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The Kids (At The Fed) Are Not Alright (January 30, 2012)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Federal Reserve, Greenspan, Kleptocracy, Prison/Criminology, Society on January 30, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “They sound like a bunch of seventh graders snapping their towels in the locker room and squealing at each other.”

J “Seems that the model of adult life as ‘high school writ large’ has degenerated into ‘junior high school writ large.’”

K “Civilization may be on the retrograde as our society slides into collapse. Our national destiny may be heading toward a state of ‘kindergarten writ large.’ Too many of our politicians have problems ‘playing well with others.’ At least at the Fed, the clowns were all playing ‘Ring Around The Rosie’ with each other while disregarding the decline outside.”

J “The Fed should be required to release transcripts every year rather than after five years. What is transpiring and conspiring is too important to wait.”

K “Years ago, the notion of ‘Groupthink’ was trendy. The idea is that a group may be more concerned about maintaining harmony that developing a realistic perception of the situation they confront. You wonder if even one of the Fed economists was writing internal e-mails warning of what was obvious to anyone who looked outside.”

J “And got together after work with a friend over a beer and despaired about the situation.”

. . .

K “Grab a sheet of paper and jot down the names of three individuals, trained as economists or not, who have a clue about what is going on in the economy.”

J “. . . How about two?”

K “Two will do.”

J “. . . I am working on it. . . . How about one?”

K “One is a start.”

J “. . . Can I have until tomorrow?”

K “Take your time. Larry Summers’ statement about women in scientific disciplines may be 180 degrees from the truth.”

J “Summers is reliable because he is reliably wrong especially about the ‘dismal science.’”

K “The only individuals who have a clue in our society about our economic circumstances are women – Brooksley Born, Sheila Bair, Elizabeth Warren, Yves Smith, Nicole Foss, Gretchen Morgenson, Terry Gross, Christine Lagarde, etc.”

J “That is because women care. When you think about it, the forte of our fellow males is starting wars and filling prisons. When you get right down to it, the males who start the wars should fill our prisons.”

K “Talent is a mix of a tutored and sage intellect, personal and intellectual integrity, and good old-fashioned courage. America simply does not have talent at the top. The élite is not élite. And the current feeder system of universities, foundations and fellowships is designed to ferret out the same charlatans and promote them into positions of power in America.”

. . .

[See the article and comments in “The Washington Post” discussing the delusions at the Federal Reserve Bank six years ago at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/greenspan-image-tarnished-by-newly-released-documents/2012/01/12/gIQAvh0mtP_story.html.]

[See the “Frontline” program titled “The Warning” discussing the shenanigans of Greenspan, Summers, Rubin and their ilk and the courage of Brooksley Born at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/.]

[See the “e-ssay” uploaded exactly six years ago to the minute titled “Greenspan’s Legacy – Apres moi, Le Meltdown (January 30, 2006).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The nerds won, but not the smart or courageous ones.

What clothes is the Emperor not wearing today?

Plus ca change . . .

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Is The American Consumer Irrelevant? (December 12, 2011)

Posted in Bankruptcy, China, Consumerism, Pogo Plight, Society on December 12, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

P “Another holiday season and consumers are consumed with consumption. They say that seventy percent of our economy is or has been driven by consumer spending. They also say that something that cannot go on forever will not go on forever. And it can’t go on forever.”

L “It can’t. The consumers have not paid for their past consumption. The Chinese have provided the goods and the money to get the goods and deferred payment but not forgiven the debt. The American consumer is becoming an afterthought in the world market.”

P “They say that saving is up in the aggregate, yet only very slim sliver of individuals who actually have money, distrust the stock market and seek to protect principle are saving.”

L “Consumption is an addiction. Advertising provides the shallow inducements and exploits deep fears and anxieties. Economic health warnings should be added to all advertisements. ‘Purchasing this product may be dangerous to your economic health.’”

P “For so many today, keeping up with the Jones is not adequate. Vanquishing the Jones is the goal.”

L “And the Jones cannot afford to keep up with let alone vanquish their neighbors. From another perspective, the parvenu of the last few decades are a sign of a society with upward economic mobility. The economic mobility has reversed direction and is rapidly moving down. Few are arriving.”

P “Too many individuals are gullible. There are too many iPhones, iPads, iPeds, iPods, iBooks, iMacs, iMeMines.”

L “Individuals must take more responsibility. If you circumnavigate the grocery store and only acquire goods from the shelves and refrigerated cases along the outside perimeter, you will find a variety of tasty and nutritional foods. The junk food is piled in the middle of the store. The market works if you understand the layout of the market.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Consume, Don’t Invest? (Nov. 9, 2009)”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

He who dies (having played in a responsible way) with the most toys wins

Live simply so that others may simply live

Trade in a credit card for a library card

Bernays was right on the money

Plan B Is Part Of Plan A

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Boycott Food? On National Food Day? (October 24, 2011)

Posted in Boycott Series, Food, Society on October 24, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A “At least the processed junk.”

B “That is the way to celebrate National Food Day. Prepare and enjoy one healthy meal and let it become habit forming.”

A “We ingest so much junk in such massive quantities. We commit slow suicide every day and haul far more weight around on our musculoskeletal system than its design capacity. We need to secure our food closer to the farm and the field and consume it in smaller quantities.”

B “That may require fundamental lifestyle changes. Families, when they exist, are fractured and eat at different times on the run from a bag in the car. Eating is most efficient and enjoyable when a meal is prepared for a group and shared over conversation.”

A “Slow food poisoning, I tell you. Meat is the big killer. Too many resources are devoured supplying us with meat. Some meat, maybe, but in much smaller quantities.”

B “Go green; eat plants.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan

Eat less meat; enjoy more plants.

Exercise your mouth less and your feet more.

Get your food close to the farm and the field.

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Occupy America: The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Boycott Series, Economics, First Amendment, Journalism, Kleptocracy, Newspapers, Occupy Movement, Politics, Society on October 17, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

a “They will only tolerate it as long as they regard it as harmless. When they regard it as a threat to their domination, they will do harm.”

A “Another inevitable repeat of history. But when the Chicago police rioted in ’68 outside the Democratic National Convention and beat and tear gassed the populace, at least they only used night sticks and tear gas as weapons.”

a “There are videos you can download to your tube with a few clicks. You can see that the police even beat the press. Back then, the press got it and got in the way and got it from the police.”

A “Today, the authorities are armed with far more dangerous armaments and arsenals. Even toll booth operators and beach patrols sport their own SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) Teams equipped with grenade launchers and flame throwers. In an old black and white tv show, Barney Fife, a deputy sheriff in a small North Carolina town, carried one bullet, probably a .38, in his shirt pocket and was required to ask Andy, the sheriff, before he could even chamber it. Different times.”

a “Not many police officers realize that the kids are trying to protect the police union while the governor is trying to kill it. When the federal government begins providing Homeland Security grants to allow local libraries to acquire armed drones, will anyone care or comment.”

A “Not to worry, they are closing the libraries. It might be Oak Park, it might be Oakland, it might occur on some other park or land that will become part of our national lore.”

a “Even if the kids keep their heads, the authorities are going to bust them. The problem is that one person may make a threatening comment that will provide the police with a pretext. An undercover police officer could make a threatening comment to one of his colleagues and provide the pretext for a police riot.”

A “A few young Boomers got their heads busted and then when older busted a booming economy. Now the Boomers will bust some concerned youngsters’ heads – the youngsters who must endure the long bust but will never experience a lingering boom.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Ohio – Not Forgettin’ Ohio; The Battleground State Battles On (May 2, 2005)” and the “e-ssay” titled “The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Do you want the kids to be activists or pacifists?

Occupy Mayberry, R.F.D.

Kids (and older kids) who know and care are doing something

The kids are alright

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy

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Occupy America (October 10, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Boycott Series, Economics, First Amendment, Journalism, Kleptocracy, Newspapers, Occupy Movement, Politics, Society on October 10, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A “Commentators are having a hard time because there isn’t one spokesperson to interview nor one manifesto to mine.”

a “Most commentators don’t understand what has happened in America over the last decade, so I don’t expect them to understand what is going on today. I am aware enough to know that something’s clearly wrong, yet it is hard to describe. What I do know is that I don’t have a future.”

A “It’s simple and obvious. The ruling class is strip mining the middle class. And then accusing those who dare to point out the obvious truth that the astute observer is instigating class warfare.”

a “They are clearcutting the kids. They are not allowing a college grad let alone the ordinary Joe to immanentize the eschaton, although they are immanentizing the eschaton in a big way at my expense. I really don’t have much hope of improvement or advancement.”

A “Listen carefully. That may be the big difference this time – an underlying absence of hope and a more pronounced sense of desperation.”

a “Hope died a few years ago. Hope is so 2008. Yet what do you have if you don’t have hope.”

A “When hope totally disappears, an individual who can’t take it often takes one of three paths. At the extreme, he takes his life, takes someone else’s life, or takes someone else’s life and then takes his life.”

a “Someone sure took the life of the American Dream.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Boycott Big Banks (February 1, 2010).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Occupy Wall Street; Occupy Our America

You don’t need a sportscaster to know which way the ball bounces.

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Writing The Long Song (September 26, 2011)

Posted in Journalism, Language, Society, Writing on September 26, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

2 “So you’re suggesting that Bill Shakespeare is sleeping off a bender on someone’s davenport. We just need to give him a few more hours to resurface.”

1 “Bill is dead. And alive. In a way. Mortal and immortal. Not breathing but still singing.”

. . .

2 “So you say that a jour-nalist doesn’t quite achieve immortality, yet a jour-nalist adds, like, seven years to the actuarials.”

1 “As long as they don’t drink and smoke. Jour-nalists contribute too.”

2 “Could they just drink or just smoke? They are jour-nalists, they do need a smoke or an adult beverage or two. Or at least a bad habit or two.”

. . .

2 “What if you write for a weekly or a monthly? What if you are more than a jour-nalist yet less that a novelist?”

. . .

1 “The grim reaper has been on the back swing since we skidded across the maternity room floor. Yet, the good song can reverberate long after we sign off and move on.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

“After publication of [Magnum Opus], [Celebrated Writer] achieved immortality for all time and died seventeen years later.”

“Unknown during his life, [Writer’s] three unpublished manuscripts found among his papers three years after his death establish his immortality among his peers.”

Mortality does stink; immortality would stink.

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September 11 – Patriot Day (September 12, 2011)

Posted in Society on September 11, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

P “Know thyself.”

B “To thine own self be true.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Dissent is Patriotic

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Doctorin’ And Lawyerin’ And Laborin’ (September 5, 2011)

Posted in Health Care, Law, Medicine, Society on September 5, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

D “After the team gives the usual heroic effort and pulls off a miracle, the patient and family proclaim ‘Thank God’. When God decrees a different but ultimately inevitable outcome, the family always wonders whether I could have done more.”

L “If the outcome is favorable, the client takes credit and says that he should not have to pay. If the outcome is unfavorable, the client assigns blame and says that he should not have to pay.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Ernesto “Che” Guevara, M.D.; Fidel Castro, J.D.

“How can I ever repay you?” “You can pay my bill?”

“What do lawyers use for birth control?” “Their personalities.”

The Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938 intended in part to increase the cost of working an employee more than eight hours a day so that others would be hired and put to work. Employers now hire workers for less than eight hours a day so as to avoid the requirements of the statute and thus pay fewer benefits to those few individuals who are hired.

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On Loyalty (August 29, 2011)

Posted in Military, On [Traits/Characteristics], Pogo Plight, Society on August 29, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S “Loyalty is the dutiful younger cousin of love. Related to agape and unrelated to eros. You only find it among those with a secure sense of self esteem and magnanimity.”

D “I also find it among those individuals who subscribe to a disciplined sense of duty. In boot camp, the military breaks down the individual and builds up the unit based on discipline and loyalty. Society breaks down the individual and boots him out. Loyalty is basically confined to the military and to mutts and to a few other strays. My dog is the only loyal person I know. Loyalty is a rare and endangered animal.”

. . .

S “Too often loyalty is defined as a willingness to lie to cover for someone or to cover up a situation for someone. True loyalty requires you to be loyal to a Code that is greater than the person and to be loyal only to those who don’t even ask you to challenge the Code.”

D “Fidelity may be so rare because it does not derive from self interest. We are acculturated to buying what passes for allegiance for a period of time. We rent it when necessary with no expectation that it otherwise exists or endures.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Let me be the person my dog thinks I am

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Is College Worthless? (July 25, 2011)

Posted in Economics, Education, Pogo Plight, Schooling, Society on July 25, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

_ “Kinda. In the past, a college graduate acquired more money and flashed a brighter smile. For most kids today, it is four years of fun and play. A sheep skin really only signals that the bearer attended a summer sleep-away camp during the fall, winter and spring seasons for a few seasons.”

_ “Employing a generous standard, perhaps ten percent of the kids actually acquire something tantamount to a “college education” in college.”

_ “The economy has upped the bar. Ninety percent of the college graduates are not employed in college-level jobs because they are college graduates but not college-level employees. Viewed with some perspective, everything is in balance except our unreasonable expectations.”

_ “When you think about it, wouldn’t you party all night if you had no tomorrow?”

. . .

_ “When the federal government began making college loans freely available, the cost of college schooling exploded. A college may aspire to liberate one’s mind, but it enslaves one’s body and spirit. The lucky graduates leave as indentured servants, the unlucky ones as debt serfs and slaves. The only out is to enlist in the military. Is that the plan? Think about it.”

_ “And by statute, a student loan obligation is not a dischargeable debt when one files bankruptcy. But doesn’t a constitutional provision trump a conflicting statute?”

_ “That’s what they say.”

_ “What about the 13^th Amendment prohibition on slavery?”

. . .

_ “The greatest constitutional challenge in academia today is dealing with the cohort of male applicants who are significantly less prepared and talented than the cohort of female applicants. Can a university elect to maintain an equal number of boys and girls and accept a marked disparity in abilities and possibilities within a class?”

_ “The most talented and most desired female applicants may elect to matriculate at a university that maintains a balanced portfolio of males and females. To attract the elite women, a university may be compelled to admit even more less qualified males to maintain a balance in the entering class.”

_ “Remember in the old days when there were single gender schools and an opposite single gender school situated down the road.”

. . .

_ “Why not award every citizen a Ph.D. in any field upon reaching the age of 18. And of course award everyone a Selective Service card.”

_ “The Adult Entitlement Act of 2012 will save billions. In the legislation, the Department of Education can be renamed the Department of Schooling or the Department of Credentialing.”

_ “We need a little something for everyone. Academia is more interested in credentials than ideas. Double the number of degrees currently sported by each professor by fiat.”

. . .

_ “Society does not have the resources to indulge the current college extravaganza. No one should be admitted to college until the age of 20. Everyone should work at something for two years as an intern, in the civilian conservation corps, even in the military or at some other endeavor. At that time in their lives, kids need a more productive emancipation from home and a swifter introduction to the real world at less social cost. By the age of 20, both males and females have much more perspective and maturity. They can use their earnings or learning chits for education or for some other endeavor.”

_ “Kids must learn how to get out of bed on time before they can learn.”

_ “And learn to cease texting while at the morning staff meeting. Traditional college attendance would decline. The dorms could be used to house a mix of college students and kids pursuing their Big Transition and senior citizens and others in need of housing.”

_ “And perhaps the number of qualified males will balance the number of qualified females.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Go College

Phil O. Sophistry, B.A., B.A., M.A., M.A., Ph.D, Ph.D., B.M.F., B.M.F.

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