The Latest Videos
Victor C. Bolles
January 30, 2025
President Trump complained at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the United States is treated very unfairly by the rest of the world. Everyone wants to be treated fairly but not everyone agrees as to what is fair. But the real problem of fairness is that while it does not make good government policy it makes great politics. In this podcast the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, looks at ways to build an acceptable consensus on policies rather than supposedly fair policies.
Quote from the Commentary:
Fairness is not a good standard on which to base public policy. Any “fair” policy will make some people very happy and some other people very unhappy. That may not matter in a dictatorship or a monarchy where people just have to follow the rules whether they like them or not. But in a democracy that is a problem.
Victor C. Bolles
January 20, 2025
Referring to the infamous Nicaraguan dictator Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said, "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." It appears that lame duck President Biden applies the same type of differentiation to oligarchs circling around the presidency. In this last podcast about the Biden Administration the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, shows how the dire warnings of his farewell address are refuted by his own actions.
Quote from the commentary:
“Of course, the oligarchs Mr. Biden is talking about are the billionaires trekking to Mar-a-Lago seeking an audience with President-elect Donald Trump as compared to the oligarch that was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the lame-duck president a few weeks earlier. Mainstream media takes Mr. Biden’s warning seriously but fails to note the irony of the medal to the billionaire, George Soros.”
Victor C. Bolles
January 14, 2025
When one of our myriad electronic devices isn’t functioning the way we think it should, we often shut it down and then restart the device to reboot the system. More often than not that solves our problem. I think that the 62% of Americans that believe the US is on the wrong path (according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls) would agree that America needs a reboot. The incoming Trump administrations is planning to make some big changes in Washington. In this podcast the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses whether Mr. Trump is planning a reboot or something more drastic.
Quote from the commentary:
“2025 will be very different from 2017. Back then Mr. Trump knew very little about how the levers of power worked in Washington. He intended to drain the swamp but what little drainage he eventually got was quickly refilled when his successor, Joe Biden, took office.”
Victor C. Bolles
January 2, 2025
Once again, I am publishing my list of the urgent priorities confronting our nation, most of which have been unmet and consistently ignored by both Democratic and Republican politicians. But in 2025 we will have a new Trump administration that is vowing to change how things are done in Washington. One can only hope.
Quote for the Commentary:
“Achieving these goals (or at least making a good start toward achieving these goals since it will be many years before we reap the ultimate benefits) will not erase the stain of January 6th from Donald Trump’s legacy, but it would bury that infamous deed under a mountain of worthy achievements.”
Victor C. Bolles
December 9, 2024
Government budgets are the inflection point between governance and politics. And bad budgeting is bad governance. In this podcast, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles looks at some of the consequences of bad budgeting and how that is going to impact American citizens.
Quote from the commentary:
“If you think that tax cuts will spur economic growth to reduce the deficit, you are delusional. If you think that you will not have to make a sacrifice to help balance the US budget, you are delusional. If you think that geniuses like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy can save trillions of dollars by eliminating waste and fraud you are also delusional.”
Victor C. Bolles
November 29, 2024
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy intends to save taxpayers trillions of dollars by making the government more efficient. But efficient systems are not robust, they are fragile and can breakdown. In this podcast the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, looks at how the Founders’ efforts to preserve our Republic made the government inherently inefficient.
Quote from the commentary:
Efficiency is fragile. We learned that during Covid. International corporations had developed a highly efficient system of production and distribution that provided a large quantity of goods at low prices that still delivered great profits to those corporations. That was until Covid hit. And then the world fell apart.
Victor C. Bolles
November 22, 2024
It is difficult to understand why President-elect Trump wants to make recess appointments to his cabinet when Republicans control the Senate 53 to 47. But then we saw some of his picks. But he also selected Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to improve government efficiency. In this podcast the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, looks at some of the hints in what direction he will take his new administration.
Quote from the commentary:
The purpose of DOGE is to root out these unlawful expansions of power and to eliminate those rules and regulations and the bureaucrats needed to enforce them. DOGE, according to Elon and Vivek, will “pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.”
The Consequence of Ideological Purity
Victor C. Bolles
November 14, 2024
Kamala Harris and the Democrats took a beating in the 2024 elections, losing the White House and both houses of Congress. In this podcast the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, looks at not only why the Democrats lost so badly but also why Donald Trump and the Republicans may be making the same mistakes as the Democrats.
Quote from the commentary:
These actions are being done in order to embed the MAGA movement into the fabric of the American government. But this strategy runs the risk of overreach similar to the collapse of the Democrat’s attempt to embed far-left progressivism into the government.
Victor C. Bolles
November 7, 2024
Donald Trump scored a great victory in the 2024 elections and he has plans to make many changes in how America operates. But many of the changes he made in his first term as president were undone when Democrat Joe Biden replaced him. If Mr. Trump wants to make his changes permanent he needs to do things differently. In this podcast the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, looks at some of the things he needs to do to create a lasting legacy.
Quote from the commentary:
The scope of Mr. Trump’s electoral victory allows him to do something very different from his habitual instincts. Be magnanimous, or in his case MAGAnanimous. He has scored a great victory. He no longer needs to denigrate his former opponents. The election results are punishment enough.
Victor C. Bolles
November 1, 2024
The Founding Fathers were part of an elite group that got a classical education at America’s early universities like Harvard and Princeton and they applied that knowledge into creating the United States but they also used their knowledge to try and protect the fragile new republic from the tragic fates that befell other republics throughout history. In this podcast the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, looks at the perils that confronted the new republic and shows how we face similar perils in the 2024 election.
Quote from the commentary:
It was Montesquieu who wrote in his book, The Spirit of Laws in 1756 about the idea of a separation of powers to prevent the accumulation of political power. This inspiration motivated Madison to divide the government of the new American republic into three co-equal branches and incorporate checks and balances into the Constitution to prevent an accumulation of power, to prevent someone lacking sufficient civic virtue from putting ambition ahead of the public good.
Victor C. Bolles
October 24, 2024
Everybody has ideas on how to run the American economy but nobody seems to be very happy about the results. The Economist magazine across the Atlantic doesn’t think our economy is so bad. In fact, they think it is the envy of the world. Is our economy the envy of the world because our political leadership? In this the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, will look at why the rest of the world thinks our economy is so good.
Quote from the commentary:
Besides, the stock market thinks that the Fed is running the economy anyway. But the Fed’s actions seem to perversely affect how markets are supposed to work. Good economic news, like more jobs and lower unemployment, drives the market down on fears that the Fed will have to raise interest rates. Bad economic news, that means the Fed may have to cut rates, sends the market up.
Victor C. Bolles
January 9, 2024
Once again, while our so-called political leaders are completely absorbed by their campaigns for reelection, they ignore the urgent national priorities that need to be addressed, or worse, use those issues as political levers to galvanize their base at the expense of the American people. In this podcast the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, revisits those priorities that have become even more urgent as we enter a tumultuous election year.
Quote for the Commentary:
“Critics on the left will moan that meritocracy would worsen inequality. But equality of outcomes in education would mean driving all children down to the lowest common denominator (which you would understand unless you had been taught the new “equitable” math). But meritocracy will provide equality of opportunity. In fact, you cannot have equality of opportunity without meritocracy.”
Victor C. Bolles
December 30, 2021
In the year 2022 the United States will be challenged to address urgent priorities of national importance, but our political leaders will be distracted by political priorities as we approach the upcoming off-year elections. As citizens, we need to make sure that our elected representatives focus on issues of national importance and not on ideological agendas or the egos of political leaders. In this commentary, we identify some of these urgent national priorities as well as the distracting political priorities that we need to put behind us.
Quote from the Commentary:
“There are priorities that affect all Americans, rich and poor, black and white, young and old, whatever. We live in a complex and dangerous world. While our country is rich and powerful, it is not invulnerable. We cannot ignore the events happening around us and we need to be able to influence those events or be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
December 31, 2011
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On New year's Eve El Salvador's capital city turns into a virtual war zone of celebrations.
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