>"Kindness of strangers" sets out the current and capital account
>question clearly. But while exchange is affected in all models
>by this question, the political non-market causal nexus has to be given
>at least equal weight. It is at least triangular now (depending on how
>you see China) and in the recent past: 1. Japan made the banking law
>D-Day event demanded by the US Treasury into something that looked like
>ridicule of the US and of all the - to use Sakakibara's term - market
>fundamentalists, and 2. the French (and EU) just let Soros know that his
>crimes of the 1990s - challenging the political non-market causal nexus
>referred to above - have not been forgotten and will not be forgiven.
You're right, of course. But on 2), isn't George getting off rather lightly? A $2.3m fine - just disgorgement of profits with no punitive supplement or inflation adjustment even - which he's going to appeal.
Not unrelatedly, I read in this morning's paper that Germany is softening its antiwar line too.
Doug