“A system that lives off services and credibility is structurally more vulnerable to legal erosion than one that lives off commodities.” - never thought about it this way, but makes so much sense
As a philosophical and legal matter, I don't like sanctions, whoever imposes them. But even worse, they are mostly imposed by politicians who ignore the advice of experts and then fail to achieve what they claim to achieve because the sanctions are so poorly designed. Great if you want to win on social media, but not if you want to win in the real world.
As a finance professional—and knowing how fickle global money is—I am just stunned at how willing Europe is to destroy its prior image as a safe location for global money. Countries are free to do as they wish, but global money only goes to places where the rule of law is not optional, as it now seems in Europe.
But putting that aside, sanctioning a European living in Europe for expressing his opinion—whatever his opinion is—is an extremely troubling sign. In my U.S. and international travels, I meet a lot of Europeans who have left Europe. With policies like that, the European brain drain, I fear, will only accelerate. A pity, as I like Europe.
When you fight/disagree with a business partner or with a spouse, there are things you never do, because it will change that relationship going forward forever, and not for the better.
Thank you and I agree with all of this. One can only hope that the Streisand effect will eventually do its thing regarding the Baud story. However, the mainstream media coverage is still alarmingly thin.
while I agree, one can only observe the jail sentences given to people in the UK for tweets considered mean or in Germany for the same thing and wonder, is this any different?
to your point about the fickleness of global money, it is difficult for me to watch the EU and think that the euro is the place to put funds.
I agree with you. Whether it is the sanction of the Swiss national, the UK imprisoning people for a mean tweet, or equal actions in Germany, and so many more concerning trends in Europe, one thing is clear: freedom in Europe is declining. I hope that it is a temporary trend, and not a permanent one.
As for global money, I agree with you as well. Global money is fickle, and while vacationing in Europe is still fun, putting money there is probably not a good idea. I wonder why they did what they did. Switzerland became the icon in the financial world because even through the horrors of WW1 and WW2, it maintained neutrality. Of course, that is gone now as well, as Switzerland unwisely chose not to be neutral anymore.
During the Cold War, if the Soviet Union had done what Europe is doing now, it would have been condemned by old Europe as being despotic. How times have changed.
Desperate times! EU should never have had any say on what NATO does, and the alliance has been technically dead since either Ukraine or a NATO country attacked the half-German pipeline. Will the tie to military power be broken or will NATO fall apart first?
The EU was formed to avoid European wars. NATO should not be the EU military arm, and the U.S. should not be mercenaries to EU expansionist totalitarianism.
....in the name of democracy. Which fits if you agree with the working definition put forward by Mike Benz posted below (with some search engine help).
Mike Benz argues that the definition of democracy has been redefined from being about the will of the voters to being about the sanctity of democratic institutions, which he identifies as the military, NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, mainstream media, and NGOs—many of which are funded by the State Department or intelligence communities. According to Benz, these elite establishments, under threat from domestic populism, have declared their own consensus to be the new definition of democracy, equating it with the consensus-building architecture within these institutions themselves. He emphasizes that from this perspective, democracy involves getting entities like NGOs, financial firms such as BlackRock, and media outlets like the Wall Street Journal to agree on initiatives, which is seen as a complex and labor-intensive process. Benz further contends that this redefinition allows the foreign policy establishment to use "democracy" as a watchword to overthrow governments, both foreign and potentially domestic, that do not align with their interests.
Personally, I agree with Karl Popper’s core idea of democracy, later elaborated by David Deutsch: democracy is less about expressing the will of the majority and more about the ability to remove those who need to go, without violence. It functions as a kind of error-correction mechanism.
Benz’s idea ties into this beautifully. In the institutions he describes, that mechanism is missing: those in charge cannot be removed because there are no democratic elections for these positions.
Well reasoned article. One point I'd love to see investigated to it's core is "who is the EU, who is Europe". We see who it's not by the way dissent (Hungary, FICO's lone gunman, Romania's 'guided democray', people like Mr Baud) is handled. Is it Berlin+Paris bullying other countries? Is it a collection of western European elites/oligarchs using Brussels to force through policies that would be dead on arrival in national parliaments?
“Europe” is a fake it til you make it plot device. It’s conceivable that, given centuries of time, the political community could consolidate into a federated entity worthy of a single proper noun eventually. But not exactly a short term prospect.
Think about Quebec. It’s one Francophone province in an otherwise loosely homogeneous national culture and a source of constant separatist fervor. Now multiply by 27 on a continent run through with hard borders demarcating distinct cultures, histories, and unresolved grudges.
I sympathize with the EU elite’s frantic appeal that the “Europe project”is better than the alternative. But like, maybe don’t run lethargic welfare states and refuse common sense reforms for decades when you’re critically dependent on a disinterested ally’s military backstop.
Chris Bray talks about the active principle of elevating dullards within the current systems. The wheel of the car has been handed to people who lack a concept of the car as a machine, never mind how to drive it.
"The only conclusion possible is that the political hierarchy (and more recently, journalism) does not select for people who are good at wooing voters. Which leads to some interesting questions re: who they are good at wooing..."
Not to mention questions about whether the system SHOULD be saved, even if it can be.
If Herr Baud somehow makes it back into his home country, will he be able to access any Swiss assets he may have ? i.e. does the sanction extend to Switzerland ?
I presume he is surviving on the generosity of friends.
He should be able to drive there without too much problem, very unlikely to have to stop or show passports across the Belgium/ French border, then only has to show his Swiss passport if asked for at the Swiss border. Switzerland is not in the EU but is in Schengen ( open border) and has bilaterals with EU. But I doubt as a Swiss citizen he would have his Swiss based assets under threat. Once in Switzerland he could fly to a more cooperative nation.
Cheers. I did watch a bit of an interview between him and a Swiss journalist, but my German is rusty and not particularly attuned to Swiss/German dialect.
The acceleration of EU actions seemingly designed to degrade the EU economy is remarkable. Perhaps they are all Putin puppets and Putin is pulling all the strings now! At this pace, Europe will collapse before the end of the decade
Watched the film Nuremberg recently. While obviously a Hollywood interpretation of the worlds first supranational war crimes court, it demonstrates how our post war international rules based order was made on the fly.
And how does Ru/Ukr compare with US/venez or Israel/Gaza… eventually the rukrainian conflicting will only be the first since covid but not the only, nor the last. If we start sanctioning all warring factions, many countries and people will be left “stranded”
I'm sympathetic to Baud's ordeal, and hope he manages to get back to CH and can live normally
On the other hand, I would criticize his naivety somewhat. The EU is not a free place, it does not have free speech, does not have free media, and does not have rule of law. Whenever I am within the EUzone I dramatically change what I say and/or write in public. He must have surely seen this coming and should have relocated to Switzerland some time ago.
EU voted 12 Dec to Freeze Russian assets. This is the end of Capitalism, but Theft isn’t a step forward Karl Marx, it’s a step backward into pre-capitalist Looting and Pillaging. The destruction of the concept of private property isn’t followed by socialism but states that seize property lawlessly, Marx had he considered reversion being possible if not likely could have anticipated that pre-capitalist/no private property an outcome.
So congratulations, as usual the city is sacked but can’t be rebuilt.
“A system that lives off services and credibility is structurally more vulnerable to legal erosion than one that lives off commodities.” - never thought about it this way, but makes so much sense
Glad it does :)
The elimination of the “rules based order” to save the “rules based order” feels an awful lot like the “our democracy” movement.
Reminds me of the George W. Bush quote, ""I had to abandon free market principles in order to save the free market system."
Well said.
It’s the end of banking, and since they’re bankrupt, Fuggit
Great article.
As a philosophical and legal matter, I don't like sanctions, whoever imposes them. But even worse, they are mostly imposed by politicians who ignore the advice of experts and then fail to achieve what they claim to achieve because the sanctions are so poorly designed. Great if you want to win on social media, but not if you want to win in the real world.
As a finance professional—and knowing how fickle global money is—I am just stunned at how willing Europe is to destroy its prior image as a safe location for global money. Countries are free to do as they wish, but global money only goes to places where the rule of law is not optional, as it now seems in Europe.
But putting that aside, sanctioning a European living in Europe for expressing his opinion—whatever his opinion is—is an extremely troubling sign. In my U.S. and international travels, I meet a lot of Europeans who have left Europe. With policies like that, the European brain drain, I fear, will only accelerate. A pity, as I like Europe.
When you fight/disagree with a business partner or with a spouse, there are things you never do, because it will change that relationship going forward forever, and not for the better.
Thank you and I agree with all of this. One can only hope that the Streisand effect will eventually do its thing regarding the Baud story. However, the mainstream media coverage is still alarmingly thin.
while I agree, one can only observe the jail sentences given to people in the UK for tweets considered mean or in Germany for the same thing and wonder, is this any different?
to your point about the fickleness of global money, it is difficult for me to watch the EU and think that the euro is the place to put funds.
I agree with you. Whether it is the sanction of the Swiss national, the UK imprisoning people for a mean tweet, or equal actions in Germany, and so many more concerning trends in Europe, one thing is clear: freedom in Europe is declining. I hope that it is a temporary trend, and not a permanent one.
As for global money, I agree with you as well. Global money is fickle, and while vacationing in Europe is still fun, putting money there is probably not a good idea. I wonder why they did what they did. Switzerland became the icon in the financial world because even through the horrors of WW1 and WW2, it maintained neutrality. Of course, that is gone now as well, as Switzerland unwisely chose not to be neutral anymore.
During the Cold War, if the Soviet Union had done what Europe is doing now, it would have been condemned by old Europe as being despotic. How times have changed.
Desperate times! EU should never have had any say on what NATO does, and the alliance has been technically dead since either Ukraine or a NATO country attacked the half-German pipeline. Will the tie to military power be broken or will NATO fall apart first?
NATO increasingly looks like a subscription service whose core product is interoperability.
The EU was formed to avoid European wars. NATO should not be the EU military arm, and the U.S. should not be mercenaries to EU expansionist totalitarianism.
Agreed.
or will the EU fall apart first?
"It's all in the name of democracy". Repeat until you believe it. Or else...
Democracy™
....in the name of democracy. Which fits if you agree with the working definition put forward by Mike Benz posted below (with some search engine help).
Mike Benz argues that the definition of democracy has been redefined from being about the will of the voters to being about the sanctity of democratic institutions, which he identifies as the military, NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, mainstream media, and NGOs—many of which are funded by the State Department or intelligence communities. According to Benz, these elite establishments, under threat from domestic populism, have declared their own consensus to be the new definition of democracy, equating it with the consensus-building architecture within these institutions themselves. He emphasizes that from this perspective, democracy involves getting entities like NGOs, financial firms such as BlackRock, and media outlets like the Wall Street Journal to agree on initiatives, which is seen as a complex and labor-intensive process. Benz further contends that this redefinition allows the foreign policy establishment to use "democracy" as a watchword to overthrow governments, both foreign and potentially domestic, that do not align with their interests.
Personally, I agree with Karl Popper’s core idea of democracy, later elaborated by David Deutsch: democracy is less about expressing the will of the majority and more about the ability to remove those who need to go, without violence. It functions as a kind of error-correction mechanism.
Benz’s idea ties into this beautifully. In the institutions he describes, that mechanism is missing: those in charge cannot be removed because there are no democratic elections for these positions.
It's much more a liberal plutocracy than anything else. And less and less liberal at that. As it getting harder and harder to maintain the illusion...
Well reasoned article. One point I'd love to see investigated to it's core is "who is the EU, who is Europe". We see who it's not by the way dissent (Hungary, FICO's lone gunman, Romania's 'guided democray', people like Mr Baud) is handled. Is it Berlin+Paris bullying other countries? Is it a collection of western European elites/oligarchs using Brussels to force through policies that would be dead on arrival in national parliaments?
Those are great questions to ask which might find their way into future pieces. Thank you!
“Europe” is a fake it til you make it plot device. It’s conceivable that, given centuries of time, the political community could consolidate into a federated entity worthy of a single proper noun eventually. But not exactly a short term prospect.
Think about Quebec. It’s one Francophone province in an otherwise loosely homogeneous national culture and a source of constant separatist fervor. Now multiply by 27 on a continent run through with hard borders demarcating distinct cultures, histories, and unresolved grudges.
I sympathize with the EU elite’s frantic appeal that the “Europe project”is better than the alternative. But like, maybe don’t run lethargic welfare states and refuse common sense reforms for decades when you’re critically dependent on a disinterested ally’s military backstop.
Chris Bray talks about the active principle of elevating dullards within the current systems. The wheel of the car has been handed to people who lack a concept of the car as a machine, never mind how to drive it.
https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/upspeak-culture-the-lost-generation
As commenter Zorost later observed:
"The only conclusion possible is that the political hierarchy (and more recently, journalism) does not select for people who are good at wooing voters. Which leads to some interesting questions re: who they are good at wooing..."
Not to mention questions about whether the system SHOULD be saved, even if it can be.
The car analogy is spot on. The question of who gets wooed points to a narrow, self-reinforcing circuit of think tanks, scholarships, and fellowships.
If Herr Baud somehow makes it back into his home country, will he be able to access any Swiss assets he may have ? i.e. does the sanction extend to Switzerland ?
I presume he is surviving on the generosity of friends.
He should be able to drive there without too much problem, very unlikely to have to stop or show passports across the Belgium/ French border, then only has to show his Swiss passport if asked for at the Swiss border. Switzerland is not in the EU but is in Schengen ( open border) and has bilaterals with EU. But I doubt as a Swiss citizen he would have his Swiss based assets under threat. Once in Switzerland he could fly to a more cooperative nation.
Cheers. I did watch a bit of an interview between him and a Swiss journalist, but my German is rusty and not particularly attuned to Swiss/German dialect.
The acceleration of EU actions seemingly designed to degrade the EU economy is remarkable. Perhaps they are all Putin puppets and Putin is pulling all the strings now! At this pace, Europe will collapse before the end of the decade
At this point, policy is certainly hard to distinguish from sabotage.
I feel for you living within it
😰
Watched the film Nuremberg recently. While obviously a Hollywood interpretation of the worlds first supranational war crimes court, it demonstrates how our post war international rules based order was made on the fly.
The original improvisation had remarkable strategic clarity. A stark contrast with today’s tinkering.
And how does Ru/Ukr compare with US/venez or Israel/Gaza… eventually the rukrainian conflicting will only be the first since covid but not the only, nor the last. If we start sanctioning all warring factions, many countries and people will be left “stranded”
Agreed. When an exceptional instrument turns into a standard tool, things easily spiral out of control.
A wise man once said do on to others as you will have them do onto you.
Amen.
Has there been any statement by the Swiss about the EU sanctioning one of their guys?
Last I checked, there was complete silence.
That's a bit concerning
Absolutely.
I'm sympathetic to Baud's ordeal, and hope he manages to get back to CH and can live normally
On the other hand, I would criticize his naivety somewhat. The EU is not a free place, it does not have free speech, does not have free media, and does not have rule of law. Whenever I am within the EUzone I dramatically change what I say and/or write in public. He must have surely seen this coming and should have relocated to Switzerland some time ago.
Perhaps. But one hope is that this kind of overreach triggers a Streisand effect and generates the very attention they’re trying to suppress.
Very optimistic, even pollyannish - “Once corrupted, restoring that signal can take decades.”
The last lights burn out in Europe, Farewell.
The alternative to optimism is paralysis.
Not the only alternative
EU voted 12 Dec to Freeze Russian assets. This is the end of Capitalism, but Theft isn’t a step forward Karl Marx, it’s a step backward into pre-capitalist Looting and Pillaging. The destruction of the concept of private property isn’t followed by socialism but states that seize property lawlessly, Marx had he considered reversion being possible if not likely could have anticipated that pre-capitalist/no private property an outcome.
So congratulations, as usual the city is sacked but can’t be rebuilt.
Marx and Gramschi’s marching nearly done.