Monday, July 4, 2011
The Tories are coming
Tory books are shaping up as a nonfiction genre. Last year saw the issue of Tories: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War. Previously, only state level books had appeared, like Maryland Loyalists in the American Revolution.
This year, Maya Jasanoff has published Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in a Revolutionary World. Looks like a trend.
This year, Maya Jasanoff has published Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in a Revolutionary World. Looks like a trend.
Jaw-droppingly good news for many
The NY Times is reporting that "big banks are going to borrowers who are not even in default and cutting their debt or easing the mortgage terms, sometimes with no questions asked." Zero Hedge reckons that a mortgage cut in half can still be marked-to-fantasy by banker valuations.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
"The bailout won't work"
Highlights from an interesting conversation. "If Papandreou had any sense, and did the right thing for the country and the people, he would have just declared bankruptcy, gone back to the drachma and let the German and French banks take a substantial haircut."
He has sense and he knows what the bosses want.
He has sense and he knows what the bosses want.
Taleb and Blyth in Foreign Affairs:
Nicholas Taleb and Mark Blyth ask "Why is surprise the permanent condition of the U.S. political and economic elite?"
Or as Glenn Reynolds tags his pieces "Unexpectedly!" Absolutely everything is unexpected with the highly credentialed superachievers.
This "why" is the question of the 21st Century and the answer is doctrine and ideology. Or as Voegelin put it, a gnostic disjunction from reality.
Taleb and Blyth: "the artificial suppression of volatility—the ups and downs of life—in the name of stability" breeds catastrophe.
Or as Glenn Reynolds tags his pieces "Unexpectedly!" Absolutely everything is unexpected with the highly credentialed superachievers.
This "why" is the question of the 21st Century and the answer is doctrine and ideology. Or as Voegelin put it, a gnostic disjunction from reality.
Taleb and Blyth: "the artificial suppression of volatility—the ups and downs of life—in the name of stability" breeds catastrophe.
A summer lunch
We were having lunch with visitors at the Hunter's Head and the conversation turned to celebrities living locally.Someone mentioned Robert Duvall. The visitor chipped in with, "I understand Tommie Lee Jones live here too."
She was not ready for the outburst of laughter.
Tommie Lee Jones is definitely a famous local celebrity.
And he's something of a Casanova."
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Light blogging this holdiay weekend
As the posting is light, here's a fun reading assignment. Ponder Salic law and the effect on world history if Victoria had stepped aside for Clarence and Hanover thereby had remained under the British throne during Prussia's German unification project.
Murdoch's gamble
He paid $500 million to learn "a social network is not a news delivery system." Actually, it delivers local or personal news.
When the national corporations began consolidating and cost-cutting, they showed their interest in local news by the nature of their cuts. Local "news" countered by showing its strength in gutting corporate media, first through local ads (Craig's List), then through local news (gossip) (Facebook). Local blogs round out the picture, which is still developing.
Nationalizing the news business was an idiotic model for which many have paid sorely.
When the national corporations began consolidating and cost-cutting, they showed their interest in local news by the nature of their cuts. Local "news" countered by showing its strength in gutting corporate media, first through local ads (Craig's List), then through local news (gossip) (Facebook). Local blogs round out the picture, which is still developing.
Nationalizing the news business was an idiotic model for which many have paid sorely.
Gates - what kind of reformer was he?
At his last day on the job, Bob Gates continued to take shots at the Pentagon, this time taking care to separate the dedicated civilian bureaucracy (meritorious) from the slow and incompetent generals (deleterious). (My comments are based on his speech with Obama, heard live, not on any press reports.)
This issue is hard for us to understand - why is the SecDef a complainer instead of a doer? He fired some generals and service secretaries early on, why not more? Often?
The best answer I can come up with is that no one was learning and he felt sorry for them. The firings did not "smarten up" the men with stars on their shoulders. The harassment and disdain Rumsfeld expressed for the generals - "You don't get it, do you?" - was merited in spades and never understood by the general population.
Gates, whose stated goal in coming out of retirement was to reform our dangerously stupid military culture from the top down, at some point surrendered to Rumsfeldian cynicism. Gates gave up, but unlike Rumsfeld, he lied to himself about this surrender. In a speech recently, he mentioned planting "seeds of reform" in the lower officer ranks. What a pretty story. I promise him that these seeds will be stamped out by the men he failed to fire.
So what kind of reforms were these?
This issue is hard for us to understand - why is the SecDef a complainer instead of a doer? He fired some generals and service secretaries early on, why not more? Often?
The best answer I can come up with is that no one was learning and he felt sorry for them. The firings did not "smarten up" the men with stars on their shoulders. The harassment and disdain Rumsfeld expressed for the generals - "You don't get it, do you?" - was merited in spades and never understood by the general population.
Gates, whose stated goal in coming out of retirement was to reform our dangerously stupid military culture from the top down, at some point surrendered to Rumsfeldian cynicism. Gates gave up, but unlike Rumsfeld, he lied to himself about this surrender. In a speech recently, he mentioned planting "seeds of reform" in the lower officer ranks. What a pretty story. I promise him that these seeds will be stamped out by the men he failed to fire.
So what kind of reforms were these?
Austerity is not solvency
Eric Fry: "My daughter, Gaby, often makes promises, just before asking me for money...Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Union, are you listening?"
Housing bubble exposes CH and Austria
BTW, "Currently, 53 percent of outstanding mortgages in Poland and about 60 percent of those in Hungary are denominated in [Swiss] francs."
Friday, July 1, 2011
The prospects for an American monarchy
Mad Monarchist does a nice job recapping the history of monarchical parties in the USA. He is very pessimistic about future prospects, especially in the lack of a pretender. But to reverse one of his points, surely there must be Hawaiian royalty we could enthrone?
Meanwhile, here is the current US Monarchist Party website.
Meanwhile, here is the current US Monarchist Party website.
Where is our Secretary of the Treasury headed?
At this writing, 40% of Zero Hedge readers say employment with Goldman Sachs.
Does the Air Force build ice cream parlors first, runways last?
The Rumor Doctor's answer to this question is very ambiguous. I read it as a yes.
Hitchens' war on maryjane
Peter Hitchens' next book is about "the secret surrender of the British establishment to the cannabis lobby."
No Mona Lisa for Italy
France will not lend Leonardo's Mona Lisa to Italy on a normal museum-to-museum basis.
Perhaps there is some way Italy can securitize the painting as a debt obligation...
Perhaps there is some way Italy can securitize the painting as a debt obligation...
Could we play soccer on Mars?
Scientists want to know! Scientists say yes!
When we understand science to be overrun with middlebrows, it will help a lot in science policy-making.
When we understand science to be overrun with middlebrows, it will help a lot in science policy-making.
"Last Year in Marienbad" is this year
"Last Year in Marienbad" is due for theatrical release in the UK on July 8. I watched it with my young daughter last year. I said, "I want you to see the world of my youth."If every American middlebrow could see this film and understand it as something other than stylish ... well, they wouldn't be middlebrows, would they?
Scottish politics - a complete rundown
In Scotland, you get to pick you flavor of socialism.
Funny to hear the "tartan tories" crack. When I worked for the SNP in 1969, the conservatives who recruited me grumbled about the dominant labor element in the party.
Funny to hear the "tartan tories" crack. When I worked for the SNP in 1969, the conservatives who recruited me grumbled about the dominant labor element in the party.
How to humiliate a civic volunteer
Denver: Volunteers will be wearing blue "poop fairy" T-shirts as they greet park users.
The indignity of collecting fecal matter was not enough.
The indignity of collecting fecal matter was not enough.
What would Barry Goldwater say?
If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government.
How Much Would It Cost To Buy Congress Back?
Charles Hugh Smith has an answer. For my part, I say you're only entering a bidding war.
The African ruckus - we like it
The ruckus over oligarchs, universities, and agribiz buying up great swaths of African land is a good noise, a welcome noise. Take a moment to meet the creeps involved.
A congresswoman with ethics "issues"
Laura Richardson represents a definite type, as you can see from the linked story.
A company once sent me to work temporarily in a firm they were planning on acquiring. I had to report back that the owner was using staff as her personal servants, that she could not distinguish between personal and company property, and that she had no concept of herself as being apart from our outside the business. My prediction was that we would find her company records a deal-killing mess. And so it was.
Democrats like Richardson cannot be fired or expelled, nor will they be chastised by peers. Let's hope they can at least be jailed.
A company once sent me to work temporarily in a firm they were planning on acquiring. I had to report back that the owner was using staff as her personal servants, that she could not distinguish between personal and company property, and that she had no concept of herself as being apart from our outside the business. My prediction was that we would find her company records a deal-killing mess. And so it was.
Democrats like Richardson cannot be fired or expelled, nor will they be chastised by peers. Let's hope they can at least be jailed.
Gruntware
The modern tennis pro provides his own vuvuzela in the form of obnoxious, loud grunting. You have to wonder how Stan Smith, Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe and the rest got along without bellowing as they hit every shot.Technology has come to the fan's rescue with an application that allows you to tune out the grunts. If world tennis won't police itself, we will need these little gadgets. The next one will have to be a set adjustment that converts the player's clothes to whites.
The promise of Bitcoin
Detlev Schlichter:
...the Bitcoin promise – if, in fact, it can be kept – that an international financial system is feasible that allows parties to interact freely and voluntarily without state oversight, intervention and the threat of confiscation through taxation and inflation, is indeed significant.
Photo of the day
Good one. You might also say, Biofules, enriching corporate agro-business one fill-up at a time. We could mention tax subsidized enrishment but it wouldn't fit on a bumper sticker. Neither would the picture of Bob Dole.
The thing diminished and the thing exponential
Slavoj Žižek: "Increasingly in all areas we have the thing without having its nature. We have beer without alcohol, meat without fat, coffee without caffeine."*
But this is half the story. We also have the exponential version of the thing. We have fortified (high alcohol) beer, meat with "extra marbling," and "shock coffee."
We will always have with us the epicureans and stoics, Puritans and Roundheads.
--
* „In allen Bereichen haben wir zunehmend das Ding ohne sein Wesen. Wir haben Bier ohne Alkohol, Fleisch ohne Fett, Kaffee ohne Koffein.“
But this is half the story. We also have the exponential version of the thing. We have fortified (high alcohol) beer, meat with "extra marbling," and "shock coffee."
We will always have with us the epicureans and stoics, Puritans and Roundheads.
--
* „In allen Bereichen haben wir zunehmend das Ding ohne sein Wesen. Wir haben Bier ohne Alkohol, Fleisch ohne Fett, Kaffee ohne Koffein.“
Thursday, June 30, 2011
The Galliano affair: dog bites man
The people commenting on Dior designer John Galliano's Hitler love universally fail to notice that the WWII SS uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss. You can't take the Nazi out of the designer, it seems.
Russian monarchists on the radio
A compelling "elevator story" - "The monarchy can combine different institutions for the best fulfilment of the state's obligations."
Mike Dukakis and Bill Weld
Howie Carr remembers the political corruption of Mike Dukakis and Bill Weld.
You cannot function as governor of the Bay State without deeply compromising yourself, assuming there is anything there to compromise.
BTW, anyone could tell Dukakis was dishonest based on how he handled Bill Rusher on The Advocates.
You cannot function as governor of the Bay State without deeply compromising yourself, assuming there is anything there to compromise.
BTW, anyone could tell Dukakis was dishonest based on how he handled Bill Rusher on The Advocates.
Cheyenne is the new Vaduz
"The secretive business havens of Cyprus and the Cayman Islands face a potent rival: Cheyenne, Wyoming."
Here are some liberals worried sick about LLCs.
Here are some liberals worried sick about LLCs.
"Conservatives" celebrate gay marriage
Unbelievable.
This was a case where the radio conservatives would have been fired en masse for speaking out and thus it put great weight on the shoulders of the print brigade. The print brigade, however, has been out to lunch for 30 years.
Let us resort to Pope Benedict XVI: this is "insidious and dangerous."
Meanwhile, the armed forces' rank and file are in agony over gay integration while their officers prepare more "diversity" classes. Heterosexual soldiers have no one to defend them. Soon, they'll serve with "married couples."
Do Roman Catholics work for Bill Buckley's paper anymore?
This was a case where the radio conservatives would have been fired en masse for speaking out and thus it put great weight on the shoulders of the print brigade. The print brigade, however, has been out to lunch for 30 years.
Let us resort to Pope Benedict XVI: this is "insidious and dangerous."
Meanwhile, the armed forces' rank and file are in agony over gay integration while their officers prepare more "diversity" classes. Heterosexual soldiers have no one to defend them. Soon, they'll serve with "married couples."
Do Roman Catholics work for Bill Buckley's paper anymore?
The demise of the symphony orchestra
More orchestras are slated for Chapter 11. The slippery slope, I think, has been the decades-long recalibrating for a mid-market patronage. These people do not have the financial strength to make up the loss of major patrons and they also lower the quality of the music and repertoire (tune into any classical music station these days; this is, in the apt criticism of Frank Zappa, mere "Top 40" music).
In other words, symphonic orchestras entered a death spiral with the end of civic capitalism, the geographic scattering of the wealthy, and the rise of the middlebrow. That's not in the linked story, but that's what I've been observing.
Producers must understand that the New York Times reader, the PBS watcher, the NPR listener, these are cultural straphangers, not major patrons, and they cannot carry the weight of a city's culture in their personal tastes or finances.
The disbanding of opera companies is not mentioned here, but the loss of the Baltimore Opera crimped me rather hard. The other nearby opera companies are either middlebrow or painfully intermittent.
Racial neutrality violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act
But of course it would. Somewhere out there Hubert Humphrey is eating his hat (as promised) and Barry Goldwater is looking on.
"Chug for growth"
Your not just helping yourself to a drink, you're helping society:
...mounting evidence suggests that beer in particular, and the beer industry that surrounds it, may be as good for growth as excess sobriety. In some of the world's toughest investment climates, beer companies today are building factories, creating jobs, and providing vital public services, all in the pursuit of new customers for a pint.Hoist one "for the children."
Make him a general!
If ever you should find a recruiter who not only meets his quota but has recruits pay him to join the Army, know you have someone very special - someone with a great future. Don't send him to jail:
Yupeng Deng, 51, of El Monte recruited about 200 other Chinese immigrants from southern California, the San Francisco Bay area and Atlanta to join his bogus Army reserve unit, telling them it could improve their chances of obtaining U.S. citizenship, prosecutors said.This is genius.
The recruits were charged $300 to $450 to enlist and up to $120 a year to renew memberships in what Deng called the U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve unit.
Recruits could increase their rank in the “MSFR” by making cash donations to the defendant, prosecutors said.
New Army sumptuary laws (cont.)
There shall be no wearing of ... shoes that feature “five separate, individual compartments for the toes” ... Such shoes “detract from a professional military image” ...Feel free, however, to visit Congress, VIPs, and five star restaurants in your baggy, dusty fatigues.
The curse of the Afghanistan War Timetable
From Spiked:
... everything was running according to the Afghanistan War Timetable, that strangely unreal schedule for this hitherto intractable conflict dreamt up in the White House just under two years ago.Meanwhile, we learn that the "option" Obama "picked" was never "on the table." In other words, he made a decision outside of the options.
[...]
...when the war being fought has so little to do with any strategic or material interest in the country in which it is being conducted, it is hardly a great surprise that domestic concerns rule the day. And so it is with the war in Afghanistan, a war so arbitrary in its objectives that its length and intensity can be governed by a timetable drawn up in a backroom in the White House.
Church of England opts for Heliolatry
Maybe this is overstated, but I like it:
If you thought heliolatry (worship of the Sun) had burnt out, except maybe at Stonehenge once a year and at various other gatherings of backward, madcap Druids, think again. The Christian Church itself is now converting en masse to heliolatry, ditching its faith in Christ and the Cross in favour of bowing and scraping before the almighty Sun and its precious rays.
"What we can learn from Estonia"
We can learn to implement flat taxes, low/no tariffs, e-government, rule of law, relatively modest borrowing. The main thing we can learn is that political shock treatment is needed when saddled with a corrupt oligarchy.
"...government is the primary cause of systemic risk"
Actually, not all government, more the out-of-control bank-run oligarchies.
People get happy listening to the radio
This is a bizarre finding:
...in the study called ‘Media and the Mood of the Nation’, ... respondents record[ed] a 100 per cent lift in happiness and 300 per cent boost to their energy levels when listening to a radio show versus not consuming any type of media at all.Are they listening to oldies? Sports? (BTW, this was commissioned by the broadcast industry.)
Is property defined by potential advantage?
In other words, is property a function of potential commercial value?
Someone has internalized Kelo, I think.
Someone has internalized Kelo, I think.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Bovard opposes extrajudicial killings
Good. But he makes the mistake of responding to Internet trolls: "... boundless groveling to the Commander-in-Chief is the new trademark of a good American."
p.s. To see Bovard on Counterpunch and Cockburn on Chronicles is the purest rush of Left-Right convergence you might ask for.
p.s. To see Bovard on Counterpunch and Cockburn on Chronicles is the purest rush of Left-Right convergence you might ask for.
IMF studies US financial lobbying
Interesting: "The more intense the lobbying, the more likely legislators were to vote for deregulation." Hard work pays off. "If a lobbyist had worked for a legislator in the past, the legislator was very likely to vote in favor of lax regulation." Friends help friends. "Spending an extra dollar on lobbying was less effective if the lobbyist was already connected to the lawmaker." See above.
If journalists fail at their job, does the IMF have to step in here too?
If journalists fail at their job, does the IMF have to step in here too?
"Greece is a kleptocracy"
Kleptocracy, yes. But Greece is also starring in a caper movie wherein, as if this were Topkapi, they are snatching the goodies from Eurocrats and Eurobanksters. Mr. Smith has the plotline.
The glacial pace of a wartime Pentagon
Yonathan Melaku was formally separated from the USMC today with his own cooperation. Without his cooperation, it could never have happened so "quickly." Ten days ago, he was arrested for inflicting a major scare on the Pentagon. Let's see: bombing materials, sniping at the Pentagon building, "acting suspiciously before dawn in the national cemetery," four counts of grand larceny, firearm violations, and more. The Marines say Melaku's attack on the Pentagon and any bombing of Arlington or the Iwo Jima memorial "had no bearing on the Marine Corps' initial determination to pursue the administrative separation process."
War is hell, isn't it? Especially when waged by a peacetime military.
One day in the early 1970s our company clerk arrived at work in a new car pulling a new trailer which contained within a new color TV. We gave him two hours to return the credit purchases or face court martial.
The same year, a soldier in our unit came back from a beach vacation with sunburn so painful that his duty had to be limited after a doctor's visit. We gave him the choice of non-judicial punishment or a court martial.
Another soldier returned from leave with a tattoo. He was simply thrown out of the Army. It might have taken two weeks at most.
It was a less forgiving time, I guess.
Now what will you bet that Melaku was given an honorable discharge?
War is hell, isn't it? Especially when waged by a peacetime military.
One day in the early 1970s our company clerk arrived at work in a new car pulling a new trailer which contained within a new color TV. We gave him two hours to return the credit purchases or face court martial.
The same year, a soldier in our unit came back from a beach vacation with sunburn so painful that his duty had to be limited after a doctor's visit. We gave him the choice of non-judicial punishment or a court martial.
Another soldier returned from leave with a tattoo. He was simply thrown out of the Army. It might have taken two weeks at most.
It was a less forgiving time, I guess.
Now what will you bet that Melaku was given an honorable discharge?
The new IMF managing director
"The post of managing director is not to be taken lightly in an institution that operates like a well-disciplined army, with staff looking up to the unquestioned general for decisive leadership." And here we thought it was another out-of-control bureaucracy.
"A celebration of the discredited seatbelt law"
John Adams is not amused. "I have been challenging the PACTS view of seat belt history since before it was history."
Wall Street dissimulates
The coolness Wall Street shows for Obama is a matter of "optics." To support him publicly "would be bad for business," this article says. So, banksters support him privately.
And accoutrements.
Local government debt in China: $1.65 trillion
Greece is small potatoes:
Local governments had an overall debt of 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.65 trillion) by the end of 2010, said China's top auditor on Monday in a report to the National People's Congress. He warned that some were at risk of defaulting on payments.Hat tip to Mish.
Taleb: "Had Reagan not bailed out Citibank in 1983..."
"... we would not be here" Exactly.
Does no one remember the odious John Reed and his insufferable mentor, Walter Wriston? In the 1970s, Wriston (and Reed) did a huge sell job in the USA to create a market for their Argentine and other Latin American sovereign debt. At the height of this Citibank push, the ever willing Fortune magazine ran an admiring cover showing bankers lined up at a South American customs stations displaying (for inspection) open suitcases of cash. The story inside gushed over Wriston's genius and quoted him to the effect "Nations don't go broke."
In this interview, Taleb tries to explain to his leftist interviewer that big government is not the answer to big corporations. Personal liability is the answer. In other words, a reunion of ownership and management.
Until the Right understands that public corporations are gaming lawmakers to rig the markets and until the Left understands that representative government is for sale everywhere and at all times, the voter in this country faces the alternatives of a tyranny of property or a tyranny of statism.
College athletics - you have it backwards
Look at you. Your whole life, you've been walking around justifying college athletics as an income stream for the alma mater.
From Critical Mass:
Last year Rutgers used nearly $27 million in university and student-fee money to balance its athletics budget. It was not unusual: since 2006, Rutgers has spent more than $115 million to cover athletics spending...Consider also that Rutgers is a state university.
From Critical Mass:
This is the school that just paid Toni Morrison $30,000 to give a graduation speech. It’s also the school that paid Jersey Shore’s Snooki $32,000 to speak. Fittingly, Snooki’s advice, delivered to two standing-room-only crowds, exemplifies Rutgers’ budgetary priorities: “Study hard, but party harder.”Notice that "Snooki" out-earns "Toni" in the state-funded speaker sweepstakes here.
SC takes Republican Party off welfare rolls
Governor Nikki Haley has "deleted funds from the state budget that were intended to help pay for administration of the Republican Party primary." The Party will have to pay for its own primaries, as onerous as that may be.
What is this world coming to?
It's a damn shame when a young oligarch has to roll up his pants and wade into the sty; can't he hire some puppets to take care of political business for him? Chris Dodd is available; so is Tom Daschle, Bill Clinton, and Tony Blair (highly available, in fact). Their Russian is not so good but they are flexible men of pragmatic outlook who could find a way forward.
Russia's never going to become a real republic without stooges and front men, is it? Somebody tell Prokhorov.
Russia's never going to become a real republic without stooges and front men, is it? Somebody tell Prokhorov.
Deinstitutionalization continues
The deinstitutionalization of mental patients in the 1970s was predicated on community care for patients. Almost immediately, such care was defunded, seeding the national homeless crisis.
Occasionally, states fund new community care programs and eventually, these too are cut. Likewise, funding for reinstitutionalization is also cut. This story from California compresses the whole cycle into a cameo.
Note the newish element of consultant funding. In certain corrupt states (that might be all 50), consultant funding is a political plum dispensed under patronage. The procurement formalities are observed but the outcomes are hilarious. At one point (and perhaps even today) all nursing homes in New Jersey were or are owned by companies run by prominent Democratic politicians.
Mental health remains another source of political patronage.
Occasionally, states fund new community care programs and eventually, these too are cut. Likewise, funding for reinstitutionalization is also cut. This story from California compresses the whole cycle into a cameo.
Note the newish element of consultant funding. In certain corrupt states (that might be all 50), consultant funding is a political plum dispensed under patronage. The procurement formalities are observed but the outcomes are hilarious. At one point (and perhaps even today) all nursing homes in New Jersey were or are owned by companies run by prominent Democratic politicians.
Mental health remains another source of political patronage.
New York City has gone too far
Just found out that in 2006 NYC banned foie gras and the circus. Any competing private sector circus, that is.
Shovel ready job: making new cribs
USG orders $32 million worth of cribs off the market.
Why not just order us to destroy all property and start over?
Why not just order us to destroy all property and start over?
Jesse says the silver cartel breaks first
Myself, I am suspicious of technical analysis, no matter how good the charts.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Obama's "nuclear weapons renaissance"
The anti-nuke group, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, has been pushing the meme that Obama is leading a "nuclear weapons renaissance" against Republican opposition. They explained their position on the Democracy Now! broadcast this morning, only a taste of which made it into this write-up.
In their view, which I am simplifying, Obama is refreshing nuclear stockpiles, developing new types of nuclear weapons at a lively tempo, and expanding bomb-making and research facilities while Republicans are calling for delays, studies, and postponements.
A meme worth watching indeed.
In their view, which I am simplifying, Obama is refreshing nuclear stockpiles, developing new types of nuclear weapons at a lively tempo, and expanding bomb-making and research facilities while Republicans are calling for delays, studies, and postponements.
A meme worth watching indeed.
Lawson on "green jobs"
This certainly applies to Obama:
[Dominic] Lawson dismisses as economic illiteracy claims of a green jobs boom powered by renewables that will mop up unemployment from the structural adjustment to a low-carbon economy, recruiting one of the great classical liberals to back his case.He makes an additional point that no green jobs promoter seems to understand:
"The French 19th-century economist Frederic Bastiat said you might as well go round breaking windows saying you're creating jobs for glaziers. The fact is you can't look at just one sector. The government can create jobs by employing large numbers of people to build statues of prominent politicians. You can always create jobs in a particular area.
"What you've got to be concerned about are jobs in the economy as a whole and you don't create jobs in the economy as a whole by promoting something [that] is wholly uneconomic and has to be subsidised."
A lot of these green jobs will be in China. The Chinese can see there is a market in the West for solar panels and other things so they are producing them very much more cheaply. In so far as there are jobs they will be there, not in the consuming countries.
Moody: Japan could face third lost decade
The country famous for losing its decades appears to be on a roll.
Remembering John V. Lindsay as an unhealthy indulgence
Mayor John Lindsay combined striking ineffectiveness with narcissistic flamboyance. When he ran for president, the farther away from his own NYC he got, the more votes he collected. Now, Florence Henderson recites an ugly kiss-and-tell. Florence: FYI, it wasn't just you: this philanderer loused up the entire body politic. (Photo via NYT: JVL is talking to an aide named Leon Panetta).
Art prize awarded on coin toss
The authority seekers are scandalized, but this art judge (himself an artists) awarded a prize based on a coin toss. "Most artists know what these prizes are about ... They’ve got very little to do with art and much more to do with the institution."
The lucky "winner" said, "“Every person who judges an art show brings their own agenda to it, same as a cattle show.”
The lucky "winner" said, "“Every person who judges an art show brings their own agenda to it, same as a cattle show.”
More Bush than Bush
Will Inboden explains Obama/Bush or Bush/Obama:
The president of the United States makes almost unprecedented assertions of executive authority and launches a controversial war of choice in the Middle East, targeting for regime change a dictator accused of committing atrocities against his own citizens, producing weapons of mass destruction, and sponsoring international terrorism. Amid the White House's promises of a quick victory, a compliant Congress initially goes along with the war, but months later disgruntlement sets in and Capitol Hill begins to raise concerns.(I thought MQ gave up on WMDs, BTW.)
Tony Blair is available
Tony Blair is available. Highly available. Very available indeed. Might you have a childern's party or something coming up?
Crony capitalism - a how to
Rocky Vega shows that the Chicoms know how oligarchy works. It's a short read and droll.
Goldman is offshoring itself
When news parodies itself:
Goldman Sachs Is Firing Employees In The US So It Can Hire 1,000 In SingaporeRemember when we were going to offshore all the low value added work so that we could do the high value work (like finance!) here in the US?
Bay State or Land of Lincoln - which is more corrupt?
Three out of three of the last speakers of the Massachusetts house have gone to prison. Does that trump four out of eight of the last Illinois governors? You don't want to overstate Illinois claims to corruption fame with contenders as strong as the Bay State in play.
If the jailed were not targets of federal investigations, they would still be lording it over their minions, I think.
If the jailed were not targets of federal investigations, they would still be lording it over their minions, I think.
The law school bubble
Bloggers have been taking it to the law schools ("swindlers," "toilets") for a couple of years now. If you've missed out on this genre, check out the blog roll on the right of this posting.
The disgruntled feel that law school is a trade school that profits from (federalized, borrowed) tuition dollars while turning out tradesman to an overfull market.
The disgruntled feel that law school is a trade school that profits from (federalized, borrowed) tuition dollars while turning out tradesman to an overfull market.
Obama raffle - guess the prize?
Micro donors to the Obama campaign will be entered into a raffle to have dinner with their idol.
I've worked for President Obama for almost five years -- but I've never actually sat down for dinner with him. That's why I'm excited about (and maybe a little jealous of) the opportunity you have to join the President for dinner. He's going to sit down and swap stories over a meal with four supporters, and you could be one of them.As he eats, they will get to wipe his feet with their tears and hair, if I understand this prize correctly.
Stay out of hospitals
Jim Goad: Our Scary, Filthy, Killer Hospitals. Quite the roundup and if you haven't met the deadly MRSA bacteria, here's your chance.
Canadian monarchists make their move
They cry out Give us a king of our own. This seems a defensive move against Canada's growing republicanism.
The The Monarchist League of Canada has quite the press office.
The The Monarchist League of Canada has quite the press office.
Two Americas: the shunned and the unshunned
"Edwards sits all by himself at the games." The isolation of a former political darling.
Soccer: PhD magnet?
NY Sun: "...almost every aspect of the game is ripe for cerebral theorizing and noodling."
The 1099 rules were not repealed for foreigners
Cato says: The bad news is that an international version of Obamacare’s 1099 scheme also was enacted early last year. But since the burden is largely falling on foreigners, there’s no groundswell among voters to repeal the law — even though it will impose far more damage on the American economy.
Van Creveld on air power
Here's a rather shallow new interview with military thinker Martin van Creveld on air power. The interrogator is not up-to-date on air power theory and does not ask van Creveld to react to any of the new theoretical propositions.
Nevertheless, there's enough generalized air power skepticism here to be worth the investment of a short read.
Nevertheless, there's enough generalized air power skepticism here to be worth the investment of a short read.
Delinking education from prosperity and mobility
In the UK, "Students actually seems to think this putative by-product of higher education, increased social mobility, is in fact its purpose..." Over here, they think its about increasing earning power. Both ideas are dubious.
"We think about universities purely in economic ways and I think that is a great pity." There was a time when colleges were for people who didn't need careers.
Check this out as well.
This one, too.
"We think about universities purely in economic ways and I think that is a great pity." There was a time when colleges were for people who didn't need careers.
Check this out as well.
This one, too.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Catholics that are anti-Catholic
Gagdad Bob ponders the riddle of Catholic organizations that are not even a little bit Catholic.
Secular fundamentalists are a huge nuisance and they get into everything.
Secular fundamentalists are a huge nuisance and they get into everything.
Owners and managers
The long-standing American tragedy of the separation of ownership from management has struck Chile rather spectacularly.
War dead go out the back gate
... sorry, the "side gate". And then down obscure country roads and bypasses to their resting places. Peter Hitchens noticed.
No sense wasting political capital on war dead honors.
No sense wasting political capital on war dead honors.
Leonardo's Salvator Mundi
A newly certified-as-authentic da Vinci painting goes on sale for $200 million.
That's quite an incentive for art fraud, isn't it?
That's quite an incentive for art fraud, isn't it?
The scientist as socialist saint
Does deference to scientists unfit a people for self-government? A British article has me thinking:
"...a recent survey of public attitudes towards science in the UK suggests support remains healthy. More than eight out of 10 people agree that scientists want to make life better for the average person and nearly nine in 10 people think scientists make valuable contributions to society."What in your life experience would lead you to such a conclusion? Would you trust people this gullible with a voice in government?
The New York Review of Books: down on Obama
A reconsideration worth considering:
Obama has always preferred the symbolic authority of the grand utterance to the actual authority of a directed policy.This too is interesting: "Obama’s first twenty-three months in office saw seventy days on foreign trips and fifty-eight days on vacation trips."
[...]
For Obama, protracted moods of extreme abstraction seem to alternate with spasmodic engagement.
[...]
Obama tends to speak as if he were the United States addressing the world; and he treats the United States as the most grown-up country in the world.
[...]
Barack Obama from the start of his presidency has exhibited an almost exclusive taste for the dignified part of government.
[...]
The new state of social science
From Body & Society (Sage Journals) by Lucy Pickering, School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow: "Toilets, Bodies, Selves: Enacting Composting as Counterculture in Hawai’i" -
Defecation has received limited attention within the social sciences and humanities. Toilets not a great deal. Urination even less.
[...]
Through looking at the everyday defecatory practices of hippies and drop-outs in Hawai’i, this article seeks to examine the interplay of the acts of defecation and urination with the materiality of toilets themselves. Each depends on the other, and both exist in relation to various others: other toilet designs, other communities, other people.
A mousetrap for hipsters
The aging hipster renews his credentials through purchases. Flying off the shelves is the delightful children's story, "Go the F*** to Sleep." It has sold more than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Details here.
If you are suffering the tax of profanity, you may as well look at this, too.
Hipsters - a major sales demographic.
If you are suffering the tax of profanity, you may as well look at this, too.
Hipsters - a major sales demographic.
Soros: "We are on the verge of an economic collapse"
What Soros means to say is "We are on the verge of an economic collapse due to policies and politicians I have supported in the past." At least he's halfway there.
What would Winston Churchill say?
Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
Ex-dean of Yale Law School : busted
Nice collar of Harold Hongju Koh, mortal enemy of all that was Bushian, dear defender of all of Obama's Bushisms.
If I recall correctly, some wanted to bring up on charges those who rendered legal opinions to Bush re: Bush war policies. Can Koh be brought up on Obama-related war crimes charges?
The Obama administration has failed to close the military courts at Guantánamo, where it has tried and convicted a child soldier of newly invented ‘war crimes’; it has perpetuated indefinite detention and launched a legal assault on WikiLeaks. Perhaps most significantly, it has radically intensified drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. (Throughout the campaign trail John McCain condemned the expansion of the Afghan War into Pakistan as reckless and foolhardy.) Koh has dutifully produced legal rationales for the drone strikes, supplying the necessary law component to a national security ‘strategy’ of open-ended global counter-insurgency. None of this has provoked much criticism beyond the marginal antiwar left and libertarian right, and Koh’s justifications have been largely ignored by pundits once outraged by similar Bush-Cheney edicts.Once his man was elected, Koh missed an opportunity (in the words of Jacques Chirac) to keep quiet.
Assembled in America
We are proud to assemble Chinese bridges and other infrastructure components here in the land of the shovel-ready.
You see, we allow the export of low-skill work like designing and building bridges, and keep the high-skill work of assembling ready-made components.
We are all about value added.
You see, we allow the export of low-skill work like designing and building bridges, and keep the high-skill work of assembling ready-made components.
We are all about value added.
Socialist morality
Hanson: Do socialists lack personal conviction? Meanwhile, Private Eye already weighed in with the captioned photo of Labor Pary boss Miliband.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The $100 million flight suit
A Tea Party congressman, with more than a little personal experience in the matter, is moving to kill the USAF $100 million flight suit program.
"The [current] gear endangers pilots' lives, the Air Force says." This would be the same gear that has been endagering pilots lives since the 1950s, apparently.
Gates needs to fire some more generals on the way out the door.
"The [current] gear endangers pilots' lives, the Air Force says." This would be the same gear that has been endagering pilots lives since the 1950s, apparently.
Gates needs to fire some more generals on the way out the door.
It's impossible to spot financial bubbles
It's not possible to spot bubbles. Don't even try. You'll never do it. You have no chance of spotting one.
This article, by a certified member of the crowd (see "madness of"), is fascinating in its militant insularity.
This article, by a certified member of the crowd (see "madness of"), is fascinating in its militant insularity.
Decoding Garry Wills
An interesting review of Wills' latest in a career of "Stakhanovite" literary output. Note the description of his family background. If we view liberalism as public compensatory gestures offsetting deep personal, familial shame and guilt, Wills' career makes a lot of sense.
Cyberwars and Internet viruses
Evgeny Kaspersky: "... this war can't be won; it only has perpetrators and victims."
How to invest nowadays? "Think like a criminal"
Investment under Bernankenstein:
Think like a criminal. Look, it’s a matter of knowing what the Fed’s next move is going to be, and knowing the investment implications. You have to stay with the trend until the Fed sends signals that it is going to reverse. We’re at that inflection point. The issue is how much front running will there be? You definitely have to be out of your longs by now. When support fails after having succeeded, succeeded, succeeded, and every other previous retracement has held, then suddenly one doesn’t, it’s a huge signal.
Monarchist news
The Mad Monarchist has a nice roundup of news, including the trial balloons being floated against primogeniture in London.
Gay marriage will be mandatory
The right to gay marriage may become compulsion for gays to marry:
If the rollout of marriage equality in other states, like Massachusetts, is any guide, lesbian and gay people who have obtained health and other benefits for their domestic partners will be required by both public and private employers to marry their partners in order to keep those rights.I would look for the next push to be for "partner" benefits outside of gay marriage.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
"Government is institutionally blind to individual philanthropy"
Maybe. I would put it another way: government is efficient in developing new constituencies of need.
Tax all the young cripples
Private Eye: HM Revenue & Customs ... Having let Vodafone and Goldman Sachs off millions in tax ... it’s been commendably ruthless with a small charity for disabled children. [...] Now the charity has been whacked with a £16,000 tax bill, dating from an accounting error made in the early 1990s when the centre was run by completely different people. The charity has been given a year to find the cash, which will eat up the proceeds of dozens of the raffles, sponsored walks and coffee mornings that usually keep the service afloat.
Recycling dollars for gold
FOFOA notes that dollar holders who get tired of buying US treasuries can buy gold instead.
I have my own theory that the actual physical flow of gold into China corresponds to money that Ben Bernanke must now print that was previously being funded by the PBOC.Fascinating.
[...]
Buy gold (instead of Treasuries) with your excess dollars received from selling to products or oil to the US. As long as you buy on the open market (as opposed to dark pools as the Saudis used to do or from mines inside your own country) this drives up the price of gold and causes a physical inflow into your country. You no longer have to print equal amounts of your own currency so you have stopped your internal monetary inflation and, instead, channeled it into the price of gold (inflation only against gold, not life’s necessities). The Fed, in turn, is forced into “QE” which is essentially printing those dollars you would have given to Treasury since Congress can’t cut the budget. Also, those dollars you used to buy gold in London or Zurich will eventually find their way back into the US through private channels and add inflation on top of the printing the Fed is doing.
What would Eric Voegelin say?
Gnostic politics is self-defeating in so far as its disregard for the structure of reality leads to continuous warfare.
Politicians and their reading habits
Occasionally, during the last presidency, we were treated to lists of what nonfiction titles Bush and Cheney were reading. It was appalling, but nothing you wouldn't find at the bedside of a newspaper-reading, NPR-listening, highly credentialed suburban striver.
Very impressive to find a book reviewer who understands these fatal cultural deficits:
Very impressive to find a book reviewer who understands these fatal cultural deficits:
DAVID BROOKS is not the first contributor to the airport book stand to whom our leaders have turned for enlightenment and instruction. In the search for insight on the issues of the day, the politicians who are meant to be guiding us toward a better world have nudged, blinked, pirouetted on tipping points and anxiously pondered the wisdom of crowds. Yet none of these brightly packaged manuals has proved to have the practical usefulness that was promised. But not to worry, those who govern us are invincible positive thinkers who will never give up the hope of finding someone who will tell them how to conjure away all our problems.As a general rule, you want to watch out for people who express themselves in one and two syllable words. That's a way of saying, stay off the op-ed pages and stay away from political stumps.
[...]
ONE MIGHT be tempted to say that the political success of Brooks’s book is testimony to the callowness of our leaders, who have lost touch with the intellectual traditions that shaped Western cultures.
Beer archaeology - a social science we can support
On the one hand, polka teaches us "In heaven there is no beer," and "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think." On the other hand:
Alcohol may be at the heart of human life, but the bulk of McGovern’s most significant samples come from tombs. Many bygone cultures seem to have viewed death as a last call of sorts, and mourners provisioned the dead with beverages and receptacles—agate drinking horns, straws of lapis lazuli and, in the case of a Celtic woman buried in Burgundy around the sixth century B.C., a 1,200-liter caldron—so they could continue to drink their fill in eternity.
And now a message from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
"When it does blow up it will be too late." - James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
You don't need to tell us
New cars with new features suffer more reliability problems than previous models with the old features. Yes? And?
Americans are suckers for aspirational technology. The not-quite-ready breakthrough. The consumer-as-beta-tester stuff. At the same time they are insane about reliability, the most repair and maintenance averse consumers in the world. Or so it seems.
Who on earth buys or drives these new cars anyway?
Friday, June 24, 2011
Summer is for polo
Briton Alev Scott is smitten with the Argentine polo scene, which reminds us: summer is for polo. If you can't play, go and watch.
Remember when people knew their own interests?
"The Democratic business-donor community is demoralized."
I cannot even conceive of a Democratic business-donor community. Not one that knows its interests, anyway.
I cannot even conceive of a Democratic business-donor community. Not one that knows its interests, anyway.
The Irish Game and the pundit game
The Los Angeles Times wonders if recently collared Boston crime kingpin Whitey Bulger can shed light on the art theft of the century (20th) - the Gardner swipe.
Rumors have long swirled that Bulger, the head of the city's powerful Irish American mob at the time, may have played a role -- or must have known who did. Some have speculated that he stashed the stolen masterpieces away to use as a "get out of jail free card" if he was ever caught. Others think he sent the paintings to allies in the Irish Republican Army to use as a bargaining chip.Don't tell the Times about the Irish Game - the circulation of stolen masterpieces as collateral in large-scale drug transactions. Don't tell them about Whitey's Irish or drug activities. Let instinctive journalism roll on.
Poll: Press campaigns actively for favorites
This is a healthy political awareness:
Likely U.S. Voters believe that most reporters, when covering a politician campaign, try to help the candidate they want to win. Only 21% think most reporters put the emphasis instead on trying to offer unbiased coverage. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.
Forty-eight percent (48%) also believe that most reporters would hide any damaging information they learned to help the candidate they wanted to win. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disagree and 23% are not sure.
Left and Right converge on Greek crisis
Daniel Hannan notices When it comes to the bailouts, the hard Left is dead right:
The eurozone bailouts are, in essence, another transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. As this blog never tires of pointing out, the bailout money isn’t going to the people of Greece, Ireland or Portugal; it is going to bankers and bondholders who made bad investments.
[...]
Lefties are wrong about a lot of things. Their refusal to understand that excessive spending and borrowing were the cause of this crisis, and won’t be its solution, is almost heroic in its mulishness. But they are absolutely right about one thing: the policies being pursued by EU leaders are indeed a form of class war against working people, in effect if not intention.
Why the hammock?
I'll tell you why: Rocking synchronizes brain waves during a short nap.
Hammocks: the science is settled.
Hammocks: the science is settled.
Fake science = big money
Ask an environmentalist! Ask organized crime in Europe: Regulators scramble to recover millions of euros awarded to fake research projects.
The Army's bent COIN
With the projected handoff of counterinsurgency (COIN) operations to Afghanistan and the same having happened in Iraq, is it possible that the Army is done with COIN?
The very definition of a striver
A striver is someone who tells strangers the SAT scores of her sperm donor. See here.
Authority seekers are relentless, are they not?
Authority seekers are relentless, are they not?
Petraeus to be judged by his employees?
FP makes the point that after he takes CIA, Petraeus will be reading analysis judging his policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can he stay neutral or will the analysis tilt?
Romney - "free the banksters"
Why Romney would be a disaster in a nutshell: "Mitt Romney chose to unveil the economic plank of his campaign for the Republican nomination with a speech in Aurora, Colorado decrying banking regulation." Read the whole thing.
It's not that he learned nothing: he has chosen sides.
At the onset of the crisis, Romney was calling for end to mark-to-market valuation of assets, a clear sign that he was of the banksters, by the banksters (banksters wish to value their assets at prices that they are free to contrive - it makes the balance sheet so much prettier).
It's not that he learned nothing: he has chosen sides.
At the onset of the crisis, Romney was calling for end to mark-to-market valuation of assets, a clear sign that he was of the banksters, by the banksters (banksters wish to value their assets at prices that they are free to contrive - it makes the balance sheet so much prettier).
"A soft drachma will solve nothing"
Nice points from Detlev Schlichter including "The problem is not that the euro was too much of a straitjacket for Greece but that it was too little of a straitjacket."
The president lacks focus...
But we knew that already. And given what he believes, we welcome lack of focus.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Let's crack down on artists
If the artist throws live cats at McDonalds workers, copulates in public, and welds shut the doors of a restaurant currently in use, let us all join in on a police crackdown on this artist.
What would Albert Jay Nock say?
Useless knowledge can be made directly contributory to a force of sound and disinterested public opinion.
Central planning cranks are living it up
America's ever-popular middle class parlor game of you-can-be-a-central-planner is hard to take in the best of times. The play seems more intense in the economic crisis (sorry, recovery), as culturally and intellectually impoverished people generate endless suggestion on how to "grow jobs" and "get the economy moving" again. I love the breadth and scope of this:
Bicycling infrastructure creates the most jobs for a given level of spending: For each $1 million, the cycling projects in this study create a total of 11.4 jobs within the state where the project is located.Future candidates for same treatment: Recycling creates more jobs; watching PBS creates more jobs; driving Mini-Coopers creates more jobs; patronizing coffee shops multiple times per day creates more jobs; attending diversity training creates more jobs; etc.
Imagine a gene for every crime!
Amazing justice: "Gary L. Sharpe of Federal District Court in Albany, was quoted as saying, 'It is a gene you were born with. And it’s not a gene you can get rid of,' before he sentenced the defendant [for posessing child pornography]."
Russian monarchists continue pushing their cause
Nice roundup of Russian legitimism. The Russian monarchists even have their own media guy, Anton Liubich. H/T Russian Monarchist's Blog.
Whatever happened to Clinton bashing?
If you are nostalgic for some good-old-fashioned Clinton bashing, Stella Paul can help. The notes on Abedin and Panetta are worth the trip.
"Putin, Corruption" seized
Police have cracked down on dissidents in St. Petersburg and reportedly seized 5,000 copies of their publication "Putin, Corruption." The tract was "co-written by opposition politicians and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov."
But what is it with tracts? There must be a Russian Wikileaks out there somewhere...
Meanwhile, lest provincialism lead you to tut-tutting those Russians, consider this.
But what is it with tracts? There must be a Russian Wikileaks out there somewhere...
Meanwhile, lest provincialism lead you to tut-tutting those Russians, consider this.
Low regards to all
Policy decisions obviously have econonomic effects. Edwin Leap notes that high gas prices represent a low regard for rural culture.
Personally, I think we're dealing with an imperial middle class that cannot transcend its own narrow concerns and interests. Its provincialism is documented in every new edition of the New York Times and Washington Post, every new episonde of "Morning Edition" and every evening newscast across the nation.
To flip from rural to urban: consider the poor families in tiny apartments who have to allocate 25 square feet or more to various kinds of recycling containers as they satisfy a purely middle-class recycling fantasy?
"Low regard" and "no regard" emanate from champions of "diversity" and "multiculturalism".
Personally, I think we're dealing with an imperial middle class that cannot transcend its own narrow concerns and interests. Its provincialism is documented in every new edition of the New York Times and Washington Post, every new episonde of "Morning Edition" and every evening newscast across the nation.
To flip from rural to urban: consider the poor families in tiny apartments who have to allocate 25 square feet or more to various kinds of recycling containers as they satisfy a purely middle-class recycling fantasy?
"Low regard" and "no regard" emanate from champions of "diversity" and "multiculturalism".
IP-based narcissism: look more to boomers
Ron Liddle singles out the boomers as more addicted to Facebook and Twitter than other demographics. He particularly objects to Stephen Fry.
Fry seems to me morphing into one of his own characters while shedding the reticence. He made his gay "coming out" a national media event and has not let up since.
Fry seems to me morphing into one of his own characters while shedding the reticence. He made his gay "coming out" a national media event and has not let up since.
Mistah Speakah! How many moah...
As yet another Massachussetts speaker of the house heads off to prison, Howie Carr tallies them up.
Know the Bay State, know epic corruption.
Know the Bay State, know epic corruption.
The race for octopus expertise
German scientists, presumably marine biologists, are looking for an octopus that can predict soccer match winners. Their previous octopus with this specialty expired.
One shudders to think what might happen should the Taliban or Qaddafi discover such a marine creature first.
One shudders to think what might happen should the Taliban or Qaddafi discover such a marine creature first.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
"The Myth of Precision-Guided Coercion"
Good to see Franklin Spinney is still active and in good form:
What passes for a war strategy in Libya is now a comic opera starring NATO as an understrength, self-referencing techno bully, who acts as if he is now so fearsome that he does not even need a carrot to go with his stick.
[...]
In fact, the US version of technological supremacy eliminates the need for cleverness in a military strategist. The mental labors of a Sun Tzu, Napoleon, Grant, or a Manstein are no longer needed, because they can be displaced by silver bullets spit out by machines. All that is needed in a 'strategist' is the ability to construct coarse threats, even when, as in the case of Libya, the bullies making those threats are manifestly out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas.
Dog bites man
Oh, look, another deeply corrupt environmentalist! (Are we allowed to say that?) Working for that paragon of ethical agencies, NASA!
Euro: safer than the dollar?
The dollar holds more risk than the euro, says this European portfolio manager. Surprise: your money market fund is holding European bank commercial paper, including banks heavily exposed to Greek debt. Prediction: The Fed will spend resources to prop up foreign banks to keep your money markets solvent.
H/t to Rocky Vega.
Update: ZH and Jim Grant have much more to say on this.
Grant: "The Fed has embarked on something new: to enforce the symptoms of prosperity [stock and bond market health] rather than prosperity." "Either it owns the stock market or the stock market owns the Fed." "We have exchanged the gold standard for the PhD standard, a very bad trade."
Safe to say that the member (owner) banks of the Fed have considerable stock and bond market exposure which the Fed's practices are designed to aid.
H/t to Rocky Vega.
Update: ZH and Jim Grant have much more to say on this.
Grant: "The Fed has embarked on something new: to enforce the symptoms of prosperity [stock and bond market health] rather than prosperity." "Either it owns the stock market or the stock market owns the Fed." "We have exchanged the gold standard for the PhD standard, a very bad trade."
Safe to say that the member (owner) banks of the Fed have considerable stock and bond market exposure which the Fed's practices are designed to aid.
Is liberty (or Libertarianism) a "scam"?
Stephen Metcalf says yes. Julian Sanchez says no.
Hat tip to A&LD.
The conservative objection to Libertariansim, in a nutshell, is L's indifference to the pernicious social effects of certain types of voluntary contracts. This puts it in the difficult position of sitting in the same camp as liberalism and drawing lines of distinctions regarding which effects are worth regulating some liberty for.
Hat tip to A&LD.
The conservative objection to Libertariansim, in a nutshell, is L's indifference to the pernicious social effects of certain types of voluntary contracts. This puts it in the difficult position of sitting in the same camp as liberalism and drawing lines of distinctions regarding which effects are worth regulating some liberty for.
A meditation on wealth
Stories of the rich are a staple of the corporate media. Here's one we can look at together.One of the oddities of American thought is the general confusion about wealth and what it is.
Wealth is property; it is value stored in precious metals, land, resources; it is rentier (not labor) income; it is “money at rest”; and it can be “savings” that are noncontingent.
Wealth is not and can never be wages earned by an employee through labor. Wealth is not money in a checking account. Wages might become wealth after they stop being wages, but this is a very problematic transition, more on which in a moment.
In the US I am always surprised to find high income earners called “wealthy” and their income called “wealth.”
The publicly-owned company’s CEO, an at-will employee, sits atop the wage-slave pyramid, no matter how big the paycheck. He (she) is not an owner and the earned income stream realized by this person is negotiated in the labor market where time and expertise is bought and sold.
Think about public company CEOs you may know (who were not company founders). I have never known one or heard of one who started a company (other than a consulting firm) after losing the CEO position. These people are helots with no ownership in them. They do not even have it within themselves to invest their own wages that they may have saved, relying on the Madoffs of the world.
They are superbly credentialed strivers overcoming modest family backgrounds who rather resemble lottery winners except that they go broke at a slower rate.
Would we call a lottery winner “wealthy,” BTW? And yet for the year or two that he can hold on to it, the lottery winner’s money “rests” while the CEO’s money is constantly working, or leveraged, or gone away due to high living.
Do you think owners, and in particular the real wealthy, even break bread with this high income crowd? Why would they? What have they to learn from on-the-make hirelings? The master does not socialize with his factors. It’s the difference between Beverly Hills and Beverly Farms.
The ongoing confusion about wealth in this country is very helpful to the bona fide rich. Their status and possessions are never threatened. No one even conceives of wealth in non-income terms. If you are accumulating wealth, be encouraged.
“Tax the rich” means “tax income” not “tax property.”
“Spread the wealth” means “redistribute income,” not wealth.
“Income equality” is a battle cry that leaves the wealthy on the sidelines.
When you look at the orientation of the class warfare Left, they are focused on earners. This is a sad little dogfight among lowly wage slaves (and tax consumers) observed from afar by the wealthy.
One of the amusing things Grub Street likes to do is tally numbers of rich. Since newspapers can only parrot academic “expertise,” they fall into the polemic trap of repeating tiny totals for the “wealthy” because academics minimize these figures to serve a rhetorical purpose: to emphasize inequality through magnitude of comparison.
First, let me say, the rich are all around you. You can take that tenth of a percent or whatever number the professors are peddling (through their wretched ink-stained friends) and send it back whence it came. It may be that a tenth of a percent is earning a million a year but that has nothing to do with the percentage of the population that is wealthy.
Look around your street, your town, your office. Someone has to own all that.
Thirty years ago I was an infantry officer living the in the sad-sack town of Phenix City. I went to the landlord’s office to pick up my security deposit. One of his clerks looked up the street address of my apartment in his properties register, a tome six inches thick with one property per line, a dozen or two dozen lines per page. There may have been some leverage there, but there was an awful lot of property too. The man dressed like a used car salesman and spoke with an impenetrable Alabama brogue. You would brush past him on the street. Perhaps today, he has a Harvard PhD pressing his slacks.
Nowadays, if I just count the number of polo players in my county, factor in the cost of owning and maintaining at least four ponies per player, plus the cost of stable, groomsman, etc., the newspaperman’s miserable fractions crumble fast. If I add in the local fox hunters and their enormous horse and hound costs, the newspaper numbers become more ludicrous still.
Of course, all these horse and dog owners live outside of the wage economy, so they are invisible to professor and pundit alike. Being invisible, they can’t possible exist. Rather like Iraqi WMDs!
Ownership does not show up on W2s. Gold or jewelry in a safe deposit box is invisible to would be counters. Overseas realty is something you’ll never see. The wealthy hide their wealth; they dissimulate in public; they may drive dirty pickups, they may live poorly, they may travel constantly, they are a moving target far beyond the capability of today’s press-release-dependent reporters. They would be poor soon enough if they called attention to themselves.
Active business owners, meanwhile, are phantoms surrounded by entities in other people’s names. Tax avoidance has created elaborate fictions in the form of trusts, and shell companies, holding companies, and 501(c)3s.
You cannot count the rich. If you counted them, they’re not rich.
And why exactly would they want to talk to you anyway?
(Note: The dotcom CEOs are exceptional in that they include owner-founders who continue forming and joining companies. They transcend wage slavery when great blocks of stock are extracted from public markets. They tend to be nouveau riche employers of helot-class CEOs.)
Poland celebrates Reagan
Poland is celebrating Reagan's centennial. "Ronald Reagan is a Polish hero!" Look and learn, mediacrats.
Electric cars are losers
Aside from being chock full of toxic chemicals, having traveled the world during piecemeal manufacture, and being dependent on rising electricity prices, there are other reasons for loathing the electric car:
An electric car owner would have to drive at least 129,000km before producing a net saving in CO2.
[...]
Many electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery after a few years. Once the emissions from producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 tonnes, compared with 5.6 tonnes for a petrol car.
[...]
...drivers wanting to minimise emissions could be better off buying a small, efficient petrol or diesel car...
Why a Democrat?
They don't have answers. Good try here, but that's not going to change anything.
I spoke to a deeply committed Democrat of many decades recently and she had no earthly idea that corporations donated to Democrats and would not believe that Obama had received any money at all from banks. She had never heard of Corzine, Blankfein, Paulson, Rubin, Dimond, Immelt, et al.
For most Democrats, it will always remain 1967.
I spoke to a deeply committed Democrat of many decades recently and she had no earthly idea that corporations donated to Democrats and would not believe that Obama had received any money at all from banks. She had never heard of Corzine, Blankfein, Paulson, Rubin, Dimond, Immelt, et al.
For most Democrats, it will always remain 1967.
The rats and their cocaine pellets
Charles Hugh Smith, on a roll:
If the nation had to pay a historically average rate of interest on its debts, the economy would quickly implode like a supernova star.If bankers are the main employers of economists, economists will likely not renounce a thoroughly financialized economy.
[...]
The "borrow more, we need more demand!" thumpings of "liberal" economists like Krugman and Reich are completely blind to the fact that the borrowing they demand is precisely what has sold the nation down the river and handed control to the banks and Wall Street.
[...]
Hey, what's a trillion dollars at zero interest? You and I could make the interest-only payments each month, because they're zero.
[...]
This is the basis of the current stock, bond and commodities booms in the global economy: push trillions of dollars in "free money" to financial players, and guess what, that hot money flows out seeking a fat return.
[...]
The Keynesians and other economists have no ideas for confronting the reality of a post-consumerist debt economy and society. Like frenzied rats in a cage, they only have one lever to push to release the cocaine-laced pellets, and so they've been pushing it for 40 years.
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