A few weeks ago, at the end of an email about malaria and political standing water (if you missed that one, you can read it here), I mentioned that one of the great ironies of the Panama Canal is that it was finished in 1914, the year World War I broke out. Although the canal permanently altered the face of international trade, it would be decades before the world saw its full benefits as the economic devastation of the Great War dealt a blow to global commerce so significant that we didn’t fully rebound until the 1990s.
I strongly believe that one of the most important reasons to study history is to learn from it, which is why I actually wanted to tell you another story about our friend John Maynard Keynes.
During the first World War, Keynes was one of the leading economists working for the British treasury—and when the Central Powers finally surrendered, he was a natural choice as a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference. Keynes went into the conference optimistically, planning to advocate for something radical: a peace that would help the European economy rebound from the devastation of WWI, rather than one that focused on punishing the Central Powers.
But as it became clear that Keynes’ priorities were not shared by the conference’s leaders, he resigned from his post with the treasury in protest. Over the following summer, he wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace, outlining where he felt that the Allies had gone wrong: by treating the Central Powers so harshly, he argued that the treaty would fail to make them into good neighbors and damage the European economy, setting the stage for future instability and war.
As he went on to warn, and as I’ve said throughout this campaign, when people lack economic security and opportunity, they lose hope. When they lose hope, when they feel trapped, they look for any promise of escape, no matter how dangerous or volatile, and the very foundations of civil society are threatened. History proved Keynes right: the treaty created economic insecurity that allowed fascists like Hitler and Mussolini to seize power.
And if we aren’t careful, history could repeat itself. Modern demagogues like Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Mark Robinson are trying their best to capitalize on a sense of economic insecurity among working families and turn neighbors against each other. They’re symptoms of a deeper problem in our country, and if we don’t eliminate the economic anxiety that allows them to thrive, we’ll continue to pay the price.
As Keynes outlined at the time, the solution is simple: invest. Give working people a leg up. Ensure that people have the support they need to make a living, and not just to scrape by but to be able to hope for something better. It’s a solution we can adapt right here in North Carolina, using the power of our treasury to issue bonds, build infrastructure, create jobs, and spur economic growth that will help our people reach their potential.
But not if we don’t take back the Treasurer’s office, and to do that, I’ll need your support. Our likely GOP opponent loaned himself a quarter of a million dollars to pad out his first finance report, and I can guarantee you that he has more where that came from—so to build a war chest that can match his, it’s going to take all of us coming together and dedicating ourselves to fighting for the economic health of our communities. Are you with me, John?
