A thought provoking pundita post about "pirates with out a ship" AKA predatory foreign investors.

http://pundita.blogspot.com/2009/03/globalization-series-neoliberal-puzzle.html

Comment review 03-30-09

interesting link from the who's allah post

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aklavan/2009/01/14/why-we-fight/

BC: catch up 03-30-09

I probably missed a few posts in this update. its sad to say but wrechard and the gang can write faster than i can read most days. when that happens I usually skip the comment sections till I have cought up.

also im excited to see a pundita refrence in a recent post. (El_Heffe like punditia's writings almost as much as wrechards... though he doesnt follow them as closely)

...

March 30th, 2009 1:39 am

Max Boot on Afghanistan

Writing in Commentary, Max Boot describes President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy as everything John McCain would have done — with some changes in atmospherics.



March 30th, 2009 12:02 am

Help, the police

Today was a bad day to be a Pakistani cop. AFP reports a military-type strike against a police academy.

March 29th, 2009 9:13 pm

The southern neighbor

Pundita says Mexico is in a worse way than the administration is willing to admit; that the current policy of propping up the government in Mexico City will at some point run the risk of failing. In her view the time for reform is long overdue in Mexico.

March 29th, 2009 7:55 pm

Yes we can and no, they can’t

The BBC reports:

In recent days three top American generals have turned their guns on Pakistan, accusing elements of its main intelligence agency, the ISI, of supporting Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

March 29th, 2009 4:52 pm

Big in Japan

A friend sends this link from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, suggesting that despite the US refusal to consider shooting down a North Korean rocket, the Japanese may do it anyway.

March 29th, 2009 2:06 pm

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Negotiations

A military analyst from the Examiner believes the chances of successfully intercepting a North Korean missile scheduled to be fired are “very good”, technically speaking.


March 29th, 2009 9:21 am

More Afghanistan

The limits of BHO’s efforts in Pakistan were emphasized during an interview given to the press.

March 29th, 2009 4:05 am

Iran and North Korea

The Times Online reports: Iranian technical experts were reported to be in North Korea helping the Dear Leader prepare for his missile launch. And doubtless to learn what they can about evading US anti-missile defense methods. Why do you suppose?

March 29th, 2009 1:01 am

Obama to meet Assad?

Haaretz talks about another area of engagement for the Obama administration. If true, my guess is that Assad won’t be indicted, maybe not evention mention, in connection with the assassination of Rafik Hariri. Assad would, in that event, literally have gotten away with murder. Who will stand up to him in the region if said rapproachment takes place?

March 28th, 2009 11:26 pm

Who’s Allah?

According to Wikipedia, “Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) is a celebrated 16th-century icon of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ.

BC: update 03/25/09

March 25th, 2009 5:47 am

The grandfather paradox

...

March 24th, 2009 7:14 pm

The front-line shopping mall

A UK government report warned that an attack by a chemical or radiological “dirty” bomb was likely to happen in Britain within the coming years and that mall managers had better get ready.

...

March 24th, 2009 4:50 pm

Can bloggers apply?

This bill is targeted at local newspapers.

...

March 24th, 2009 8:00 am

This … is …

This … is … madness! No. This is …
(more…)

...

March 24th, 2009 4:17 am

The Why of Kabuki

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is seeking unprecedented powers to seize firms in order to protect the economy against ‘damage’.

...

March 24th, 2009 3:47 am

Never let a crisis go to waste

Although it is small potatoes internationally, North Korea has detained 2 American journalists and moved them for interrogation to Pyongyang. Kim Jong Il too believes that “you never want to let a serious crisis go to waste”. With Washington preoccupied with the financial turmoil, the Dear Leader may believe he can get away with anything he wants.

...

March 24th, 2009 1:26 am

Loss of lift

The NYT, in an editorial, categorically rejects Geithner’s bank rescue plan. It is an unswerving rejection of Treasury’s assumption that the auction system through which it proposes to dispose of the troubled assets will value them properly. But more importantly, it reflects a lack of faith — even among the converted — in the ability of government to keep from playing favorites where such sums are concerned. Geithner’s bank rescue plan, coming on the heels of the AIG scandal, had to be both financially sound and politically viable to keep the administration’s credibility from cracking. With liberal economists like Krugman already against Geithner’s plan, the categorical rejection of Geithner’s plan by the NYT implies that the Obama administration is running out political places to hide. The NYT wrote:

...

March 23rd, 2009 2:47 pm

Geithner’s Plan

The Treasury describes it here. A quick review suggests that it’s at least worth of careful consideration. The market is reported to have climbed on its disclosure. My own reaction to the proposal is that it constitutes an attempt to create a market for bad assets which are currently hobbling the financial system. Government will assume part of the risk, providing both loans and equity, but ultimately at least some of the assets will be purchased by private entities who may see in them bargains or opportunities.

comment review 03-24-09 the raincoat...

This matches pretty well with my observations:

24. Leo Linbeck III:

I think there is another interesting question: why does anybody buy a designer raincoat?

I’m with W that anyone should be allowed to purchase said raincoat if they choose. But just because you can doesn’t mean it makes sense to do so.

In my experience, guys in Brioni suits are simply playing a role: the successful, rich guy who possesses the mojo that allows him to make money. The logic is that money-making ability is some kind of black magic, a shaman’s gift that is mysterious and incomprehensible, the exclusive province of the übermensch. The rich, you know, are different.

So, if I want to be rich and successful, I need to snuggle up to such folk and act like them. I don’t want to actually work to get rich; that is so, well, plebeian. This is the logic of Madoff, Stanford, and dozens of other fellow-traveling fraudsters in the world of high finance. The key is to look rich, so as to attract suckers who think dress is a good proxy for success. That’s why they join Palm Beach Country Club, sponsor cricket test matches, etc.

But this is really about manipulating perception, and may have nothing to do with reality. Clothes, like it or not, do not make the man. The true test of success is action and its results, over the long run. But it’s easier to dress for success than achieve success.

Think about this: several clubbers have made the point that Buffett, Gates, Walton, et. al. can afford, and should be allowed to purchase, any damn raincoat they wish. But can you imagine Warren Buffett in a Karl Lagerfeld-designed raincoat? Or Bill Gates walking around in his office in an Zegna suit? Or Sam Walton wearing a pair of Bruno Magli loafers? (Sidebar: Sam Walton always drove a pickup truck. I read once that after Sam made his first billion, a friend asked him why he didn’t drive a better car, like a Mercedes-Benz. His response: “I’d look like a damn fool driving around in a Mercedes with my hunting dogs.”)

The point here is that these guys have nothing to prove. Folks know they’re rich and powerful, so why feel the need to project an image of wealth? The fancy dressers are often trying to make folks believe they’re more successful than they really are.

In the case of Franklin Raines, the raincoat was part of this act. He was a big-time CEO of a huge and successful financial enterprise. FM was making enormous sums of money so it could pay him enormous sums of money so he could spend enormous sums of money on a raincoat. He probably also drove an AMD Mercedes - after all, you often need to go 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds in Washington and New York. (And he didn’t hunt.)

But the fact remains he destroyed more value than he created. Much more.

A pound of dog feces is still a pound of dog feces, even if it is wrapped in a Louis Vuitton designer raincoat.

And it still stinks.

L3

Mar 19, 2009 - 6:04 pm

BC: catch up 03-24-09

March 22nd, 2009 10:02 pm

The pits

Comments in some of the most recent Belmont Club posts have been haunted by what Scott Johnson and Victor Davis Hanson have called depression.

...

March 22nd, 2009 6:46 pm

Obama hints at his Afghan strategy

President Barack Obama revealed part of his thinking on the US commitment to Afghanistan in an interview on 60 Minutes. (For background, see the previous post “The Crucial Year”.)

...

March 22nd, 2009 7:16 am

The crucial year

Bill Roggio describes the beginning of a critical year in Afghanistan. “Scores of Taliban fighters and several Afghan officials were killed in fighting throughout Afghanistan. The violence marks the opening of the spring fighting season in Afghanistan as the Coalition and the Taliban surge forces for what is expected to be the toughest year of fighting since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.” Bing West, writing in the National Review (article by subscription) says Afghanistan is “the war that has to be won” but asks, “will our soldiers be given the chance to win it?” West writes:

...

March 21st, 2009 3:53 pm

Skywriting your love

Westhawk notices an AP story claiming that Iran financed the”Al Kabir gas graphite reactor that the Israeli air force destroyed in September 2007″. The story goes, “GENEVA - A top-ranked Iranian defector told the United States that Iran was financing North Korean moves to make Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to the Israeli air strike that destroyed a suspected secret reactor, a report said Thursday.” Westhawk writes:

...

March 20th, 2009 7:10 pm

“It’s a small world”

The former foreign minister of Australia notices that he keeps running into the same people. Alexander Downer, in a March 15 article wrote:

...

March 20th, 2009 4:44 pm

Message to Iran

Tigerhawk listened to President Obama’s appeal to Iran and laid out what he thought were the differences between the current and past administration’s positions. The essential difference was that America no longer wants regime change. It wants behavior change.

comment review 03-23-09 who sent you

more good stuff from blert here

comment review 03-23-09 more on aig

in the "more on aig" thread an interesting (if combative) exchange between ash, buddy larsen and blert begining here

coment review 03-23-09 big time

Some great points from a commenter I've never really noticed much before.
(from the "The Big Time" thread)

44. JMH:

How much work money does can be calculated…

Money does not do work. People and machines do. Money doesn’t. Money is not a thing, it is a measurment, and this fundamental misunderstanding causes all sort of problems. To continue the water metaphor:

Collecting naturally, water is relatively unproductive; it does limited work. Properly channeled and dispersed, it becomes more efficient and supports more agriculture.

Money isn’t the water, it’s the gallons we measure the water with. If the crops are dying in a drought, we don’t have a gallon shortage, we have a water shortage. We have all the gallons of water we want. Just change the size of the measuring cup and, voila, more gallons. In the money world, this is known as inflation and only believers in witchcraft think it creates more water.

When it comes to commerce, governments can do a great deal of good by establishing standard weights and measures. That way, if you and I are negotiating the sale of a gallon of water, we know we’re both talking about the same amount of water. The worst thing the government could do is frequently change the standards. If we’re trying to strike a deal where I give you a pound of coal at the end the month in exchange for a gallon of whiskey, but neither of us know what a “pound” or a “gallon” will actually be at the end of the month, our transaction becomes really inefficient. Neither of us can plan.

Money is a “weights and measures” thing too. Wild fluctuations in the value of money hamper economic activity because nobody knows what the yardstick they have to use will look like next year or next month. It takes longer to figure out the merits of a deal, and short-term deals are preferable to long term deals. There’s your “velocity” of money.

All “velocity” of money really means is how fast can people barter goods and services with one another - especially future goods and services. Stable money is the most efficient measuring stick to use in evaluationg those transactions. A society that has it can be highly efficient and invest heavily in the future. A society that doesn’t has to struggle along and fall behind.

Our monetary system of weights and measures has two serious problems that have led to rising inefficiency and the current economic slowdown. One, the massive debts the Federal Government - the keeper of the standard - have been running means sooner or later we’ll have a serious dose of inflation if the nonsense doesn’t stop, and the current crop are accelerating the spending, not slowing it.

Two, a host of institutions, public and private, essential to facilitating the use of money have become increasingly brazen about using their positions as middlemen to skim large amounts off the top. The “Masters of the Universe” on Wall Street didn’t provide anywhere near enough value to society to justify what they pocketed. An explosion of government supported or mandated “economic auxiliaries” (a polite word for parasites, e.g. welfare receipients, government bureaucrats, lawyers, regulatory consultants, etc) funded by extracting value from everyone else’s transaction are also part of the problem. It makes using the government-approved measurement of goods and services (i.e. money) less efficient because it is “taxed” so highly. This causes productive folks to go either “John Galt” or black market. In either case, we’re less efficient as a society.

The Fed will never solve this problem. It’s beyond their control. They can’t keep money stable when the federal government runs up deficits the size of Obama’s ego and the executive suites of half the moneyhandling institutions in the country are on the take.

Mar 19, 2009 - 9:27 am

comment review 03-21-09

from the BIG time post:

17. Doug:

Eggplant…
Don’t Worry, Be Happy

‘The Cassandra effect’
The Cassandra effect is when one believes they know the future happening of a catastrophic event, having already seen it in some way, or even experienced it first hand.

However the person knows there is nothing that can be done to stop the event from happening, and that nobody will believe them if they try to tell others.

For example, in finance, the more you warn your colleagues about the tail risks—the rare but devastating events that can bring the bank down—the more they roll their eyes, give a yawn and change the subject. This eventually leads to self-censorship.

Mar 18, 2009 - 5:02 pm

I think this is sort of what Glenn Beck is talking about when he says people need to speak out instead of remaining silent ... don't self-censor.

BC: catch up 03/21/09

March 19th, 2009 2:28 pm

The raincoat of Franklin Raines

Claudia Rosett tells a fascinating anecdote. While at the WSJ she and her colleagues had a discussion with Franklin Raines. At its conclusion, they walked Raines to the door.

...

March 19th, 2009 10:19 am

Here to help you

Gordon Brown has apologized after an investigation showed that the British National Health Service-run Stafford Hospital was so abyssmally bad that patients drank water out of flowerpots and that too many died in squalor or agony as untrained and undermanned staff were forced to meet “targets” instead of providing the care they advertised. Brown claimed these were “isolated” incidents.

...

March 19th, 2009 12:48 am

Who sent you?

According to Senator Dodd, certain unnamed persons from Treasury persuaded him to insert the amendment allowing the AIG bonuses to go forward. The Hartford Courant says

...

March 18th, 2009 2:16 pm

More on AIG

A reader sends: Hank Greenberg talks about AIG. Video at the link.

...

March 18th, 2009 1:14 pm

The Big Time

A trillion here, a trillion there; pretty soon you’re talking real money. The Washington Post reports:

comment review 03-20-09

good stuff from wretchard & others

14. wretchard:

I used to think I was being a bit on the paranoid side back when I concluded this whole bail-out program was a gigantic looting of the public treasury.

The press talks about “toxic assets” as if they just happened. But they just didn’t materialize one day out the clear blue. They were created by faulty systems and toxic people. After Pearl Harbor was bombed and 9/11 happened, Commissions were formed to inquire into how such a thing could have happened. What’s striking about the response to this crisis is the curious disinterest in unearthing its causes, apart from throwaway generalities. I believe that’s because there are enough people, on both sides of the political aisle, as well as considerable numbers of eminent financiers, who will be looking at a stretch in jail or ruin, perhaps both, if we ever started turning over some rocks.

So the bailout package is not just an occasion to loot the public treasury. It’s also hush money. Because the guys who have the goods on the regulators need to be kept in business — which in the nature of things may be rackets — by bailout money. Notice that the market, left to itself, would have taken care of the financiers. They’d be ruined; forced to live on macaroni and cheese or whatever they consider equivalent to it, unless rescued by their silent partners.

The real fiction is to think that they had no silent partners, either by commission or ommission; that all we need to do now is empower these very bureaucrats who must of necessity have had to be part of the problem; to give them more power and the keys to the treasury. The public, if it isn’t careful, will wind up keeping the old system in place by funding a lease on its life at the expense of life savings. Of course they’ll go through it too. Scams are like that. But that’s tomorrow. Today we eat, drink and be merry.

The AIG incident has proved inconvenient because it forces to the surface the entanglement between our Nemesis (the greedy executives at AIG) and our saviors (Barney Frank, Dodd, et al) “Oh did you know each other? Fancy that?” As I wrote several times before, it’s no use rebooting the database and getting transactions rolling again, just for the sake of it, if the processes which corrupted the data to begin with are alive and executing. It will run for a while, maybe till the close of business and then the whole nightmare will begin again. What happened to cause the meltdown? Is it a victimless crime? Should we just move on? Or are the very same agents of our difficulty even now pointing their fingers at each other?

Mar 16, 2009 - 5:50 pm

BC: 03/18/09

March 17th, 2009 11:49 pm

New words for old

Tigerhawk has a wonderful analysis of the AIG situation. Read the whole thing, but two paragraphs stand out:

...

March 17th, 2009 4:24 pm

Who me?

The question of how an amendment crept into the bailout bill exempting the very AIG bonuses that are now being criticized by the administration is currently unanswered. The administration calls it the “Dodd Amendment”, but Dodd says he has nothing to do with it. Fox reports:

BC: catch up 3/17/09

March 17th, 2009 7:59 am

Paedophobia

‘We see children as pestilent’ — A psychologist, writing in the Guardian, warns that some people in Britain already hate the young.

...

March 17th, 2009 5:01 am

Recycling

The Washington Post describes how a research center with ties to academia is being investigated for using two lobbyists close to John Murtha to spread around projects worth up to $250 million. The way it worked was that the center used the lobbyists to acquire funding through an unmonitored process called “plus-up” — a loophole through which money could be added to an existing program without disclosure. Then the center would turn around and channel funding to companies which were Murtha’s contributors.

...

March 16th, 2009 8:41 pm

“Save the newspapers”

From hard market conditions by allowing them to corner the print market. SF Gate reports that Speaker Pelosi is asking the Justice department to take a broader view of anti-competitive activity:

...As Gerard Vanderleun put it:

What we will never hear is that their editorial policies and news slanting were part and parcel of their demise. We will never hear about the willed insults, slights, and snubbing of fully half of their potential circulation pool. Journalists and editors write a lot about “taking personal responsibility” when it comes to others. You never hear them write that about themselves. There’s no mea culpa among liberal newspaper journalists these days. There’s only “The Internet ate my newspaper.”

...

March 16th, 2009 2:59 pm

The Guardians

Victor Davis Hanson talks about guilt and the blame game at the National Review. He was commenting on Barney Frank’s public outrage over the payment of bonuses to AIG execs at a time when the company was receiving taxpayer subsidies. Dr. Hanson argued that since guilt over AIG’s condition was shared, why not the pain? What gave Barney Frank the moral authority to float above the fray?

comment review 03-16-09

here is a link to an awesome comment by leo on the real estate buble. its from the post

The Eve of Destruction

BC: catch up 03-16-09

March 15th, 2009 5:53 pm

The silver cord

Update: Roger Simon remembers .I didn’t know him personally, but I’m very sorry to hear that Ron Silver has died.

...

March 15th, 2009 2:51 am

Pakistan Again

The Asia Times highlights the greatest proximate danger from fast-breaking developments in Pakistan. The truce between the Taliban and the fracturing Pakistani government has released thousands of fighters to begin an offensive in Afghanistan. (typo corrected)

...

March 15th, 2009 2:28 am

Waiting game

The BBC has this report on Hezbollah, which I predict will be studiously ignored, just as if it had never been uttered.

...

March 14th, 2009 6:23 pm

Making it through

A reader sends a link to a PBS video of Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard economics professor and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, describing long the current crisis will last (4 to 5 years), what the G-20 will achieve (nothing) and what needs to be done next. He is interviewed by David Brancaccio, who never quite seems to get the answer he hopes for from the professor.

Open thread.

...

March 14th, 2009 4:43 pm

“A politically exposed person”

Fraser Nelson, writing in the Spectator, describes how the Royal Bank of Scotland, a state-owned bank, is now asking its customers to state their political party affiliation when applying for credit cards. Nelson called the bank himself and recorded the ensuing conversation. The following is self-explanatory.

...

March 13th, 2009 2:48 pm

The fatal hour

Anthony Giddens at the Guardian breathlessly describes our future. We will have jobs arising from the lifestyle changes that will come from the end of the carbon economy. Here’s his vision of Things to Come.

BC: Catch up 03-13-09

March 13th, 2009 4:30 am

Fear and gloating

Bye-bye Bernie. Bernie Madoff’s victims lined up to get a glimpse of the disgraced financier as he headed for the courtroom to plead guilty.

...

March 12th, 2009 2:44 pm

Pilot of the airwaves

The FBI raided the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, D.C. Their website says, “OCTO employees stationed at OJS (441 4th Street, NW) should not report to work until further notice.”

...

March 12th, 2009 4:54 am

Beginnings and endings

This is where your earmarks are being spent. “BOSTON – More than one out of every five dollars of the $126 million Massachusetts is receiving in earmarks from a $410 billion federal spending package is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys. The bill includes $5.8 million for the planning and design of a building to house a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate. The funding may also help support an endowment for the institute.” In the meantime, taxes are being cut and compensated for by borrowing! “Democratic state leaders announced the elimination of $1.3 billion in proposed nuisance taxes from the state budget Wednesday, and will pay for the move with federal stimulus funds. … The agreement between Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith eliminates new taxes on common items — including previously tax-free goods and services such as clothing under $110, sugared drinks, digital downloads, cable and satellite television, and manufacturers’ coupons. ”

...

March 11th, 2009 7:37 pm

Ships in the night

Two leaders want to emulate each other for different reasons. There’s Barack Obama who wants to transform America into Europe, because Europe is better. And then there’s Gordon Brown who wants to emulate the American style, perhaps because it is not yet where he is. The Times Online reports:

comment review 03-11-09

from The Obama Economy

More from Leo

7. Leo Linbeck III:

The economy is not an Obama economy, IMHO, mainly because it is utter nonsense to pretend that a man who has been in office for less than two months could really have had any material impact to this point. The economy has a very long feedback loop; there are millions of decisions made each year that we cannot assess for a decade. Was it worth getting that college degree? Was opening that new plant in Indonesia a good investment? Was hiring that CEO a good decision by the board? Was that house a good deal? Will that new backhoe pay for itself?

Anything that involves the transformation of human or physical capital has a long OODA loop. This is why a stable legal system, clear property rights, and predictable taxation on investment is so important for improving our society.

However, the stock market is different. Why? Because equity markets are forward-looking aggregators of information. They bring together, using a single price signal, all of the various judgments made by investors about the future performance of a company (and, by extension, the economy). Markets are not perfect, of course, for a variety of reasons. But they are a “vote” from the investor class, based upon their perceptions of the future. And perceptions can change very fast: in the blink of an eye. Literally.

So while this may not be the Obama economy, it is most assuredly the Obama stock market.

Can we spook an entire, critical segment of our nation’s economy (investors) after just 30 days in office?

Yes We Can!

L3

Mar 7, 2009 - 2:21 pm

Then this...

11. programmer:

Leo Linbeck III,

You and others on this board have provided (and are providing) a high intensity cram course in post grad economics for those willing to read.

Thank you.

Mar 7, 2009 - 2:30 pm

... and I couldn't agree more.

Thanks to the Belmonters for sharing their insights. now if only i could find more time/read faster.

other informative comments are here, here and here

late addition: also an interesting comment here.

BC: Wednesday catch up

March 11th, 2009 12:01 pm

The entropy devil

Somebody had to say the obvious. Barack Obama is tying himself in knots. Andy Grove does in the Washington Post.

March 11th, 2009 6:04 am

“Nobody there”

The Times Online quotes a senior British civil servant’s experience in dealing with the Obama administration.

...

March 10th, 2009 4:59 pm

Stratfor on Obama’s diplomatic ‘reset’ buttons

Stratfor says that never has a incoming administration been talking to so many people. But it adds that what is important isn’t the the volume of talk, but what is being said. In that regard, it’s easier to figure out what foreign governments want than what BHO will agree to. Here’s what they want, in a nutshell. The question is what will Washington agree to give them. Some of the desires are mutually contradictory. Stratfor notes that Obama is mostly dealing with enemies. Only in Europe is it dealing with Allies. One would have thought that America could also see itself as dealing with Allies in the Middle East. What’s really interesting about Stratfor’s analysis is the degree to which the Obama administration may have let America’s rivals dictate the frame of reference of the problem. By seeing things in terms of how much to give the enemy, we minimize the shadow question: what do we want to happen?

...

March 10th, 2009 3:03 pm

Notes from all Over, March 10 2009

...

March 9th, 2009 7:35 pm

Eve of Destruction 2

How much of the risk to the financial system came from well-regulated Europe? Not intentionally, but lurking within the hidden parts of the system, from interactions that nobody understood. Brad Setser from the Council of Foreign Relations describes a shadow financial system domiciled in London, a shadow system which posed hidden risks which are only now fully coming to light.

...

March 9th, 2009 4:23 pm

The Eve of Destruction

Martin Wolf argues in The Financial Times, that something in the financial system failed over the last two decades.

Comment Review 03/09/09

Ladies and gentlemen ... Mr leo Linbeck III.

18. Leo Linbeck III:

My general sentiments probably align with those of gokart-mozart. I’ve been checking out the weather charts, and it still is looking safe outside.

But there are other long-term problems that raise the possibility that there is something more at work here:

Demographics. European birth rates are below replacement, China will get old before it gets rich, Russia is imploding, and 40% of births in the US are out of wedlock.

Education. PK-12 education in the US is a shambles. 50% of 9th graders in urban areas will not earn a high school diploma, those that do graduate read (on average) at an 8th grade level, and less than 10% of low-income children will earn a college degree. In addition, universities have largely morphed into socialist tumors that have metastasized, infecting other major organs of US society: government, Wall Street, the justice system, and (completing the cycle) PK-12 education.

Government. The concentration of power - particularly at the Federal level - has grown inexorably over the past 50 years. And with this increasing influence has come increasing corruption, a natural result of man’s nature. Politics is increasingly partisan due to the gerrymander, and the combination of power and partisanship is a toxic brew, tempting the party in power to solidify its political position through the liberal application of patronage. Money to get the power, power to protect the money.

Secularization of the elite. Whatever one thinks of its truth claims, religion serves a very practical purpose of creating a self-imposed limitation on the exercise of power by those entrusted with control over decision-making, whether in the public or private realm. Without the “shadow of the future” created by religious institutions, the temptation to cheat becomes overwhelming for our leaders, and widespread cheating undermines the foundations of liberty - freedom relies on systemic trust to function efficiently.

Unfunded pension and entitlement liabilities. By some estimates, the US Social Security and Medicare system has an unfunded liability of $100 trillion, or about 7 times our GDP. In addition, there are large liabilities in both public and private defined-benefit pension plans, and even the defined-contribution plans like 401(k)s have taken a severe hit from the current financial mess.

Asymmetrical security threats. Jihadism is the most well-known such threat, but there are others, ranging from drug cartels to white supremacists groups that are largely untracked by our authorities (think Timothy McVeigh). These threats impose a substantial psychological and physical cost to our society, and we are forced into a defensive position and waste countless (otherwise productive) hours waiting in lines and taking off our shoes.

Each of these challenges is non-trivial, and the concern is that their collective weight may be more than our society can bear.

But all that being said, I believe that there is a large American core which is solid: fertile, wise, freedom-loving, religious, thrifty, and peaceful. These folks are like the structure of a skyscraper: strong, but largely hidden from view, having been covered with a wide variety of finish materials. The fact that we have recently chosen to paint our office chartreuse, hang SI swimsuit issue covers next to a framed Velvet Elvis, and sit on contemporary (i.e. cool and uncomfortable) furnishings doesn’t mean the structure is weakened. It just means we’re overdo for a redecoration, replacing these things with items of more lasting value. Like, say, a bust of Winston Churchill.

The unknown in all this, it seems to me, is what Generation Y will do. They are the largest cohort in our nation - bigger than the Baby Boomers - and they are just starting to influence electoral politics. The fact that 68% of voters under 30 punched their card for Barack Obama is not a good sign, IMHO, as he was unaccomplished, young, and statist in his sentiments. True, he cleverly disguised these facts through a masterful campaign, but these traits are emerging into plain view at surprising speed.

How will Gen Yers react to losing their job? Or turning over increasing shares of their hard-earned money? Or discovering that bad urban teachers are protected by a powerful union? Or that raising a family is a 1.5 person job, meaning single parents spend their most productive years exhausted and lonely? Or that, in a flash, their friends can be killed by a lunatic for no rational reason?

In short, what will happen when Gen Y grows up?

I remain optimistic that they will rediscover what most of us have already learned:

- There is no free lunch
- There is evil in the world
- We must each save for our own future
- Consumption does not create happiness
- There is a God

If they don’t learn these things, the future looks bleak - after all, they are the future, like it or not.

But if they do learn, if they do grow up, if they do become adults, our future will be very, very bright.

Either way, change will come quickly. Gen Ys are connected like no other generation in history (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.). It takes years to build a new building, but offices can be redecorated over a weekend. And collapses can happen in seconds.

That is why here at Belmont Club we talk often of inflection points, sometimes in apocalyptic language, sometimes in the language of reform. But at its core, I believe there is a deep and abiding love and appreciation for what we have, and a fear it may be lost. Sometimes fear can be crippling, other times motivating.

The choice is ours. And that, at least, is a cause for hope.

L3

Mar 7, 2009 - 9:20 am

leo is probably my favorite commenter at BC (mongoose is a close. close second)

BC: Monday catch up

More rapid fire posts from BC.


March 8th, 2009 3:53 am

Are the Troubles back?

"The BBC describes official reaction to a “dissident” IRA attack on a British Army base which killed two and injured several others:"

...

March 8th, 2009 3:25 am

Talking to Hezbollah

"The Guardian describes Britain’s newest diplomatic initiative. Talking to the Hezbollah."

...

March 7th, 2009 10:09 pm

The Last Belay

"Who got the AIG payouts? Reuters reports that a number of large US and foreign banks got $50 billion from the insurance giant."

...

March 7th, 2009 4:28 pm

An disaster waiting to happen

"The Telegraph says that President Obama was too exhausted to give British PM Gordon Brown a proper welcome."

...

March 7th, 2009 1:47 pm

The Obama Economy

"This semi-opinion piece from the AP is to my mind, less about the economy than it is about the MSM’s changing view of Obama’s economy. The gist of it is that Obama’s ability to pin the current woes on his predecessor declines with each passing day. There’s a line that will be crossed at some time in the future. How far are we from it?"

...

March 7th, 2009 1:38 pm

Advice from the Left

"Barack, Just Do It.

The Drudge Report says that Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez is exhorting President Obama to follow the path of socialism. What made him think President Obama would listen?"

Pornography and the Courts

Pornography, legal activism, screen-addiction, the first amendment, culture war, alternative lifestyles, license as liberty, and the international consequences of shoddy Ameican leadership ... this little piece covers covers a lot of ground in just 5 paragraphs. And it resonates ... deeply.

read the whole thing (below or at the link).

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.02.09.001.pdart

HT: BC comments section.

Pornography and the Courts

by Roger Scruton

February 09, 2009

The nomination of David Ogden reminds us of the problems caused by pornography, both at home and abroad.

President Obama’s choice of David Ogden for Deputy Attorney General is not of concern to Americans only. The world-wide explosion of pornographic material, and its exploitation through the internet, is to a great extent the result of legal activism in the United States. Legal activism is a threat at the best of times—a way in which elites and special interests can circumvent the democratic process and impose themselves on the majority. In the case of pornography it also opens the way to a temptation against which ordinary people are inadequately protected.

Porn exploits the existing screen-addiction, induced by TV and the internet, in order to catalyze a far worse addiction, which is the addiction to vicarious sex. Psychologists, philosophers and social critics concur in the judgment that this addiction is immensely damaging, not merely in undermining family relations and exposing children and other vulnerable people to sexual predation, but in destroying the capacity for loving sexual relations. It is one of the great social diseases, and it is looked on with dismay by the majority—including a majority of those who are addicted to it.

Yet it is legal activism in America that has paved the way for the world-wide flood of pornographic material, and for the world-wide revulsion against a society and a culture that seems to find nothing wrong with it. The issue of pornography is therefore not just a major domestic problem: it is, or ought to be, at the top of the foreign policy agenda. For President Obama to be making overtures of conciliation towards the Muslim world—something that is certainly needed—while appointing to high legal office one of the most virulent advocates of a culture that poses the greatest threat to Muslim society is, it seems to me, indicative of a deep confusion—a confusion inherent in the essential negativity of liberal politics.

The idea that pornography is “speech,” within the meaning of the first amendment, and thereby protected by the Constitution, is so absurd that it is hard for an outsider to see how American judges have been persuaded to accept it again and again. Of course porn is big business, and can afford to keep beating at the doors of the courts. But the real reason for the legalization of pornography in America lies in the culture of the liberal elite and in the strategy of legal activism whereby that elite continues its relentless assault on majority values. Porn has been incorporated into the “culture war” precisely because ordinary Americans see it as a threat to family and religious values. This fact is sufficient to prompt the liberal establishment to add porn to its agenda, as one more thing to be defended in the court against the legislature. Again and again we have seen this process at work, as the values and transgressions of elites are seized upon by the ACLU and similar organizations, rebranded as essential liberties, and defended as constitutional rights, regardless of their subversive effect on society as a whole. In the course of the battle the old distinction between liberty and license, made vividly by Locke and essential to the defense of a truly liberal constitution, is forgotten. Transgression is defended as an “alternative life style,” regardless of the damage.

This would matter less if the consequences were confined to America. But because the conflict between liberty and license is fought out in the American courts, the judgments of those courts become precedents around the world. They are a world-wide guide to how liberty and license are currently to be seen. Moreover, by taking advantage of the American courts, the porn industry can build a secure base in the world’s most powerful economy. And internet providers, operating freely in America, can effectively ignore the law elsewhere. For these and other reasons societies around the globe are both dependent on American legal decisions, and also threatened by them. And it goes hard with all of them—America included—when one of the principal activists on behalf of porn is rewarded with one of the highest offices of government.


Roger Scruton is Research Professor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Arlington, VA.

Copyright 2009 the Witherspoon Institute. All rights reserved.

BC: weekend catch up

Man! Wrechard is really cranking out the posts this weekend, I may have to just skip to the front :(

March 7th, 2009 4:03 am

Paul Keating remembers Geithner

"The Sydney Morning Herald summarizes former Australian PM Paul Keating’s recollections of Tim Geithner. Paul Keating was Labor politician with particularly close ties to Indonesia. Now I don’t know how much of this is Keating grinding his axe, but I reproduce the gist of it on an FYI basis."

...

March 7th, 2009 1:45 am

How do you know you’re winning?

"Reuters calls the economic situation “grim”. How grim exactly? Reuters cites depressing economic indicators, but Obama cited small victories. He says that his plan needs “time and it will take patience” to work."

...

March 7th, 2009 12:36 am

North Korea

"Former Spook says Pyongyang is set to test the limits of US resolve by preparing to launch some more missiles. It’s looking for the red line. Where will it be drawn?"

...

March 7th, 2009 12:04 am

The anatomy of a pushback

"Quietly, almost without fanfare, one of the administrations key proposals appears to have been partially stopped by bipartisan effort. The census is no longer going to be run from the White House, at least not directly. The Hill reports:"

...

March 6th, 2009 5:24 pm

Heads I Win, Tails I Win

"Nice odds if you can get them. But now you can. The Washington Post reports on a new, trillion dollar scheme to save the economy and boost demand."

comment review 3/6/09

reading in "and the word was made fresh"

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/03/obama_on_dow_collapse_hakuna_m.asp

unbelievable.

...

37. wretchard:

Glenn Reynolds explains the “Buyers Remorse” phenomenon is far more cruel terms than I have. So I’ll restate my position, even though I know some have disagreed and will disagree. Barack Obama isn’t the problem. He was to entitled to run on his ideas just like anyone else. And to my mind he is still welcome to offer his ideas on the public market place whenever he wants. The question is why so many bought the product as is, where is.

The real problem was projection. People saw in him what they wanted to see. Projection took in both those of genuine goodwill and those Glenn Reynolds calls the sophisticated, liberal “rubes”. I won’t talk about the rubes who outsmarted themselves, but about those who’ve led such decent lives that they never dreamed they could get fooled so drastically. People who’ve led their lives sheltered in the bosom of a loving, protective family are at a disadvantage in a nasty cruel world. All other things being equal, a man who grew up in Soweto or the Tondo Foreshore will have a better chance of surviving against al-Qaeda or drug gangs than a person who’s known nothing but kindness, fair play and honesty all his life. The low-life man sniffs every drink offered, bites every coin given to him in payment, watches all the dark alleyways for the man with the cosh. When you’re dealing with that crew from Chicago, can you do any less?

That doesn’t mean that they can’t participate in debate. But you’ve got to have a filter and discernment in place so their contribution is positive. Listen to their stories by all means, for they too have a tale to tell. Give them tasks that are in their interest to perform well, by all means. But don’t give them the keys to the Federal Reserve, at least not without oversight. Disasters arising from not supervising is just as much the fault of the supervisor as the supervised.

Despite everything, I think we should build coalitions with liberals who may now see certain things have gone too far or at least get them to agree that the stakes are so high they can’t approached in such a cavalier, quasi-religious fashion. Winston Churchill once said that John Jellicoe was the “only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon”. That made Jellicoe cautious. He didn’t win Jutland, but he didn’t lose it either, and that was enough. Obama is far more powerful than Jellicoe. He’s the only man anywhere who can sink the world singlehandedly. Surely his actions must be analyzed critically and dispassionately. We owe the future that.

Mar 3, 2009 - 5:05 pm

This comment troubled me somewhat because I consider my self to have come from a loving family (likewise I hope my children will say the same when they reach my age), and i like to think that having this back ground (and providing a similar one to my kids) is conveying advantages in dealing with life rather than the opposite.

accordingly, mongoose to the rescue...


41. Mongoose:

W: Again, you have this weird dichotomy (and I would say it is a false one).

It confuses. What, are you reading a lot of Cormac Maccarthy lately? Faulkner? Mann?

These Obamabot are not quite so fabulous or mysterious.

There is nothing mysterious about these people, and they have been hustled for years, for generations. Famously, there is one born every minute. They are fatuous, obtuse center or left of center voters. The media onslaught and the GOTV efforts of the Democrats pushed them along their cattle path. They have been more spoiled than nurtured. Good will? Like good intentions, many a path to hell is paved with it.

This all is not the sign of a good and loving home; it is the sign of weak minds and mediocre spirits, and perhaps these defects where nurtured in that “loving home” with all the good intentions imaginable. Most American encounter the Democrat political machine in grade school. If they have not figured it out on some level by the time they have gotten through High School, they lack some measure of moral probity–they were not paying attention. Growing up in America is hardly akin to growing up like some sort of protected and indulged royalty. It is tough stuff from a moral point of view, and it is tough stuff at an early age.

Our response to these people must be truthful and not too heavy on ideology. View them as people that have ended badly their first real love affair or marriage, or who have finally owned up to an addiction. They will need tolerance, support, honesty, real facts and real alternatives. They will need to be addressed as fellows through our shared hearitage and experiences as Americans. We must not sugar coat the facts, but we must not gloat either. What matters is the future. What matters is saving the Republic. We must start preparing for them now. The biggest risk is that they will still see the State as the provider of that grand future that they invision with that “good will” of theirs, that they recoil from just Obama’s vision of the State, not statism altogether. This we must counter with the deeper truth.

….

But back to this strange dichotomy of the gullibility of the innocent and the clarity of the damned that you keep pushing out there. I find it interesting, and I am not sure that I get your point. I am not sure that you do either. It seems to me to be a “poetics in progress” that you are working on here, perhaps subconsciously.

I wonder what you are getting at really. unloved Low-lifes fare better than the “loved innocent”? Is that really what you mean? Or do you mean the cosseted are more gullible than the experienced? Is this about mere learning, or os it about moral truth? There is so much dissonance in, and asymmetry to, the apposition.

Perhaps this is a cultural difference, but one scarcely knows where to begin.

But I think that you mean more than the loss of innocence. I am going to assume that you are talking about acquiring moral truth; being moved by “grace”.

So let me throw something at you.

There is a difference between innocence and decency, in the adult at least, and there is a difference between innocence and fatuousness or obtuseness.

A dog can spot a bad person, cannot get more innocent than that. A young child quickly spots one too, if they are insightful. These insights are not learned, and they guarantee no morality to those that have them.

ThR innocent of yours could well turn into a master criminal himself you know, once the scales have dropped from HIS eyes. You low-life can be redeemed, or may not be a low-life at all, just an unfortunate. His youthful contact with evil and despair might just drive him toward God and what is good in himself. You model is so behavioral. Many a person comes from a “loving and protective” family have turned out to be a viper.

We are all sinners. In adults, true morality comes from a conscious assent to moral codes; in the primary case to acknowledged absolutes of a religious nature, and in the secondary case in emulation of exemplary human beings, and these exemplars generally come by their morality by way of the primary case–by way of conscious assent to religious truth. This is what morality and true “good will” stems from. Goodness comes from overcoming the evil within oneself, not from a lack of exposure to evil. Good will comes from acknowledging this struggle in others. To do this one must have clear knowledge of oneself, and, to the Christian at least, the gift of grace.

Exposure in childhood to proper morality is deeply helpful, but decency is not merely a matter of following examples. The human soul is much to filled with sin to merely be guided past those sins by a nurturing environment or moral exemplars.

In some sense man is lower than and animal, for an animal is truly innocent, it cannot sin. But man has the potential to be far higher than an animal: he may overcome the evil with in him and be redeemed. He can turn from evil and willfully do good. He can in some sense come to know the meaning of his actions. This is the gift and challenge of being a human being. In this we get a small taste of the moral nature of God. This is what is meant when it is said of us the we are “made in the image of God”. A high gift indeed.

It is to achieve this that we so deeply value liberty. It is to met this challenge that we wish to save the Republic.

At least that is how I see it.

Mar 3, 2009 - 6:39 pm


KA-CHOW!

Dont get me wrong, Wrechard gets most things right... but on somethings he has difficulty seeing things from an externally objective position and remains trapped within his own experiences.

the exchange continues...

51. wretchard:

The old-time Cathecists used to warn us that temptation never came to you as something blatantly ugly. It would always be coated in something sweet. CS Lewis argued that the devil knew something even better: he would convince you he didn’t exist. But these days what’s been stood on its head is our description of dangerous things. In the movies we can recognize the villain 9 times out of 10 simply on the basis of his appearance. With rare exceptions, Tom Cruise is the hero. With almost no exceptins, Jack Palance used to be the villain. We are conditioned to thinking of the handsome guys, the good dancers, the folks with the clever repartee as the ‘heroes’; and if you’re ugly, then you “look the part”.

But reality isn’t like that. Good and bad guys come in all shapes and sizes, like they always have. But somehow we’ve lost the ability to discern the difference. If Obama turns out to be something other than what we think he is, it will not have been because the world has suddenly become evil or perverted, or that God is punishing us for our crookedness. No. It will have been because we’ve lost the ability to see what used to be used to obvious to people in harder times.

He looked the part of the good guy. Ergo he was the good guy. Maybe he is the good guy, but I refuse to accept it on the basis of appearances. To my mind the key questions are: what are the odds that a politician who grew up and prospered in Chicago can be a Lightworker? If BHO were pitched as a better than average politician from his millieu I’d find it plausible. But to claim he’s the untainted one. That’s pushing the likelihood envelope.

But how do you make these judgments? Can we really expect everyone to be so cynical — I did not say self-recognizing — but cynical as in one who believes that “human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest”? It takes disappointment and hard knocks to accept the sad fact about humans: to recognize their salvability and damnation; to see them both as fallen and as angels. Consider why cops come to think the way they do. It has nothing to do with self-recognition. It’s the sad consequence of having seen perhaps more than person should.

The media had a special responsibility to ask questions about both John McCain and Barack Obama. They were our cops. They were the guys we relied on to ask “tough questions”. Peer under the hood. Kick the tires. I’m not wholly convinced they did their job. But for those who believed they did, well BHO passed all the tests. The media swooned over him. He was the handsome guy. The tall guy. The man who danced well. He had a baritone. What more was there to look for.

That’s why I think many people voted for him in absolute good faith, like they would buy a product with good reviews and smart packaging. Who but a guy of a certain type would shake the box and hear the broken springs? The bottom line is that I don’t think any judgment should attach to those who chose BHO. And I have many friends who did, who are probably far better human beings than I. Yes, you are right that it’s about grace. There but for grace go so many.

Mar 3, 2009 - 7:47 pm

52. JAK:

People have no faith in evil, it must be proven.

Mar 3, 2009 - 7:56 pm

53. Mongoose:

It takes disappointment and hard knocks to accept the sad fact about humans: to recognize their salvability and damnation; to see them both as fallen and as angels.
No, it takes grace. Often one as to go through hard knocks to get to the point where ones pride can be silenced to the point that we are ready to receive it.

This was my point, and I was righ[t]–at least to a degree–the notion of grace is what you are grappling with here,.

Mar 3, 2009 - 8:14 pm

57. Mongoose:

WRETCHARD, there is nothing of the human that we should not see. Nothing that we should not squarely look at. What we see need not fill us with cynicism.
No one is beyond redemption.

... here is a snippit from boghie in comment 63:

The irony of our culture is that we seem to be a nation of cynical fools … or gullible skeptics if you will. This is what happens when “true truth” (to borrow Francis Schaeffer’s term) is tossed out the window. People still have notions of good and bad, but the definitions are all over the place. To be skeptical of what is authentically good is just as foolish as to be gullible about what is authentically bad. I think we saw a lot of both behaviors in this election. Cynics paving the road smooth ahead of Obama, dupes skipping blithely along that smooth road behind him.


further excellent comments here, here and here


tommorrow I start on "the sub prime country crisis".

March 6th, 2009 3:07 am

As time goes by

"In the middle of last year, presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a speech in Germany which caused a controversy among its pundits. The International Herald Tribune reported that his choice of site was less than inspired. Indeed, Obama had chosen to speak at the base of a monument associated with the Nazis."

BC: Rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic

March 5th, 2009 11:45 pm

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

"This can’t be good for the financial system.

NEW YORK (AP) — A stunning 48 percent of the nation’s homeowners who have a subprime, adjustable-rate mortgage are behind on their payments or in foreclosure, and the rate for homeowners with all mortgage types hit a new record, new data Thursday showed.

But that’s not the worst of it."

BC: Then and now

March 5th, 2009 7:38 pm

Then and now

"Jim Cramer in October, 2008.

And while any president will be an improvement over the current one, there is a growing belief on Wall Street that Barack Obama has the capacity to lead us out of this wilderness while John McCain does not. I’ll go a step further: Obama is a recession. McCain is a depression.

Now listen to Jim Cramer in March, 2009."

BC: Notes from all around

March 5th, 2009 4:24 pm

Notes from all around

"

• Good Riddance, Yucca Mountain — Obama pulls the plug on the nuclear industry’s last best hope.
  By Timothy Noah at Slate.
• Could Mexico Fail? — RAND
• “Afghanistan is better than you think” — Max Boot.
• “Obama is a Communist” — Alan Keyes
• Tanks for the memories — there’ll be a boom in armored vehicle production in the coming decades, and most of it won’t be American. Aviation Week.
• The war on Rush Limbaugh — Politico.
• Iraq after Obama’s Pullout — Bing West looks at the prospects in Small Wars Journal.

Open thread on them all."

BC: Magic bullets

March 5th, 2009 2:29 pm

Magic bullets

"This two year old video of Newt Gingrich illustrates the variance in human institutions. Between what people are capable of, and what other people are not capable of. Since the time the video was made, some members of the public may have come to doubt that the “world that works” is all it is cracked up to be. The world may not be as simple as Newt describes it. But that doesn’t change his essential point: which is that huge gaps in performance can exist between institutions made up of the same technological and human raw material. It is the culture between them that matters."

BC: Terra incognita

March 4th, 2009 4:07 pm

Terra incognita

"

Richard Landes at the Augean Stables has some graphs show the comparative casualty footprint of various conflicts. But it shows more than that, it describes not just how the world is, but more importantly, how we insist on not seeing it.

"

BC: Let me try again

March 4th, 2009 1:56 pm

Let me try again

"Bret Stephens at Commentary details the history behind what the Obama administration may now try: a rapproachment with Syria. He describes the repeated triumph of Washington’s hope over experience and results which might compared to the battered wife syndrome. The Assads seem to have the remarkable ability to keep spurning Western diplomacy and insulting it into the bargain, but they “still love him”. And they always will."

BC: Which way did he go, George?

March 4th, 2009 1:29 am

Which way did he go, George?

"Brad Setser at the Council of Foreign Relations looks at how the world’s leading economies performed in the last quarter of 2008. Short answer: they tanked and now we know. The chart on his site shows the US is by no means the worst off."

BC: The subprime country crisis

March 3rd, 2009 3:04 pm

The subprime country crisis

"A reader writes:

Eastern Europe is a mess. Many banks are probably insolvent if not for Government intervention. In addition, German and Austrian banks are in the … because of Eastern Eruope. The first link below is an awesome article from BW on this - the Germans/Austrians were at first all happy that they did not get invovled in subprime loans for housing. However, the ended up financing subprime countries!

Subprime countries? Doesn’t America want to become like Europe. Well maybe not, given how Der Spiegel describes its problems. Bureaucracy and state guidance are apparently no guarantees that the right economic choices will always be taken."

BC: And the word was made fresh

March 3rd, 2009 1:44 pm

And the word was made fresh

"Jake Tapper at the Politico describes the newest response to the economic crisis. Logos. Wikipedia defines a logo as follows: “A logo (Greek λογότυπος = logotypos) is a graphical element (ideogram, symbol, emblem, icon, sign) that, together with its logotype (a uniquely set and arranged typeface) form a trademark or commercial brand. Typically, a logo’s design is for immediate recognition.[1] The logo is one aspect of a company’s commercial brand, or economic or academic entity, and its shapes, colors, fonts, and images usually are different from others in a similar market. Logos are also used to identify organizations and other non-commercial entities.” Here’s the Obama recovery logo.

"

BC: Nuance

March 1st, 2009 7:31 pm

Nuance

"Anne Bayefsky at Forbes isn’t sure whether the Obama Administration is participating in Durban II, because despite some indications that it isn’t, there are some indications that it is. Confused? Read on:"

El_Heffe says: This smacks somewhat of FDR changing his mind on a whim, or openly backing two opposing positions at the same time (See: The Forgotten Man)

BC: The Iron Curtain

March 1st, 2009 1:13 pm

The Iron Curtain

"As Western European banks tremble at the thought of their exposure to Eastern Europe, warnings of a “new Iron Curtain”, a new economic division between East and West, were made by the EU leaders. The pleas highlighted the global nature of the economic crisis as more and more classes of toxic assets shouldered their way forward into view."

BC: Cronies

March 1st, 2009 12:57 am

Cronies

"The opening paragraph from the Times Online describes the plight of billionaires in a regulated economy: many Chinese “capitalists” who made fortunes through their connections with the ruling Communist Party are falling into disgrace. Although the Times Online describes this as the effect of “the communist nation’s flirtation with capitalism turns sour”, the correct term for economies in which connections, rather the market are determinants for success is crony capitalism."

BC: "A crisis of globalization"

February 27th, 2009 5:38 pm

“A crisis of globalization”

" “There will be blood” — Niall Ferguson, speaks in Ottawa. Does the crisis mean a new American century? Video at the link. “We are getting the deficits of a World War without a war.”

Ferguson observes that much of US consumption — indeed much of the Obama administration’s deficit — will be financed from overseas. And why do foreigners lend America money? Because crisis isn’t American. It’s global. And despite it’s weaknesses, the United States, was due its institutional strengths, the best bet in a storm. That combination of characteristics made it a safe(r) haven in the the coming upheavals. As Ferguson puts it, the current crisis “hits others harder than the United States”. "

BC: The way we used to be

February 27th, 2009 12:21 am

The way we used to be

"What are some of the things we take for granted today which would have seemed nearly miraculous when we were kids? Share your memories."

BC: Nazis!

February 26th, 2009 12:28 pm

Nazis!

"Michael Totten’s account of the what really happened in Hamra Street, Beirut to himself, Christopher Hitchens and Jonathan Foreman is up at his site. This is the genuine article because he was there. A number of other accounts have surfaced, supposedly based on “sources”, yet to the best of my knowledge, none of these sources included men who were there — unless you count the Syrian Nazi party. So if you want to know what really happened, this is the article to read."