A pilot friend sends along this testament to Francis’ prescience

…on just one little aspect of how the global economy is headed for suicide:
1) The Obama administration has opened a US Customs pre-check facility in Dubai, despite the objections and protests of the major US airlines, both management and labor (the pilots, in particular). This is a HUGE security risk that will allow passengers boarding US-bound aircraft in Dubai to clear *US* customs in the heart of the Arab Middle East. Those passengers, upon arrival, will be able to simply walk off the aircraft and into the US.
2) Again, despite the loud objections and protestations of the US airline industry, both management and labor, the US Congress is pressing forward to eliminate laws and rules that prohibit “cabotage.” Once those protections are gone, non-US airlines will be able to arrive in the US, unload their passengers, then reload with US passengers and fly them to another US destination. So an Emirates Air A-380 could arrive at JFK from Dubai, off load its 500 passengers, then take on another 500 US passengers and fly them to LA for some obscenely low price that the US airlines will never be able to match. The UAE funds its flag carriers with huge amounts of petro-dollars, fully expecting them to *not* turn a profit, with the intent of driving the world’s other airlines (and US airlines in particular) into ground. They very much want to dominate the commercial aviation industry and are paying off our Congress critters to achieve that end.
One of my airline pilot colleagues told me that his father-in-law, an economics professor at a top-rung university, studied the cabotage issue. His opinion as a disinterested, agnostic party: it’s a done deal — our Congress is being paid off to give the UAE the upper hand