November 12th, 2025

Politics - Corruption probe

Combat Ops - Marginal Gains in Pokrovsk

- Significant gains in the south

Weather

Note, fog and clouds continue to obscure much of the front line, meaning that changes in the front lines may remain unconfirmed for several days at a time.

Kharkiv

47 and light rain. Mostly mostly cloudy for the next week. Daily lows in the upper 30s, daily highs in the upper 40s. Winds westerly, 5-10kts.

Melitopol

47 and cloudy. Cloudy tomorrow followed by three days of sunny weather. Daily lows in the 30s, daily highs in the low 50s.  Winds variable, 5-10kts.

Kyiv

39 and cloudy. Cloudy for the next week, light rain in Saturday. Daily lows in the 30s, daily highs in the upper 40s. Winds southerly, 10-15kts.

Politics 

Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers submitted their resignations in the wake of a corruption probe after President Zelenskyy’s called for their resignations.

Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk have “submitted their resignations in accordance with the law.”

The two are said to be involved in a plot in which money was being laundered by Energoatom - Ukraine’s nuclear power agency - as part of a plan to control the purchase of electric power, and involved a series of kickbacks to various offices for contractors wanting to work with the agency. Five people have already been arrested, at least two more remain at large. The scheme is said to have involved demands of 10-15% payoffs for gaining contracts, and more than $100 million in payments.

The scheme was reportedly led by Timur Mindich, a businessman, co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio, the studio founded by President Zelenskyy.

Eliminating corruption has been named a key issue in admittance to the EU.

Denmark’s MOD announced 1.4 billion kroner ($263 million) in military aid to Ukraine, set aside for the purchase of more weapons, particularly US weapons (ostensibly air defense weapons).

Ground Operations

Ground operations over essentially the whole front - with one exception, southern Ukraine - have slowed in the last week, which seems to be true for each autumn of this war, though it isn't completely clear why. Weather is certainly part of it, as is planning and preparations for winter offensives, but on both sides there seems to be a slowdown in operations, The exception is, as noted, Russian operations just north-east of Hulyaipole, up to the south-bank of the Vovcha River (due west of Donetsk City); in this area Russian forces continue to push westward and have taken several more small towns in the last several days.

It should also be noted that Russian advances in the last two months were exceptionally fast for the Russians since the seconds half of 2022, by which time they had switched to a sustained war of attrition. Since then, Russian forces have not only not shown to be proficient in rapid movements to take advantage of weak points in the Ukrainian line, they really appear to not care. They have a slow, methodical, low risk (as in low chance of losing) way of war and they are going to sustain that, and not engage in higher risk, higher gain tactics.

SUMY AND KHARKIV OBLASTS

Fighting continues north of Sumy City and there are some indications of additional Russian forces being moved into the area, but there were no substantive changes in the front lines over the last 5 days.

Fighting continues north of Kharkiv, but there were no confirmed changes to the front lines.

Along the border, north of the Oskil River, there was renewed Russian activity near Bolohivka, but whether there was any change to the front line is not clear.

NORTH OF THE DONETS RIVER

A good deal of contradictory and confusing reporting from Kupyansk, with Russian claims of gains, Russian claims of taking control of much of Kupyansk east of the Oskil River, Ukrainian claims of pushing the Russians back in western Kupyansk, reports of both sides interdicting the logistics support of the other side, etc.

My guess is that all the reports are in part correct, that Ukrainian forces pushed the Russians backing some parts of the city, that Russian forces pushed forward, that there is a very aggressive drone-centric effort to interdict logistics - trying to strike any moving vehicle, and a very nasty, house-to-house fight going on in some sections of Kupyansk and in Myrne and Sobolivka immediately to the west. Again, it has settled into an expensive “knife-fight in a phone booth” and the side with t hemost men will be the favored side.

Further south to the Donets fighting continues, but with no substantive changes to the front lines.

BAKHMUT - TORETSK - POKROVSK

North of Bakhmut, imagery confirmed Ukrainian gains east-south-east of Siversk, pushing the Russian line back in the open fields between Siversk and Verkhnokamyanske.

Fighting continues west of Chasiv Yar and north-west of Toretsk, with continued probes by Russian forces, and small counter-attacks by Ukrainian forces in the area north-east, east and east-south-east of Kostiantinivka, but even where there is some imagery to show troop locations, these troops appear to be mainly recon elements and it is not clear that the front line has really moved. A Ukrainian unit of unknown size continues to hold a position in southern Chasiv Yar.

West of Toretsk, north-east of Pokrovsk, beyond the Pokrovsk pocket, there are claims and counter claims of gains on the ground, but they can't be confirmed.

In Pokrovsk and the Pokrovsk pocket there has been little change over the last 5 days, but Russian forces continue to slowly shift into the area; blogger maps - depending on which ones you chose, show another 1 or 2 Russian brigades in the area, but the Russian movements remain slow - plodding, and there were only marginal movements in eastern Pokrovsk and in Myrnohrad. There are a host of claims about gains by both sides but little to support it.

It needs to be remembered that the two cities (Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad) are made up of thousands of small houses, closely packed, and clusters of small apartment buildings - all of a type which have been used in the past 3 years in very stubborn defensive fights. In the past year in particular Russian movements have started to rely more heavily on Russian tactical aviation to provide strikes to reduce some of these buildings, and that was seen over the weekend with several buildings being struck by 500KG (1100 lb) FAB boys (a JDAM equivalent). But there is little reason to believe this will go quickly, and, as mentioned in the past, part of this Russian “way of war” is to move slowly, take few tactical risks, and try to inflict heavy casualties on the Ukrainians; this they are doing.

There were no changes in the lines to the south-west of Pokrovsk, north of the Vovcha River.

SOUTHERN UKRAINE

Fighting south of the Vovcha River, south to the general area north-east of Hulyaipole, continues, and is noted by the Ukrainian General Staff (UGS) to be “fierce.” This afternoon the UGS reported that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from Novouspenivske, Novye, Okhotnyche, Uspenivka, Novomykolaivka, and that fighting continues in Yablukove, Rivnopillya, and Solodke, all three of which are said to be currently under have artillery barrages.

What this means is that the Russian forces have taken a series of small towns along the Yanchur River (a small river in the south-east), and pushed further westward and are now pushing into the next three towns (north to south: Solodke, Rivnopillya and Yablukove). Yablukove is 5 miles north-east of Hulyaipole, and the three towns are north of the Ukrainian defensive lines built to protect southern Ukraine from attacks from the south and east.

There are two small rivers and manicured farmland between Yablukove and Hulyaipole, but otherwise no meaningful defensive positions between these towns and the north side of Hulyaipole. Further, there are reportedly no Ukrainian reserves available to reinforce the lines in this area. The UGS will need to shift forces if they hope to slow up the Russian advance.

These operations have been greatly facilitated by Russian drone and artillery strikes continuing to degrade the Ukrainian GLOCs into the area. 

Bloggers report Russian FPV drones in central Prymorske, more than 6 miles north of the front lines, but this has not be confirmed.

Fighting was again reported near the Antonovsky bridge, up river from Kherson. The exact nature of the fighting is not reported.

Air and Maritime Operations

During the night of November 11th-November 12th Russian forces launched at least 1 x ballistic missile (type unknown) and 121 x Shahed drones into Ukrainian airspace. The UAF claimed it shot down, or otherwise defeated with EW,  90 drones.

Damage was reported in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odessa,  Sumy  oblasts.

Casualties reports have not been released for the day.

RuAF tacair struck 3 towns.

Over the previous 4 days (the nights of the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th) Russian forces launched a total 787 x Shahed drones, 9 x Kinzhal ballistic missiles, 25 Iskander ballistic missiles and 18 cruise missiles of various type - the largest strike (458 Shahed and 32 ballistic missiles) occurring on the night of 7-8 November (Friday night). 

Overall, during the past 4 days Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down or defeat 542 Shahed drones, and 9 cruise missiles, but 235 drones, 34 ballistic missiles and 9 cruise missiles reached their targets, hitting power grid targets across much of the country, leaving multiple cities with temporary blackouts, which in many cases also means no heat or water, as the cold weather begins to settle in to Ukraine.  Also hit were several rail targets.

In addition, on average Russian tacair struck 7 towns per day with glide bombs, usually towns and cities within 30 miles of the front lines.

Ukrainian forces continued to conduct strikes on oil sector targets in Russia as well as several power grid targets, hitting a substation in Belgorod that left 20,000 citizens without power for a night, and a refinery in Orsk (almost 900 miles east-south-east of Moscow).

Bloggers report that the latest version of Ukrainian battlefield electronic jamming has significantly reduced the effectiveness of the Russian Lancet strike drones and that the Russians are relying ever more heavily onto fiber optic drones.

Economic Reporting

Feb22   July8 Aug8 Sep9 Oct8 Nov7 Nov12

Brent      94.71    70.44 66.90 67.03 66.18 63.86 63.17

WTI     92.10    68.65 64.29 63.26 62.48 59.94 58.98

NG       3.97         3.35 3.06 3.12 3.44 4.33 4.54

Wheat     8.52          5.49 5.18 5.22 5.06 5.32 5.34

Ruble     85          78.47 79.74 84.03 81.28 80.95 81.09

Hryvnia 28.6 41.80 41.39 41.23 41.48 41.89 42.07

Urals 91.66 64.07 63.17 60.12 61.15 56.56 55.69

ESPO 94.52 71.58 68.63 68.32 66.74 65.18 62.87

Sokol 99.31 64.38 62.57 62.97 61.91 60.71 62.06

Thoughts

Commentary on Pokrovsk, and to a certain extent most of the front line south of Pokrovsk, has developed a tone of acceptance: the Russians will take this terrain eventually. These comments are followed by comments on how many casualties are being inflicted on the Russians, which must be taken with a good deal of salt, as well as no comments on Ukrainian casualties. There are also repeated comments on Russian forces taking advantage of fog and poor weather.

It reminds me of the comment from ore than one general that “It also rains on the enemy.” More to the point, it seems to me that there is a hint of fatalism growing on the Ukrainian side.

Add to that the now openly discussed manpower shortage in the Ukrainian army and you have two disturbing trends.

It is worth adding that, while there is a great deal of talk about support to Ukraine, containing the Russians, etc., etc., etc. The price of Russian oil says a great deal more than all the talk. Consider that from January 2020 through February 2021, Ural oil was substantially lower in price than today, bottoming in April 2020 at $14.81 cents. Since the war began the lowest price for Urals oil has been a dip to 48.67 in March of 2023. Similar dips in other Russian oil prices have also taken place. But folks around the world - especially China - continue to buy Russian crude and refine it, and Europe continues to buy those products, knowing full well that some significant percentage of that they are buying started out as Russian crude. 

More generally, the lessons here are old but worth repeating: sanctions imposed “a nickel at a time” give the targeted country time to adjust. The result is that the sanctions, in the end, will make them more resilient. Like Nietzsche’s warning, if it doesn't kill them…

The other lesson, as demonstrated by the seemingly impossible process of weaning Europe off of Russian natural gas, is that, in the end, countries will look after their own interests, no matter what they say in public. This includes not only buying cheap energy to keep costs down in their economies, it means paying as little as possible for their own national security as long as there is someone else who will, in the end, foot the bill.

v/r pete 

 LT Kenneth MacLeish, USN

Veterans Day November 11th 2025

Veteran’s Day, of course, started as Armistice Day, the end of World War I. I was going to write about three Naval Officers who had interesting lives, but I will leave two of them for later and just focus on one, though as you will see when I get around to the other two, there are loosely connected to each other.

Remember Lt. Kenneth MacLeish, smart, articulate and, as you read his letters, he becomes remarkably familiar. Below is a very brief telling of his time in the Navy, but it is the sense that he was, he is, someone we all might know, that struck me… 

MacLeish was a student at Yale and a member of the “First Yale Unit,” a flying club that would evolve into the first Navy Air Reserve unit. In March 1917, with the sense that the nation might soon be at war, the members of the unit were urged to join the Navy and begin flight training, and so he enlisted in the Navy as an electrician and was sent off for instruction. Flight training began in April. Of note, other members of the Yale Unit included Robert Lovett, Artemus Gates and David Ingalls.

Robert Lovett worked for Brown Brothers Harriman between the wars, was Assistant Secretary of War for Air during WWII, chaired the Lovett Commission which was instrumental in the drafting of the National Security Act of 1947 and the creation of the CIA and Air Force, was Secretary of Defense (1950 - 1953) and later served for President Eisenhower in what would become known as the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

Artemus “Di” Gates, who was shot down during WWI, captured by the Germans, and escaped, was Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air from December 1941 to June 1945, and Under Secretary of the Navy for the last two months of the war. 

David Ingalls would get 6 kills during WWI, the Navy’s first ace and only ace during WWI. After the war he finished college, went to Harvard Law, then entered politics and became a Congressman from Ohio. During the Hoover administration he was made Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air and was responsible for tripling the number of aircraft owned by the Navy, and for pushing the development of operational aircraft carrier task groups. During WWII he was recalled to active duty and made Chief of Staff of Forward Area Air Commands, out of Pearl Harbor. After the war he would end up a director of Pan Am, and the publisher of the Cincinnati Times.

So, an interesting group of guys...

As for Lt. MacLeish, whose older brother was poet Archibald MacLeish, before he left for France he fell in love with Priscilla Murdock, and over the course of 19 months wrote her more than 200 letters, all of which survive to this day (form the basis of an excellent book By Geoffrey Rossano: “The Price of Honor”). MacLeish learned to fly in trainers, switched to sea planes and ached to fly in “scouts,” - fighters. In October he received orders to England, he proposed to Priscilla before he left - she accepted, and  he crossed the Atlantic on SS New York. The ship pulled into Liverpool on Monday, November 5th, and by the 7th he was in London, reporting to US Navy HQ, who sent him off to France for further flight training.

He ended up at a US Navy base at Moutic-Lacnau, near Bordeaux, on the Bay of Biscay, established in August 1917. They slept in tents, cooked over a fire and bathed in the nearby lake. He was still flying “sea planes,” the FBA  (Franco British Aviation company) “A", a two seat, single engine biplane, with a maximum speed of 60 knots. But he wanted scouts or the chance to fly a larger, American built sea plane. He worried about the Germans winning, he worried about missing the fighting. The standing comment was that USNRF (US Navy Reserve Force) actually meant “U Shall Not Reach France” or "Us Sailors Never Risk Fighting.” And he complained about the FBA - “I never flew a rottener contraption.”

At the end of November he was sent to Dunkirk via Paris, but orders were changed and he waited in Paris until December 9th, when he received orders to England. He arrived in England a few days later and began training in “scouts,” beginning at Felixstowe and then moving to Gosport, starting in Avro trainers, but by the time they had a Christmas break he was flying Sopwith Camels. MacLeish loved the airplane, even after nearly killing himself in a spin from 5,000 feet to recovery at just several hundred feet. He fell in love with acrobatics and what he called “bush-bumping,” flying low enough that he had to pull up to get over trees and barns. In January they moved to Ayr and began tactics training, first basic - individual - tactics and then section and squadron tactics. Training ended in March and they were ordered to Dunkirk. They were also told that 7 out of 8 pilots were killed in combat… The rumors and hints and stories from the front made it worse… By now he just wanted it to start.

He and Dave Ingalls and another ensign, Shorty Smith, reached Dunkirk on March 21st, 1918, the day Gen. Ludendorff began the German spring offensive - Kaiserschlact (Kaiser Battle), an effort to end the war before the US, with fresh troops, could tilt the battle in favor of the allies. 

The Germans had some initial gains but the allies fought back. By April 5th, when Ludendorff stopped the attack, the allies had suffered about 240,000 casualties (killed and wounded and missing), the German slightly less. Four days later Ludendorff ordered a second offensive, which stalled out by April 29th - with another 100,000 casualties on both sides. A third attack followed (May 27th - June 6th, with roughly 125,000 casualties on both sides, and a 4th attack (June 9th and 10th), and a fifth attack (July 7th - 18th).  In all, each side suffered more than a half million casualties in less than 4 months of fighting. (Some sources put the casualty counts as high as 850,000 for the allies and 650,000 for the Germans.) 

For the Navy pilots at Dunkirk, the Germans closed to within 30 miles of the air base. The base was bombed, long range artillery shelled the field, a German Navy destroyer shelled the field, but the German army came no closer.

They began - weather permitting - patrols.

They lived in “an old French mansion,” the food was excellent, they had a piano and a phonograph, and multiple stoves in the house that kept them warm. The Navy pilots were offered to the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) who had airplanes (the US had very few airplanes) and needed help; so they began to fly out of the nearby Bergues airfield. MacLeish flew his first combat mission April 2nd, and then was flying quite regularly after that, dropping small bombs, strafing German positions, and spotting for artillery.

He went on one bombing run in which he was the last aircraft in the formation as they made a low level run on the target and wrote home that he vowed to never again be “the last machine in a daylight, low level bombing stunt.” They flew several different types of aircraft, to include Camels and Hanriot HD-2s (a single seat float plane). On May 1st they returned to Dunkirk and seaplane patrols, looking for German submarines and searching for downed aircraft. They were flying a lot. In one letter to Priscilla he told her of 13 sorties - all patrols (usually about 2 hours long, sometimes longer) - in 4 days. In late May he was sent to the Army’s daylight bombardment school 200 miles south of Paris.

Over the next 4 months he learned to fly a two seat Airco DH-4 bomber (the US was just starting to build these airplanes under contract, the only US made airplanes to see combat in WWI). The aircraft had a top speed of 124 knots, could fly for almost 4 hours, and carried either 2 x 230 lb bombs or 4 x 112 lb bombs.

At the end of June (1918), bombing school finished and after a nasty flu (which turned out to be the Spanish Flu, that killed more than the war - he blamed the Army for his getting it), he returned to Dunkirk and began to fly DH-4s with the RNAS. Over the next 4 months he had duty in Dunkirk, flying combat missions, was detailed to Paris - Navy Air HQ - for a week, then went to Pauillac on the Bay of Biscay where the Navy was assembling the first DH-4s made in the US, and in August he was promoted to Lieutenant (he had been promoted to Lieutenant Junior grade (LTJG) in June). That same month he was made chief test pilot for the newly assembled aircraft. He then spent another week in Paris at HQ, then in September was sent to England to another US Navy’s faculty at Eastleigh, where DH-4 were being assembled and repaired, and then, at the start of October 1918 was given order back to France to a front-line squadron.

During the period he ran into his brother Archie several times, ran into Quentin Roosevelt (TR’s son, who would be shot down, KIA, on July 14th) and many of his old friends from Yale. He bought Priscilla a ring and gave it a friend who was returning to the US on orders - to carry back to the US.

In July, flying a DH-9, he participated in a bombing run on Zeebrugge, attacking the German submarines at the mole. His aircraft was hit and he made it home, he told Priscilla, on 5 cylinders (the engine had 6 cylinders), covering the last 30 miles in 55 minutes. On the 18th of July his brother Archie (Archibald) was sent home to be an instructor at one of the artillery schools. He played baseball against a team of visiting professionals who were touring US bases, with Grover Alexander pitching. They lost, 3-0, but he noted that his pitcher struck out more men than Alexander, and only allowed one more hit.

He complained about staff work, he commented about the boredom, he talked about the future with Priscilla. He went into Paris and had a grand time with some friends; by the end of August everyone was beginning to think the war might actually end.

In September, Bob Lovett, who had been promoted to command the Northern Bombing Group, tried to move MacLeish into command of a squadron but MacLeish told him he didn’t want it, telling him: “There’s no use of trying to make a commanding officer out of me if I can’t fly and fly when I want… Some people are born to paint, some to write, some to lead, and some just plain ‘go out and do it all yourself.’”

He got the flu again, but was released from the hospital and back at work on October 2nd, with orders to head to the front. On October 4th, after he had already reported to 213th squadron at Eastleigh, he heard that his friend ‘Di’ Gates had been shot down and was missing, possibly dead. On 13 October he flew to Dunkirk from Eastleigh.

At 0730 on the morning of the 13th he took a Camel up for a 15 minute check flight, and then at 0930 he and 18 other Camels took off to strike German forces near Ardoye, Belgium (about 45 miles west of Antwerp, perhaps 15 miles inland, about 35 miles east of Dunkirk). He dropped 4 x Cooper bombs on the Germans from 10,000 feet. (Cooper bombs were 20 lb bombs, strapped under the wings.) They ran into a number of Fokker’s (probably D-VIIs). In the melee that followed at least one Fokker was shot down and MacLeish later got credit for the kill.

The aircraft returned to base, refueled and rearmed, and sometime around noon 15 Camels launched for another sweep. 2 miles north of Dixmude, 11 x D-VIIs were sighted at 8,000 feet and 3 more at 12,000 feet. Another melee followed and 3 aircraft were missing - on both sides. The official log entry noted that “Lieutenant MacLeish was last seen attacking seven Fokker’s single-handed.”

There was confusion as to whether he had been killed or captured and this persisted until after the war.

On December 26th, 1918, Alfred Rouse, a farmer in Schoore, Belgium (just north of Dixmude) returned to his farm (destroyed by the war), and at 6PM found a fully dressed body, in bad state of decay, and 200 yards away, the wreck of an airplane. He wrote a letter to MacLeish’s mother, his family’s address from an envelope in his pocket. He buried the body and marked it with a cross. An official investigation was held to ensure it was, in fact, LT MacLeish. In January 1919 his family and Priscilla Murdock were officially notified. It was found that his aircraft had been shot down, he was thrown from the wreck, had crawled a short distance on the ground, and then died.

Lt. MacLeish’s body was moved to the American Cemetery Flanders Field in 1919. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, and the Clemson class destroyer DD-220 was named USS MacLeish in his honor. Priscilla Murdock finally married in 1927, but she kept the more than 200 letters from Kenneth MacLeish for the rest of her life. Lt. Kenneth MacLeish, Rest In Peace.

No Problem Too Large

November 9th, 2025

Answer this: what do the people down the street - in the gray house - need by way of shoes and socks?

One of the conclusions drawn over the past few days by some of the observers of our political condition is that the economy is at the center of the voters’ concern. The high cost of things (cars, houses, food), the overall rate of inflation over the past 5 years is causing many voters to call on government to “fix things.”

It’s worth remembering that, despite the doom-mongering among some, we do indeed have it pretty good. The average health care available to virtually everyone in the US would awe the health care available to the President just 50 years ago. The ability to diagnose, to treat, to provide emergency care, has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last 2 generations and those advances are now available to virtually the entire country. 

Every house and apartment and office in air conditioned: climate controlled, no matter how hot or how cold it might be - which was not the case just 50 years ago. In 1970 about 1/3rd of houses had air-conditioning (window units mostly), and “central air” was just being put into new houses.

Cars last longer, our entertainment has expanded a hundredfold, air travel is a commonplace, tropical fruits are available in every state, around the year. None of this was around 60 years ago. 

So, despite the caterwauling, things aren’t quite terrible. 

Note that such things as air conditioning, the internet, cell phones, laptop computers and all that they bring with them (on line shopping, for example), may have had support and assistance from the federal government (mainly the Pentagon), but it was private industry that has overseen the real development of these modern marvels.

Nevertheless, there is justifiable concern about the economy. And there has been a vote, at least in some democrat populated states and cities, to turn to government to fix the economy. And the solution appears to be the mantra from the Mayor elect of New York: “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”

Hmmmmm…

“Government as the solution.” The problems with the economy really are problems with inflation, the rise in the price of nearly everything over the last 5 years.  And what caused that? Inflation is caused by the expansion of the money supply. And what causes that? Deficit spending by a government that is too large for the tax base. 

Or said differently: big government is the problem. And yet some voters are expecting big government to solve the problem. This is akin to asking Dracula to solve a blood supply problem.

Thing is, big governments don’t even perform well. The hallmark of this type of government is the term “central planning.” The Mayor-elect said as much: the government can solve any problem.

Look at that writ small. Instead of the government working out all the solutions - his case - for the problems of a city of 8 million, consider just your neighborhood. Assume 3 streets, each with about 40 houses on each side, so 240 houses, and about 4 people in each, on average. So, about 1,000 people. New York City employs about 330,000 people. But let’s just assume the top 25,000 people in the city. This would translate into 3 people in our neighborhood of 1,000.

Now, assume the 3 people on this triumvirate have all the decision-making authority of the Village. Where and how money gets spent on fixing roads, sidewalks, picking up trash, policing, schooling, aid to the families that need aid, the schedule for the van to pick folks up and shuttle them here and there, oversight of the clinic, even, as per the Mayor elect, the oversight of running a grocery store. And, as the mayor says, no concern too small. What light bulbs should the neighbors buy? What length leash should they use for walking there dog? This and tens of thousands of other issues will come up. What shoes and socks for the family in the gray house?

And now comes the interesting part: the triumvirate runs on an annual budget: so you need to have some sort of model before the beginning of the year that frames out what kind of shoes and shirt, dog-leashes, and new cell phones, van schedules (so you can also schedule van maintenance), and that other stuff; you need to decide, before the beginning of the fiscal year, all the needs to all the 240 families in your Village. Because that’s what central planning is all about. You, being a member of the Triumvirate, now have the responsibility to see into each of the houses on the street, that gray one down the block, and make the decisions they want…

Fact is, it’s virtually impossible. So you act as every other government has, you will default to simply making the decisions you think best. You will decide what they want and they will have to live with it. And if you get it wrong, well, maybe you’ll address this next year. And maybe not.

The problems faced by cities like New York are money problems, money problems caused by spending too much, because when a government says it needs to address all the problems, it will, even when it doesn’t know how to solve them. It is insisting that the triumvirate can know what kind of shoes and socks are needed in the gray house. And then demanding the money to pay for those decisions.

Big governments, chasing problems far beyond their scope or their expertise, have spent more than they have, left huge debts in their wake, and huge pieces of infrastructure in need of repair. 

Big government caused these problems by spending money they don’t have, often on things they didn’t need, while ignoring the less glamorous items, and in turn have generated huge debts. How is bigger government going to solve that debt? Because that is the root of all our economic problems. Answer that simple question.

And then tell the folks in the gray house what kind of shoes they should wear.