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Without some kind of inside information, it certainly is hard to see how European states like Germany could go along with policies which risk turning off the heat and otherwise messing with their healthy trade to Russia.

For some reason, people almost universally completely freak out about airplane crashes. From a political standpoint, it will matter a lot more than the deaths on the ground.

I'm not sure who it would benefit, but it is possible that dragging more parties into the conflict could be perceived as a benefit to the Ukraine.

I share your hope but not your optimism. Disappearing over the Ukrainian/Russian border would be a remarkable coincidence. Then again, a remarkable coincidence started WWI, so...

What a horrible tragedy, and one that changes the political climate considerably. Obama will face much less resistance from Europe if Russia turns out to be responsible. It also gives the Ukraine a reason to call in US "specialists" for help with the investigation.

Agreed - the East India company, in some ways much like modern corporations, was simply an extension of the British Establishment.

That's why I follow the Pope on Twitter.

The difference is that those deeds just codify something that is fairly easy to implement with or without a government: "mine". My kids had "mine" mastered by the time they were 2. You can see it at work in places where government has collapsed and people turn to privateers for protection of their stuff. Certain libertarian types (not me) will even lump property protection in there with the other 3 fundamental rights.

Yes, I'm fairly dim and even I predicted this would happen.

Touche!

Nonsense. A company is a totally fictitious entity. The government created it and the government can make it do whatever they want.

(As it turns out, the corporation is also able to control the government, but that's another topic.)

I think we would probably survive if limited liability were rolled back just a tad. Sure, I'll admit that there probably is some benefit to having corporations with protected stockholders - in particular people who only buy or sell the stock and have little to no influence in the business. I don't see any reason to shield executives, board, or activist investors.

The really, really black stuff from yesterday is made with nanotubes.

While government certainly does enable giant chain corporations, I think you are overlooking the more obvious culprit: limited liability. Without the invention of "the corporation" - and the limited liability aspect in particular - nothing like Walmart would have ever scaled to that size. Hell, if all that was holding Walmart back was a common currency, we'd all be using "Wally Bucks" right now.