Archive for September, 2014

One Book Wonders: Scan Another Book (September 29, 2014)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Book Reference, Economics, Economics Nobel, Education, Greenspan, Minimum Wage, Monopoly on September 29, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “Two books do offer more insight.  But that is just me.”

2          “Three if you have a spare three-day weekend.”

. . .

1          “Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist often said that his world view was strongly influenced by a book he read as a young man, The Road to Serfdom, by Friedrich von Hayek.  The best-seller was published in 1944 during the last days of World War II.”

2          “I can see why Fred’s missive captivated the young private from Milwaukee.  He was conscripted by Big Government to fight other privates conscripted by other Big Governments.  Fred warned of the dangers of what he called collectivism and big government and predicted that the path to socialism, the ‘road to serfdom’ of his title, would eventually collapse.  The world sure looked like it was collapsing.”

1          “My original edition notes that the printing has been redesigned by the publisher to conform to the government’s request to conserve paper during that War.  Government making reasonable requests?”

2          “The government was right, we tattoo far too many fallen trees.  My copy warns the reader right on the cover that Fred may not have any idea what he is talking about.  The publisher warns the prospective purchaser that Hayek got the Nobel Prize in E-con-omics.”

1         “What if Rehnquist had stumbled on a book that warned of the dangers of raw selfishness and big corporations and predicted that the path to corporatism and kleptocracy, the ‘road to serfdom’ of the new publication, would eventually collapse.”

2          “Fred lived during a period of time when the governments of many world powers, at the direction of their military and financial elites, marketed much evil and inflicted great pain, grief, and violence on the world.  His distrust is not unfounded but myopic.”

1          “He intuits that big is often bad, but he only got half the story right.  We do not have a market economy.  Today, Big Government is Big Business; Big Business is Big Government.  Sit down and analyze the major industries in America.  Each one of them is monopolized.  The business is the industry; the industry is the business.  In this Internet era, when someone concocts a new application or gizmo, that person has a monopoly on the application or gizmo.”

2          “We are racing down the road to serfdom.  Yet the guvmit, not the private sector, has always enforced speed limits.”

1          “The government is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the monopoly corporations.  There are now no limits and no governors.”

. . .

1          “Let’s say that someone is deeply and genuinely concerned about the road to serfdom.  Would the concerned citizen support a higher minimum wage or not?  The folks who have minimum wage jobs today are serfs.  They are at the end of the road to serfdom in a hopeless cul-de-sac.  If the rate is raised, some folks will lose some of their serf status and yet a few may lose their job.”

2          “What I have noticed is that the opponents of a minimum wage increase do not give a hoot about the workers and only seek to do everything to cut the costs for the Owners.”

1          “Now that you mention it, Fred surely would support an increase in the minimum wage to avoid the nefarious road to serfdom.”

2          “What happened to Bill along his journey?”

. . .

1          “In The Age of Turbulence, Alan ‘Easy Al’ Greenspan describes the influence that Ayn Rand had on his intellectual development.  So many young men are distracted by shiny objects.”

2          “So many things in life just are not a surprise.”

1          “Raw self-interest is not genius, but it sure does appeal to our baser instincts.”

2          “And it advanced her and his financial interests.”

1          “But not ours.  I do not hold her exclusively responsible for the economic violence that he unleashed on the world, yet she is at the top of the list.”

. . .

1          “Think about the folks who look to the Good Book and only the Good Book for insight and inspiration.  At one time, a person could only carry one gun, one knife, one bed roll and one book.  That book was dubbed the Good Book.  The struggle to exist limited one’s time to contemplate one’s existence.  Space only allowed for one book and time only allowed for reading one book that had to provide all the answers.”

. . .

1          “Those who have access to more resources need to get a life.  And scan a second book.”

2          “Asking someone to read two books is a lot to ask.  Life is short.”

. . .

1           “When the smarter gender takes over, Nancy Drew will reign supreme.”

. . .

[Banned Book Week – September 21 – 27]

[Search the name “Carmen Segarra” on the Internet.  She should receive the Profile in Courage Award for 2014, but it will likely go to someone like Greenspan or Bernanke.  See the previous e-ssay at Profile In Cowardice Award (May 12, 2014).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Scan a book, don’t ban books.

Read a second book; get a second opinion.

What we really need is a moment of science in the public schools.

Leave a comment »

e-bola: Goin’ Internet-y (September 22, 2014)

Posted in Ebola, Health Care, Public Health on September 22, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C          “Some Internet postings go viral; some viruses go Internet-y.  e-bola is spreading as quickly as an e-mail attachment or a YouTube video.”

Doc     “Scary.”

C          “When a small minor localized flu outbreak occurs even in a large major metropolitan region with a variety of medical facilities, the health care system quickly borders on collapse.”

Doc     “Scary.”

C          “e-bola has hit the ‘Reply All’ button rather than the ‘Reply’ button.” Continue reading →

1 Comment »

The Federal Government, In Practice (September 15, 2014)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, CIA, Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Federal Reserve, Judges, Judicial Arrogance, Judiciary, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, Presidency, USA PATRIOT Act on September 15, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S          “So the Founding Fathers are blamed for and credited with many things.  Everyone agrees they were inspired by Montesquieu’s notion of the separation of powers providing for executive, legislative and judicial functions.  The division of labor and duties seems so clean and elegant in your civics class.  Yet, in practice, the process is so tainted and untidy.”

T          “In my class, I try to tidy up the mess.  I present this outline of the grand plan on the board to spark discussion:

Post 1787:          Theory:     Practice:

President            34%           30% (implement laws)
Congress             33%           60% (make laws)
Judiciary             33%           10% (interpret laws)
National Bank      0%             0% (inspire debate)

The judiciary was little more than an administrative agency with possibility until the Supreme Court developed the doctrine of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison in 1803.  The political plate tectonics shifted and now we have:

2014:

President                             44% (determines most major domestic and foreign policy initiatives)

Congress                              21% (drives economic activities via substantial ad hoc spending largely for defense, interest and entitlements)

Judiciary                              35% (makes laws)

Federal Reserve                 33% (the private bank with the misleading name establishes monetary policy and directs fiscal policy by default because of Congressional grid lock and thus effectively runs the economy, with little public participation)

National Security State    39% (shapes domestic and foreign affairs via a motley and myriad montage of agencies, contractors, sub-contractors and others with little oversight)

S          “So sixty-eight percent of government policy is imposed by federal judges and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors/Big Bankers who are not elected.”

T          “The Founding Fathers are said to have been anti-democratic.  I know they would be surprised at what has emerged in practice in America.”

S          “So thirty-nine percent of domestic and foreign surveillance and activities are determined by unknown and unaccountable agents and operatives.”

T          “Who knows.”

. . .

S          “So we need to track the federal Debt which is now over 17 Trillion dollars and also the Federal Reserve Debt which is now over 4 Trillion dollars.”

T          “While you are at it, try to fathom the 100s of Trillions of dollars in derivatives that were never on the Founding Fathers’ radar and are off the public radar today.”

S          “That fraud will doom the Republic some day.”

. . .

S          “So the Big Bankers favor war because it is so profitable, so the large number of Big Bankers in power results in an over-production of war.”

T          “Accord.”

. . .

T          “Republicans want a powerful ‘unitary’ President when a Republican is in the White House and an effete President when a Democrat is in the White House.”

S          “And everyone agrees that federal judges are politicians in black robes.”

T          “Accord, young scholar.  See why this is so much fun.”

. . .

[T:  Teacher; S:  Student]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The Declaration of Independence is America’s Original Organic Poem.  The Constitution is America’s Owners’ Manual.  Signed on September 17, 1787.

There is no law.  There is only ideology.

1 Comment »

World’s Reserve Currency War I = Cold War 2.0 = WW III (?) (September 8, 2014)

Posted in China, Dollar - World's Reserve Currency, Energy, Fracking, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Market Solutions, Peak Oil, Russia on September 8, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

7          “Someday someone will realize that the attacks on Saddam Hussein in Iraq and on Muammar Gaddafi in Libya were motivated in part by their efforts to undertake oil sales in something other than American dollars.  If the American dollar is no longer the world’s petro dollar and reserve currency, America will not be able to dictate and drive world economic affairs.  America wants Europe to be dependent on America and American gas and on the American dollar, not on Russia and Russian gas and on some financial measure and medium other than the American dollar.  And along comes Putin who is peddling oil and gas using something other than the American dollar.”

8          “That makes Putin ‘Public Enemy No. 1.’  So the U.S. is imposing economic sanctions on the Russians which are also economic sanctions on the Europeans and others.  The only way for the U.S. to compel continued use of the petro dollar is to be the empire providing, controlling and protecting the petro supply.  Now the U.S. is trying to provide rather than just control and protect the supply.  For decades, the U.S. imported oil and gas from countries that disregarded environmental standards and now the U.S. is disregarding environmental standards and seeking to export gas produced using fluids and processes that are destructive to the land and water here in the good old U.S. of A.  What are we doing?”

7          “America is on the retrograde in overdrive.  Until recently, America ‘imported’ oil and ‘exported’ the pollution necessary to produce it.  Now America seeks to ‘export’ gas and ‘import’ the pollution and degradation necessary to produce it.  Pollution and degradation are externalities that are not paid by the oil and gas companies.  If the oil and gas companies internalized the costs of the pollution and degradation, they could pass the costs on to the consumer and allow the consumer to decide how much oil and gas should be produced.”

8          “And look at those we call our allies.  Among other countries, Britain, France, Poland and Bulgaria are refusing to embrace fracking and the resulting environmental damage.  U.S. interests are interested in obtaining access to the gas reserves in the Ukraine and using fracking techniques to extract the gas.  The lawyers and the lobbyists have been deployed.  The sons of the Ruling Class like Kerry-Heinz and Biden are positioned and poised to make a killing.”

7          “Only after many others get killed.  America cannot secure and dictate the distribution of the gas to Europe and others as quickly as Russia and Europe will be required to respond to the economic sanctions.  Russia and Russians are much more resilient and resourceful than America and Americans.  The Russians won World War II for the West.  Starting World War III with them is not likely to end well.  The Russians will develop workarounds to circumvent the economic sanctions and may dislodge the almighty dollar from the world stage.”

8          “The Europeans also need to learn to accommodate, but they could balk this winter at freezing to fuel the U.S. dollar.”

7          “They could sew American dollars together to make a shawl.  Americans devised ‘Hoover blankets’ from newspapers and Europeans could craft ‘Benjamin blankets’ from American bucks.  No one will strenuously dispute that it is or soon will be ‘Cold War 2.0’.”

8          “The Chinese may break the tie.  China and Russia and other countries could work together to circumvent the sanctions and develop a competing and competitive international economy devoid of the dollar.  Russia could provide China with access to the Arctic and allow them to proceed in the South China Sea.”

7          “Then America would boycott all Chinese goods.  See how they like that.”

8          “A friend is convinced that all the gold in Ft. Knox and all of Germany’s gold in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was transferred to the Chinese to stave off a sale of Treasury bonds.  They may be prepared.  The economic sanctions are seen as exercises of ‘soft power,’ yet they may expose how soft the American economy really is today.”

7          “That is why so many powerful interests are lobbying so aggressively for the U.S. to use ‘hard power.’  Wars are big business; wars are good for business.  Look at all the misinformation involving the attack on the aircraft flying on flight MH17 that is bandied about to justify military action.  False Flag capers are the easiest way to get the populace to rally ‘round the flag.”

8          “Here there be dragons.”

. . .

8          “Here there be no angels.  The Russian oligarchs who control the gas fields are as corrupt as the U.S. bankers who control oil and gas prices.  Look at the shenanigans and manipulations during the summer of 2008.  No one does anything.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Strategy: Cut off your face to spit your face

Dollar slaves; Dollar serfs

Leave a comment »

“Titters” v. “Self-Unemployed” (September 1, 2014)

Posted in Entitlements, Judicial Arrogance, On [Traits/Characteristics], Pensions, Work on September 1, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Q          “If you plan to attract an academic clique, you need to concoct your own hip lingo.  Those who are in the know need to believe they are in a selective and exclusive circle.”

P          “I also call them ‘9-to-5ers’.  That is just not as much fun . . . or as facetious.”

. . .

P          “‘Class’ is a telling factor even though we profess to live in a class-free society.  And of course ‘Earnings’ or ‘Income’ however defined are salient traits.”

Q          “Social scientists have it covered with the more antiseptic academic catch-all phrase ‘Socioeconomic Status’.  ‘Race’ is also intertwined with ‘Socioeconomic Status’.”

P          “‘Education’ also impacts and is impacted by ‘Socioeconomic Status’.”

Q          “‘Religion.’  ‘Religion’ and ‘Race’ are related.  Some say that the most segregated hour of the week is every Sunday morning in the houses of worship.”

P          “And one’s ‘Political Party’ is one’s defining clan and secular religion.  Some hypothesize that the Red Clan hates the Blue Clan; the Blue Clan hates the Red Clan.”

. . .

P          “A nuanced understanding of ‘Employment Status’ is also revealing.  The differences between those who are employed and those who are unemployed refine the analysis.  When I poll people who are among the employed cohort, the most defining trait is the difference between those who are ‘Titters’ versus those who are ‘Self-Unemployed’.  Is someone working for the government or working for himself or herself?  The analysis can be expanded to cover anyone getting a regular pay check, yet someone working for a corporation does have an almost certain guarantee of lifetime government employment.  The distinction between ‘Titters’ versus the ‘Self-Unemployed’ is more telling and tells you as much as the other conventional traits.”

Q          “One’s employment circumstance may be even more revealing than whether one is a devotee of the Designated Hitter Rule or not.”

P          “Exactly.  The ‘Titters’ feel entitled to every single penny and will fight for every single penny.  And they are tight with every penny.  ‘I earned it.’  The ‘Titters’ do not feel that they should pay the ‘Self-Unemployed’ for their services.”

. . .

P          “When ‘Titters’ talk about the mission of their bureau, almost without fail they preface the discussion by stating that they cannot get the job done without even more money and even more personnel.  The ‘Self-Unemployed’ admit that they don’t have enough money and personnel, but they soldier on within their limited means.”

Q          “I know one guy who spends his work days twisting paper clips into animal figures and complains that the bureau can’t get the job done without even more money and even more personnel.”

. . .

P          “Those who are ‘Self-Unemployed’ recognize that money is ‘Hard come, easy go’ and are often willing to throw a few dollars into the pot even though they do not know whether the next dollar will arrive.”

Q          “I’ve notice that those who are ‘Self-Unemployed’ also may deduct a few meals that are only quasi business-related and thus spread the costs of their pinching with other citizens.  They may also a slip a few dollars in their pocket without accounting to the Great Uncle.”

P          “Pinching pennies by pinching pennies.  Not a great surprise.”

. . .

P          “Those who work for the government eat.  Those who work for themselves eat . . . what they kill . . . if they kill.”

. . .

P          “Republican Judges and Democratic Judges share one conviction – they will protect their pensions uber alles.  One judge did not have any problem with the plight of a group of new employees who were forced to fund the retirement of an earlier group of retirees even though the new employees could not participate in the retirement fund under any circumstances.”

Q          “Raw naked amoral power, the currency in courts today.  And the judge surely participates in the old plan.  Bankruptcy Judges will be increasingly deciding the issue and rarely are able to repudiate one hard reality.  Resources of a debtor are finite.  Almost all pensions today are actuarially unsound.  If the money is not there in a bankruptcy case, it is not there.”

P          “Judges other than Bankruptcy Judges will find some legal hook to order, adjudge and decree that their pensions shall be paid under any and all circumstances.”

Q          “The new employees are a generation younger than the old employees. The conflict is both intra-generational and inter-generational.”

. . .

_          “A substantial cohort of citizens are entering retirement with no possibility of even maintaining a poverty level life style.  The unfunded Social Security obligations dwarf in comparison to this unrecognized and unanticipated financial burden.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Pensions and Other Entitlements: Pt. 1 (April 14, 2008) and Pensions and Other Entitlements: Pt. 2 (April 28, 2008) and other e-commentary under the Category on “Pensions” at https://e-commentary.org/category/pensions/.%5D

Bumper stickers of the week:

For folks not working for the government, your retirement party is now known as your funeral.

For folks who are “Self-Unemployed,” your last day on the job is also your last day on the planet.

“Perspectives on Race, Class, Gender, Titters and The Self-Unemployed 101” at 9 a.m. M W F at Mr. and Ms. R. Baron Hall taught by Adjunct Professor of Race, Class, Gender, Titters and The Self-Unemployed H. Sebastian . . . .

Leave a comment »