Economical Stuff

I try to keep up. With so much news, so many opinions, it's hard to stay as well informed as I obviously am. Believing that an informed electorate is vital -- more so now than ever -- and arguing constantly that such an electorate is sorely lacking, I'm sharing an important article from what many consider America's finest news source. Among its insights and revelations:

According to numerous articles and economics segments from major media outlets, experts on banks and such have become increasingly concerned over a new extension or rates or a proposal or compromise that could signal fewer investments, and dollars, and so on.

The experts confirmed that the stimulus has played a role...

...The man, who also apparently mentioned the Nasdaq, the Dow, and the Japan one at some point or another, talked for a really long time about credit or reductions or possibly all these figures, which somehow relate to China...

...Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize for something in one of those economics categories, acknowledged in an editorial this week that the SEC must work closely with the stock market, Wall Street, and the New York Stock Exchange to maintain the bulls, bears, and opening bells. Krugman also said something could spur lending or trading or budgetary measures.

Greece was also involved.

You're welcome.

To What End?

[I wrote this two or three weeks ago, but never got around to posting it.]


Where's the balance point?

As we witness the consequences of unfettered greed, of the idea that the accumulation of wealth is the essential goal, of a system built on facilitating the achievement thereof by setting aside -- deferring endlessly -- the needs of the very people who swallow the inequities which allowed the enormous accumulation of wealth at the top, at some point you have to wonder.

Traveling in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, I saw clearly that their form of socialism wasn't working (and that true communism existed only on a few колхозов.) Capitalism, with its incentives and rewards for personal achievement, is a better system; of that I had (and have) no doubt. But I think we've gone overboard, and it threatens to destroy us as surely as the USSR destroyed itself. They in horse-carts, we in Escalades, it's the same cliff, ironically, over which they went and we're going. Neglecting the basics.

My wife is president of the local school board, one of the most successful and responsible in the state. Lowest administrative costs; among the highest achievement scores; enormously diverse, with over forty languages spoken by its students, its schools are a bustling broth. Unlike most, it has managed its finances cautiously and wisely, maintaining reserves. And yet, because of state budget deficits, through no fault of its own, the district faces the possibility of very hurtful cuts in services and personnel. It's a perfect showcase of what's wrong. That, and the fact that in the state budget, health services are also being cut, along with drug programs, correctional facilities, housing assistance, public transportation, and various other necessities of a functioning society.

Question: Why aren't there people teabagging over THAT???

Answer: Because we've lost our way. Because we were led -- most willingly -- down a garden path strewn with false promises. Because of years of being told that government is the problem, that eliminating taxes and services will make us all thrive, that worrying about the basics is socialistic, European, liberal wussiness. Don't look under the rug, we were told; and, since there was nice furniture on top of the rug, and because we preferred to believe it was just fine even as the floorboards got rot, we didn't. And here we are.

Too bad the collapse didn't happen AFTER we fixed some of the stuff, because now we're impossibly screwed. It was so much easier when we were told, by Reagan, then Bush, that we could have it all without paying.

Time to find a new balance point. Which, if the party of family values has anything to say about it, will never happen. Yet, it seems to me, we are at a point of unavoidable choice, between preserving our country, or riding the wave of unfettered greed until it drowns us. If the choice in the long run is -- as I think -- between collapse and retooling, isn't the latter preferable, even if it means everyone has to give a little more? If, to maintain current levels of taxation, we need to let our schools go, ignore climate change, give up on helping the less fortunate, let our health care system become more and more dysfunctional, isn't it a better choice to bite the bullet and pay up? I never agreed with the Obama tax cuts; and I share with the right wing a sense that it's not fair (if it's true) that up to 45% of people pay no taxes at all. When the economy regains its footing, it has to change, to my way of thinking.

I don't claim a crystal ball, nor even a firm grasp on economics; but looking around and adding things up, it's not a stretch to think we really are at -- or well beyond -- the crisis point. To me it's clear the era of tax cuts and ignoring infrastructure and other societal necessities is over, unless we want to take as policy the idea that we'll take what we can get for ourselves and let the country die a slow death. It's a policy. Maybe even a sensible one, if it's true that it's too late to save ourselves. Or if you expect the rapture next week. But if not, we need to sit down and pencil some things out.

It's a really fundamental question, a serious question, which means that in the halls of Congress it will not get useful or honest debate. The party of no to everything but torture (Republicans want all their talking heads to begin referring to Democrats as "The Democrat Socialist Party." Seriously. So that's my counter suggestion: "The Republican Party of No To Everything But Torture.") will never step up with seriousness. When Barack Obama proposes what are in fact modest and likely inadequate tax increases, the RWS™ simply can't discuss it seriously.

Ignorance, after all, is bliss. And the next election is more important than the next generation.
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Happiest Place On Earth

A while back I wrote about the possible implications of the economic meltdown, wondering aloud whether it could lead to a reordering of priorities. Implying that those countries whose economies were more "socialistic" (that oft-used and frequently misconstrued buzzword) than ours might actually be happier, I suggested it wasn't so bad. My gosh, I might have been right.

According to a new report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based group of 30 countries with democratic governments that provides economic and social statistics and data, happiness levels are highest in northern European countries.

First was Finland, then Denmark, then the Netherlands. Among many interesting statements:

Overall economic health played a powerful role, says Simon Chapple, senior economist from the Social Policy Division of the OECD, which put together the report.

Also:

While the global economic crisis has taken a toll on every nation, the countries that scored at the top still boast some of the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Denmark, which got the highest score, is not only a wealthy country, it's also highly productive, with a 2009 GDP per capita of $68,000, according to the International Monetary Fund. The United States' GDP per capita, by contrast, is $47,335. Though the U.S. got an above-average score of 74, it did not break the top 10.

So much for the idea that having social programs such as health care, education, and retirement covered by the government leads to low productivity, or a bunch of zombies. Likewise:

Wealth alone does not bring the greatest degree of happiness. Norway has the highest GDP per capita on the list--$98,822--yet it ranked ninth, not first. On the other hand, New Zealand's happiness level is 76.7 out of 100 on the OECD list, but its 2009 GDP per capita is just $30,556.

I think a single such study can't be considered definitive. Yet it's in concordance with what seems intuitively obvious: in the US we've lost sight of what's important. Ironically, it's the party of so-called family values and of a self-proclaimed higher level of godliness that seems to be the one fomenting the most divisiveness, the most fear, the most reactionary response to those things that in fact seem to make for happy families. Strange, isn't it?
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Juxtaposition

In near-perfect contrast of cluelessness and canniness are two stories simultaneously in the recent news. First, Eric Cantor, the newest new face of old ideas, claims the Democrats are overreacting to the economic crisis. Second, the Chinese are planning to lead the world in electric cars. It'll create jobs, they say, reduce pollution, and lessen their dependency on foreign oil. Huh.

Meanwhile, in the US the latest unemployment figures are released, the worst in decades, and major leaders around the world met in London to address what they see as a crisis demanding drastic global solutions. Among other moves, they pledged to pump over a trillion dollars into the IMF, and to toughen international banking rules (goodbye, off-shore tax havens). Clear-eyed, the UN Secretary General sees grave economic danger. These are not, one might be excused for thinking, facts that tend to confer on Cantor the mantle of wisdom.

For decades Congressional Republicans have thwarted efforts to raise mileage standards for US cars. Jimmy Carter, a favorite whipping boy of right-wingers, put into place a number of regulations aimed at reducing oil imports, all of which were reversed by Ronald Reagan. Hyped by our automakers, Americans bought SUVs by the millions, considering it a birthright. The GM guy just fired was the brains behind that scrotum on wheels, the Hummer. And now, way too late, our industry is trying to save itself. Asking us to save it. From decades of political denial.

Denial has been decenter of Republican policy for decades. Cantor suggests things aren't all that bad, while the rest of the world takes action; while millions have lost jobs here, with many more sure to go, he reaches into an empty bag of tricks. While the Chinese are positioning themselves to grab the future and run away with it, the Republican party insists we were doing great till Obama showed up. It seems a perfect primer on where we've been and why we're in danger of being left behind. Ignorance vs action. Head in sand vs eyes on the prize. Ideological non-thinking vs practical vision.

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and their psychically wounded followers are weeping and gnashing teeth and seeing demons. Fascism. Or is it socialism? Communism? Change is hard. And for them, it's foundationally frightening. Stay with what we've been doing, they cry. Other than destroying us, it's been fine. These aren't blinders, they insist: they're magic vision enhancer thingies.

Fortunately, people like Cantor are no longer in power, although they have been for most of the last half-century -- more than enough to have done possibly irreparable damage. For now, at this terrible time, realists are now in charge. But the destruction is very great, and to admit it is to admit failure. So Cantor -- with the rest of his party leaders standing weakly behind him -- just denies, carrying the torch passed to him through decades of damaging delusion.

I guess GM and Ford and Chrysler can hope the Chinese cars will be found to be poisoning us like their toys and dog food. Maybe Eric Cantor and his party can send their poison where it'll do some good.
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