Volgens Plato (c.427 BC - 347 BC) waren / zijn er 5 staatsvormen: (1) aristocratie (o.a. koningen), (2) timocratie (o.a. militairen), (3) oligarchie (o.a. de rijken), (4) democratie (o.a. het "volk"), en (5) tirannie. Mogelijk valt een theocratie (o.a. Iran, Israel) binnen de staatsvorm timocratie. "De overgang van de ene staatsvorm naar de andere vindt steeds...
Intro LO: The recent warning of Janet Yellen (b.1946), economist and former US Treasury Secretary (2021-2025), has been on my mind for quite some time. I suppose this quote is essential for any country, and especially USA: "a state with increasingly expensive obligations and a very limited appetite for taxes." (Fortune) Note LO: markings in quote by me. Most likely,...
Het bombardement van Venezuela (o.a. aanlegsteiger, boten, hoofdstad) en het kidnappen van de President betekent dat (tegenwoordig) het recht van de sterkste geldt. Ik vermoed dat dit "incident" uiteindelijk nogal verstrekkende internationale en geopolitieke consequenties zal hebben (o.a. EU, ICJ, VN). De Amerikaanse aanvallen op de Verenigde Naties en het...
Intro LO: I’ve decided using the Wall Street Journal article (below) because this type of crisis is unknown in Europe. Probably because Europe favours fair inequality while America favours unfair inequality (eg, my 2018 blog, a 2017 Yale study). I agree with the author (below): the American ‘Affordability Crisis’ cannot be solved. Neither can other American crises...
On 11 April 2015, I published my blog: Chaos, Equilibrium, SuperPowers and the United States of Europe (1). A lot has happened since, like Trump 2017-2021, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump 2025-tbd. Today, I present an update of my 2015 diagram, which includes The Great Flood (16,000 BC – 4,000 BC). Or, alternatively, the post-glacial sea level rise following...
Recently, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (ie, Kaja Kallas) claimed that “The free world needs a new leader”, following Trump’s Oval Office clash with the Ukrainian president (eg, Independent). Perhaps, she referred to the EU as that new leader (Who). Her timing (When) is remarkable because Trump is old (b.1946) and in his second...
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