The Wall Street Journal - 28.10.2019

A16| Monday, October 28, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Cryptocurrency May Always Be the Future

J. Christopher Giancarlo and Daniel

Gorfine (“We Sent a Man to the Moon.

We Can Send the Dollar to Cyber-

space,” op-ed, Oct. 16) propose that a

digital dollar be “created and main-

tained by a nongovernmental group

but administered by banks and other

trusted payment organizations.” They

claim the new digital dollar would re-

sult in “much higher transaction

speed, enhanced access and greater

transparency.”

They suggest that cash brought into

the system would be exchanged for

digital dollars and the cash would be

lodged in special escrow accounts with

the Federal Reserve. However, the vol-

ume of purchases made with cash is

small relative to the volume made

with credit cards. Indeed, many people

make most of their purchases with

credit cards and pay off the balance

each month. These transactions are

entirely secure for businesses and con-

sumers. Consequently, it’s hard to see

how a cryptocurrency system would

generate enough efficiency to warrant

its creation and maintenance costs.

Moreover, I see no efficiency gain to

transferring bank deposits into Fed

deposits to have digital dollars. The

proposed digital dollar will succeed

only if it makes transactions faster,

cheaper and more secure than credit

cards. I doubt it can.

DANTHORNTON

Des Peres, Mo.

Mr. Thornton is a retired vice presi-

dent of the Federal Reserve Bank of St.

Louis.

Messrs. Giancarlo and Gorfine seem

to wantonly ignore one of the main

reasons for the rise of crytopcurren-

cies. Due to our sanctions-happy for-

eign policy, the U.S. has alienated

many of our former allies.

Russia, China and India already

have nondollar-based trade agree-

ments in operation. These countries

have been buying tons of gold for sev-

eral years, if not decades, in prepara-

tion for the next deliberately induced

dollar-centric market crash. Individual

investors and nations must question

whether our country’s word is good.

Will the U.S. continue to break nation-

state treaties and trade deals strictly

for domestic political consumption,

punditry and clickbait?

The use of cryptocurrencies evolved

in part to avoid Swift (the Society for

Worldwide Interbank Financial Tele-

communication), petrodollars and all

the other accouterments of a squan-

dered American global hegemony. To

believe, as some do, that cryptocurren-

cies are solely used for criminal and

terrorist activities indicates a sore lack

of knowledge and refusal to accept our

self-made decline in global esteem.

As the world moves forward, dedol-

larization (less U.S. dollar usage for in-

ternational transactions) will inevita-

bly continue to rise. The first step to

fixing a problem is admitting how bad

the problem truly is. The ideas pre-

sented by these distinguished gentle-

men are too little, too late.

ADRIANPEEK

Los Angeles

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters intended for publication should

be addressed to: The Editor, 1211 Avenue

of the Americas, New York, NY 10036,

or emailed to [email protected]. Please

include your city and state. All letters

are subject to editing, and unpublished

letters can be neither acknowledged nor

returned.

“I’m looking for ground beef

that’s organic, non-GMO,

and doesn’t contain meat.”

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Pepper ...

And Salt

Warren’s Capitalism Remake Isn’t Capitalist

The insidious thing about Sen.

Elizabeth Warren’s plan to dismantle

American free enterprise is that she

aims to sneak it past moderates by

calling it “accountable capitalism,” as

if it is some mild tweaking of the

capitalist system that has served the

nation so well and has ensured free-

dom of the individual as no other

system can (“Businesses Brace as

Warren Vows to Remake Capitalism,”

Page One, Oct. 10).

Sen. Warren proposes to make the

market work. In a free-market sys-

tem, no one makes the market work.

Thousands of individuals make

choices based on the market condi-

tions they face, and the outcome is

the consensus view. This brilliant and

efficient synthesis of opinions and

desires of the many disappears in a

market that is meddled with for the

purpose of making it work. Ms. War-

ren is free to flog her government

takeover, but she doesn’t get to sell it

as a variety of capitalism. It is noth-

ing of the kind.

MARGARETMCGIRR

Greenwich, Conn.

The article notes that University of

California, Berkeley, Prof. Gabriel Zuc-

man said that the wealthy paid 91%

rates on incomes and 77% on estates

in the ’50s and ’60s, and that “there’s

no evidence it killed innovation or

growth.” Those confiscatory rates

have been used to justify the redistri-

butionist schemes of every Demo-

cratic presidential candidate since

George McGovern. In fact, the vast

majority of wealthy Americans paid

far less, owing to deductions far more

generous and numerous than those

allowed today.

Had the top marginal rates of the

1950s been applied without the bene-

fit of deductions, the post-war boom

of the ’50s and ’60s would have gone

bust. Ms. Warren and her fellow can-

didates should be mindful of this in

the face of the most explosive period

of economic growth in modern times.

CHRISZARPAS

Norfolk, Va.

Ditching the Kurds Makes the U.S. Look Bad

The ending comment, “that’s life,”

in Holman Jenkins’s “Trump Chooses

to Fight at Home” (Business World,

Oct. 19) is intended to splash cold

water on the outrage over the appar-

ent betrayal of our friends the Kurds.

But understand what “that’s life” in-

cludes—the predictable release of

ISIS prisoners and American acquies-

cence in ethnic cleansing or genocide

of the Kurds.

The decision to withdraw troops

seems to have been made without

fully alerting Congress or the mili-

tary. One might suspect it was made

in haste to gain a quick win to use in

the 2020 election. If so, it is shocking

given the cost in human life and dis-

placement of hundreds of thousands

of civilians who counted on American

protection.

We should stand by our friends

and work to make the world a better

place.

GREGCOXSON

Olney, Md.

The eloquent Mr. Jenkins equates

our abandonment of the Kurds with

the abandonment of “half of Europe

to the Soviets” and with letting

“South Vietnam go down the drain in

a fit of Watergate pique.”

I would suggest that we really had

no choice in either instance: The So-

viets already occupied the half of Eu-

rope which they had conquered and

kept, and the conflict in Vietnam was

well decided even before Watergate. I

suspect history will treat the Kurdish

tragedy much differently.

PHILIPBERKHEIMER

Frederick, Md.

Regarding your editorial “Kurds

354, Trump 60” (Oct. 17): Media alle-

gations concerning the president’s ac-

tions on Syria assume impulsiveness

and lack of serious preparation. His

actions illustrate the unique con-

straints experienced by President

Trump. Previous administrations an-

nounced military action weeks and

months in advance, thus blunting the

effectiveness of operations and cost-

ing uncounted lives.

The departure of Secretary of De-

fense Jim Mattis and National Secu-

rity Adviser John Bolton is evidence

that the decision to redeploy assets

out of northern Syria was a long-run-

ning debate and not “impulsive.”

STEVESKLUTE

Tallahassee, Fla.

Make Teachers Accountable

And Then Double Their Pay

I vote for doubling teacher pay,

continuing the gold-plated benefits

and getting rid of tenure for teachers

everywhere (“Teachers in Chicago

Launch Strike Over Pay, Class Size,”

U.S. News, Oct. 18). Our public-school

curricula are terrible, as are some of

the teachers and administrators. We

need to improve the level of candi-

dates applying to be teachers in order

to be competitive in the world. We

must attract great candidates to

teach and administer in our schools,

and have the ability to fire the incom-

petent ones. Double the pay, ditch

tenure and let’s get on with it.

JENNIFERJEFFREY

St. Louis

The Lessons of Baghdadi

T

he death on the weekend of Islamic
State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at
the hands of American special forces
won’t end the danger from
radical Islam. But it is an im-
portant victory for America’s
antiterror strategy with les-
sons for the future.
“He was a sick and de-
praved man, and now he’s
gone,” President Trump said at the White House
Sunday morning. Mr. Trump said U.S. forces
had monitored Baghdadi for “a couple of weeks”
and planned the nighttime raid that chased the
terrorist into a tunnel near Idlib in northwest-
ern Syria, where the jihadist detonated a sui-
cide vest.
No Americans were killed in what Mr. Trump
called a “dangerous and daring” operation. He
deserves credit for approving a raid that inevi-
tably carries risks of failure and casualties. The
death of Baghdadi is important as a matter of
simple justice given his murderous history. And
it informs other jihadists that they can achieve
no victory and are likewise doomed to die in a
tunnel or bomb blast.
The raid also shows the importance of intel-
ligence gathered from prisoners. Iraqi officials
say their interrogation of captured ISIS fighters
in recent months provided news about Bagh-
dadi’s location. The American left has tried to
discredit interrogation since the Iraq war, but
it remains crucial to preventing future attacks
and killing terror leaders.
Another lesson is the importance of a pres-
ence on the ground by American troops and al-
lies. Mazloum Abdi, chief of the Syrian Demo-
cratic Forces allied with the U.S., tweeted that
“for five months there has been joint intel coop-
eration on the ground.”
U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq were able to co-
ordinate with allies who know the area and plot
raids rather than use standoff weapons. This al-
lowed U.S. soldiers to collect files as they did
during the raid on Osama bin Laden. Such raids
would be far more difficult without forward-de-
ployed troops who can take the fight to the ter-
rorists on their turf rather than allowing sanc-

tuaries to plan attacks on the U.S. as bin Laden

did in the 1990s.

Maintaining this regional pressure is crucial

because we know jihadist

forces can reorganize under

new leadership. That’s what

Baghdadi did after President

Obama ordered all U.S. forces

out of Iraq in 2011. He founded

an Islamic “caliphate” across

Syria and western Iraq, terrorizing minorities

and other Muslims, beheading Americans and

Arab Christians on camera, and inspiring terror

attacks on the West.

With that history it took some nerve for Su-

san Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser,

to lecture on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday

that “you can’t take the pressure off and expect

these groups not to reconstitute.” She also criti-

cized Mr. Trump’s recent withdrawal of forces

from northern Syria, as these columns also

have. But that’s what her former boss did in Iraq

while allowing Islamic State to control huge

chunks of both Syria and Iraq. Maybe sit this

one out, Ms. Rice.

Mr. Trump has been sending mixed signals

since his impulsive decision to cede northern

Syria to Turkey after a phone call with Turkish

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President

Trump now says he wants to keep enough U.S.

forces on the ground to control the local oil

fields, and word has leaked that the Pentagon

may send tanks as part of the job. This suggests

withdrawal isn’t as “simple” as Mr. Trump likes

to say when he’s playing to isolationists.

Beyond the oil, the Baghdadi raid under-

scores the anti-terrorist purpose of maintaining

a U.S. military presence. The U.S. homeland

hasn’t suffered a successful jihadist attack, for-

eign-planned or -inspired, in some time. This

isn’t an accident. It’s the result of persistent se-

curity and intelligence work that coordinates

with allies to pursue jihadists wherever they are

around the world.

In his better moments, Mr. Trump seems to

understand this. As he basks in the success of

the Idlib raid, he should rethink his retreat from

Syria in a still dangerous world.

Interrogation, help from

allies, and forward-

deployed U.S. forces.

Amazon’s Seattle Tax Revolt

A

mazon prides itself on progressive val-
ues, but it has discovered that it’s
tough to do business under Seattle’s
progressive government. The
company is now spending big
to elect a more business-
friendly City Council on Nov.
5 in a test of whether the left
or the far left controls Seat-
tle’s government.
This fight began in 2018 when the City Coun-
cil imposed a $250 “head tax” for each em-
ployee at any business with $20 million or more
a year in revenue to fund housing and services
for the homeless. Amazon, which has some
53,000 employees in the region, opposed this
tax on job creation. And the backlash was sig-
nificant enough that the City Council voted 7-
to repeal the levy a month after unanimously
passing it.
Seven of the City Council’s nine seats now
are up for grabs, and Amazon has given more
than $1.4 million this year to the political action
committee run by the Seattle Metropolitan
Chamber of Commerce. “Seattle is a very pro-
gressive city,” said the PAC’s executive director,
Markham McIntyre, but voters have a choice
between left-leaning “candidates who see an
opportunity to work with businesses large and
small” and those “who would prefer to demon-
ize the business community.”
The latter includes incumbent Kshama Sawant
of the Socialist Alternative party, who wanted a
head tax of $1,000 per employee and denounced
repeal as a “cowardly betrayal.” Incumbent Lisa
Herbold voted for repeal though she said it made
her feel like crying. Ms. Sawant proposed resur-
recting the head tax in October 2018, and Coun-
cilwoman Teresa Mosqueda, whose term lasts
until 2021, voted against repeal.

The Seattle Times obtained the text messages

of Lorena González, whose City Council seat is

safe until 2020. She voted for repeal but vented

to an aide that it “breaks my

heart that more homeless peo-

ple will die before the privi-

leged voter is ready to act.”

The “policy is right,” Ms.

González said, and “it’ll occur

but we need to socialize peo-

ple to what we’ve done, what we could do, the

need and the real lack of resources.”

Though 56% of Seattle voters support a tax

on large businesses to fund housing, the major-

ity aren’t impressed with the City Council, ac-

cording to a Crosscut/Elway poll released last

week. Among likely voters, 69% had a negative

opinion about the Council and 67% said they

were inclined to support "someone who wants

to change” its direction.

National Democrats have noticed the races

and are treating Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as if

he had donated to Donald Trump. Bernie Sand-

ers tweeted this week that Amazon’s spending

in Seattle was “a perfect example of the out-of-

control corporate greed we are going to end.”

Elizabeth Warren decried Amazon for “trying

to tilt the Seattle City Council elections in their

favor,” adding that “I have a plan to get big

money out of politics.”

After the election, Ms. González plans to in-

troduce legislation to cap individual contribu-

tions to candidates or committees at a total of

$5,000. She’s also wants to ban campaign con-

tributions from most companies with foreign

shareholders, which would disqualify Amazon,

Uber and most corporations. The message to

Seattle businesses is clear: Defeat the social-

ists now, or they’ll rig the system so you never

get another chance.

It is spending big to

defeat City Councillors

hostile to business.

The Air Force and Trump Turnberry

R

emember the brouhaha a couple months
back about Air Force crews who stayed
overnight at the Trump Turnberry golf
resort in Scotland? The insinu-
ations of corruption spread
quickly, with the critics rolling
out their favorite word, “emol-
uments.” But on this one the
scandalmongers appear to owe
President Trump an apology.
The Air Force on Friday released its official
review of the matter, a 30-page report by the
Air Mobility Command. Push past the jargon,
and it’s pretty clear: “The data collected dur-
ing this review convincingly confirmed that
patterns across the 2015-2019 timeframe con-
form to use on the basis of operational mili-
tary necessity.”
To dig in a little deeper, Scotland’s Prestwick
Airport, which sits about 20 miles from the
Trump Turnberry, is often preferred for opera-
tional reasons: It runs 24/7, with no quiet hours.
It has long runways and fewer weight restric-
tions. Diplomatic clearances are easy to get
from the United Kingdom, even for missions
carrying hazardous cargo, and the weather is
better than at other airfields in Britain.
From the beginning of 2015 through this Au-
gust, 659 aircrews that went through Prestwick
stayed overnight. Of the 545 for which paper-

work was available, 77% slept in local hotels,

and 17% stayed in Glasgow. A mere 6% went to

the Trump Turnberry, and “only after other lo-

cations closer to the Prestwick

Airport were determined to be

unavailable based on the re-

quirements of the aircrew.”

Six of these crews lingered

more than 24 hours, all of

them delayed by maintenance

or operational issues.

“Although the review found no instances of

inappropriate decision-making by aircrews

transiting Prestwick Airport,” the report says,

it suggests some additional training. One thing

commanders should specifically be taught to

weigh: “Are there any obvious concerns to be

considered about public perception of where

the crew is lodging?”

In other words, there’s nothing to see here,

other than hype from the President’s critics.

Last year the Trump Turnberry lost almost $

million, according to the Scotsman newspaper.

Since Mr. Trump bought the place in 2014, the

resort’s losses run to more than $50 million. If

the President’s illicit “profiteering” was to in-

veigle the hotel patronage of 31 U.S. aircrews

over five years, it would be the most trivial cor-

ruption in history. Judging by this Air Force re-

port, it isn’t even that.

About that tempest in

a Scottish tea cup:

Consider it debunked.

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

OPINION