All the talk from the media, economists, and government officials about Trump’s tax cuts stimulating the real economy—boosting wages, jobs, and investment—is simply economic hype. The 2018 cuts didn’t deliver, just like those under Obama and Bush before him. Trump’s current bill won’t be any different. Fiscal and monetary policy in the late neoliberal era are failing.

The current election is notable not only for the issues being raised by Trump and Harris, but for the issues the candidates decline to address. Perhaps even more important, there’s been no discussion of the existential issues that will impact voters—and the country’s very stability—even more dramatically in the months immediately following the election.

Like the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, the West’s distribution to Ukraine of Russia’s $300 billion in assets will not be enough to prevent eventual defeat. The Ukraine war will almost certainly be resolved within the next 12 months—on the ground, not with bank accounts. Like the Spartans at Thermopylae, time may run out for Ukraine even before Europe can buy some more of it.