The View from Right Field

How to Know Economists Have a Sense of Humor – or of the Absurd

Actually, I first heard the answer to the question, “How do you know economists have a sense of humor?” from the EconTalker, Russ Roberts.  I don’t know if he came up with it, but since I heard it first from him, I will credit him with it (at least purposes of this post).^1,2

But I am going to change the question a little, though the answer is still the same.  Here is my phrasing: “How do you know economists have a sense of the absurd?”

The answer to both ways of phrasing the question is the same: They use decimal points. 

Whose Drones Are Attacking the Kremlin and Why Can’t Russia Stop Them?

In a week of big news (for example, Matt Mervis made his major league debut with the Cubs yesterday), one of the more bizarre stories was the “attack” on the Kremlin by two drones.  The Russians blamed Ukraine, accusing them of trying to assassinate Vladimir Putin.

Whether is what actually happened or whether it was a Russian “false flag” operation or something else is completely unclear.¹  In any case, what I don’t understand is why the Russians would accuse Ukraine of flying these drones to Moscow.  If I were Vladimir Putin, I would be embarrassed if the Ukrainians could fly two drones all the way to the Kremlin.  Instead of trumpeting it to the world, I would be trying to hide the fact.  What does this say about Russia’s air defenses if two slow moving drones can get all the way to Moscow and crash into the Kremlin? 

Biden Announces for Reelection; Trump Is Already Running. Sigh.

Joe Biden announced his reelection bid in a video released on Tuesday¹, saying “It’s time to finish the job.”  The snarky response would be: Well, it makes sense that you need more time.  Things take longer when you get old.  

Others have already announced their campaign for 2024.  Former President Trump may have been the first, announcing in November of last year, though I am not sure whether he is running for election in November, 2024 or he is still trying to get the “stolen” election of November of 2020 “corrected” so he can take over right now. 

Secret Documents. First Trump. Then Biden and Pence. Who’s Next?

Donald Trump kept confidential/secret documents from when he was president.  Joe Biden kept the same kind of documents from when he was vice president.  And so did Mike Pence.  (Not surprisingly, former President Trump was the most obstreperous about it, but that is true for pretty much everything.)

What I’m wondering is when we’re going to check on Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Dan Quayle, Jimmy Carter, and Walter Mondale.  For that matter, why should the fact that George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, and Spiro Agnew are dead make a difference?  Shouldn’t their papers/libraries/museums be checked, too?  (Well, I don’t suppose former Vice President Agnew has a library or museum.)

Other than obstreperousness and sloppiness, it might be interesting to figure out just how different former President Trump is on this issue.

The Holocaust and “Never Again”. I Wish It Were So, But It Isn’t.

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, except people don’t.  After the Holocaust, the pledge was “Never Again” – except it happens again and again.  

Last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal had an article on “The Communities That Risked Everything to Rescue Jews.”  It was a moving article about countries (Denmark, Albania), islands (Zakynthos, a Greek isle), and communities  (the Frenchtown of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon) who protected their Jews. 

But how many people are risking much of anything to protect others today.  Consider Rwanda in 1994.  Think of the “bug out” of Kabul in 2021.  And why did it take the U.S. and Germany so long to finally send tanks to Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin has been deliberately attacking civilians with rockets for months?  Some of those are not genocides (“genocide” is a word too easily thrown around today), but there are still innocent lives being lost that we could be doing something about.

But perhaps the most depressing thing on this Holocaust Remembrance Day may be the fact that the one thing uniting more and more of the far right and far left is hatred of Jews.

Tanks for Ukraine and a “Conversation” Between Biden and Scholz

We have a problem in Ukraine.  Things were going great, but now they’re getting tougher for Ukraine.  There is only so much that Ukrainian grit and Russian incompetence can accomplish.  Also, while we can continue to rely on Ukrainian skill and bravery, we cannot assume Russia will always be stupid.

To shift the odds back in Ukraine’s favor, we need to ship more weapons to Ukraine, especially offensive weapons.  And even more especially tanks.  Nobody (except, of  course, countries like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, who understand what Russia can do, because it has done it to them) has wanted to send tanks to Ukraine.  But that is changing.  The UK is sending some Challenger tanks.  The United States says Abrams tanks are too complicated for the Ukrainians to use and maintain, etc.  Germany doesn’t want to send its Leopard 2 tanks either.  While Germany has never wanted to send tanks (they claim they don’t want to escalate the war.  Huh?  Russia invaded eleven months ago and is now sending mass rocket attacks at Ukrainian civilians,  And it would be the Germans who would be escalating?), they are now using the argument that they won’t send tanks unless the United States will, too.

The Great January 6 “What-If”

The House of Representatives’ January 6 Committee¹ has issued its report.  I’m not going to go into its conclusions.  What Donald Trump did on January 6, and what he did not do that he should have done,  was appalling, but then I knew that on January 6.  As I have said before,² the only question after January 6 was: what was the best way to make sure then-President, now former President, Trump went away and never came back again.  But that is not the question for this post. 

Rather, the “what-if” question for this post is this: What if the Capitol had had better security on January 6?  What if there had been enough police officers, and national guard personnel, etc., so that the protestors, aka rioters (aka insurrectionists or whatever you want to call them), had not been able to break into the U.S. Capitol building that day?  In one way, things would have been the same.  Then-President Trump would have still tried to convince Mike Pence to put off the counting of the electoral votes (or whatever other cockamamie scheme then-President Trump was pushing).  Some idiot Republicans would have objected to the counting of the electoral votes.³  And Vice President Pence would have told them all to, in effect, “pound sand.” 

Another Favorite Christmas Memory: Bob Hope Entertaining the Troops

Following up on last week’s post about our family Christmas in Berlin in 2010, I wanted to list one of my favorite non-family Christmas memories.  And it’s appropriate to mention it this year because this is the 50th anniversary of what was just about the last Bob Hope Christmas tour to entertain the troops. Bob started entertaining the troops during World War II (actually, before)  His last tour was in 1990, to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for the Gulf War.  But the ones I remember most were the shows during Vietnam.  He would go at Christmas time and then the Bob Hope Christmas Special would be on TV in January.  It was a “must watch” for me. 

I think the one I remember the most was 1972, his ninth, and last, trip to Vietnam.  Back in the 2000s (i.e., the decade, not century or millennium), I bought a set of DVDs, “Salute to the Troops: Bob Hope: The Vietnam Years,” which included Bob Hope’s monologues from all of his trips to Vietnam, from 1964 through 1972.  It’s great.  I also tape recorded (audio, obviously) a part of his 1972 Christmas Special (which aired in January 1973).  I listen to it every year as I put the lights on our Christmas tree.  It’s one of my personal Christmas traditions.

A Christmas to Remember: Berlin, 2010

I recently listened to a podcast that asked the participants for one of their best Christmas memories, which got me thinking.  I have a lot wonderful Christmas memories.  For many years, it was mostly the five of us, my mother, Jennie, Ross, Susan, and me, and they were great.  Then, after my mother passed away, the four of us did some traveling over Christmas: Guadeloupe, Peru, and maybe the best: Berlin in 2010.

We went to Germany in December, 2010, to see the Christmas markets – and Germany in the snow.  And there was a lot of snow in 2010.  We decided to stay until December 26, so we could celebrate Christmas in Berlin. 

On Christmas Eve, we ended our sightseeing early and went back to the hotel for our own Christmas celebration.  Susan bought gifts for everybody at KaDeWe.  I bought what I call “Kindereier” at Kaiser’s, a food store¹ (and brought baseball cards with me – because you always give baseball cards for Christmas).

“The Road Less Traveled” by Philip Zelikow: A Great History with Mindboggling What-Ifs

Here is a gift for almost anybody on your Christmas list: The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916-17, by Philip Zelikow.^1,2  This is a fascinating book on several levels.  First, it is a great history of the efforts and discussions among the Germans, British, French, and Americans on the Great War and how it might be ended in 1916 or early 1917.  As you read Professor Zelikow’s account, you see an end to the war just beyond the reach of the parties.  Each party wants the war to end, but they can never seem to get there at the same time.  Even knowing that the efforts will fail, the book grips the reader and pulls them along.

Second, the book is, in a way, a story of alternate history.  As we see the possibility of an end to the Great War in 1916 or early 1917, we can’t help but think: Would such a peace have been so bitter for Germany as the Treaty of Versailles?  If the war had ended before the Tsar was overthrown, what would have happened in Russia: might the Tsar might have stayed in power; might Kerensky have succeeded?  Perhaps most importantly, the likelihood of a successful Bolshevik revolution would have been small.  The idea of a world with neither Hitler nor Stalin is amazing.  And there are all those people who would not have died.