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?
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