Political Economy

One of the biggest problems in the world today is that our political leaders lack a sophisticated understanding of macroeconomics and finance. This has probably always been true but now we live in a world where our economy has become so hyper-financialized that we can longer afford to elect leaders who don’t have a firm grasp on these subjects. Consider this:

What this chart is showing is that a huge percentage of our government debt is set to come due in the next decade or so. While on first glance, this doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal, this might actually be one of the biggest F-ups in American history. We just went through an entire decade where rates were as low as ever and the Federal Reserve was buying up Treasury securities by the billions every month and no one stopped to ask “hey wait, what are we doing here? Wouldn’t it be smart to lock-in these low rates? If the Fed is just going to buy these things, why not issue super long-term debt—30, 50 or even 100 year notes? Gosh, this has to be the thing to do, right?” Things would be so different had we done so. We wouldn’t be talking about the debt ceiling or staying in the face of runaway fiscal deficits, that’s for sure.

We missed what is probably a once in history opportunity. Now, we have an inflation problem and we have to refinance a whole bunch of the National Debt at much higher rates. Oops!

Manhood

While I hesitate to wade into the muddy waters of the culture wars, there’s one of these charged issues that I have, in fact, been doing a lot of thinking on—the issue of masculinity. As a man myself and a father of two boys, I find myself feeling not just interested but compelled to understand what’s going-on here. As my long-time readers may remember I’ve already written about this once before. The question of what does it mean to be a good man is one of supreme importance. It’s a perennial and ultimately moral question and one that must be answered by every generation.

I learned earlier this week that Senator Hawley has recently published a new book on the subject called “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues that America Needs.” Now, I know that Senator Hawley can be a divisive figure but bear with me for a second.

This is NOT an endorsement of Hawley or a recommendation but I’ve decided that I’m going to read the book. After listening to a brief interview where Hawley discussed the origins and intent of the book, I did a little Internet research and what I found kind of shocked me. I knew things were bad out there but check this out:

Tell us how you really feel, right?

The various book sites are littered with this kind of stuff. Whatever these are, they aren’t book reviews. While every instinct I have is telling me that this probably isn’t a good book, I want to read it anyway as a kind of test in open-mindedness. Whatever I may think of Hawley, he’s a US Senator and an incredibly ambitious political figure. At the very least, it might be useful to try to understand what’s driving him. What’s more, I know there are a ton of my fellow citizens who are actually excited to read this book. It would be good to try to understand where that’s coming from too.

So, what I thought I would do is read the book with an open-mind and report back with my reactions in a future Profit+ edition. Depending how this goes, it may become a regular feature. I believe that civil and intelligent discourse is the key to our democracy and I want these pages to standout as an exemplary manifestation of just that.

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