Monthly Archives: June 2014

View 829 Saturday, June 21, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

“Today, I can announce that our review is complete, and that the United States will pursue a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility.

This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant.

[W]e will work to promote an Iraqi government that is just, representative, and accountable, and that provides neither support nor safe haven to terrorists.”

“We are leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq.

Barrack Obama
December 14, 2011
Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Conversation on Putin’s Logic

Anyone who is interested in Russia, Putin, or geopolitics will find this conversation to be worth their time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL8cNo0Lusw

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

It is a good elementary introduction to political realism about Russia, and anyone in need of that will find it valuable. My inclination is against conversational formats like that, because you can read a lot more in less time than it take to “watch” (mostly listen, there are no illustrative video clips). I do wish that the media news talkers would watch it, because a bit of realism would be good for them.

Putin is a Russian patriot. He rose from a minor KGB bureaucrat, just high up enough to be part of the Nomenklatura, to Yeltsin’s protégé and heir in well under ten years. He was better aware of the problems Russia faced than most, and had far more energy and verve than others around him. Perhaps a bit too much zeal. During his rise from political aide to protégé to heir of the ‘democratic’ faction of Russia following the collapse of the USSR, he was forcibly made aware of the unreliability of US and NATO promises regarding Russian interests. The Kosovo War in which the United States bombed Serbia to force the Slavic Serbian government to hand over the province to Albanian illegal immigrants, coupled with the usual Russian belief that the West is anti-Slavic, helped form his views of Russian need for buffer states between Russia and NATO.

Little that the West has done since then would have changed his view that the West, and particularly the United States, has a consistent foreign policy other than a bias against Russia; possibly this comes from the legacy of the Cold War, but all his experience points to that. The US doesn’t know its own interests, but it tends to thwart those of Russia, including the legitimate interests of the power that has stood between the Asian hordes and Europe for a very long time.

Baghdad hasn’t fallen.  The US is not yet fighting in Iraq.

It is lunch time.  Tonight I will post a full mail bag.  It’s about time.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 829 Friday, June 20, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

"Reflections: an established corridor controlled by Iran from Iran to Syria is not in any western interest, and not in the interests of Jordan or any other Sunni. ISIS is not our friend, but it is not much of a friend to Iran either. "

The best we can hope for at this moment is to keep Persian ground forces out of Iraq. Should they move into Iraq, the Turks and Saudis will be tempted to become (more) ‘involved.’ The ISIS would be stalled here and the tri-partite schism of Iraq will be established. With that, ISIS, will not have the strength to make incursions into Shia-Iraq/Persia; or the Kurdish Territory; and, certainly not Turkey. That leaves Jordan vulnerable, which in turn threatens Israel.

s/f

Couv

David Couvillon

Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Retired.; Former Governor of Wasit Province, Iraq; Righter of Wrongs; Wrong most of the time; Distinguished Expert, TV remote control; Chef de Hot Dog Excellance; Avoider of Yard Work

Agreed, but the matter remains complex.

Jordan and Lebanon are more important to Western interests than Syria. It happens that Shiite and Kurdish Iraq has most of the oil; Sunni Iraq has little as I understand it. The Kurds were able to exclude Maliki’s tax collectors from their areas; it will be interesting to see what happens to Mosul, long desired by the Kurds, but part of Saddam’s Arabification program. For the moment the Kurds are satisfied with Sunni (ISIS) occupation of Mosul and will not help Maliki’s ineffective army retake the city, but I am sure the matter is under consideration. Mosul has some oil, but is critical to the Kurds because of the refinery and pipeline to Haifa. While Kurds are not fervent Sunni (“Compared to infidels, Kurds are Moslem”), they are not going to tolerate a Shiite regime in Mosul if they have any ability to prevent it. Now they have that ability, and will likely support some kind of Sunni rule in Mosul so long as it is not so fanatic as to declare the Kurds heretics. It is extremely unlikely that the Kurds will encourage, or even tolerate if they have the ability to prevent it, Iranian ground troops in Iraq.

It is also in our interest to encourage religious tolerance in the Middle East. Historically that has also been very much in the interests of the tolerating regimes: the Christian and Jewish communities in Syria and Egypt were important to their economies in the centuries in which tolerance was a policy, as for instance after the Lionheart/Saladin truce. Under Sharia law “People of the Book” are explicitly tolerated but must pay a tax. Polytheists and atheists are not tolerated at all by Sharia law, and children of a Moslem father and non-Moslem mother are required to become Moslems or be executed. There are no other alternatives, not even exile.

Of course Kurdish/Turkish relationships are themselves questionable; but since the once very formidable Turkish Army has been subjected to purges of its Kamalist professionals in favor of sympathizers to the Islamist regime, just how formidable the Turkish Army is just now is not entirely clear.

Saladin the Kurd united the Moslem Middle East as Sultan using his Kurdish loyalists as the core of his Sultanate. Kurdistan is not so united in 2014, and neither Shiite Iran nor Sunni Turkey wants to see a United Kurdistan. (About half the Middle Eastern Kurds do not live in Iraq, and they have conducted a low key guerrilla war against Turkey and Iran for decades.)

Iraqi Kurdistan continues to be friendly toward the US but wary of believing in American promises; that at least is the best estimate I can gain from my sources.  If anyone knows better I would appreciate the input.

More on this later. It’s lunch time.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 829, Thursday, June 19, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

John Quincy Adams on American Policy:

Whenever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

Fourth of July, 1821

I had to get the bills paid this week and yesterday I had to go to the bank and do some shopping and errands. None of that would have been worth reporting a few years ago, but such activities tend to use up the day. Getting older beats the daylights out of the alternatives, but it’s not for sissies…

The news from the Middle East isn’t very informative. The ISIS drive on Baghdad seems to have been halted, but the civil war in Iraq continues. Iran hopes to come out of this with domination of the Shiite areas of Iraq and a solid path to Syria. Apparently the Kurds have cut a neutrality deal with the Sunni. They don’t have congruent interests, and it’s really unlikely that the Kurds will be interested in a true alliance. There are also stories of a Kurdish/Turkish modus vivendum, which is interesting. The President, having a bit of time between his golf games and fund raisers, yesterday indicated that the US will not be sending in air power to defend Baghdad. We did send in some forces to help evacuate Americans, but the schedule for US final evacuation from Iraq hasn’t changed. Last night he decided to reconsider.

This morning the President is still contemplating assistance to Baghdad. Likely he offered some air power, and Maliki said “Is that all you will do for us?” This infuriated Obama. The results of that will be apparent.  He’s about to come out now.

And the Sunni ISIS warriors are threatening, not Baghdad which is a cosmopolitan city, but Najif and Karbala, which are nearly all Shiite as well as important holy cities for Shiites.

And meanwhile we are now fighting American trained Arabs who, thanks to McCain’s gullibility, were given American training and equipment and sent back to be absorbed by ISIS, which McCain had probably never heard of by that time. He thought we were training moderates, but then he can always be sold a bill of goods by those pretending that stance. Mostly these trickled back into the regions and were incorporated into the ISIS ranks whether they liked the idea or not. A bit of equipment and some training doesn’t set you up to resist the biggest dog on the block. Alas, those who tried to warn of this were not listened to.

The President will announce just what he will do in Iraq presently. He’s back from his fund raisers and golf and ready to go to work as the President of the United States.

The Press conference is going on now.  Apparently we are sending intelligence assets.  If we decide we need to take military action we will—

Bryan Suits says this is the girl calling her ex boy friend to come kill a big spider in her kitchen.  Apparently the President isn’t all that interested. He also notes there are no military people in the President’s announcement party. There will be no air strikes. No more blood and treasure to Iraq. Someone in the national security organization understands that if our enemies are killing each other, it is probably better not to intervene.

Listening: the President says that the US will not choose sides in this civil war. His closing remarks are well considered. We’re not going to shed more blood into the desert.  When asked about the Kurds he had nothing to say.

Understand that overall Sunni outnumber Shia about 8 to one (including Kurds as Sunni “Compared to infidels, Kurds are Moslem”).

Reflections:  an established corridor controlled by Iran from Iran to Syria is not in any western interest, and not in the interests of Jordan or any other Sunni. ISIS is not our friend, but it is not much of a friend to Iran either. 

Baghdad:

Iraq crisis: sectarian tensions mount in Baghdad as Shia militias prowl Sunni areas

Neighbourhoods riven by past sectarian bloodshed on edge as Shia militias mount shows of force

By Colin Freeman

12:14PM BST 18 Jun 2014

Waving rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs, the convoy of Shia militiamen rolled down the Baghdad street, a 30-vehicle column of vans, pick-ups and battered saloon cars.

Above the roar of their combined engines, they chanted how they were now crushing the “terrorists” of Isis, the Sunni extremists who have seized much of northern Iraq.

This particular victory parade, however, was nowhere near the frontline – nor was it welcomed by those for whom it was put on. The main battleground against Isis’s advance is currently some 50 miles north of the capital, where Shia militiamen have stepped into the breach left by the Iraqi army.

But while some militiamen are busy in frontline combat, others have taken to driving through Sunni neighbourhoods of Baghdad in mass shows of force.

Their message is unspoken, but as loud and clear as the chants – any Sunni who is thinking of supporting Isis can expect Shia gunmen at his door.

“Ever since last week, not a day has gone past without them coming down the street, shouting and yelling and waving rifles and pistols,” said Imad Ahmed, a shopkeeper in the Sunni district of Adel in west Baghdad.

“They say they will crush the Isis terrorists and anyone who stands in the way of the Shia, but these guys are nowhere near the frontline. This is just designed to intimidate us.”

The United States will send a Kabuki force to defend Americans in Baghdad.  Maliki hopes that this will serve as a tripwire to keep Baghdad safe for his Shiite regime.  He is not likely to retake the territory lost to the Sunni.  Do understand that the Sunni, not Shiites,  brought off 9/11, although we chose to attack Sunni dominated Iraq for Bush family reasons. Now that we are out  It would not be very much in US interest to join the 10% Shiite minority in a religious war. 

The overthrow of Saddam made the partition of Iraq inevitable. We came out of it with the Kurds as something like allies.  The Shiites we liberated did not love us for doing so, as witness the Mahdi Army (which will now get its chance to show how invincible it is when it defends Baghdad against ISIS). It might be well to have a way of convincing ISIS to consolidate their holdings rather than taking Baghdad.  But the political map of Mesopotamia is changing permanently; we can influence that, but not stop the process.  We stopped having that power when we sent Bremer to disband Saddam’s army.  Now I note that Bremer has the gall to lecture the nation on what to do next.  It’s a mad world.

And all this shows and shows clearly how important it is to keep the A-10 Warthogs; we are not done in the desert, and those are among our best and most easily deployed weapons for that kind of war. We also need helicopter carriers with Marines.  Had we had one of those off the shores of Tripoli (well, Benghazi), Mrs. Clinton would be in a lot less political trouble. So it goes.

Subj: Iraq: Are you sure "The Sunni Arabs" are monolithic?

The way I heard it, ISIS are the heirs of the late, un-lamented Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. His bunch were famous for lording it over and assassinating Sunni Arab tribal elders, to the point where the Sunni Arab tribes, with a little stimulation from Petraeus, held an Awakening, allied with the Americans, and threw them out.

ISIS are *more* extreme than al-Qaida: Zawahiri issued a fatwa that al-Qaida are not to kill "innocent" Muslims, and even the Somali terrorists in Kenya have been trying to abide by that, but ISIS gleefully kill anyone.

Does it matter? Maybe not. Al-Maliki has evidently gone out of his way to antagonize the Sunni Arab tribes, since the Americans left. But I see no reason to expect that the only Sunni Arab fragment of a disintegrated Iraq is going to be ISIS.

Who knows? There may even be a politician — probably not al-Maliki — who could put Iraq back together, sorta-kinda, making concessions to the Sunni Arab tribes.

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

I had not intended to imply that all Sunni are alike in beliefs or fervor, apologies for being misleading.  And just as Catholic France could ally with the Turks against the Holy Roman Empire, one’s brand of Islam isn’t definitive in determining which cause one jihads for.

I do not believe anyone can put Iraq back together again.  Saddam did so for a while, and we had an opportunity to continue that policy without its brutality (and without Saddam’s sons acting like the sons of Septimius Severus). It was possible to continue Western rule of Iraq through the tried and proven practices of client rulers.  Saddam’s generals had control of the army; the army knew it could not defeat the United States, but it could control the populace; the elements of client rulers were in place.  Were, until Bremer disbanded the armies that could control the population.

From the Times of India

I have had this for some time and have seen no follow up.  Obviously if you can manage to convert light into matter, which can then be expelled as reaction mass, you are onto a technology of some use in interplanetary travel. You can send light to a moving spacecraft…

Now, convert light into matter

LONDON: Scientists have for the first time discovered a revolutionary technique to turn light into matter, a feat thought impossible when the idea was first theorized 80 years ago. Three physicists at the Imperial College London’s Blackett Physics Laboratory worked out a relatively simple way to physically prove a theory first devised by scientists Breit and Wheeler in 1934.
Breit and Wheeler suggested that it should be possible to turn light into matter by smashing together only two particles of light (photons), to create an electron and a positron – the simplest method of turning light into matter ever predicted. The calculation was found to be theoretically sound but Breit and Wheeler said that they never expected anybody to physically demonstrate their prediction. It has never been observed in the laboratory and past experiments to test it have required the addition of massive high-energy particles.
The new research, published in Nature Photonics, shows how Breit and Wheeler’s theory could be proven in practice. This ‘photon-photon collider’, which would convert light directly into matter using technology that is already available, would be a new type of high-energy experiment.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Home/Science/Now-convert-light-into-matter/articleshow/35362973.cms

Now, convert light into matter

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

It was my understanding that evidence of anti matter has been found during lightning strikes. I am not sure what all the excitement is about. I still recall the picture of an electron and positron spinning off in opposing spirals in an old physics textbook.

Sincerely,

David P. Zimmerman

I tend to agree, but I have been hoping to find someone with more expertise to persuade me that this has implications for a spacefaring nation.

Global Warming, oops, climate change…

June Snow: Winter Storm in Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Flooding in Glacier National Park As Summer Approaches

http://www.weather.com/safety/winter/montana-snow-june-20140616

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 829, Monday, June 16, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. Period.

Barrack Obama, famously.

Niven will be here presently and we will attempt the hill; I hope to make it to the top this time. I’ve had to turn back about ¾ of the way before, but we had others with us, and that always slows me down as I try to keep up with younger hikers. Niven and I know how to pace each other well, and he’ll be the only one here today. So I hope to make it.

I’ll try writing a bit before he gets here, but probably not much will happen, so I’ll post this stub and be back later this evening.

We haven’t reached the end of history. There is no evidence that liberal democracy – even of the EU variety that was such a vogue not long ago – is sweeping the world inexorably, bound to prevail. It isn’t even sweeping the United States, which is becoming more and more bureaucratic and political, with centralization of power and suppression of contrary thought. The President’s speech over the weekend left it clear that you have to be stupid and nearly criminally selfish not to believe in not only the theory of manmade global warming, but that the United States can unilaterally do something about it: we can bankrupt ourselves converting into sustainable energy and that will somehow induce China and India not to continue pouring out CO2 from coal and oil; we can abandon nuclear power, which does produce energy without producing CO2, for other schemes, and still be able to compete in a world economy. And if you don’t believe that, it’s because you are selfish and think the moon is made of cheese.

This is known as rational political debate in this age of reason, this last stage of history.

Meanwhile in Iraq the ISIS is shooting down its prisoners. This has far reaching implications.

The Kurds are being sucked into the war, even if they have not already been by the fall of Mosul to their enemies: the Kurds reluctantly allowed the central Iraq government – Maliki’s Shiites who have busily purged the Iraqi army of all the US trained Sunni and all the former Saddam officers – to take control of Mosul, which the Kurds believe is actually theirs. Now the Kurdish militia, which is better trained than the Iraqi army and has taken better care of its weapons, is free to counterattack and take Mosul as its own. Good luck to Maliki on getting it back.

One result of this Iraqi civil war will probably be the expansion of Iraqi Kurds in the entire northern region. This begins to sound a bit like Saladin’s consolidation of the Kurds prior to his conquest of the Christian Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the era of Richard Coeur de Lion. Perhaps not the end of history after all.

And I see that Bremer – Bremer!! – has a Wall Street Journal editorial piece on what we ought to do about Iraq now. Here is the most incompetent proconsul since Roman times telling us what strategy we ought to have.

Iraqi Kurds maneuver between Maliki and Mosul

The swift attack on Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and relatively bloodless withdrawal of US-trained Iraqi security forces has further weakened Baghdad’s influence over northern territories. The political vacuum has enabled the Kurds to expand their land claims and leverage Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for concessions on their oil exports. Yet, the role of radical Baathist military officials in the Mosul coup and their links to ISIS also exposes the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to important security and political challenges. The KRG will not only have to secure greater territories and populations from extremist groups on its borders, but also maneuver its nationalist agenda through radicalized Sunni Arab populations that may be even more resistant than Maliki and Shiite groups.

In some ways, the Mosul attack is a coup for the Kurds. It occurred just as the KRG was locked in another battle with Maliki over oil exports and revenues, and as its Turkish energy partner was subjected to international litigation. The ISIS attack shifted media attention, at least temporarily, from an embarrassing situation of a wandering ship unable to offload contentious Kurdish crude to a scenario of KRG strength; assisting refugees, securing borders, and taking Kirkuk in the midst of a serious political crisis.

The attack has also gained the KRG time in its energy gamble with Baghdad. The instability caused by the Mosul attack has prevented the Iraqi government from moving forward with planned repairs on the Iraqi-Turkish Pipeline (ITP) on the Mosul side. This delay technically enables the KRG to continue exporting its crude through the part of the line it has taken over since January 2014. Although Kurdish pipeline exports are still small-scale and subject to international litigation if sold, local and Turkish buyers of trucked Kurdish crude can at least benefit from a rise in international oil prices — now at about $106 per barrel — that followed the Mosul crisis.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/kurds-isis-mosul-maliki-krg-gains-leverage.html##ixzz34pLTVlT4

Only America Can Prevent a Disaster in Iraq

Without U.S. help, the civil war may spiral into a regional conflict as other countries, including Iran, intervene.

By

L. Paul Bremer

June 15, 2014 6:04 p.m. ET

http://online.wsj.com/articles/l-paul-bremer-only-america-can-prevent-a-disaster-in-iraq-1402869886

Of course there wouldn’t be any such disaster if Bremer hadn’t disbanded the Iraqi army as one of his first acts of building a liberal democracy in Iraq.

ISIS ‘execute’ 1,700 Iraqi soldiers, post gruesome pictures

Radical Sunni militants who have been capturing cities in northwest Iraq claimed on Twitter that they executed 1,700 Iraqi soldiers. The radicals posted graphic photos as evidence.

http://rt.com/news/166092-iraq-militants-mass-executions/

New terror video emerges of ISIS monster lining up and taunting Iraqi soldiers in the desert before appearing to execute them as yet another town falls into jihadists’ hands

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2658858/ISIS-jihadists-tighten-grip-Iraq-capture-Tal-Afar-UN-hits-deeply-disturbing-soldier-massacre-pictures-shocking-world.html#ixzz34qRj7gdE

This should have the effect of making the Sunni militants fight harder in defense of Baghdad, but that isn’t certain. This is Arabs fighting Arabs, and Arab armies seldom stand and fight to the death either historically, when the tactics of the Prophet were to skirmish his Persian enemies to death, or in more modern times in the wars with Israel. The Iraqi regular army has been purged of its officers, who have been replaced by Shiite Maliki supporters; the notion of a national army neither Shiite nor Sunni was abandoned as soon as US troops were withdrawn. The notion of a unified Iraq as a federation of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd (“Compared to infidels Kurds are Moslem”) states also vanished when the US ceased to insist on it and withdrew the means to enforce that will. So it goes.

One thing about this: If the enemy of your enemy makes war on your enemy, the only people killed are your enemies. Perhaps this was the Obama strategy after all. One hopes there could have been a better strategy, and possibly there was before Bremer. Mine would have been to pay the Iraqi generals to pay their soldiers, and have each keep the peace in his own district. Insubordination would be met by unleashing the Legions. This rule by auxiliaries and client generals and kings has been effective since Roman days, and if we insisted on staying in Iraq was probably the only formula for success; but no one seemed interested in that at the time. By the time Obama came to power we had few options. There were some, but they would have taken considerable skill: the Legions were tired of the war, the administration had no enthusiasm for it, and there were few theories on what could be done about it. There was little sentiment for partition to be enforced by American air power, and a Status of Forces dictated in Washington and signed by the Iraqis as a condition to taking any kind of political office, but that was never an option for the Obama/Biden/Clinton team. They had no one to implement it.

Our options now are rather few, and are shrinking fast. If we had a lot of Warthogs in the region ready to deploy, and a regiment of Marines ready to land from helicopters with A-10 support, a lot could be done toward of goal of a reasonably stable partition, with a pro-American Kurdish faction –

Niven is here and we are about to hike. More later.

We had a very productive hike and lunch, and came up with a number of scenes for our new work.  I feel like a writer again. Continuing today’s news commentaries:

I expect nearly everyone knows about Uber?

Uber is a venture-funded startup and transportation network company based in San Francisco, California, that makes mobile apps that connect passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire and ridesharing services.^[1] The company arranges pickups in dozens of cities around the world.^[2]

Uber has been accused in several jurisdictions of illegal taxicab operation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_%28company%29

There is an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal that tells me something I neither knew nor suspected:

Uber Shocks the Regulators

Digital technology has undermined the old idea that taxis need close government supervision.

By

L. Gordon Crovitz

 

. . .

Recent investments put an $18 billion valuation on Uber, which launched in 2010—more than the combined market value of Hertz and Avis. CAR +0.69% That $18 billion can be understood as a market estimate of the waste caused by taxi regulations around the world.

Taxi and limousine commissioners limit new entrants and suppress competition between taxis and car services. They micromanage the manner of hailing rides, the number of licenses issued, and how many cars a company may own. These rules protect existing owners at the cost of better service for consumers and more flexibility for drivers

Uber uses technology to create efficiency by enabling supply to match demand. It’s closing the gap between what taxis and car services have been allowed to provide and what consumers want. Its success undermines the long-held idea that the taxi industry requires close government regulation.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/gordon-crovitz-uber-shocks-the-regulators-1402869510

Eighteen Billion Dollars is a lot of money. It may not be true that every dime of that is a result of waste caused by taxi regulations, but surely half of it is?  If taxi regulations made sense instead of being crafted to make as much for the city as possible, Uber would still be valuable, but not $18 billion valuable.  Sensible taxi regulations would include registration, criminal background check, filing picture of the driver with the police as well as issuing a picture ID to be hung in the transporting car, and some scheduled inspection by private companies to insure the proper operability of the auto.  None of this need cost more than a couple of hundred dollars, and much of the problem of in city transport would be solved.  Of course in our liberal democracy that won’t happen because sane taxi regulations are only of use to the people, not a means of income to the bity bureaucrats.  So it goes.

So of course the taxi companies and similar interests are spending like crazy to lobby for the suppression of Uber. So far they have not succeeded, but it’s early times.

High-Frequency Trading Needs One Quick Fix

Change Reg NMS Rule 611 to read ‘best execution’ instead of ‘best price.’

by Andy Kessler

June 15, 2014 5:54 p.m. ET

In the "state your conclusion upfront department," the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has scheduled a hearing for June 17 titled "Conflicts of Interest, Investor Loss of Confidence, and High Speed Trading in U.S. Stock Markets." They join the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FBI, the Justice Department, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and, inevitably, Eric Schneiderman in uncovering what the New York attorney general calls "this new breed of predatory behavior."

Too bad none of the investigations will figure out that changing one word in a federal regulation can fix all this. Because none of them understands the old Wall Street adage: "On Wall Street, everybody gets paid."

http://online.wsj.com/articles/andy-kessler-high-frequency-trading-needs-one-quick-fix-1402869253

 

If you don’t understand the problems in “high frequency trading” – and few of us reading this do, nor do the vast majority of the Congresscritters and their staffers – you can’t really be blamed, but this article will at least give you a picture of what the problem is.  His suggestion as to what can be done about it is, in my judgment, naïve, but I quickly admit he knows more about it than I do.  My guess, though, is that the situation exists because it’s in the interests of a number of influential Congresscritters that it exist, and until it is better explained to the public and a legitimate public interest is expressed, nothing will be done. On Wall Street, one way or another, everybody gets paid. I doubt there’s a quick fix for that.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.