MARCH
2018
MICROECONOMICS.
I want to compare the style of two articles
about Trump's economy from two top of the line
Journalists who work for "The Australian".
Both articles are from the early (first?)
edition of March 10-11 issue.
- Judith Sloane authored
"Trump's only trade certainty is he loses
and so do we."
- Terry McCrann authored "Not
for Trump the tired ways of business as
usual."
The headings already indicate the
tone of the author. What I noticed was the
language used within the articles.
- Judith used derogatory
language that judged Trump's actions. Words
used were "loopy", "ludicrous", "bizarre",
loopy", "howler", "weird".
- Terry used extreme words
that criticized Trump alarmists as providing
"Armageddon", "foaming hysteria", "mindless
stupidity" "right thinking idiot".
Most of those words were at the
start of the respective articles. So one
could be fairly confident that someone who
thought Trump was OK would not get very far into
Judith's descriptions of Trump as "loopy"
etc. Contrariwise, someone who thought
Trump was dreadful would probably not get far
into Terry's writing after his description of
Trumpophiles as suffering "foaming hysteria".
As for the value of the articles? Free traders
since Ricardo have advocated the removal of
trade barriers. Those theories were
derived for roughly comparable economies.
Reading both authors I can not see that either
makes a watertight case.
But I do hear that the US economy is employing
more workers, and that Trump is becoming more
popular.
SPY.
The Russians (read Putin)
are accused of attempting
to kill ex-spies in the UK
with a nerve agent that is
"only made in Russia".
There is one hole in the
story. The UK has refused
to provide a sample of the
nerve agent.
I can think of one very
good reason that they
would refuse. Suppose that
nerve agent was not made
in Russia. A smart
intelligence service does
not leave evidence of
possible wrongdoing lying
around. In public. Where
they might be accused of
incompetence. Or worse.
Where some future
technology might be able
to establish. Where
it was manufactured....
I have known and been
friends with
Russians. I
knew a journalist who was
besties with a Russian
embassy person who
admitted to anyone who
asked "I am a Russian
Spy". (That was back
in the 1960's). His
spy work? Reading
the newspapers and doing
assessments of Australia
and reporting back his
assessment of Australian
business &
politics. Not
paying traitors &
obtaining atomic secrets
or superior Australian
technology.
The current Russian
ambassador was asked on
air yesterday.. "Why would
the UK & USA make up
this story about
poisoning?"
He declined to
answer. He said "you
would have to ask them."
Here is my speculation.
For what it's worth...
Firstly, Trump, like me,
was quite positive about
Putin.
Then (after the election)
the Hillary forces needed
a scapegoat. A
Trump-Putin
conspiracy was the first
choice. (Second
Choice is Cambridge
Analytica, who are now
getting the blame for
Brexit. Watch that
space...)
The US press attacked
Russia unrelentingly.
Trump dumped on
Putin. What else
could he do? Putin
became a "baddie" and US
Russia relations took a
dive.
Now Theresa. She was under
attack at home. She
needed a boost.
External threats are
always a great
diverter. Leaving
aside whodunnit, Russian
ex-spy Sergei and Daughter
being poisoned was a
godsend. And
Donald? Solidarity
with the UK forever!
Talk about "Fake News!!!".
All I can do is apologise
to any Russian.
And be glad that the world
is split into many states
that are not always
co-operating.
Vive independence
movements everywhere
(Iraq, Turkey, Iran,
(Kurds) Spain,(Catalan)
China (Formosa)
.....) Eu (Brexit,
Scotland, maybe Poland?)
MAIL TO barvennon@hotmail.com