The Economist - USA (2019-11-09)

The EconomistNovember 9th 2019 17

Lettersarewelcomeandshouldbe

addressedtotheEditorat

TheEconomist,TheAdelphiBuilding,

1-11 JohnAdamStreet,LondonWC 2 N 6 HT

Email:[email protected]

Morelettersareavailableat:

Economist.com/letters

Letters

WhowrotetheBible?

YourobituaryforHarold

Bloomnotedthathislistof

greatwritersin“TheWestern

Canon”was“almostallmale”

(October26th).Inthatsame

book,Bloomalsocreditedthe

earliestsourceoftheBibletoa

woman.“TheBookofJ”,which

Bloomwrotebefore“TheWest-

ernCanon”,embracedthe

documentaryhypothesis,

whichholdsthattheTorah,the

firstfivebooksoftheBible,

werewrittenprimarilybyfour

authors,conventionallyre-

ferredtoasJ, E,P andD.Those

workswerelateredited,prob-

ablybyEzratheScribearound

444 bc, intothesinglenarra-

tivewehavetoday.

BloomhadarguedthatJ, the

earliestofthefourauthors,

wasa woman,possiblya

daughterorgranddaughterof

KingDavidintheJerusalem

courtsofDavid’ssuccessors,

SolomonandRehoboam.But

in“TheWesternCanon”,he

endorseda suggestionfroma

“shrewdreviewer”ofhis

earlierworkidentifyingJ as

Bathsheba,whowasDavid’s

wifeandSolomon’smother.

stephensilver

SanFrancisco

Greek tax reforms

It is true that tax amnesties on

underreported income were

once a regular feature of Greek

tax administration (“To hell

and back”, October 5th). How-

ever, in order to strengthen the

tax-compliance culture, no tax

amnesty has been put in effect

for the financial years after

2009. The current scheme
      concerns only payments of
      already assessed tax obliga-
      tions that are in arrears, which
      amount to a whopping €104bn
      ($116bn). Most of this is owed
      by bankrupt businesses.
      Greece’s tax administration
      improved by leaps and bounds
      during the country’s financial
      crisis. Most filing moved from
      paper forms to online systems.
      The establishment of the
      Independent Authority for
      Public Revenue modernised
      management and demon-
      strably reduced political inter-
      ference in tax collection. This

wasapparentduringthe 2019

electoralcycle,whichwasnot

accompaniedbya dropintax

revenue,thusbreakinganoth-

erregularpatternofthepast.

prof.diomidisspinellis

AthensUniversityof

EconomicsandBusiness

Can’tpay,won’tpay

“Wallofsilence”(October12th)

discussedtheoptionsfor

Congresswhendealingwith

thosewhowon’tco-operate

withtheinquiryintoimpeach-

ingDonaldTrump.Youraised

thepossibilityoffining

witnesseswhoareheldin

contemptasonesolution.

Oneconcernaboutletting

Congressfineindividualsis

theseparationofpowersand

theassignedrolesofthe

branchesofgovernment.The

SupremeCourthasnever

expresslyendorsedtheprac-

tice.Puttingasidethethorny

constitutionalquestion,there

arealsopracticalproblems.

Assumethatthecontemnoris

fined$25,000foreachdayhe

doesn’tco-operate.Whatif he

refusestopay?Congresshasno

obviousmechanismtoforce

thepayment.Evenif Congress

werefoundtohavetheconsti-

tutionalauthoritytoimposea

fine,it isnotclearhowCon-

gresswouldcollectthemoney.

johnminan

Professoroflawemeritus

UniversityofSanDiego

Fading South American model

The Chilean economy, praised

time and again by The Econo-

mist, should “not need rein-

vention”, says Bello (October

26th). That is an all too predict-

able conclusion from someone

who once attended a cocktail

party in Santiago with 60 other

people representing “half of

Chile’s gdp”. The adage that

seven families have a strangle-

hold on the country is no joke.

The middle classes are indebt-

ed up to their ears to almost

anybody: their bank, super-

market, pharmacy, dentist,

educational institutions and

health-care providers. They

also pay European-level prices,

and sometimes more, for every

imaginable basic commodity

andservice.A corruptand

kleptocraticpoliticalclass

colludeswithmultinational

predatorstoprivatisealmost

everything,andruthlesslysack

Chile’snaturalbounties.

Theneoliberalmodel

indeedworksphenomenally

wellforChile’sself-serving

elitistfew.Butit isabsolutely

dysfunctionalfortherestof

thepopulationandisindire

needofa generalrethink.

carlhaas

Copenhagen

CluelessintheMiddleEast

I agreedwithyourcritical

assessmentofDonaldTrump’s

decisiontowithdrawfrom

Syria(“Nowaytosaygoodbye”,

October19th).It isworthadd-

ingthatthisisonlythelatest

exampleoftheabsenceofany

clearWesternstrategyinthe

MiddleEastandwiderregion

aftertheattacksofSeptember

11th2001.Exceptfora brief

periodinIraqbetween 2007

and2010,theAmerican-led

Westernalliancehasneverhad

a coherentideaofwhatpoliti-

calorderit isattemptingto

createinAfghanistan,Iraq,

LibyaandSyria.

I amnofanofhisworkbut

SunTzu’saphorismthat

“tacticswithoutstrategyisthe

noisebeforedefeat”seemsapt.

anthonyking

Chairofwarstudies

UniversityofWarwick

Coventry

Populism, eh!

Justin Trudeau’s new minority

Liberal government in Canada

will have to forge alliances

with the New Democrats and

Greens, parties that are hostile

to the oil and gas industry

(“The chastening of Justin

Trudeau”, October 26th). A

coalition under a left-wing tent

will further exacerbate ten-

sions with western Canada’s

oil-producing provinces,

which are big contributors to

Canadian prosperity.

I am a Canadian engineer

and worked in an oil-sand

mine for four years. Western

Canadians will not surrender

quietly. It is naive to think that

populism cannot happen in

Canada. If this new govern-

ment does not reach out and

give alienated workers a voice

they will unite against what

they perceive as elitist, de-

tached and nepotistic poli-

ticians and will eventually find

a leader they can rally around.

christopher kissel

Houston

The true cost of wind energy

As you said, Britain’s “offshore”

carbon footprint is high

(“Omissions”, October 19th).

This is particularly so in

respect of Britain’s enthusi-

astic development of offshore

wind energy, which requires

the development of a huge

sub-sea infrastructure to sup-

port it. In use, wind energy has

a small carbon footprint. How-

ever, the cradle-to-grave car-

bon footprint of a whole off-

shore wind farm is high and it

is all “spent” before any of the

“clean” electricity is generated.

And at the end of its design life

of 25 years (well before 2050) it

is all derelict. Sustainable?

Show me the numbers.

jim platts

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

A gambling failure

Your article on the “organic”

nature of corruption and fraud

in Atlantic City (“Fix your hair

up pretty”, October 12th) passed

by the fact that America’s

president was once the largest

casino operator and employer

in the city. When he opened his

Taj Mahal casino and hotel in

1990, financed in part by $675m

in junk bonds, Donald Trump

called it “the eighth wonder of

the world” and boasted that it

would make Atlantic City great

again.

The Taj Mahal filed for

bankruptcy protection the next

year and sold for four cents on

the dollar in 2017.

james lilliefors

Naples, Florida