When enforcement surges, street encounters multiply. When fear spreads, cooperation drops. When cooperation drops, legitimacy collapses. And when legitimacy collapses, the state must rely on even more force to achieve the same results.

themillennium.substack.com/p/consent-or...

We must remember that bureaucracy can do as much harm as a baton.

In detention, the government controls access to care. Detainees can’t choose another provider. They can’t just go to urgent care. If payment systems break, services predictably get delayed or denied.

In detention the state’s power is at its purest, because the detainee can’t walk away. When a person dies under government control, transparency and independent investigation are the minimum.

A modern accountability battle is unfolding: the state makes a claim; video and records challenge it; the public watches which version survives contact with evidence.

“No record” is not a comforting answer when armed federal operations are interacting with civilians. It’s a sign of weak control, weak transparency, or both.

Immigration enforcement is a stress test for that choice. Done carefully, it can be strict and still legitimate. Done recklessly, it spreads fear far beyond its targets, breaks trust in government, and escalates conflict.

It's not globalization vs nationalism, the question is whether power will be constrained and accountable, or openly transactional and exempt.

People are demanding: Predictability. No carve-outs. Accountability.

Without them we don’t have governance. We have theater.

The dollar is a major channel through which world trade settles and reserves are stored.

If the world begins to see the U.S. as unstable or politically erratic, countries diversify. Payment routes and settlement agreements shift.

Even a gradual increase in distrust can raise borrowing costs.

When policy becomes volatile, lenders and investors demand more compensation to take risk. Bond yields rise. And when bond yields rise, your mortgage rate rises.

It shows up as rent, housing, and hiring.

When leaders use economic tools as a first resort, and do it unpredictably, they force everyone else to plan for worst-case scenarios.

That planning costs money.

Interdependence, once sold as a mutual win, is being repurposed as leverage.

Tariffs as leverage, financial plumbing as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to exploit.