Kaushik Basu: All the King’s Games: ‘Do Russians want to oust Putin and restore democracy? If you ask people familiar with Russia, they will most likely say that most of the population still supports him. I have my doubts. Tyrants always appear to have more support than they do until they are gone, because feigning support is a survival strategy… Dave Lee: The ever-expanding job of preserving the internet’s backpages: ‘A quarter of a century after it began collecting web pages, the Internet Archive is adapting to new challenges…David Smith: ‘Testing an Apple Watch Ultra in the Scottish Highlands’Michael Hiltzik: Column: How did America get addicted to a policy that fails everyone but the rich?Frederik Gieschen: Thinking About the Next Warren Buffett”: ‘Munger: “Young lawyers frequently come to me and say, ‘How can I quit practicing law and become a billionaire instead?’… The next Warren Buffett, whoever they are, will not be afraid to ask the question that is on everyone’s mind. But they will also not be sitting in the audience waiting to be handed enlightenment…Dan Davies: A non-random walk down Lombard Street: ‘Not all market interventions are bailouts and not all bailouts are bad…. The idea that financial crises can be managed by mitigating the consequences ex post rather than preventing the problem ex ante has a bad reputation, mainly as a result of Alan Greenspan’s use of it as an excuse for not doing more during the 2000s. But it’s not intrinsically unorthodox central banking. The optimal frequency of crises, as Professor Richard Portes once told me, is not zero. A central bank can’t anticipate everything and the perfect regulatory system doesn’t exist. Since central banks have the power to expand their balance sheets without limit, and so the ability to unstick frozen markets, why shouldn’t they use it sometimes? As long as people don’t get into the habit of expecting to be rescued simply from falling markets, this is a valid part of the toolkit…Joe Nye: What Caused the Ukraine War?: ‘Distinguish between deep, intermediate, and immediate causes…. Putin lit the match… on February 24…. The intermediate cause was a refusal to see Ukraine as a legitimate state…. Putin wants to restore what he calls the “Russian world”…. [But] while NATO’s decision in 2008 may have been misguided, Putin’s change of attitude predated it…. Behind all this were the remote or deep causes that followed the end of the Cold War…Emily Holland: Permanent Rupture: The European-Russian Energy Relationship Has Ended with Nord Stream…John Ganz: The Matteotti Crisis: ‘Mussolini’s success was not guaranteed…. The King might have withdrawn his mandate, his parliamentary allies could have fled, the opposition might have adopted a more muscular strategy, or the Fascist ultras may have launched a coup that justified governmental suppression of the Fascists in response. Mussolini took advantage of the disorganization of his opponents and the craven opportunism of his allies. It was the sort of tactical victory he had become expert in, riding out the storms while just managing to keep his coalition together. The killing of Giacomo Matteotti may have been reckless in that it created an unstable situation and threatened his rule, but ultimately it proved to be “the right move:” Mussolini removed an opponent of extraordinary courage and moral authority and created the conditions for consolidating control…
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Kaushik Basu: All the King’s Games: ‘Do Russians want to oust Putin and restore democracy? If you ask people familiar with Russia, they will most likely say that most of the population still supports him. I have my doubts. Tyrants always appear to have more support than they do until they are gone, because feigning support is a survival strategy… Dave Lee: The ever-expanding job of preserving the internet’s backpages: ‘A quarter of a century after it began collecting web pages, the Internet Archive is adapting to new challenges…David Smith: ‘Testing an Apple Watch Ultra in the Scottish Highlands’Michael Hiltzik: Column: How did America get addicted to a policy that fails everyone but the rich?Frederik Gieschen: Thinking About the Next Warren Buffett”: ‘Munger: “Young lawyers frequently come to me and say, ‘How can I quit practicing law and become a billionaire instead?’… The next Warren Buffett, whoever they are, will not be afraid to ask the question that is on everyone’s mind. But they will also not be sitting in the audience waiting to be handed enlightenment…Dan Davies: A non-random walk down Lombard Street: ‘Not all market interventions are bailouts and not all bailouts are bad…. The idea that financial crises can be managed by mitigating the consequences ex post rather than preventing the problem ex ante has a bad reputation, mainly as a result of Alan Greenspan’s use of it as an excuse for not doing more during the 2000s. But it’s not intrinsically unorthodox central banking. The optimal frequency of crises, as Professor Richard Portes once told me, is not zero. A central bank can’t anticipate everything and the perfect regulatory system doesn’t exist. Since central banks have the power to expand their balance sheets without limit, and so the ability to unstick frozen markets, why shouldn’t they use it sometimes? As long as people don’t get into the habit of expecting to be rescued simply from falling markets, this is a valid part of the toolkit…Joe Nye: What Caused the Ukraine War?: ‘Distinguish between deep, intermediate, and immediate causes…. Putin lit the match… on February 24…. The intermediate cause was a refusal to see Ukraine as a legitimate state…. Putin wants to restore what he calls the “Russian world”…. [But] while NATO’s decision in 2008 may have been misguided, Putin’s change of attitude predated it…. Behind all this were the remote or deep causes that followed the end of the Cold War…Emily Holland: Permanent Rupture: The European-Russian Energy Relationship Has Ended with Nord Stream…John Ganz: The Matteotti Crisis: ‘Mussolini’s success was not guaranteed…. The King might have withdrawn his mandate, his parliamentary allies could have fled, the opposition might have adopted a more muscular strategy, or the Fascist ultras may have launched a coup that justified governmental suppression of the Fascists in response. Mussolini took advantage of the disorganization of his opponents and the craven opportunism of his allies. It was the sort of tactical victory he had become expert in, riding out the storms while just managing to keep his coalition together. The killing of Giacomo Matteotti may have been reckless in that it created an unstable situation and threatened his rule, but ultimately it proved to be “the right move:” Mussolini removed an opponent of extraordinary courage and moral authority and created the conditions for consolidating control…