The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal writes wisely about the attempt on Trump’s life. A slice:
One great risk is that the shooting in Butler, Pa., will cause some on the right to seek violent revenge. This is where Mr. Trump and the Republicans have an obligation—and a political opportunity—at their convention in Milwaukee and through November.
If they weren’t already, Americans after Saturday will be looking for stable, reassuring leadership. The photo of Mr. Trump raising his fist as he was led off stage by the Secret Service with a bloody face was a show of personal fortitude that will echo through the campaign. No one doubts his willingness to fight, and his initial statement Saturday night was a notable and encouraging show of restraint and gratitude.
His opportunity now is to present himself as someone who can rise above the attack on his life and unite the country. He will make a mistake if he blames Democrats for the assassination attempt.
He will win over more Americans if he tells his followers that they need to fight peacefully and within the system. If the Trump campaign is smart, and thinking about the country as well as the election, it will make the theme of Milwaukee a call to political unity and the better angels of American nature.
Also writing wisely about the attempt to assassinate Trump is my Mercatus Center colleague David Masci. Here’s his conclusion:
I’m old enough to remember (as a young reporter on Capitol Hill) watching congressional leaders from different parties, such as Sens. Bob Dole and George Mitchell, square off in tough legislative battles and then call each other “friend,” and seemingly mean it. These friendships, even if they were partly for form’s sake, meant that continued conversations and future compromises were possible, even after difficult political fights.
No one expects President Biden and former President Trump to be sharing a few drinks and laughs anytime soon. (For starters, Trump doesn’t drink, and neither man seems in a jolly mood these days.) But hopefully Saturday’s tragedy won’t go to waste. Hopefully, the American people will demand at least a temporary halt to dangerous rhetoric. If Saturday’s events prompt both candidates to continue behaving at even the most basic level of civility, that will be a good start.
A 2014 review of the literature determined that “one of the key discoveries of the past few decades” is that international trade, FDI, and market economies are “correlated with better protections for human rights.” Another 2015 review of the literature similarly concluded that economic globalization has played an important role in improving human rights. Global markets can also help foster a virtuous cycle: countries with a track record of human rights abuse are less likely to engage in liberal economic exchange and less likely to attract foreign capital.
…..
But a private-property-based market system does not just produce prosperity. It also produces peace. Ironically, despite the private ownership of a resource, the most valuable use of that resource is still determined by the public. Ultimately, as [Armen] Alchian noted, “private decisions are based on public, or social, evaluation.” Private property rights have the potential to incentivize individuals to be more attuned to the needs and desires of others; to serve their fellow man. Or, as Alchian put it, “Well-defined and well-protected property rights replace competition by violence with competition by peaceful means.”
For years, Liuzhou and scores of other Chinese cities together amassed trillions of dollars in off-the-books debt for economic development projects. The opaque financing was the yeast that helped China rise to the envy of the world.
Today, overgrown construction sites, sparsely used highways and abandoned tourist attractions make much of that debt-fueled growth look illusory and suggests China’s future is far from assured.
Liuzhou, a city in the southern region of Guangxi, raised billions of dollars to build the infrastructure for a new industrial district, where a state-owned financing group acquired land and opened hotels and an amusement park. Other tracts of acquired land sit vacant, and many area streets look practically deserted. Birds flit through the rows of abandoned buildings at an unfinished apartment complex.
“The government is broke,” said one local resident who watched the project falter from her shop across the street.
At the heart of the mess are the complex state-owned funding vehicles that borrowed money on behalf of local governments, in many cases pursuing development projects that generated few economic returns. The deterioration of China’s real-estate market in the past three years meant local governments could no longer rely on land sales to real-estate developers, a significant source of revenue.
…..
A taxi driver ferrying passengers earlier this year beneath the abandoned tracks of the failed light-rail project in Liuzhou expressed frustration about the pork-barrel spending.
With city buses underused, he asked, why did the city need to build a rail system?
On a Communist Party-run messaging board, a resident complained about the construction fences still bordering the abandoned light-rail project. The fences block the sidewalk, the resident wrote, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road.
Guangxi Liuzhou Rail Transit, the LGFV responsible for the project, responded candidly to the online post.
“Due to the tremendous financial pressure on our company recently, we’re not able to tear down this part of the fencing,” it said. “Thank you for your concern.”
Arnold Kling offers his list of “essential readings in economics.”
