer than ever to achieving the “end of history”. Increasingly, “non-state” spaces are being brought into the fold of “civilization.” Eschewing the normal protagonist, the nation-state, James C. Scott presents his subject: Zomia – a massive chunk of mountainous territory forming a transnational “non-state” region in upland Southeast Asia. Zomia represents a final frontier, or hold-out zone where progress, development, “civilization” and the state have yet to gain full control.

 The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia offers a new account of state building that seeks to overturn conventional understandings of both civilization and un-civilization. Scott's revisionist narrative aims to correct, “the huge literature on state-making, contemporary and historic, [which] pays virtually no attention to its obverse: the history of deliberate and reactive statelessness.”1

Predicting the Election: Enough Already?

Predicting the Election: Enough Already? 

By this point in the season I'm suffering from election fatigue. As the contests drags on, I'm probably not the only person wondering, "wouldn't it be easier if we could predict the winner in advance?"

On August 28th, 2012 U.S. News and World Report's Economic Model Looks Ahead: See's Victory for Romney claimed "Kenneth Bickers and Michael Berry have developed an economic and political forecasting model to analyze economic data from the 50 states and D.C. going back to 1980 in order to predict the presidential campaign winner. And, they say, their model predicts that Romney will win." Last year USNWR provided the contrasting prediction of Allan Lichtman, the American University professor whose "12 keys" election formula has correctly called every president since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election", assured Barack Obama's re-election is in the bag. These prognosticating political pundits boast of having predicted 7 consecutive elections.  This November only one perfect predictor will remain.

So who will win? Litchman or Bickers and Berry? Obama or Romney?

The American Constitutional Tradition: Or the Uses and Abuses of History

The American Constitutional Tradition: Or the Uses and Abuses of History

I've had all I can stand. 
The smell is too much for me. 
This shop where they manufacture ideals seems to me to stink of lies.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

 On September 17th, 1787 the framers (now venerably named)  signed the draft form of what would become, nearly two years later, the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution then proposed contained no bill of rights. It held no guarantees of freedom of speech, religion, press, or assembly. It provided no protections from self-incrimination, no compensation for eminent domain, no expectation of a speedy trial, and no jury of peers. It obligated no due process of law, and ordained no right to bear arms. Not until December 5th, 1791 would our now heralded rights-oriented doctrine be joined with the cold logic of the Constitution's Montesquieuian schematics. 

The bill of rights was a hard won compromise, enacted only begrudgingly, achieved narrowly, and only through the harrowing process of intense political struggle.  Almost comically the part of our Constitution designed explicitly as a protection against the government then established by the Constitution has come to embody our most sacred principles, denominate our most fundamental freedoms, and proclaim the essential spirit of our liberal creed. 

Toward the Post American World?: The Link Between Public Debt and Global Competitiveness

Towards the Post American World?: 

The Link Between Public Debt and Global Competitiveness

Over the past 20 years globalization has been driving a new era of equality in the world economy. The so called 'developing' countries   such as China, Brazil, and India have experienced consistently high rates of economic growth. Meanwhile, the 'developed' world remains mired by slow growth, high-unemployment and the possibility of long-term stagnation.Yesterday the World Economic Forum,, a European public-policy think-tank,  released its annual Global Competitiveness Report. The report suggests that uneven rates of growth are likely to persist for years to come. 

Advanced industrialized economies in Europe, as well as the United States face a number of impediments to maintaining competitiveness. Perhaps the biggest issue facing advanced industrial democracies are soaring public debt levels which threaten macro-economic stability, crowd out private investment, and force difficult policy choices. In Debt, Deficits, and the Markets the Economist reports that similar debt levels have had divergent effects on national borrowing capacity.

According to the economist, Japan still faces relatively low borrowing costs despite its massive public debt. One driver of Japan's low financing costs is there strong domestic investment ratio. Other debt-ridden countries are not so fortunate, and the seemingly endless Euro-Zone Debt Crisis  continues to threaten the macro stability of the global economy. 

The Municipal Bond Bubble: "Tip of the Iceberg" or Safe Bet?

The Municipal Bond Bubble: "Tip of the Iceberg" or Safe Bet?

The municipal bond market is large at around 3.7 trillion dollars. It is also essential. Municipal bonds allow the decentralized system of American federalism to provide highly localized critical social services. Your new school, new firetruck, new water-treatment plant, renovations to the library, and that noisy sidewalk repair project were most likely financed using municipal bonds. Most of the time local governments do not have cash on hand to finance costly infrastructure development projects. Instead, they borrow. And investors lend to towns and cities expecting a healthy R.O.I. About.com reports that indexed municipal bond mutual funds offer "Attractive After Tax Yields" outperforming treasuries by a little more than a percent. 

Teachers, policeman, firefighters, town librarians, to quote Steve Miller "make a living on other peoples taxes." So do municipal bond investors. Cities make bond payments using receipts from current taxes. Most localities receive the majority of their income from property taxes (...and the rest from speeding tickets). The housing bubble burst. Property values plummeted. Tax receipts suffered as localities were hit hard by the financial crisis. 

Bond investors were banking on the upward trend in property values. In effect, the borrowing costs and habits of America's local governments rested implicitly on the assumption of continued increases in home prices. Around a year ago, investment analyst Meredith Whitney predicted a massive wave of default in the municipal bond market. The prediction roiled speculators, but her doomsday prophecy has yet to occur.

What Would Andrew Jackson Do?: Public Choice, Public Finance and the Federal Reserve

John J. Louis

What Would Andrew Jackson Do?:
Public Choice, Public Finance and the Federal Reserve

The Huffington Post reports, Trust in Government? Poll finds Nearly 80% of Americans Don't, and the Chicago Booth/Kellogg Finacial Trust Index shows fewer than 1 in 4 americans trust the financial system. American's have been wary of banks since the founding. We have been especially suspicious of big banks, and at times downright hostile to central banks. Occupy Wall Street demonstrators show little has changed. 

In 1832, Andrew Jackson's famous bank veto officially ended the Second Bank of the United States. Jackson admitted, "A bank of the United States is in many respects convenient for the Government and useful to the people," yet he understood the concomitant dangers.  Jackson proclaimed"The many millions.. bestow[ed] on the stockholders of the existing bank must come directly or indirectly out of the earnings of the American people." Jackson understood that national credit could be used to underwrite favored lenders at taxpayer expense.

Health Care Reform: Distributing the Surplus

Health Care Reform: Distributing the Surplus

With Supreme Court's ruling handed down its time to politicize the decision. Constitutional platitudes and rights oreinted rhetoric have dominated the political debate, and the economics of health care reform has taken second stage. Many American's are wondering who will benefit most from the favorable decision. Today, Sommer Mathis put out a piece for the Atlantic entitled Where the Uninsured Live which included a map created by Atlantic Senior Editor and Urban Theorist Richard Florida commenting on the current distribution of Health-Care coverage: