It is better that the rules-based international order – law – exist than that it not exist. On the other side of that order are Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and, yes, Donald Trump. Also on the other side are Benjamin Netanyahu and Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.
Like love we don't know where or why,
Like love we can't compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.
– WH Auden, “Law Like Love”
Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. The measure of success attained by Wall Street, regarded as an institution of which the proper social purpose is to direct new investment into the most profitable channels in terms of future yield, cannot be claimed as one of the outstanding triumphs of laissez-faire capitalism — which is not surprising, if I am right in thinking that the best brains of Wall Street have been in fact directed towards a different object. – Keynes
