David Frum

David Frum @davidfrum

Vivid account of Kyiv preparing for urban street fighting — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Gotta be uncomfortable driving military vehicles across open country completely exposed to the view of the satellites of Ukraine's allies. — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @ASLuhn: "Boris, you were right." Hundreds of people are laying flowers at the spot were Nemtsov was killed. He had spoken out against t… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Whoah. — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Look at a map Central Kyiv is 780 square KM. Metropolitan area bigger still. How does an army of some tens of thousands "encircle" that? — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @Reuters: 'Very probable' that Swiss will freeze Russian assets - president https://t.co/dILlr7T4Tz https://t.co/1jRC7Wg8q1 — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @RobinBrooksIIF: Fortress Russia was always a bad analogy. Just because Russia has a c/a surplus and FX reserves doesn't mean foreign in… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @jdawsey1: W/⁦@mattzap⁩ on Bill Barr’s book, where he says GOP needs to move past Trump and describes in detail a range of harrowing int… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Who’s in charge of ensuring that the meals served to Russian military deserters are ample and tasty, and that the bedding is warm and comfortable? — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

RT @vplus: CNN has geolocated video showing the destruction by Ukrainian forces of a column of Russian armored personnel carriers and other… — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

I trust we are witnessing the demise of the alt-Right theory that Russia is an unstoppable geopolitical force because they hire male underwear models to star in their military recruitment videos. — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Here's link to @WSJ report that UPS/Fedex have suspended service inside Russia https://t.co/czcSTQ0xRx https://t.co/5TJ2HVpApm — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Among other things, this is a pretty spectacular refutation of the Donald Trump theory that the EU is a pitiful and useless ally. They are instead a very very good friend to have, and not only Ukraine, but America too, should be very glad and grateful to have them! — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The EU just barred all Russian owned and chartered jets, including private jets, from EU skies. — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Anyway gold - and bitcoin too - still have to be converted into money if they are used to settle accounts between individuals and firms. They do not escape the problem that the money that the world most trusts is the money issued by rule of law democracies. END — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The Russians just showed the whole world the limits of gold. Normal countries can pledge their gold to settle accounts. Pariah countries must not only sell their gold, but they also have to move it. Thousands of tons of it. That's not so convenient. 14/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

But what about gold? What about bitcoin? 13/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

If an authoritarian regime wants a currency that enables its people to buy things, they need a currency that is generally convertible. That means placing their head in the Federal Reserve/ECB noose. And if they want to export a lot to rich countries - they're extra noosed. 12/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

For China to central bank without huge reserves of dollars/Euros/pounds implies finding some way for China to operate its economy without massive exporting. But to do THAT would involve freeing their domestic economy from control by the Communist Party. 11/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

Russia's foreign holdings of $630 billion are dwarfed by China's holdings: $3.25 TRILLION. China is struck with those holdings, because any use of them would lower the value of the dollar/Euro, raise the value of Chinese currency - and cut into China's exporting. 10/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

China faces a special problem. Its development strategy was the biggest export drive in the history of the world. It sold and sold - but bought little in return. Instead, it accumulated vast quantities of IOUs from the West. 9/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

But as the ECB and the Federal Reserve are demonstrating: the authoritarian regime can "own" vast stockpiles of Euros or dollars. It does not *control* those stockpiles. They exist on the computers of the ECB and the Fed - who control any large-scale transactions. 8/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The bottom line problem: citizens of an authoritarian regime don't trust it. (If they did trust it, it wouldn't have to be authoritarian in the first place.) The regime seeks to gain trust for its untrustworthy money by showing ownership of piles of trustworthy money. 7/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

But once the regime opens even a little, it needs to persuade its subjects that its money *can* buy things. And a money that can buy things is a money that must have some way to be converted into other currencies - and most especially the central currencies: dollar, Euro, pound. — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

A totalitarian regime can compel its subjects to accept a "money" that does not buy things they want. Soviet joke: a shopper enters a shop to buy fish. "No, no," the clerk answers. "We are the store that doesn't have meat. The store that doesn't have fish is around the corner." — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The trouble for an authoritarian regime comes when it seeks the benefits of at least a partially market economy and at least some economic integration with the rest of the world. 4/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The answer: An authoritarian regime can for sure achieve financial independence if it's willing to seal itself off from the world. Stalin's USSR, Mao's China were more or less invulnerable to central bank sanctions. They were also desperately poor and horrifically repressive 3/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The answer: This is easily said - and often threatened - but not so easy to do. 3/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

The Q: "is there not a danger that the west's willingness to weaponize the financial system may erode the confidence of other powers, esp autocracies (China, most obviously), in their currencies, that in the long run they may seek an alternative not dependent on the west?" 2/x — PolitiTweet.org

David Frum @davidfrum

A friend asked me a question about my article on central bank sanctions and SWIFT ... 1/x https://t.co/tQ4Uxv4EKS — PolitiTweet.org