HobbitFoot

They've had a lot of skirmishes in the past and haven't nuked each other yet.

For a country that exports food, this is going to lead to a reduction of exports.

Given that Hamas is an elected government, it seems like a change in government should go through an elected process. Maybe Israel should withdraw and allow for the election of a new government since it appears that Hamas can't really fight back.

Given that they have already lost a lot of international trade, this isn't surprising.

I don't think it is part of the plan, just that Trump and Musk don't care.

This is more of a case where capitalism decays into fascism.

Capitalism relies on a decent legal framework to function. It doesn't have to be equal, but it has to be consistent. It is usually why a lot of nations defined by capitalism are generally not dictatorships; monied interests are given ways to influence policy.

Fascism concentrates power and frees that power from restraint in order to benefit a part of society. The ability for a person to imprison anyone without legal checks is an extraordinary power.

Yep. Just a couple more steps than pushing people out of planes over the ocean.

capitalism found it cheaper to outsource US gulags to poor countries

It is more of a way to sidestep the judicial process. The executive branch can act faster than the judicial branch in removing someone from the country before appeals. Once the person is in a foreign country, they are no longer in custody of someone under the control of American judges.

It isn't a cost saving measure, it is a legal loophole.

Yeah, I wouldn't consider this a sign of recession. Instead, it is the confluence of various structural changes in the industry.

1. Because the industry was forced to work in a distributed manner, it has removed the location premium in a lot of salaries. Companies are firing high cost of living areas and hiring in lower cost of living areas.

2. Outside of cost of living, total supply for developers has increased significantly.

3. The return on investment for software development has either dropped or are starting to be included in more decisions. This is leading to development budgets getting slashed.

It would be to be per year to match Denmark's contribution and I don't believe anyone would trust to pay his debts.

Well, if you don't need programmers to work in place place at the corporate headquarters, you can hire them anywhere.

My guess is that Japan and East Asia are treating this a lot different compared to Europe and North America.

For East Asian allies, the USA is pivoting from the full world to focus more on the Pacific Ocean, so a post Trump USA would still be involved in the region. Also, unlike Europe, East Asian allied countries can't outspend their strategic rival by themselves.

So, they'll spend a little to keep Trump happy in order to keep the USA involved in East Asia while they wait out Trump.