Have nothing to add to this most brilliant piece but a historical note.

Mr. Werner was chief economist at Jardine Fleming for a few years in the 1990s, a subsidiary of the internstional banking concern Flemings, founded by the family Ian Fleming (James Bond author) was a member of! It was originally founded by the Fleming family member who sold sandbags to the American armies during the Civil War, took that fortune earned and shifted into the world of banking!

While Ian Fleming was a superior fellow, he was possibly or probably inducted into the Intelligence world because of those bank family connections — bankers are typically those behind the IC in the UK, America and elsewhere! Fleming was a special assistant to the MI6 director and accompanied him to DC to advise on the establishment of the CIA! The Flemings international banking operations were sold to JPMorganChase in 2000.

Ian Fleming’s wonderful (and malevolent) fictional biographical sketch of the SPECTRE chief, Blofeld, in Thunderball, is remarkably similar to Andrew Carnegie’s Civil War bio —- Carnegie, although a public peacenik and anti–war type, was a MAJOR war profiteer from the Civil War and WWI!

Thanks again for a colossal essay!