America

It's all starting to fall apart for Japan, whose "lost decade" now appears as though it may turn into a "lost forever" and that's if QQE doesn't dead end in "failed state" status in 2018. 

A rebound in inflation is nowhere in sight (even when Japan attempts to game the numbers by removing components where prices are declining) and as we saw last month, the "devalue our way to prosperity" idea isn't working out so well as trade is collapsing in the face of the global currency wars. Wage growth is of course a complete joke as we've outlined on too many occasions to count.

John McCain has become the latest critic from the US to intervene in the Brexit debate Wading into the EU referendum debate on Friday, the republican senator, who is no fan of Vladimir Putin, warned that if Britain should exit the EU it would leave Europe, America and the wider world at the mercy of Russian President. Important intervention by @SenJohnMcCain – UK membership of EU vital for security & prosperity of both Europe & U.S.

G. K. Chesterton fixing the broken world, via Wikimedia Commons

Previous installment here.

A. Subsidiarity? At this stage of the game?

B. Especially at this stage of the game.

A. I suppose next you’ll be advocating distributism.

B. And why not?

Steve Sailer quotes from a very interesting David Frum tweetstorm analyzing the GOP’s dilemma — this, in reaction to an interview House Speaker Paul Ryan gave to the WSJ. Frum discusses the inability of the Republican Party’s elites to understand what nemesis is upon it. The tweetstorm ends like this:

12) Yet even as the R elite sees what’s probably coming, it won’t believe it. What worked in 1980 must work again. It just *must*.

Trump and Sanders have whipped up a lot of popular support by opposing “free trade” agreements.

But it’s not just politics and populism … mainstream experts are starting to reconsider their blind adherence to the dogma that more globalization and bigger free trade agreement are always good.

UC Berkeley Economics professor Robert Reich – Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor – wrote last month: