Historically, domestic issues have always mattered more than foreign relations.  But the willful ignorance of the rest of the world leads to a misleading view of domestic issues.  So three topics worthy of a closer look.

First, for the last week the pomp of the United Kingdom has been on display with the ceremonies connected with the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the succession of King Charles III.  We simply do not do pomp in this country that well.  What can’t be denied is that pomp has a role to play.  The formalities of politics emphasize continuity and the orderly rules of succession.  If you have ever watched coverage of a British general election, there is a whole formal ceremony connected with the declaration of the vote in each district.  And, at least for the early results (until they expand from a trickle to a flood), many of the declarations get live coverage.  By contrast, in the U.S., the media “declare” a winner long before the count becomes official, and the official declaration of the vote is simply a vote by a canvassing board covering multiple races and some signatures on the official documents with little or no public fanfare.  This low-key approach has, as we have seen, the consequence of depriving the final result of some of the finality and officialness which would make it harder to challenge.

Second, we are now dealing with a global economy.  National (and state and local) governments can impact things around the margin.  But we lack any recognizes statistics for measuring how well or poorly a particular country is doing.  How many Americans know that the United Kingdom with a Conservative government is looking at double digit inflation while the U.S. is doing about 5% better.  The reality is that so much of what is produced and consumed in this country (even if it stays entirely in the U.S.) is part of a global market.  The oil produced by U.S. wells may be refined in U.S. facilities and then sold at U.S. gas stations, but that is all done by private companies which only do so to the extent that they can make more money in the U.S. than in Mexico or Japan or Germany.  So if prices are going up in Germany, Americans will have to pay more if we want to keep the gas in the U.S.  Likewise, it is hard to have a growing economy if the rest of the world is in a recession and nobody abroad can buy the extra goods that you are producing.  But there is no official number for global inflation (pegged to value in the same currency) or global economic growth.  Thus, it takes a lot more effort than most voters are going to do to find out if the current government is doing as best a job as can be done to weather hard times in the global economy or is doing a lousy job to maximize gains when the global economy is doing well. Continue Reading...