www.Yorlig.com

Image by uvw916a via Flickr

So a co-worker was raging about this speech that President Obama gave earlier in the day about income inequality. Excellent, excellent he said. Too bad I was at work and missed it. But that was not that much of a problem – my progressive radio talk show host played it on my drive home – almost in full. And I got it. Right away. Yes I did, because these were some of the same issues I would talk to my wife weekly about. The same economic concepts.

And yet, here we are a day after and so many people still do not get it. Still do not get it. Damn, how much simpler can we make it.  Of course there are those who are intellectually challenged and will never get it. And no, I am not questioning their intellectual capacity. What I question is their intellectual honesty. But that is another issue all together. But back to the speech. Or back to what I think were the main crux of this speech. For those of us who still do not get it, here is the God In Heaven Truth:

Principle #1.  -  No country, no nation, no people, can be a collective success, a sustainable success without a vibrant middle-class. Not just a middle-class, but a vibrant middle-class. This is not opinion, theory, or hope. This is fact, the way it is, how God created it to be. Seriously, this is how it is folks.

Know why? Aspiration is most vibrant where capability meets opportunity. Aspiration is the genesis of value. Value is measured in a number of ways of course, but economic value is measured in currency – money, purchasing power. Purchasing power creates demand. Demand in turn drives economic activity. So lets get back to where we started with this – “middle classers” tend to have more capability because they are probably better prepared to cope economically. So lets go to the next variable – opportunity.

Opportunity in this society is not only being given the chance to prepare yourself for this life economically. Even if you are given that chance thru excellent education, if you do not get the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of that education then the equation cannot be complete. Its damn hard to have high aspirations when you are being underpaid, overworked only for a few to reap the fruits of what you are responsible for creating or producing. So guess what happens? Value is undermined, made less and everyone suffers, even the greedy ones eventually.

There is nothing complex about the above. It may seem that way, but this is how wealth is created and grown, or if you prefer, destroyed.

The economic system that we are pursuing is a wealth destroyer. Yes, a wealth destroyer. Yeah, yeah I know this sounds like crap. But its not. Of course you have wealth out there being created, even with this malady. But we have much, much, much more wealth being destroyed daily in a geometric manner when the system itself destroy that which is the very genesis of its value – aspirations. There is where your wealth lies. If I do not aspire, I am unlikely to want to acquire much in life. If I am not motivated to acquire much, those who produce can count me out as a consumer. And if there are 100 million of me out there with the same mindset, then the wealth that the aspirations from the 100 could be creating is being destroyed.

So this is not about European socialism or whatever the critics want to term it. Thats not the direction the President was pointing us in with his speech. What the president outlined was pure economics. But we are so steeped in the phony understanding of how wealth is created that its so damn hard to pull our minds away from that crap.

Wealth is not created by the so-called job creators. Well is created when aspirations are stoked and sustained. And that happens best in a middle-class mindset.

The President is right. And people like Mitt Romney may get it one day, but for right now, they don’t. And quite frankly I have little patience for people like him.  And as to Gingrich’s idea about how we should teach our kids to be industrious – well that is a topic for another time. Suffice to say, clueless pretending to be an intellectual.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Image via Wikipedia

Well, finally, a progressive who talks the way progressives ought to be talking. Elizabeth Warren is scary. Scary to the GOP.

I for one am delighted at that little speech explaining that no one gets rich in this country on their own. That is not a statement borne of malice or envy. That is a statement of economic fact. And the sooner we start to understand how the hell wealth is created, here or elsewhere, the better off we will be.

The middle class plays a critical role in this and I have written elsewhere in another post that you cannot have sustained wealth without the middle class, both as a group and as  a concept.

Elizabeth Warren deserves our support and encouragement. And yes, you may be a Republican at heart and have no belief in this stuff, but its time that we all listen because this lady is on the right of all of us – she is damn right.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

You know what we need to increase right now in this U.S. of A. – The intellectual debt ceiling in Congress and on Talk Radio. Its so damn low you can crawl around on it and think it’s the damn floor.

Take for instance this stupid analogy between the national economy and American families’ households. You listen to these idiots talking about American households have to balance their books and Congress should do the same. Make sense, right?

I hope to God you said, or at least thought – NOOOO. Or at the very least you did not say OF COURSE. Because if you did, you are idiotic.

A household is not anything, not anywhere similar to  the national economy. They do not have the same or similar properties. They do not have the same characteristics. My household may consist of 3, 4, 5, 6 or even 10 persons. At the most there may be few persons responsible for making this household function financially. Maybe myself and my wife. We are the ones responsible for taking care of the finances, providing the housing, the food, the clothes. Thats it.

We have no recourse to anyone else really. Our productive reach stops with us and our capacity to earn as two individuals. Our extended earning power is really just the two of us. Our economic synergies are not very strong beyond our own skills. The extent to which we take on debt is governed by these factors and parameters.

Do you see where I am going with this?

A nation  is different. Way different. There are millions of people, capacities and capabilities interacting that give stronger synergies. There is infrastructure to put in place so that the future is livable for those who come after. There are more people being born every day that add earning potential resources to the mix. But until they are able to start contributing resources, have to be taken care of .

So at any given moment, any given month, any given year a nation’s capacity to earn is always  being bolstered, even in a depression. But at the same time that same nation must improve its capacity to prepare those not yet ready to contribute in terms of earning.

Which means, if you are still with me, that a nation’s economy is much more, much more complex than a household economy. A nation can safely take on debt to the extent that a household would not dare do.

And that should be the end of the argument. But it wont be because stupid is sadly an asset for some people and man are they cashing in.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Here we go again. Stupid making policy. Cynic making rationale. It will not work.

Because either I am a damn fool or someone is taking me for one.

Tax cuts do not, do not, necessarily result in more jobs. So please cut the crap. Because this is

crap. It’s easy to see. What are you, blind?

Why would corporations who are experiencing reduced demand invest in trying to fill demand

that is not there? Why? You think these people are stupid? Greedy, yes, but stupid No! The benefits that come from tax cuts flow straight to their bottom line, no detour called investments. Straight to

the bottom line. It’s only common sense man. I would do it, you would do it. Why wouldn’t they do it?

Moreover, moreover, and those of you who believe in this crap about cutting taxes leading to more jobs are going to have to bash your head against the wall to understand this – tax cuts is a job killer.

Yes, you read that right, it is a job killer in this environment.  Why? Because the government hands me a bunch of income that I hardly had to do much to get. Where is the motivation to invest for more income?

Because this is how wealth is created, when people get motivated to increase value, accumulate value.

Corporate welfare is no different from social welfare – it destroys innovation, motivation and in the end put a damper on output.

And then guess what? No freaking jobs! And quite frankly I would not blame the corporations one bit.

Blame the idiots who are playing this stupid game. Your political representatives.

So Cut the crap. Cap the stupid.  Get in Balance with what is natural and how the economy really works.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you happen to live in the US and you are not feeling scared about what is going on politically and economically then that in itself is scary.

Know that part in the Bible that says where there is no vision the people perish? Well this is it.

What is being demonstrated here is that our leaders have little or no understanding of money, how a healthy society is built and worse, arrogance is now being offered as a substitute for real leadership.

May God help us. No, strike that. May God bless America. Because right now we need it more than any of our self-serving politicians can say it fast enough.

Idiots!!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

So here we go again, around the mulberry bush to nowhere. The problem is now the workers, they have too much damn power to garner more wages onto themselves, hence the financial binds the States are in.

You know this thing makes you want to freaking scream, hit your head until you pass out into a better place.

Because what is happening here in Wisconsin with the Governor and his cohorts and the unions and public employees is nothing but a reflection of the visionary bankruptcy of the US.

Thanks in a large measure to Republicans. Not that the Democrats are angels, but at least I can tolerate them a bit longer.

Look, unionization is not the freaking problem. Stop the crap. You are just saying you have no answer, never mind you probably dont even know the question.

Unions serve no threat to the effectiveness of corporations or governance. To believe or think this is,to be living in the 19th century.

What threatens corporations and good governance as far as unions are concerned are either lousy management or corrupt union officials or both.

Just like how management and capital has its own interests and is best served when those interests are protected and advanced by the holders of capital and the executives acting on its behalf, and nothing wrong with that, unions also have their own interests and those interests are best represented by them. Not management.

But you cannot remove any of those interests from the general health of the organization.

So what would smart organizations do given the above. Allow the interests to be represented by those who would best represent them. Its not a fight. Its synergy.

And thats the freaking problem here. Because its seen as a fight. Oh yeah? Well taken to its logical conclusion either you are going to end up being jobless or with falling purchasing power in the economy.

Because the natural laws of economics will not tolerate this fight for very long without something giving. The only way forward is to function effectively as management and as employee. There is no freaking divided interests. There is just one and its production or productivity.

So this war against unions is just taking this country into a deeper and deeper ditch.

Call a tow-truck, please. These guys cannot drive.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

So now we have a new game – do nothing when you have been elected to do something and you somehow get the go-ahead to go ahead and do more nothing. And that is a mandate?

It is beyond me how  Americans stomach so much crap. I mean it doesn’t matter which way you lean, come on if you are interested in moving this country forward you cannot support this foolishness.

You  were elected to solve problems. If you do not have solutions then you ought not to be there on the people’s dime. Don’t tell me that you are there to stop anything. No one elected you to stop play obstruction. You were elected to come up with solutions to advance the interests of the US.

But you are not the problem. No, you who can sit there for two years and do nothing but play obstruction are not to be blamed.

Not when people tell you that is an ok way to operate by voting for you to represent them. In essence to do nothing – because what else could they expect you to do, they have never seen you do anything other than nothing.

God help us.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I have so much to say about what is going on. Unfortunately I don’t have the time right now to vent completely, but I would like to be on the record about a few things before we know the results of the 2010 elections. Of course I will expand on these at a later date.

1. It doesn’t matter who or what party you favor, if you are intellectually honest you know neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are now suited to address the problems facing America.

Why? – Democrats are struck in thinking more suited for the problems we faced 50 years ago. Republicans, well those that are in leadership positions are like a man with only a hammer – everything to him is a nail. Everything to these guys is a tax cut opportunity.

2. The Supreme Court ruling re Citizens United is a colossal error by the High Court. I said it before and I cannot be more convinced now.

3. Mr. President please stop talking about penalizing corporations who ship jobs overseas. It’s stupid talk and moreover while it may make for good politics it is irresponsible to frame the problem in this manner. Capital will seek to maximize its returns any which way that is legal. Thats the nature of capital and it cannot be any other way.  Else capital will eventually be completely depleted and where would that  leave us? Without capital to generate growth. Shipping jobs overseas is not the issue, the issue is what is this country prepared to do to attract capital that produce jobs and increase productivity so that we have rising living standards and an expanding middle-class. And the answer has little or nothing to do with penalties by statute or the  lowering of  taxes.

See why neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have the answers to what ails us?

4. The Tea Party, oh the Tea Party. You know what I have my concerns about the debt, but guys apart from that you are wrong on all the other issues I hear you talking about. Maybe at a gut level you are all on to something but my problem with you people is that when challenged on that which you are so vigorous in championing you clearly have not thought a damn thing through. Well that may be good enough for people who are satisfied with bumper sticker thinking but man oh man, I have a hard time listening to campaign slogans being passed off as position papers.

5. The Republicans made a decision to not get a damn thing done with the President. Now we know why – make him  one term president. Nice! And I know quite a few people unemployed now for over a year, and a few more who are about to lose their house, and people with advanced degrees who cant find a decent job and a quite a few going to college now who will expect to find a good job when they graduate in a few years. And I know you also know a few people like these. And the Republicans know this is the state of affairs and made a decision to sit it out. And you guys ask for my vote. You must be freaking crazy!

6. The Republican End Game – No Compromise, no victory for those damn Democrats, and as for that President, well you had your one term; And when 2012 comes around there will still be a lot of unemployed so blame it on you know who, there will be a lot of dispirited Democrats and well, our base will be hollering for the White House. Way to go guys. Lets see how this little game plays out.

More anon.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Here  we go again! Our dysfunctional political system on full display.  Scratch that, our completely incompetent political system on full display.

Just take a look at the failed attempt by the Democrats to pass legislation to discourage corporations from “shipping” jobs overseas.  You hear a lot of “bumper sticker” talk from both sides regarding this issue:  stop corporations from shipping our jobs overseas, government ought not to be able to dictate where corporations invest, job killing legislation,  and on and on.

But do you hear one argument, one argument from any Republican, any Democrat, any Tea Party member that gives the American people any of the vital facts that should drive any action relating to this matter?  No, none. But everyone who wants our attention has an opinion about what we should be doing.

Any policy regarding this matter has to take the following into consideration.

1.  American manufacturing labor has been losing competitive ground primarily due to the availability of much cheaper wages overseas. – China’s per capita income is $3000, the US is $40,000.With an already strong manufacturing base at these levels and with an abundance of available labor from its vast rural areas, China is going to remain super competitive labor-wise in the industries it has already taken a foothold in.

So how does this policy proposal alter this in favor of or against the American economy? Do you know? Have you had this explained to you by any Democrat, any Republican, any Tea Party devotee? If you have tell me about it. I want to hear.

2. China’s consumption rate measured as a share of GDP is 36%; the US? – upwards of 70%.  That essentially means that the US has a more vibrant and attractive consumer market. But it also means that given our labor costs compared to that of the Chinese, the market opportunities in a “free-market” environment favors China.

So here is the question -  is the problem China’s consumption rate or is the problem granted unfettered access to the rich consumer market of the US to all comers? Or is it something else?

Do you know the thinking of any elected Republican, any elected Democrat, any aspiring to be elected Tea Party member on any of this? Again if you do, please let me know, give me the name, and their number, fax number if possible. I for one would like to engage them on this.

Look, whether you are a Conservative, Liberal, or Progressive you have a responsibility to educate yourself about these issues so that you are not held captive to rhetoric that gets us nowhere fast.

And frankly, that is what is going on now to a large extent in this country of the US because there is a rich atmosphere for it. We lambaste our elected representatives but are we any better? We see a huge level of support for people who do no more than mouth off about small government, and their rights being taken away, and too much taxes, and socialism. They are getting substantial support in the face of almost no substantial public policy prescriptions.Are you kidding me?

But the Democrats are just less unbearable because they too have policy prescriptions that are going to be extremely ineffective at best. The most one could say for them is that they try. But merely trying, and mouthing off meaningless rhetoric is not going to cut it with me.

What about you? Because one is clearly going to be meaningless in the scheme of things and the other, well ignorance cannot be covered over with platitudes.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

So I see where Glen Beck has now labeled progressives as “enemies of  God”. Well, I regard myself as a progressive . So here goes Glen – I am indeed an enemy of god – Your god, the one that you have created and seem to want to foist on everyone else. Count me as an ardent enemy and damn proud to be. Because the God that I know has no enemies Glen. Your god has so many you wonder how the hell can he be god any at all.

Oh so this god of y0urs has decided to make enemies of people who just happen to have a different outlook on life from you. That is who your god is? So small-minded that he can’t even humor the helpless progressives much less forgive them? And bid them to become more like conservatives? Instead he has to resort to the  power of hate? Talk for yourself Mr. Beck and maybe the god you have is quite ok with you talking for him like this.

But know this, the only god who could be ok with this is the one you and you alone created and who you would have the last one of us follow, to hell.

I do not know how people can digest this foolishness. But if they want to keep on listening to this, to keep on disrespecting themselves then I would not stand in their way. My only concern here is that crap coming in the form of this loony talk from someone who clearly has a following can indeed be dangerous. Because if you really decide to be a follower of someone you believe in, who you think represents your position, then when that person starts to cross the line, don’t expect that you are the one that is going to be willing to be the first to pull him back. It doesn’ t work like that because we humans just don’t turn on a dime emotionally like that. We find it hard to let go of that which we have come to value.

So for Glen Beck to be fostering this kind of talk is not only irresponsible, it is plain dumb. And you know what he is the one here that is, not the enemy of God, as I really do not think God would have him as an enemy, but that kind of talk is the enemy of the ideals as outlined in the American constitution. But I would bet that Glen would say I am talking baloney here because he wouldn’t get this in a thousand years. His god wouldn’t stand for  it.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

So now the escape narrative for the GOP is to wait on the “opinions” of the men and women serving in the military before they can vote their conscience on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Look we know it is very opportune for the Democrats to put this to a vote now. But you know what, politics or not, this is a matter of principle. I don’t give a damn about the “opinions” on this matter of the men and women  serving in the military. Does Senator John  McCain really believe that he has any right to stand there in the Senate and stand in the way of American men and women serving in dignity. Obviously he really believe it is ok for him to advocate that people should be allowed to serve in dignity only after their colleagues give them their opinion about whether or not they should. Well, that is not dignity. That is begging for what is rightfully yours.

Gays and lesbians have as much right to serve their country in dignity as much as anyone else. But our own Congress, our so-called leaders driven by the misguided are denying them this right. This is ridiculous, and those who voted against repealing this policy should be ashamed of themselves. But I will not hold my breath. Frankly, people who behave in this manner are really not fit to serve any constituent whatsoever. But so is the ugly nature of politics that their little gamble may just pay  off big for them at the polls.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If I hear one more word about cutting taxes to stimulate the US economy I swear I am going to send the utterer a fax saying Shut the Hell up!

Frankly, I am tired of this talk. Just damn tired man. I feel like I am living in the land of fools. Plain fools, who cannot think their way out of a paper bag.

44% of the US 15 million unemployed have been out of work for more than six months. Of these, almost 2/3 have been unemployed for a year or more. If you cannot relate to this, here is one little bit more piece of information – this is the highest the long term unemployment has ever been since the Great Depression.

Know what the previous highest was? 26%!!  A whopping 18% lower than what we are seeing now. And we still believe that this is going to be solved by tax cuts? We are out of our freaking minds.

All the GOP has to offer is tax cuts. At least the Democrats saved the car manufacturers. Aside from this, they are not much better themselves at coming up with solutions. These people are living in their own heads.

The  truth of the matter is this is not just a recession, no its not a depression either. But for many what difference does it make? Being out of a job for a year or more with little prospect of getting one soon is disaster, no matter what name you call it. The US economy is structurally broken and that is the problem. Done in by this free trade farce and the demise of labor, it cannot bounce back in its current structure because it is just broken.

And quite frankly, I do not want to hear any more talk about tax cuts, stimulus program, job program or whatever. Until I hear someone speaking about the fundamental problems with this economy, I do not want to hear it. So please, Boehner, McConnell, Steele, Obama, Pelosi, Biden,  stop wasting my time and shut the hell up! And go stimulate your brains.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Immigration is one of those hot button, annoying topics that you wish would just go away. Not because it is not important enough, in fact precisely because it is so important why it lends itself to demagoguery and political opportunism. So even if the topic itself, not necessarily the problem, should just disappear from public discussion we probably would be better off given what we now have to put up with.

Here is one more case where our elected officials can benefit from doing nothing constructive about an issue that calls for maturity and real problem solving and analytical skills. All we get is spin-offs of their political and social beliefs wrapped in labels such as “comprehensive immigration reform”, or “no amnesty”.

The country, unless we all think this is what we deserve, should be tired of this foolishness. There is an illegal immigrant problem. Right? Then solve it! It is not beyond us. What is seemingly beyond us is the sense of responsibility to rise above the chance for political opportunism. Well the president should stop asking people to cooperate on this to get a bill done because to continue along this path amounts to rank irresponsibility on his part. The president needs to act and act decisively. And here is what I think he should do.

Establish a blue ribbon commission. Yes, I know this appears to be kicking the ball down the road, but it is not. It is having the courage to say enough is enough and we are going to get this thing done. The scope of this commission revolve around the damage that is being done to the US in whatever form, economically, socially and otherwise by having this high level of illegal immigrants in the country. The consequences should be spelt out in as clear a manner as possible.

Given the above findings, the next step would be to look at all the various solutions available for dealing with this problem, including deporting illegal immigrants, a path to residency and the attendant costs and consequences for the country and benefits.

This is all we need to know in order to come up with an eventual solution in the form of government policy. How big is the problem, and the available solutions and the costs and benefits of each solution.

Then have the politicians argue over this and let us see who really wants a solution. Or who is just interested in using this issue to massage their political philosophy. Because, quite frankly I for one am tired of everything, every solution being driven by some philosophy that may or may not be worth the brain it is coming from. Immigration reform, or to put it bluntly, a solution to the high level of illegal immigrants in the US is the only thing I am interested in when it comes to this issue. Save me your “we can’t separate families” or “we can’t reward wrong doing” monologue and just solve the illegal immigration problem.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I don’t know how many times I have heard different speakers on the subject of immigration opining on cultural assimilation as if, well it’s a requirement to be a good citizen or resident. And usually the argument goes, “well if they come here and get assimilated and learn to speak English and…. “.  What does this cultural assimilation thing mean anyway? If I could harbor a guess, I would say it means something like this – “Hey, do not bring your cultural practices here, this is America so just fall in line. “

Hardly anyone that migrates to another country wants to completely lose their sense of where they came from, their culture. People are basically what they know and what almost everyone knows culturally is what they have experienced and lived from they were born. So this thing about people being assimilated into the culture so that we can all seem like one in behavior and belief is not going to happen. I am an immigrant and I do like the fact that the US is founded and operates on laws and principles. But I am not going to just one day wake up and forget my roots, my own cultural beliefs and even practices. And I doubt this is so for most human beings. So what is this with this belief that for you to be an acceptable immigrant, you have to assimilate?

I think it speaks to a fear that immigrants who are eager to continue in the ways of their own culture may be less loyal to their adoptive country. I hope I am wrong, but I don’t think I am too far off. The truth is no ethnic group that has immigrated to the US ever completely left their ethnicity behind and all of their cultural moorings. In fact, that is part of what makes this country so interesting and so different.

But of course that is not going to stop this seemingly innocent but foolhardy notion that immigrants to this country should assimilate as if this is some requirement for good citizenship. Assimilate into what – a melting pot of different cultures?  The responsibility of immigrants is to be good citizens, good neighbors, contribute socially and economically and help to make this country a better place.

Maybe those who are into this assimilation stuff are really thinking about being civic minded and all of that. In that case, I would definitely agree but even then, assimilation in this regards is going to be driven by the ethnic culture and the interests of the group. So let us cool off on this assimilation mumbo-jumbo when it comes to the discussion of immigration as no one really knows what it means.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Name me one country that has generated significant and sustainable economic, political  and social growth without a significant middle-class. I hardly think there is any one such country. Yet if we look at what has been happening to the middle-class in the US since the 1980′s it is evident that we are going down the  wrong road.

Since the late 1970′s then the percentage of workers  earning at least $20.oo an hour has declined in almost every sector, particularly the manufacturing sector. In fact manufacturing is the main culprit with a decline of over 50 percent of these level of earnings  since the late 1970′s.

Why are we on this self-destructive road? Because we do not understand value and how wealth is really created. There is this pugnacious belief in “cheap”. People argue to their wits end that indeed cheap is good. Not efficiency, not better productivity but cheap.  So that is why we see some of the big box stores pursuing a retailing policy based  on cheap goods, hoping that the cheaper they can sell  these goods the better their bottom-line will be.

Responsible for the decline of the middle-class and the decline in wages of those still fortunate to call themselves that, is these bevy of so-called free trade deals signed with multiple countries since the 1980′s. You cannot pit the unfortunate social situation of a bunch of workers in Malaya against the expertise of the American worker at a time when technology is so powerful in diminishing that expertise gap and hope to make economic sense.

The American worker operates in an environment where values may be different – values that have contributed to the growth of the country. Values that has probably created the most powerful consuming nation ever. Now ask yourself what value does this consumption driven characteristic of the American market place hold for exporters of goods to this country? It has to count for something. It is not easy to develop a national culture that believes in consumption as most Americans do and practice. It took decades and decades of trial and error, associated costs for this to be a reality.

Yet, rather than find a way to protect or better yet, monetize this competitive advantage, our government through different administrations have engaged in this dubious free trade policy that end up lowering import tariffs for no other reason than to engage in this “cheap” philosophy.

Your middle class is what is going to drive this consumption. Drive aspirations, create motivations, and keep you moving forward. That is its worth to any country. Maybe one day it will dawn on us what we have been doing to our wealth creation sources and wake up from this stupid dream about cheap being always good.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Every few years or so energy conservation seems to come up on the radar as one of the possible planks in a national energy policy of the US. And it sounds so romantic and laudable that we all feel guilty for not doing it.

Only a few days ago, on the day President Obama was to give a speech on energy policy after touring the oil spill disaster in the Golf, Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe suggested that this could very well be a starting point as it is something we can do immediately. That sounds like such a great idea, until you think about it a bit.

As a personal initiative energy conservation of course is a great idea. But as far as a national energy policy goes, I wouldn’t even consider it as among my top five options. Sure you can have a program that encourages conservation in certain respects, but a policy?

First, let us stop pretending that conservation is even something that we really want to do on a large scale, because really Americans are just not into that. And who can blame them. What are we to do, cut down on our movie going, or little league games, or watching football. I don’t think so.

Conserving energy means less activity. And less activity in the US most likely means less economic activity.

The issue of course is not that we use energy. And I am not talking about wasting energy, because that is a completely different matter. I am talking about expecting people to stop living just so that we do not use up more energy.

The real issue is the type of energy we consume, what are the consequences, what effects it has on other aspects of our lives such as our environment and our health and our standard of living. That is the main issue. That is what we need to formulate an energy policy around.

Fossil fuels of course have served us good and long and still remain relatively cheap. But energy goes broad and deep as far as our economy is concerned that it seems to me here is an opportunity to make a pivot away from fossil fuels, a large part of which is controlled by others.

I am no economist but I would think that as we move towards maybe a bit more expensive but renewable or cleaner energy sources in the transition period, then energy from fossil fuels should get cheaper. So net-net the transitions costs for industry may not be that prohibitive as some would have us believe.

Energy use has too much import in the scheme of things for us to be going back to old romantic but infeasible approaches such as conservation. At a personal level that is an ok decision. But as national policy, it is really a bit naive.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Disasters at times seem to bring out the best in us, and sadly, at other times the worst. Those of us who feel like taking BP to task because of their irresponsibility in handling safety issues with their deep-water drilling are being told we are being stupid for bashing the only people that can fix this horrendous disaster – oil gushing in the Gulf with its attendant negative environmental effects. Maybe we should just shut up and go away.

Congressmen, eager to grab headlines and attention are seemingly at odds with the interests of the very citizens they were elected to represent. I don’t know if it can get more bizarre than this.

I have no interest in bashing BP out of malice or even anger. But bashing BP is the responsible thing to do in this case. When corporations or politicians mess up as badly as it seems BP has, you had better be prepared to do some bashing. Where you have the public interest at stake and other players watching, you better be very mad and be very concerned and express it so that all others who would be inclined to be as careless get the message that this is unacceptable.

There is nothing stupid or malicious about doing this. Corporations are run by human beings. The behaviors of humans determine the nature of the corporation. It would be highly irresponsible of this country to look at what has happened in the Gulf and the seemingly carelessness of BP and be complacent in its own responsibility to hold them accountable including expressing outrage where outrage should be felt. The same people who seem to find it easy to express outrage at their government, rightly so at times, are now telling you it is wrong to do so when corporations mess up.

Part of the problem with this wonderful country is we seem so confused about what is important. We get so caught up in our ideologies and rhetoric and forget that at the end of the day this is all about one thing – the life of people. People who ask no more than to live a decent life under a system supposedly designed to allow them to do so with more ease than would otherwise be the case. Yet, we just seem intent on making life harder and harder for ourselves in order to satisfy not the basic objective of leading a decent and comfortable life but to give validation to our own dogma about how this objective should be accomplished.

The bottom line is a corporation messed up by bending the rules. It matters not how many jobs they provide. Who else can fix the problem they created. What matters is that we protect the interests of the society. And this includes letting BP knows we are pissed at careless behavior.

I don’t know how else the BP apologists would have it.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I have tried listening to Rush Limbaugh. I try to listen to Glen Beck, and even try to watch him on TV at times. I try my very best  to have the patience to listen to Sean Hannity. Now I cannot listen to any of these guys for more than 2 minutes. And it has nothing to do with where I stand and where they sit politically. I honestly cannot abuse myself like that.

And in case you are wondering what it is with the stand and sit politically stuff, when you stand for anything, you give yourself the flexibility to move from there if you must. When you sit, man, you just sit there forever. And get more stupid.

We all know the game here. Well almost. I know for one that Limbaugh is all about the game, the money, what he can use his talents to get for himself. Nothing wrong with that. Short of the fact of him feeling that this country is losing its testosterone-dripping image, I don’t think he gives a crap about anything else. He offers no solutions. No evidence that he has thought through the issues completely. The guy makes up his own crap and throw it at the fan. He is plain nasty and being nasty is extremely lucrative. Good for him, that life is not for me.

Then there is Beck. God, is this what America has come to  that this guy seems to wield so much influence over so many people? I am not being facetious here – this guy knows no bounds of idiocy. There is no logic to his arguments, hardly any useful facts. He makes up stuff, interprets facts in this weird “could it be like that, no it could not be like that,  oh well I may as well say it is like that” manner. He goes all over the place and back and end up in a different place every time. I want to listen, I want to understand what this guy is saying. But I have no chance. He just makes it tortuous for me.

Then there is Sean Hannity. Always out on the outside flank of the truth. Always abuse his own conscience it  seems. Because it seems to me that his expertise is about twisting stuff  into nothingness. Valid issues, well he just seem to bring them down to the level of whining.

What really bothers me about all of this  is this driving need to reduce every valid issue to a quarrel with someone, particularly those who you have conditioned yourself to never agree with. All this does is create noise. Well, maybe a bit more than that – riches for the noise makers.

And seriously, no matter where you stand politically, do you really honestly believe that these guys advance the ball any? It is a game. They are more interested in keeping the ball. Because deep down they do not trust anyone else to take that ball. They really do believe that in a country of over 300 million, a democracy, a free society, their ideas and their ideas only are the ones that will move this country forward. No one else is thinking. No one else with different ideas and ideals will want to have those acted on. So it is never a discussion. It is always a quarrel. Always the noise. Always the anger.

Well maybe those are valid prescriptions for what ails Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck,  and the wannabees.  And yes, throw in some on the left too. Those you can probably ignore for the time being.

But this is no prescription for an ailing country.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Unemployment compensation is always going to be one of those subjects that want to tug at your heart and leave your mind under-worked. You know, when you start to feel sorry for people and empathy gets in the way of common sense. The current fight in Congress regarding extending unemployment benefits would be so amusing except for the fact that this matter affects so many people in such serious economic times.

Republicans are basically insisting that the right thing to do is, do nothing – do not extend the benefit period as this will in turn motivate people to go look for work. Make sense, right? Until you ask the question, where are the jobs? With so many out of work and so few jobs, what you are really doing is hoping your little theory is right and showcasing your beliefs about how people should function.

Here we go again. It is the usual stuck-in-place thinking. No innovation, very little analysis and too much playing to the usual self-serving political mantra. They go to their playbook every time, even when the ground has shifted under them completely. No real solutions, just dogma.

Democrats of course, they too drawing from their usual playbook, will have none of this. It is unconscionable, they argue, to just leave people on their own like this in this terrible jobs environment. Hey, they are right. But neither this thinking nor the thinking of the Republicans is going to solve this problem for anyone. Once again we see people who we have elected to lead this country more interested in massaging their political philosophy.

Well here goes. I for one am not interested in your damn political philosophy. If you are not prepared to apply yourself and come up with workable solutions to the problems of State, then you are in the wrong place because all you are serving is your huge ego and small beliefs. Go preach on the street corner.

It is unforgivable that the system of handling involuntary unemployment for workers in the US is in the state that it is given the changes that have taken place in worker demographics and in the economy overall.  And worse, it is instructive of how bankrupt our politics has become when all we can get from the Democrats and Republicans in congress is the same crappy solutions and posturing that reflect only their way of thinking but does nothing to really address the real problem at hand.

Many, too many you could say, of the jobs lost will not reappear in the form they were before. It means that the skills sets available are going to be useless over time. What we should have been doing years ago is focus on retraining – at any age. What about ramping up the retraining support systems in place to respond to the current job needs of the economy and the trends we can see?

Further, we should be using the unemployment compensation funds for each unemployed in a more creative manner such as encouraging more people to use some of their skills to start their own business. I have seen people who were not prepared to take the plunge when they were employed forced to do it when they became unemployed and even unemployable. Most of them have no regrets and wished they had done it a long time ago.

Of course people are going to be less motivated to look for work when they have unemployment compensation funds coming in. No one should argue with that. But what is your point really when the job market is so terrible? And why even bother being so empathetic to the plight of the unemployed when you know this very plight is not solvable by just extending the compensation period. Because you know we cannot keep on handing out money to people for doing nothing. And you know no matter the level of motivation, if the jobs are not there, yes a few will find work, but in this climate a few will not even begin to solve the problem.

But maybe I am wrong on this. Maybe these people are really convinced that what they are proposing to address unemployment compensation makes sense and is enough. Maybe it has nothing to do with their political philosophy. Maybe it is really a reflection of their abilities to come up with workable solutions. God, are we in it deep if that is the case.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

So you want to abolish Social Security, or so the thinking goes. And people who have no kids are now resenting paying to educate other people’s kids. And we want to abolish some of our environmental protection agencies. Of  course I am all over the place and waffling on what the hell I really want to say here. But how can I not, when dealing with this type of thinking? It is crazy.

So let me get a bit more logical here and get brain engaged. Consider this:

What is the moral justification for Social Security? Because if there is none then the fools calling for its demise do have a point. But thank God there is one — the people, for the most part, who benefit from Social Security have paid-it-forward. In other words, they worked, added value to society, value that those who came after enjoy and benefit from. That is basically the moral justification. So do you think you still want to banish Social Security? Hope you didn’t check your morals at the door!

Then there is the social justification. Do you really believe that life’s ups and downs are going to be so kind to every citizen that he or she will never be beset by some circumstance, their fault or not, that leave them a bit financially exposed at a time when they are least able to do something about it? Reform the system if you think it is too generous for its own economic good, but for God’s sake think about what you are saying and proposing and its consequences.

This seemingly drum beat to abolish the social security system, faint as it may be, is nothing more than a reflection of a particular thinking in this country that cannot move beyond what titillate its political and social instincts. This is not leadership because the first place you exercise leadership is in your capacity to balance your own personal preferences and inclinations against the priorities of the society you so wish to serve.  This is so what is wrong with the left and the right – they want to serve but it turns out that what they really want is to be served. It is the mind-set of the tribe — always seeking to propagate their learned tribal instincts and in the process call it service and leadership.

The social security system is not perfect, but it reflects in a manner how we see ourselves in relation to others, how we deal with the common phenomenon of declining productive capability in our latter years and it reflects and also reflects the fact that those who lent their productive years to add value to society can in some manner continue to benefit at a time when they most need to. This is not socialism. It is not charity. It reflects a reality economically and socially.

I just get tired of the bumper sticker mentality, the quick fixes that have no thinking behind them, pure fluff, no substance. I get really tired of this. From the left and from the right. It matters not to me who is responsible. The no-drill crowd and the drill-baby-drill crowd. They are all the same. Full of it, and eager to market their crap as substance. The sad thing is some people are buying, and it would not bother me one bit if their buying affected only them. Unfortunately democracy has its downsides.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I live in South Florida and of course what is going on with the GOP Florida primary for the Senate is to me extremely symptomatic of what is really wrong with American politics – tribalism has become the its fulcrum. We see it on the left, and to a greater extent, we see it on the right.  As long as you agree with what the “tribe” believes then you are fine. You will be supported. You will be a darling. You will be a standard bearer.

But the moment you have an independent thought, seem a bit wayward, you are kicked in the butt so fast, the unmistakable message? Get out!  You are not a part of us. Well, maybe that is good behavior for tribes. But that is a terrible way to run any organization preparing for national governance.

And I hope in this case the GOP pays dearly for this because this is not in the best interest of the nation, any State and dare I say, any citizen, notwithstanding those who may even wildly support this approach. Ultimately what you get are people running for office whose positions  are mainly the product of their own fears. Not people prepared to lead. But representatives who are prepared to just pander.

I understand the value of core principles. But, this is not about core principles. This is about a group of people, supported by a quite large mass, even if clearly in the minority, that really believe that you can move a country forward by imposing what you believe or think on others so that there is enough of a uniformity in thinking that forces people to abandon their own core principles. So anyone, anyone belonging to that group who seems to weaken that will, or undermine that power has to go. Plain and simple that is what it is.

And Governor Crist, much as I do not like his politics, is a victim of this banal tribe mentality. So when I heard he had decided to withdraw from the Republican primary and run as an independent, a silent prayer of thank you God flowed from my lips. Because this can truly be transformational, even a little bit.

So I want the guy to win. I do not know if I will vote for him, I am still undecided. But I want him to win. Because I am totally convinced that he will do more to advance the interests of this country as a Senator than Marco Rubio will ever be able to do were he to become the next Republican senator from Florida.

You cannot work with people if you are not prepared to compromise. Marco Rubio from what I have seen so far, would scoff at this principle. Part of the beauty of democracy is it does not allow policy to go rushing off into any one direction based solely on the interests or beliefs of a particular group. No matter how right that group may be. Because sometimes the capacity of the country to absorb the changes resulting from these policies is as important as the correctness of the direction in which those changes are pointing it to. This is not like running your household, because it is not anything like your household or even your political party.

Of course those who see the world in black and white terms will have  a hard time with that notion. And it just seems to me that the GOP has this inherent capacity to attract these sorts into its midst. People who come with simple solutions because they see the world in such simple terms, completely contrary to what is reality. I have no patience for this type of thinking, as much as I have little patience for those who are inclined to make the simple complex, a condition that seems to plague Democrats .

Is Governor Crist a typical politician and even opportunistic? Maybe he is. But the last thing that I want is someone representing my interests who is clearly not prepared to consider the interests of others. Because one day I may be in the group that is the “others”. Then what?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Vieira to Rubio: Are You Being ‘Manipulated’ By the Tea Party? (newsbusters.org)
• Charlie Crist to Run for Senate as Independent (cbsnews.com)
• Charlie Crist Shuns GOP; Will Run For Senate As Independent (alan.com)
• Rubio depicts himself as conservative with mainstream policies (cnn.com)
• Behind Crist’s Downfall in Florida: The Hand of Jeb Bush (time.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

A word to all the disgruntled, claiming that their rights are being abridged, trampled on, taken away, whatever. You know, the ones who are threatening to bear arms against their government. The ones so eager to protect the Constitution. So damn eager that they cant even see they are the ones who are about to destroy, to run afoul of, to undermine the Constitution.

What you are purporting to do is exactly why you have a constitution – to prevent idiots like you from acting out your idiotic schemes and disrupt society unnecessarily. Do you even begin to understand this? I don’t think so, or else why would you not embrace your Constitution – meaning embracing the remedies  it provides  to address the perceived abuses against you.

So decide what it is the heck you want, a constitution or tyranny, because 1) you cannot have both, and 2) a constitution is not a piece of paper. It may start out that way, but it also has to develop into behavior, and right now you are not behaving constitutionally. You are the one not behaving in a constitutional manner.

I was not born in this country so maybe it is presumptuous of me to think that I could offer anyone advise about citizenry. Be that as it may, it is not surprising that those who complain about their rights being taken away are the same ones who seem not to appreciate the rights and responsibilities they do have as citizens.

Case in point, the same ones who seem to be venting the most about their rights being trampled on are the same ones who remained silent during the Bush-era wire-tap brouhaha. The same ones who would argue that they would not mind being wire-tapped by their government as they have nothing to lose.

Completely missing the importance of the right to privacy in a democracy, and a free society, they are unable to make the linkage between the prosperity of this country and the progress it has made with the simple notion that each person should  have no fear that their government can out of the blue pull something on them just because it can. The only sure way to protect yourself against that is to prevent the government from arbitrarily collecting information on you.

These types of course would hardly begin to appreciate this principle given the protection they feel they have given their cherished second amendment rights.  They are clearly not interested in protecting their rights under the Constitution, but to be able to enforce their disapproval. That is called tyranny. Yet they are so in love with  the Constitution.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Terry Newell: Arguing Constitutionally (huffingtonpost.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

To stretch my mind beyond where I know it would never go on my own thinking, I try to listen to a lot of people on talk radio. You know the informed, the ill-informed and the clowns and entertainers. Too sad, talk radio has become more of the latter than anything else.

One day this week on my way to work I was listening to one of these talk show hosts. I don’t really know how I would really classify him in relation to the above, but of course he is leaning way right, and as usual with those who lean over too much one way or the other, is likely to lose their balance and be so wrong on what they try to  pontificate about.

Essentially there is quite a fracas in Florida regarding a bill that has at its core, paying teachers based on test cores. This host was fair enough to say the bill has to be fixed as it is not good enough. Good so far. But then  the right wing testosterone-only driven thinking takes over. You know, the thinking that goes like this – “hey, be man enough, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, what’s mine is mine, what’s mine I earned by myself and don’t go telling me how much of  it I should share with anyone else.” At least that is my interpretation of their thinking on so many issues, if you can call it thinking.

Anyway, this guy commented that, “well I don’t have any kids yet, none in school, so when I see my tax bill, I get a bit peeved when I see a portion going towards education.”

Yeah, you get peeved at your money going towards educating other people’s kids? And you really think that you are so cut and dried  right that how in God’s name could anyone call you a fool for saying such a thing.

Well, think about this. Lets say you get to age 70, comfortably retired with your million dollar nest egg. And suddenly there are no college level people below the age of 65 in this country. None. How long do you think your nice million dollar nest egg would hold its value?

And if you still do not get the gist of this, here it is – the value of the currency is driven, among other things, by how economically competitive this country is at any given time. When you are  75, 80, 85 most likely you are not contributing directly much to this level of competitiveness though you no doubt had done so in your earlier working years. But that is not what is mainly responsible for  maintaining the value of the currency and by extension, your nest egg. The state of the current level of productivity is what is doing that  coming from those much younger than you. The ones who you get so peeved of being asked to contribute to their education.

So all this foolishness about you getting annoyed at paying for the education of other people’s kids is you not being able to even know what is in your best interest. And I don’t want you on talk radio talking to idiots who are too willing to cheer you on. But God, it is a free country so forget my own desires.

And by the way, no doubt you are ready to boast how you paid your way through college, blah, blah, blah. Fine, good for you. But you benefited from hundreds of years of people working to improve the educational system. You paid for tuition, but you can never pay for this. See how easy it is to be stupid if you just don’t think. Just too damn easy!

This is one of the main problems with talk radio – there is a lot of benefit to be derived from just shooting off your mouth without too much thinking. You come off  as controversial and controversy sells because thoughtful, deliberative stuff is boring to the already bored mind.  There is hardly any incentive to be thoughtful. And in the end we all just get dumbed down and the problems keep on mounting.  Because dumb cannot solve problems. But dumb do have the right to vote.

It is not unreasonable to start to believe that there is an inverse relationship between the popularity of talk radio and our national problems. Talk radio, and indeed cable TV which is hardly any better, take up so much of the national communication landscape that they not only drown out reason, but propagate confusion to their own benefit and for hardly anything else.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Every Saturday on my way home from work, I drive by a spirited bunch of anti-current-government protesters protesting everything from the deficit to their loss of freedom. And quite frankly, I look at these people and all I see is pure hypocrisy, mixed with a dash of dumb.

First, I did not see these people protesting when the Bush administration was spending billions on no-bid war contracts in Iraq. I did not see them protesting when the administration in a seemingly too frivolous a manner wire-tapped its own citizens.

Look, the deficit is a problem. Frankly I am yet to see where this current administration is curtailing the freedom of any citizen. But these people are out of their freaking minds if they think their government is the real problem.

China, a communist country with a decidedly anti-freedom mindset regime is taking our jobs and bleeding our financial resources. It seems to me China does not share our passion for personal freedom, but rather more for power of the state for power sake. Why else would they seek to suppress their own people so much?

Given this, do you think this country will ever have good intentions towards the United States? No, in effect at a certain level this system of governance and government is our enemy. Yet that is where our home-grown resources are headed in the form of capital, all the time enriching a system that  apart from our market for their goods, could not give a damn about us. We are feeding the beast that may one day be powerful enough to suppress our own aspirations and interests.

And yet here you have people who for all you know, since they never protested the wire-tapping of the previous administration, don’t  even begin to understand the link between freedom and prosperity. Because make no mistake about it, if you do not have a problem with your government having almost carte blanche powers to wire-tap your phone then you cannot even begin to understand that one of the more powerful forces of freedom itself, is a freedom from fearing those who have the power to hurt you. In other words, even if I have nothing to hide, I do not want to have to fear that my government may one day find something on me that can be twisted into a crime against it.

Because if I have to live that way, then most likely I am going to be risk averse, and I will be less enterprising, and being less enterprising I may not pursue my dreams and ideas. Not just me, but every entrepreneur out there may suffer from this fear malady. And instead of prosperity borne of enterprise and daring, we end up with poverty bolstered by fear.

That is the nature of the link between true freedom and prosperity. So when I hear some idiot say they do not mind being wire-tapped as they have nothing to hide, when I see people protesting against the “loss” of their freedom who most likely would hold the same view, I cannot help but be dismissive. What the hell else could I do?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I just love the Wall Street Journal. I read it  when I can get my hand on a “free” copy.

On the front page of its March 27 edition, it has a story about AT&T taking a “$1 billion charge against earnings tied to the federal health-care overhaul..”.

As I understand it, the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act resulted in some companies threatening to drop drug coverage for their retires, this coverage itself the result of negotiated employee benefits. In response to the this, the administration agreed to subsidize the payment from the companies to the tune of 28% and to allow the companies to write the full amount of the coverage payment against their taxes, that is the companies’ portion and the government’s subsidy.

That is essentially the crux of the front page story. Then on the Editorial pages they went for the kill. Their own credibility that is. I cannot understand how people who are so gung-ho on free market loves so much government goodies for corporations. I do not get it. But back to that editorial, “The Obama Care Writedowns”.

“Its been a banner week for Democrats: Obamacare passed Congress in its final form …. and the returns are already rolling in. Yesterday AT&T announced that it will be forced to make a $1 billion writedown due solely to the health bill, in what has become a wave of such corporate losses….. Verizon has also warned its employees about its new higher health-care cost.”

So you turn a subsidy from government into an income stream – well maybe that is the only way to account for it on the books, but in reality it is not an income stream. It is a gift. A handout. What the hell did any of these companies do to earn this income? Threaten the government? And now your nice little “income” stream has dried up because the government say, no you cannot write off the subsidy from us against your taxes. We are already helping you with this coverage cost that is  really your obligation. And the government is now destroying wealth? And causing you to lose income? The only reason why you are losing income is because you chose to call it that. Call it something else because income it is not. None of your resources was used to generate this “income”, that means its a damn gift.

And worse, how is it health care premiums are going to increase for current employees? You are going to make your current employees pay for a part of the coverage to these retires you are obligated to pay? Is that it. Or maybe I am just so off track here. I think not, though I would gladly love to be proven wrong.

Because you know what, I for one am tired of the games, the distortions and the downright sloppy thinking from peopel who ought to know better. In one breath these people have no hesitation at spouting the word socialism, big  government, rah, rah, rah. And in the next they are begging for government bailouts, subsidies, tax breaks, whatever. Well if you the productive sector are going to want so much from the government, then maybe that is why the damn government has to be so big.

If you have long term obligations to retired employees find some way to deal with them – renegotiate, cut the amount, cut the duration, whatever. Why the hell must the government take my taxes and give to you to take care of your obligations? What public good is that serving? How am I benefiting from that?

But no, here we have, according to the Wall Street Journal, the government destroying wealth. You know what destroys wealth? A productive sector seemingly always searching for handouts and loopholes. And in the worst way because that is a diversion of resources to those who are best equipped to produce more resources and add more value to the society. That seems to me like a pretense at earning income. And that is exactly what the WSJ and these companies are doing. A pretense at income that is not really income. Or at the very least, not their income.

Lets just cut the crap and misinformation. There are legitimate arguments against this health care bill. Very legitimate. But this type of reasoning as put forward by the bright lights at the WSJ sounds like just a ruse to discredit what they have always opposed. No matter how good the bill ended up being.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tax Loopholes, Wealth Destruction and Healthcare Reform (seekingalpha.com)
• Recommended Reading: WSJ’s The ObamaCare Writedowns (benzinga.com)
• AT&T will take $1B non-cash charge for health care (sfgate.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I don’t know squat about politics or the ways of Washington for that matter. But one thing I am sure of is that the passage in the House of the Health Care Reform bill has changed the political game significantly – shifting the momentum to the Democrats. For how long? No one knows. After all we are dealing with the Democrats here.

What I find extremely interesting is that the Republicans do not seem to have a back-up plan in their back pocket, just in case their “kill the bill” strategy didn’t work. Unless that back-up plan is “repeal, repeal, repeal”. I can just hear the pres saying  “go ahead, make my day”.

It is amazing that the party in opposition thought a workable strategy can be to just say no. Amazing!  These are supposed to be pros. at this thing. And you want to tell me not one could stand up and say, fellows, this may not be the best thing to do. Because if you just say no, and just maybe something gets done without you and enough folks find what gets done not so scary and even beneficial to them, then what the hell do you tell people? That they are idiots and don’t know what is good for them. Because what these smart ass Republicans have done is an overkill and now they cant reel it in. Not with the Tea partiers in full zeal.

Didn’t they know that the bill in fact has in some good stuff, and some not so good stuff. But a lot of the good stuff has been stacked up front? How come they did not know that? They were too damn busy playing games and got outplayed.

No one wants to see an opposition party, no let me take that back, no one who is even thinking any at all wants to see an opposition party operate in this manner. It is not only irresponsible, but just plane stupid. In opposition you are never going to get what you want, most of what you want or even any of what you want at times. But you stay in the game. You cannot oppose everything, because some thing in that everything may find favor with  a lot of people and then you are going to look like an idiot.

And no one want to follow idiots. I mean no one, not even the most rabid of tea partiers.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Repeal Health Care Reform? Unlikely. (outsidethebeltway.com)
• The “Repeal The Bill” Crowd And Amazingly Fuzzy Math (dailykos.com)
• DeMint Launches Healthcare Repeal Effort (usnews.com)
• The president who put it all on the line (washingtonmonthly.com)
• The Good News and Bad News on the Health Care Reform Bill’s Passage (themoderatevoice.com)
• The House Passes Landmark Health Care Reform (politicsdaily.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I am really getting sick of the “poll” arguments and the “listen to the people” arguments regarding health care reform.

To be sure, I am not fully supportive of either the House or Senate bills as I do not believe that the cost drivers to health care in the US have been studied and addressed sufficiently. Notwithstanding that, the status quo is unacceptable.

With that out of the way, let me get this off my chest. Leaders must lead. People run for office not to be told what to do but to offer insight and leadership. On matters as huge as health care reform, I really do not give a rat’s ass what majorities think. Sure I care about what people think but you cannot tell me that most people know what the hell would fix the messy health care system in the US. They just don’t know jack when it comes to this. How the hell would they know. This is not about deciding which school to send your kid, or what doctor to have as your family doctor.

So you spend months spreading all kinds of half-truths and then you go take a poll and surprise, surprise, people are parroting what they have heard over and over. And you want the views that arise from this to be what drive policy decisions? Are you freaking crazy?

The bottom line? Those who are pushing for health care reform must show leadership. Explain, explain, teach, explain. Pass the damn bill, then so let it be. If it is a terrible bill, then hey, people will have a lot of time to know and a lot of time to kick out the “idiots” who formulated such policies. Or to punish those who would have been exposed as standing in the way of progress.What are the chicken littles so afraid of when the majority of this thing wont kick in for years to come? Maybe you do protest too much.

So put down the damn signs and go home. It is time to vote and get this over with. The stupidity is nauseating.

By the way, if you want me or any independent minded person to read anything you write on health care reform, please, please be sensible enough and do not use the word Obamacare. I see even the esteemed Wall Street Journal cannot avoid this cheap practice. But maybe the only people they are interested in talking to are members of their tribe. So damn stupid.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Obama Healthcare Reform Bill is a Mammoth Job Killer (usnews.com)
• Sick Health Care Reform and The Death Of The Democrats (riehlworldview.com)
• NBC Poll Finds ObamaCare Seen as ‘Bad Idea’ by 12 Point Margin, Squelched by Nightly News (newsbusters.org)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

So president Obama is about to revamp No Child Left Behind. Good! I hope the revamp guidelines provided will cater primarily to the interests of students. Because anyone who think focusing on a few tests in a few given subjects, namely math and science is the answer to our education problems is doing nothing but catering to their own ideology. And we know how that works out.

Look, this is not difficult. The politicians seem to want to make this so difficult, but it is just not. I was once a student. We all were once students. We know what works and what doesn’t. So here is what I knew worked from my vantage point as a student.  Four words, resources, leadership, passion and accountability.  Teachers are a special breed. They have to be to be successful. Passion for what they do is among their greatest qualities. Of course not all of them are. Some fall through the professional cracks. Get a system in place to replace these.

Resources have to come from somewhere. It doesn’t matter how passionate you are about the job, without resources you are swimming against the tide every day. It depletes your passion. That you do not want. So whether its government, or the private sector, provide the damn resources. No excuses.

Leadership in education is about creating a shared vision to hold everything together. Your leader has to be strong, principled, and absolutely driven. These are your school principals. These people are not hard to find. But you cannot pay them peanuts and hope that they will just be happy being generous.

People have to feel accountable. I don’t give a damn if there are unions to protect their interests. In fact the more it seems that there are institutions there, unions or otherwise, to protect the interests of employees, the more important it is to have a system of accountability, transparent but swift.

These are not difficult to put in place. Why we have such a furore over something that should be simple tells me that the problem is not only in the schools, but elsewhere.

Now this is where the president has to step in and change some mindset. And if it means some people have to go, then so be it. But please do not tell me the only way to solve this is to bring in the vaunted private sector through the use of charter schools to support the belief that the private sector is going to be better at delivering a better education to our children.  And what is supposed to drive this better delivery? The profit motive? Sure, we know how well  that has worked out in so many other areas. Right?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Obama would dismantle No Child Left Behind law (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Diane Ravitch: Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform (online.wsj.com)
• Firing of all teachers at RI school roils students (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Obama’s ‘No Child’ Overhaul Would Reward Schools for Progress (businessweek.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I get a lot of amusement from hearing politicians on all sides talk about the importance of focusing on creating more jobs in this brutal economic climate. Gosh, these guys, (and gals), are so not full of it. That is any idea of what the hell they are talking about.

Of course you can create jobs by employing any number of strategies – increased government spending, tax cuts for businesses, targeted incentive programs for businesses or consumers, etc, etc. But none of these are likely to have any meaningful long term  impact. Why? Jobs are directly related to capital, where capital choose to go, how capital is used. The simple truth that few, few of those who are so vocal about job creation will admit is that the US is not the most attractive environment  for job intensive capital. Oh sure capital will get invested in the US, but outside of government spending, is hardly going to result in any massive reduction in the unemployment rate very soon. Unless of course we get off this dual crap of its either more tax cuts or more government spending. Neither of these strategies make any sense in this current global climate.

Over the past 30 or so years “our” jobs have been moving to elsewhere. Why? Not because workers “elsewhere” are any more productive than the American worker. No, it is simply a matter of “cheaper” workers being able to do the same thing that the more “expensive” American worker used to do. It is not the fault of the American worker that he is more expensive. The American worker has worked his ass off to improve his living standards, in the process creating a powerful middle class only for this to now come back and bite him in the butt.  So there goes our vaunted middle-class. How the hell did this happen?

Maybe a good place to start is our trade policy, our so-called free trade agreements. But definitely a great place to start is to look at what has happened since China was granted Most Favored Nation status by the  US.

Walk into any Walmart store. Pick up any ten items. Look at where  each originates. Most of these will be made in China. That is why our trade deficit with China has skyrocketed since they have been granted MFN and specifically since one President Clinton removed human rights as a condition to the annual renewal of this designation that China enjoyed up to then, 1994. That simply meant the selling out of the American worker operating from a different set of values. And so damn the American values when it comes to catering to corporate interests. Well corporate interests mean nothing in an environment in which underlying values are being undermined.

What drove the economic boom in the US in the 1990′s? Oh no, not increased exports to China as the policy was intended to lead to. But productivity gains, the creation of new markets driven by technology, specifically information technology. Once this petered out as it was bound to do when you are quickly losing your manufacturing base, then speculation took over, and a huge bubble was created in the real estate market which led to false “riches” for the middle-class. See why there is a huge fundamental problem here, and it is not real estate speculation as most would have us believe?

That is why when I hear the said President Clinton, (who nevertheless achieved a lot over his two terms), talk about leveling the playing field for workers across the globe, quite frankly I just want to say, shut the f…. up.

But it is not only in the area of human rights that the American worker is being screwed over. There is also the issue of China’s intervention in currency markets that further results in boosting their exports and minimizing imports. This further makes the production of the American worker less competitive as measured against the production of the Chinese worker. So where the hell would capital that is job intensive flow to? The US or China? You get the picture. And it is a freaking distorted one to that.

So where  do we go from here with this job creation thing? First stop the crap talk about tax cuts, more government spending, targeting small  businesses,penalizing companies who ship jobs overseas. Just stop it. That will not make us any more competitive and will not stop the downward spiral of the American worker.

What is going to stop it is a fresh and bold approach to how we link American values to American productivity. But don’t think for one moment that this would be anything new, what would be new would be the realization of the extent to which the basic American values have been at the root of its economic power. Undermine the connection of those values to related economic outcomes and you have just given up one of  your most valuable comparative advantage. Communist China didn’t do that – they are still a repressive society, and as unpalatable as that sounds, coupled with a “deft” industrial policy, see where it has gotten them? A huge trade surplus with the US and an economy that is just motoring along. And more jobs for them.

Related articles by Zemanta

• China Defends Trade Policy, Blames U.S. For Tensions (huffingtonpost.com)
• To Create Jobs, Cut Taxes and Spending (powerlineblog.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

President Obama and his education secretary seems bent on betting big on charter schools to play a huge role in their national education policy. I wonder on what basis are they so willing to forge ahead with this?

In a recent national study on the effectiveness of charter schools in 15 states conducted by  Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, some major findings included the following:

- On average, students attending charters did not learn as much as their traditional public school peers.

- Charter schools were found to be  twice as likely to perform less well than public schools having similar demographics as they were to outperform those public schools.

I am all for exploring viable options, charter school or otherwise. What I find foolhardy is this seemingly wholesale faith in charter schools to deliver where public schools have failed. Why do we always want to go for the quick fixes rather than taking the time to find out what the hell is the problem we are facing with our schools.

Have we looked at public schools that are succeeding and try to understand why they succeed and why others fail? Why not start there. My own gut feelings about this is the problem in most cases may just lie in the level of leadership coupled with a lack of resources. But an issue like this is not going to be resolved by going on gut feelings. Rather we need some hard empirical evidence here to guide policy. This is no time for experimentation. The future of our children is just too important for us to be wishy-washy about giving them the tools to function effectively in an ever increasingly competitive world.

I hope this does not turn out to be a race to the top for everyone else except those this is supposed to be about – our children.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A Senator War Against Charter Schools (harlemworldblog.wordpress.com)
• Competition in Harlem (trueslant.com)
• Congress shouldn’t betray D.C. scholarship program (3quarksdaily.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

This is why I write. So I can say exactly what I am thinking without giving a heck. With regards to health care reform, I don’t give a damn what the American people think.

So the American people are dumping on the health care bill that they know little or nothing about. But wait. How do I know they know little or nothing about this. Because quite frankly, the American people on a whole do not read. Don’t care to. Don’t have the time to. But they care about bumper sticker manufacturers like Limbaugh Inc., Beck Inc, and yes, Fox and even MSNBC. We do not read. But we are so full of opinions.

Well those opinions are only worth the paper they do not spring from. So yes, if you are in the political mode you want to care about what the American people think. But if you are doing what you were elected to do, effect policy you better learn to ignore what the hell they think because sometimes nothing will serve you better or serve them better.

And so it is with this health care reform effort. Listen to the people? Oh yeah? Which people? The ones who have health care coverage and are comfortable with what they have, until maybe they get sick and realize the hell that others go through? These are who we are supposed to listen to?

Sorry, this is not supposed to be about what the majority think. The nature of the maladies that are in the current system do not impact the majority of people at once. Therefore most people will not be affected directly at the same time. But over time, we all will, given the rising costs and the unfair practices of the health-insurance industry.

So I am not interested in what the majority think. Whether it affects getting reform done or getting in a public option. I am not a politician. I want policy that will fix what is beyond doubt is one of the great challenges facing this country. A dysfunctional health-care system.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Experts agree: pass the damn bill (washingtonmonthly.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Here we go again. Over and over again you hear this argument – businesses will not hire when they do not know what is going to happen with health care, climate change legislation, card check, if tomorrow is going to be tomorrow, if the trains will run on time. Over and over again! This poppy-cock repeated over and over by people who ought to know better but are clearly allowing their agenda to override their common sense.

Look, of course some businesses will wait to see what happens with regards to issues that may severely affect their operations in any given climate. But when businesses see viable opportunities they will find a way to take advantage of those opportunities. That could mean hiring workers on a temporary basis who would not be entitled to health care benefits and wh0 can be let go at little or not cost. In fact given the current high level of unemployment, temporary positions would be in great demand.

Of course it is more complex than this. There are the issues of long term business contracts and relationships and how to get around these when you can only operate from a short term perspective. But these are not going to stop most businesses moving forward. American businesses are a lot more innovative than this.

If businesses are not hiring, it is simply for one reason – demand for their goods and services is not high enough for them to have additional workers. That is it. If the demand is there, then the jobs will come. Health care or not.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Healthcare Summit Needed Gregory House (tvsquad.com)
• Job Cuts Pinch Insurer Profits (online.wsj.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Listening to all the crap arguments resulting from the wicked cold spell we are witnessing in the North East gives me brain spasms. Really. I just cannot take it. And worse I cannot believe that talk radio could get this stupid. Frankly, all these people asking “where is Al Gore” when we need him, I know their game. They are just playing stupid for the ratings. How else can you explain their lack of  nous. These guys have to be smarter than this.

To posit that what we are seeing with this level of cold temperatures completely makes a mockery of those who say the planet is getting warmer is to indulge in childlike reasoning – oh it is  cold so it cannot be getting warmer.  I do not know if what we are seeing has anything to do with this warming trend. It doesn’t matter. But don’t sit there and play ratings games when you damn well know that what we are seeing now is what some scientists have predicted that would result from a warming trend – extremes in the climate. Are you prepared to be intellectually honest and discuss that? Instead of sounding like a bunch of clowns.

OK, so now I finally get it, if you attempt to sound a wee bit more intelligent about this, your ratings would most likely nose-dive. People love hot air that much.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Weather is not Climate: What the Bad Winter Storms in the U.S. Northeast Have to Do With Global Warming (themoderatevoice.com)
• Daily Show Calls Out Climate Deniers Over East Coast Storm Lies (treehugger.com)
• What if American politics are getting dumberer? (trueslant.com)
• What Does Winter Weather Reveal about Global Warming? (scientificamerican.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The presidential and general elections took place over a year ago. The Democrats got the White House. They have sizable majorities in the Senate and the House. Yet, we have never seen so much gridlock in Washington. Then there are the fringe groups, on both sides, wanting their pound of flesh at every turn, on every piece of legislation. If they do not get what they think is the only way to go, then no game. What???

Well,  let me say this for myself. I have strong views on the role of government, tax policy, civil rights, trade policy and a host of other stuff. But I would never want an administration to try to implement policies all at once that would embody the depth and extent of these views. Never. And anyone out there who does, at the very least, need to rethink what the hell they are asking of a society.

Your very strong views about anything are your right to have. But governance is not about everyone else giving in to your whims, fancies, beliefs or passions. Governance is about striking a healthy balance between competing positions. And that is not easy. Neither should it be, else someone would get the grand idea that maybe with a bit more charisma, a bit more lying,  a bit more deception, maybe, just maybe you could blindside everyone long enough to slip something that has nothing to do with common interests past all of us. So I never want to live in a society where it is easy to make concrete changes, even if those changes completely reflect my own values.

What I want are policies that create a trend towards the views that I hold but modulated by views that are different from mine. And as we learn what works and what does not, we correct course or push ahead. And that is how democracy was meant to work. But this is not enough for the “fringies”. They want what they want and in the end they or any of us will end up getting nothing.

That is how democracy is supposed to work. Any other way and it becomes something else – such as useless gridlock.

Related articles by Zemanta

• In Case You Think Gridlock in D.C. Is a Good Thing… (dailyfinance.com)
• Bill Lucey: Gridlock in Congress: Who Will Blink First? (huffingtonpost.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

It is largely within my power to determine if I want to buy a house or forever be a renter. Or I may decide to always ride a bike and never drive a car. Or I can decide to not smoke.

But how much control do I have over getting ill? On a scale of 1 to 10, maybe a 3 or 4 at most. People do get sick, it is just the nature of our existence. And yet, we want to treat health-care as if it is a common commodity?

We think nothing, nothing of arguing as if well, the market is the best arbiter of who gets what and how much and the market is always going to work fairly, efficiently and in favor of everyone, especially the consumer. This is bull, the ALWAYS part that is.

When I am sick, I do not want the market to work fairly and efficiently so that all parties concerned get a fair break. Neither do you. Unless you are an idiot. I want to get well. And if that means that every0ne except me has to take a hit, then so be it. If the insurance company has to take a financial hit, then so be it. If the hospital has to take a financial hit, then so be it. If the surgeon has to take a financial hit then so be it. But not me, because I taking a hit could mean that I will not have the one thing that matters in all of this – my life.

So all this talk about more competition, about letting the market work to bring down prices while not to be totally dismissed, miss the point completely. You cannot treat health-care as a common commodity.

People who are sick do not make the market decision that ensure efficiency and value. What’s worse decisions are made by healthcare professionals and handed down to patients or the consumer. Which other service or commodity is handled this way in the economy? None. And yet we expect market forces to solve a problem in which market forces are going to be applied unevenly. This is crazy.

Neither  Democrats nor  Republicans have yet come to this realization. And that is a huge part of the problem with this health-care reform maze, they do not know where the hell they need to go with this. It is the same old tired arguments – “let the market work”,  ” health care is a right”, and on and on.

The first step out of this maze is to recognize that we cannot treat the provision of health-care as we treat the provision of other goods and services. Then and only then will we start to come up with more appropriate solutions to this mess. Until then, bumper sticker type talk will go on, a bill may even get passed, but the major problem of delivering healing at manageable costs will still remain.

Related articles by Zemanta

• White House Signaling Support For House To Pass Senate Health Care Bill (alan.com)
• Lynn Woolsey Vows To Push For Public Option Once Health Care Bill Passes (huffingtonpost.com)
• The obesity backlash begins: MedCity Morning Read, Feb. 3, 2010 (medcitynews.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

In considering the case brought before it – Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Supreme Court made one of the most far-reaching rulings  in decades.  It is not the actual outcome of its deliberations I find most compelling in its ridiculousness. Rather it is the thought patterns I see from some of the Justices. Concerning at the very least and even frightening in some respects.

In an exchange this month with solicitor general, Elena Kagan, Chief Justice Roberts really exposed what is at the basis of  this decision and what is clearly an overreach of the Court. In disagreeing with solicitor general that the Court should not seek to expand the narrowly defined “personhood” of corporations under the constitution as “Few of us are only our economic interests. We have beliefs. We have convictions…. “Corporations engage the political process in an entirely different way..”  the Chief Justice stated, “A large corporation, just like an individual, has many diverse interests.”

What??? Know what frightens me about this? The seemingly lack of intellectual depth and a blatant intellectual dishonesty. We saw this in how the Bush vs Gore case was decided. And we see it in spades here with this decision and the underlying thought patterns.

I do not care how many “diverse interests” a corporation has. This is not an issue of quantity. It is an issue of source. What is the source of those interests. That is what matters. Nothing else can take precedence. Why? Because human beings have unique qualities bestowed on us by our creator, whatever you perceive that creator to be. Innate qualities such as emotions, aspirations, conscience, fear. Corporations have no such innate quality. These qualities in large measure determine how we act from day to day, in making personal decisions that affect us at a social and personal level. Let me repeat, corporations have no such similar  innate qualities. Their interests are driven primarily by the nature of their charter. They don’t wake up in the morning feeling fear. Or glee, or trepidation.

In short, corporations on their own are inanimate objects incapable of  affecting anything outside of themselves save for the actions and energies of those acting on their behalf. We humans are animate, with our own innate energies and driven primarily by these energies.

For this reason, people relate and interact with each other and their environment in a unique and complex manner. That is the raison d’etre of the constitution.  The interactions of the corporation with its environment takes place on a different sphere. That is the raison d’etre of corporate law or law of business associations.

So pray tell me, how can we move legislation closer to equating the rights of corporations to the the rights of humans?

And if the comments of the Chief Justice was not troubling enough, this zinger came from Justice Antonin Scalia
regarding the same issue: “most corporations are indistinguishable from the individual who owns them.”

Oh yeah? Then  I think it would probably be fair to say under that type of reasoning that the rights of slaves were indistinguishable from the individuals who owned them.

What we have here are not jurists acting to correctly interpret and apply the intentions of the basic laws and principles under which we govern ourselves. What we have here are jurists acting as philosophers and taking advantage of their role to posit their own ideas of how we should look at and govern ourselves.

As terrible as that is, what is even scarier is that people in general  seem not to be freaked out by this level of activism seemingly borne of a desire to promote a particular agenda. An agenda that is fleeting at best as the interests of corporations can be at times, and may or may not give a damn about the rights of common citizens. Now that is damn scary because that is as unconstitutional as it can ever get.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Supreme Court guts campaign finance law (trueslant.com)
• Court eases business, union election spending rule (thenewstribune.com)
• Supreme Court rolls back campaign spending limits (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Justices Block Key Part of Campaign Law (nytimes.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

“Forget Goldman Sachs funding a housing bubble even while betting against it. Revisit the famous collapse of Long Term Capital Management, in which …. Goldman used information gathered from its hedge fund client to bet against the client’s positions.  Or revisit a column in this space… about Goldman holding a splashy event in Moscow to sell investors $1.25 billion in new Russian government bonds, which allowed Russia to pay off a $500 million loan to Goldman just before Russia defaulted on its international debts.”  one Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. writes in the opinion pages of the  WSJ of January 20.

Mr. Jenkins continues .. “Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein was understandably wide-eyed with wonder at last week’s hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. He pointed out that the people on the other side of every Goldman housing related trade were…. professional investors.”

Did I read correctly here? Understandably wide-eyed? But more about that later.

Mr. Jenkins wasn’t quite finished with the disconnect. “He might have suggested that any client who doesn’t understand Goldman is looking after its own interests ….. is an idiot and has no business being in business.” Ok, enough!

Look lets not beat around the bush with this. This is garbage. Sorry, I know it’s the esteemed WSJ, but this is the kind of thinking that got us in the mess in the first place.

The implication here? Everybody is a big boy in the market and they should know what they were doing. Oh yeah?

You know, this housing bust is pretty complicated. But one question I for one would want to ask, did Goldman take pains to hide some of its transactions so as not to give investors any inkling of how it was viewing the market while at the same time marketing investments to these same investors in an upbeat manner?

It is one thing to hedge your “bets” and practice proper risk management because who can know what the market will do next month, next year, etc. But it is something completely different to know that you may be marketing a C class product as an A class one and at the same time covering yourself so that you will either gain or reduce your risk when the market realize what it has acquired from you.

You cannot divorce value from integrity. Ok, something that is false can have market value but only as long as the market thinks that there is a base of integrity beneath it. Once it is shown for the fallacy it is, there goes the value. How does this apply here?

Goldman Sachs, in the cases cited by Mr. Jenkins, no doubt had better knowledge of the situation than the other business interests they were dealing and wheeling with. Fine, knowledge is not only power, but value. So more power to them. But when you use the power of your position in the market to misrepresent true value to your own advantage, that is chicanery at best.

And this is not even a moral issue here. It is purely a business and social issue. For, what will eventually happen if market players  have less and less reason to have faith in the integrity of the market itself? Real value will matter no more. And value, real or not, will be the domain of snake-oil salesmen.

And in this environment, investors get burnt, the value of their assets get depleted, pension funds become woefully underfunded. Retires experience reduced cash flow. Which leads to reduced money circulation. Which leads to reduced demand. Which leads to job loss. Which leads to additional costs to replace these jobs.

Back to that “understandably wide-eyed” bit. These guys believe so much in what they do that of course they will never be able to see why some regulation is good even for them.  And that is a huge part of  the problem. Wide-eyed men who are blind to all but their own interests.

The likes of Goldman Sachs and their apologists are free to believe that a society can continue to create real value through chicanery. It may have great value to them, but ultimately it has little or no value to the market and society. And then government will again be called on to fill the void  created by falsehoods with the use of taxpayer dollars. Ant the tea-party crowd, they too being the wide-eyed type and equally blind,  will insert themselves into the mix, much, much too late.

There is hardly a better argument for Regulatory Reform than the performance of Goldman Sachs because sadly, it seems this has become par for the course in our business dealings.

Related articles by Zemanta

• DealBook Column: Wall St. Ethos Under Scrutiny at a Hearing (nytimes.com)
• Daily Blogwatch: Gambling vs. Trading; World’s Most Expensive Car (dailyfinance.com)
• Bank Regulation: A Necessary Evil for Stock Market Growth (seekingalpha.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Halleluyah! Senator Kennedy is speaking from the grave.The results from the Massachusetts special election could not be better for the country.

Now that the Democrats has lost their so-called filibuster proof majority in the Senate, maybe we will get something done. Caught in a mind-lock that you can get nothing done unless you have 60 votes, it is just painful to see government at its worst. So now both sides have lost the crutches that they so willingly embraced – the filibuster threat has been diminished and the minority mindset of all we can do is to try and stop them is now useless as an excuse. So let’s see who is really naked now that the tide is receding.

I don’t know for sure what message the voters in Massachusetts is sending to whomever. But one thing I know for sure, the Democrats are inept at communicating. Just inept. And that includes the White House. They have allowed the Republicans to define all the issues surrounding health-care reform and articulate it in a manner that borders on deception. And all the Democrats can do is say, well “they lie”. As if Democrats themselves are any more trustworthy so voters will just believe them. Unbelievable.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The new bipartisan math: 41 is greater than 59 (dailykos.com)
• Republican Brown Wins Massachussets Senate Seat. Dem Health Plan Threatened? (dvorak.org)
• Biden highlights obstructionism (washingtonmonthly.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

From time to time I indulge idiots. Like this guy broadcasting out of Central Florida with his own radio talk show.

It’s now the first week of January and Florida is hibernating from this very unusual weather. It is  cold, in the 40′s, 30′s and even 20′s in some parts of the state. This guy’s story? Well he has been living in Florida for over 15 years and this is the worst he has experienced. Never been this cold for this long. Never. So Mr. Gleeful opines, climate change cannot be happening, the planet cannot be getting warmer. What??

This guy is completely serious. Completely! Broadcasting to maybe hundreds of thousands of listeners.

Hey idiot guy, ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe this extreme temperature on the colder side could also result from global warming? No, you have never, because if it is getting colder then it cannot be getting warmer. That’s your logic and you are sticking with it. Right?

You know I do not know for sure that we are experiencing a level of warming that is going to cause the environmental  catastrophe that some are predicting. And frankly, I don’t know if anyone knows for sure. But it is unacceptable that anyone should be so careless in their public discourse. Of course it is a free country and we get to be idiotic and plain stupid. But if you are going to be on the radio waves having a discourse, at least stop the hysteria and the hot air.

Disagree yes, be cantankerous even, but for heavens sake demonstrate that you are capable of thinking through the issues and are able to communicate that thinking to what may be an audience that is not as informed as you. Because people will just take what you say and run with it, and voila, that becomes the water cooler consensus of the day.

And there goes the hot air crowd again. Dominating not only the air waves but also the air heads.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Cold snap fuels debate over global warming (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Experts: Cold Snap Doesn’t Disprove Global Warming (usnews.com)
• Just Because It’s Cold, Doesn’t Mean Global Warming Isn’t Happening (alan.com)
• Australian climatologist: ‘six decades, each decade has been warmer than the preceding one’ (americablog.com)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Is health care a privilege or right? Ever seen such a simple question trip up so many astute minds? Gosh man, how hard is this to think through.

So I was listening to this liberal talk show host, and she was screaming about what the constitution says about the welfare of the people.. yakity yak. And in her liberal mind, that means health care is a right. Good for her huge liberal conscience. But she is wrong. Well partially.

And as to those who say health care is  a privilege, well you too are stricken with bumper-stickermentalitis. Not so.

Here is your cheat sheet for this question.

Health Care is a Right to A Privilege?  Does that make sense? Ok, here is your lifeline.

Any economy as advanced as the US economy is, has within it intrinsic value created over decades and even centuries by the vehicles of production. Of course the most important of these being human capital. And so the question is how do you best use this intrinsic value? One way is national security. Another is social security. And another has to be one of the fundamentals that determine your level of productivity and  state of living — health management.

See how easy and logical this is? The privilege has been built up over decades; and the right to this privilege kicks in when we decide it’s time for it to kick in.

The problem is our minds are so fried from the heat of political hot air. Ideology trumps common sense, and sadly even values. Like so many areas in the American way of life, we have gone wide and extremely shallow. Prepared to go to the fringes for effect or to salve whatever the hell we think is hurting us, the extent of our thinking on issues that should matter to us and our children goes no further than “fit it on a bumper sticker.”

Its not so hard after all to give a simple answer to a simple question. But do you know why none of our politicians have ever been able to give the correct answer to this right or previlige question? One word. Pandering. Pandering because they themselves lack even that which they come professing to provide – leadership. And so all they can offer is comfort to those whose support they crave in the form of sameness. See I am just like you, even if you are completely wrong. I am just like you.

Then if that is the valid approach for leadership to take, what do we need leadership for? To massage our egos and give us a false sense of security?

A simple issue such as the provision of health care in a highly developed industrialized country resulted in  a high level of distaste and flim-flammery partially because we failed to answer a simple question correctly for no other reason that we are more  interested in pandering. Are you starting to see how dangerous this pandering can be?

Yeah, sometimes it makes us get stupid.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I am not 100% behind the recently announced Afghanistan policy. But I am damn sure it is a much better policy than the likes of Dick Cheney could come up with. This guy lives to denigrate the actions and decisions of this president. I have no problem with him indulging his demons – free man, free country.

But if you are going to opine on an issue as important as this, for God’s sake – yeah, for His sake, make some damn sense. Or else you are just too easily going to look like a fraud.

So lets see.

The President by setting a withdrawal time-line is communicating to Pakistan in particular that the US is not in it for the long haul and so our allies may seek to make accommodations with the enemy in order to save their skin should we abandon them.

Yep? That simple, eh?

Well, you may be right or you may be wrong. Ok. Because here is the bottom line.

The US cannot stay anywhere long enough to prevent evil minds from acting on evil thoughts. And if these countries cannot see that they need to change whatever policies that are either breeding this mindset or giving such power to it, if they cannot do it or refuse to do it, there is not a damn thing the US can do to save them.

But what we ought to do, is to give them the chance by providing the training and the tools and the cooperation. That’s it.

Another thing Mr. Cheney. Any leader in alliance with the US who thinks the US may not leave them high and dry to fight on their own at some point, needs a brain transplant. Where did this happen before. Let’s see. Maybe Iraq?

Yes, we reserve the right to leave you on your own if you are pussyfooting with these terrorists. So get your game face on. That is the correct message sir, not that we will stay no matter what. We will leave when we leave. Until then, do your damn part because we will find some other way to take care of ourselves.

Unless Mr. C can think of no other way.

J.C. – the nerve of this guy!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The  President’s Afghanistan policy indicates envisages the commencement of troop withdrawal starting July 2011. And the usual stupid goes stupid as usual. What else would they do? Bees sting because bees sting. And the stupid opines:

Giving a withdrawal date is like giving the enemy the go-ahead to wait you out.

Oh yeah? How so?

Because the enemy will just lay low and wait until you withdraw to start tearing the place apart.

I see. You had the same argument with regards to Iraq. But you have never thought a hell about what you are actually saying.

Because here is the little glitch in your argument  you need to address and which you can’t.

If our primary objective in Afghanistan is to stabilize the country, train its troops to secure the country then what you are saying the enemy is going to do makes no sense.

On the other hand, if the enemy wants to lay low until we are done training these guys to kill them then fine, go ahead, lay low. We will train and train and train. The more of our troops that do not have to fight you then the more we have to assign to carry out training and rebuilding. So go ahead and lay low until we leave, when it would become increasingly harder to achieve your evil objectives. Just go ahead and lay low.

See how stupid thinking works? It led to a flawed policy on Iraq. And of course it allows half-wits to keep on spouting crap day-in day-out as if it is gospel.

In the name of God, Allah, please stop. And think.

Idiots!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites