14 The EconomistNovember 9th 2019
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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
- 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