The standard excuse for why states fail is the rampant printing of money. That certainly doesn’t help, but it’s often the symptom not the cause. In most cases states fail simply because the government isn’t in control. Take, for example, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan. Burt Phil asks Steve whether recent warnings on bond markets show that government debt can place the economy in a precarious position. Take the Liz Truss disaster budget. Or Trump’s swift reversal on tariffs in response to a rising cost of government debt driven by fears of a severe economic slowdown. Are there warning signs of states that are close to economic collapse? And is Trump creating many more of them in small dollar-dependent nations who relied on a trade surplus they can no longer achieve without starving the population?

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