Governor Sununu gave his annual “State of the State” address at NHIOP over break. It is a Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce affair, with amiable businesspersons eager to see friends and hear how they, too, might grab a slice of sweet subsidies. To note that a center-rightish chamber of commerce gathering was clad in Brooks Brothers would be a cliché, so I won’t. Sununu spoke with characteristic enthusiasm. He looks like a boxer hyping himself up for the ring before stepping behind the podium (he sort of bounces). Unlike most politicians who visit that part of the Hilltop, Governor Sununu has the confidence of a man who just cruised to reelection and speaks to a friendly audience. He cracked jokes, threw an elbow or two, and was unafraid of delivering unpleasant news bluntly. Be that continuing high energy prices or broader stagflation, there was little in the way of the Newspeak one might expect at such an event. Sununu also bragged without reservation and with good cause. The state of New Hampshire is “really really good.”

At the point where the Saint Lawrence narrows and atop the cliffs of Quebec City sits the Citadelle de Québec, the cornerstone of British plans to prevent an American invasion of Canada. Its cannons serve both to protect the fort itself, with corner vertices covering the approach from the Plains of Abraham, where the British scaled the craggy limestone to first wrest control of the city from France during the Seven Years War and to prevent enemy usage of the river. Any invasion of Canada would be a war for control of Atlantic access. Unlike America, whose military and economic might lies in its Northeast Corridor and whose 19th Century population centers sit upon the Atlantic, Canadian geography has built a country focused on the Great Lakes, which, through the Saint Lawrence Seaway, give way to river, and lead to ocean. Quebec City, while a regional and cultural capitol now, was initially built to defend that ocean access. By sinking enemy shipping, the citadel is a critical piece of Canada’s maritime defensive strategy. The citadel itself is sunk into the ground, with the interior barracks, church, and gunpowder stores completely invisible from across the dry moat. Direct cannon fire is impossible, and the efficacy of mortars would be tempered by the aforementioned invisibility of the citadel proper. If cannonade had failed for post-War of 1812 Americans, (the Citadel was built in the 1830s and 40s), the only option left would be to storm city and citadel both. A repetition of the Plains of Abraham would have been unlikely, and Quebec’s position on the North shore of the Saint Lawrence separates Southern invaders from their supplies. I am not convinced that American success would have been likely.

Is Robinhood a good thing? This past week, the Center for Ethics in Society hosted Violet Victoria to speak about the technological and cultural developments that have made retail investing more available and less lucrative (at least for the little guys) than ever before. It is broadly held that the democratization of something is an unqualified good. Uber democratized transportation by removing the costly requirement of a taxi medallion for would-be drivers. Decades earlier, Apple democratized personal computing by bringing millions of households into the market. Eight years ago, Robinhood democratized retail investment. By dropping fees and publishing an easy-to-use app, the fintech giant brought millions of uneducated, reckless investors and billions of dollars to Wall Street. A reasonable person might retort to criticisms of the flaws of Robinhood investing that “people are allowed to lose their money at casinos and via sports betting apps; why is losing a few grand on AMC stocks any different?” Violet’s response is that there is a difference between incentive and function. People gamble to make money, and the function of gambling is to win and make money. People might invest to make money (the incentive), but the function of a stock market is to provide firms with capital and to provide accurate valuations. When the market is misused (by either retail or institutional investors), there is collective damage done to the economy that spreads beyond the confines of Lower Manhattan.