What gets me is that for all the people screaming about the threat of Russia cutting of the gas, you don't hear pundits suggesting that a program of energy self-sufficiency would alleviate the political tensions created by the economics of gas supply.

Rather, the argument is that there must be free access to Russian gas at prices that are the preference of other European states.

The aversion to autarky as a means to piece comes not in the least from the ideological trauma that comes from admitting that free trade may create conflict as much as alleviate it.

One of the real ironies of the "protectionist" school and the works of Friederich List, is that because he was a German, there's this assumption that protectionism must be militaristic.

But if you read the National system of political economy, List makes clear that the greatest way of encouraging peace between states is through systems of national political economy that allow political interactions of states not to be tainted by differences in the economic power of states.  Peace comes when trade is not an instrument of foreign policy that allows dominant states to dominate, and lesser states to be forced to accept the will of larger states.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg