[How Much Is Enough? Money and the Good Life by Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky. (Other Press, 2012; x + 243 pp.)]

The true total of US national security spending in 2027 will be far beyond the already record-shattering $1.5 trillion military budget President Trump has requested.

Periods of crisis reveal something unsettling about human behavior. Faced with uncertainty, individuals and institutions alike tend to accept measures that would otherwise be unthinkable. Restrictions on movement, suspension of rights, and centralized decision-making often emerge not gradually, but almost effortlessly, as if they were the natural response to danger.

Accurate words and definitions always matter, however, it is often underappreciated how important this is in the study of history, especially regarding context-dependent words and meanings. A common historical error is anahcronism—a chronological inconsistency in which an object, person, or concept is inappropriately retrojected back into a time when it did not exist.

“The number of Federal Reserve policymakers willing to consider an interest rate hike this year rose ... as higher gas prices stemming from the Iran war threatened to worsen inflation in the coming months.”

“This new regulatory framework ... has been officially communicated to regional parties. There will be no return to the pre-war status quo.” 

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a commentary by Justin Lahart, according to which the debate among economists regarding minimum wages is still unsettled- after 30 years.

Among the 10 points in Iran’s peace proposal that President Trump has now agreed to use as a basis for peace negotiations between the United States and Iran is a plank that prohibits any more attacks on Iran. That point reminds me of what John Kennedy agreed to in his peace agreement with the Soviet Union to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis, an agreement that ultimately led to his assassination at the hands of the U.S. national-security establishment.