Economic Transformation and Battle

Whereas nations have interests, as Lord Palmerston avowed, in America there is no one, unified, national industrial policy. Each state seeks its own interests; the welfare and employment of its own populace. This self-interest on the part of states - evident today in Michigan’s, North Carolina’s and Florida’s advertisements on LinkedIn, is a vestige of the past. This vestige that should by now be “Gone With the Wind,” exposes the weak and open flank of our consumer markets to foreign exploitation. 

Today, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, the traditional day of revolution in Latin America and the celebration day of Mexico’s victory over what was its occupation by the French - Maximilian- at the Battle of Puebla. 

Cinco De Mayo, contrary to popular opinion, is not a celebration of Mexico's independence, or just an excuse to drink, it is rather a day to recognize the Mexican Army's impressive defeat of numerically and technologically superior French forces in 1862 near the southern territory of Puebla. As the French Army made its way to take the capital of Mexico City, a ragtag group of Mexican soldiers retaliated with such a brutal beating that the French hightailed it out of there. 

That defeat almost singlehandedly restored national pride to a country that had been torn apart by civil war and foreign invasions for decades, and to this day it has become a staple celebration throughout the entire continent.

On 5 May 1862, against all advice, Lorencez decided to attack Puebla from the north. However, he started his attack a little too late in the day, using his artillery just before noon and by noon advancing his infantry. By the third attack the French required the full engagement of all their reserves. The French artillery had run out of ammunition, so the third infantry attack went unsupported. The Mexican forces and the Republican garrison both put up a stout defense and even took to the field to defend the positions between the hilltop forts.

As the French retreated from their final assault, Zaragoza had his cavalry attack them from the right and left while troops concealed along the road pivoted out to flank them. By 3 p.m. the daily rains had started, making a slippery slope of the battlefield. Lorencez withdrew to distant positions, counting 462 of his men killed against only 83 of the Mexicans. He waited a couple of days for Zaragoza to attack again, but Zaragoza held his ground. Lorencez then completely withdrew to Orizaba. 

Update: Investment and Politics 

Edward L. Glaeser of Harvard: In 2000 No plan is as central to the ambitions of the Biden Democrats, in terms of both policy and politics, as the creation of a clean-energy economy. “Governor Whitmer uniquely understands that we can build an industrial commons here,” Brian Deese, who was the director of Biden’s National Economic Council, told me. “If we don’t invest in the manufacturing processes to produce these technologies, then we wind up hollowing out that capability and having supply chains that are unacceptably reliant on China.” 

The Blue Wall and Economic Opportunity

But the Transition is also an effort to rebuild the “blue wall,” the Democrats’ stronghold on Midwestern states, which frustrated Republicans’ Presidential hopes for two decades. Damon Silvers, the former policy director and special counsel of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said, ,, “It is hard to overstate what is happening in Michigan, because, if electric-vehicle manufacturing is done union and is able to sustain middle-class families again, those families will vote for Biden, and then the U.S. stays in the Paris Agreement. And, if they don’t, then you get some version of Trump again and it all falls apart.”

Glaeser, Kahn and Rappaport challenged the 1960s urban land use theory that claimed the poor live disproportionately in cities because richer consumers who wanted more land chose to live in the suburbs where available land was less expensive. They found that the reasons for the higher rate of poverty in cities (17% in 1990) compared to suburbs (7.4%) in the United States were the accessibility of public transportation and pro-poor central cities' policies which encouraged more poor people to choose to move to and live in central cities.[14]He reiterated this in an interview in 2011, "The fact that there is urban poverty is not something cities should be ashamed of. Because cities don't make people poor. Cities attract poor people. They attract poor people because they deliver things that people need most of all—economic opportunity."[12]

Disclaimer: I have intercalated images, titles, subtitles, comments and highlights when and where appropriate in order to more effectively deliver this message. Attribution is made for the art, literature, film, lyrics, photography, cartoons, music and footnotes are added for the ideas of others whenever possible and appropriate. Otherwise, the intuitions and disciplined inspirations are mine.

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