Ellen, thanks for the Krugman story. Personally I think he's closer on "nervousness" than the demographics, as you are on the non-consumerism than aging. After all, Japan's population is growing slower than ever yet the economy is gradually picking up steam. The conversations I've had with young Japanese graduates leads me to believe that Japan is no longer their father's Japan although these are the people in charge for now.

Japan's long lasting 90s depression was structural in the sense of it's high savings rate, export fired boom and strong yen, combined with such an extreme asset bubble and collapse of credit, and the psychology. Every government stimulus stuttered. Zero real interest rates meant nothing. That it took 13+ years for the stockmarket to bottom argues for allowing shit to happen, as long as it happens in the right way to the right people, and not maintaining the status quo. Which I think is the same as you are arguing.

Zero boundary is beyond my math.

Posted at July 21, 2008 6:03 PM in response to Inequality and the Fannie/Freddie Bailout

What happened here was foreseen and predicted but resulted from a lack of oversight and regulation. And those errors have been accumulating since deregulation started in the 80s.

You can't have a big enough reserve if what you buy is rated AAA and includes very marginal paper. Who knew? Well, obviously the originators, at least.

There never seems to be any blowback to the people that dream up the snake oil. They walk away with their accumulated millions (or billions) and everyone else sucks up the shit left behind. The capital belongs to the shareholders. They are the ones at risk. Workers, broomers to executives, should be rewarded with this in mind.

It seems obvious that those forming the reward packages are the very same who recieve them. There's no time delay, no proportionality, they're exorbitant, and they are only (very much mostly) for the executives! If the encentive stimulates them, how about all the other company workers? That would immediately open a corporate debate, big time.

I very much like the idea of a cap on rewards for officers of any company wanting, seeking, or needing any public support -- federal, state, county or city.

Just one quibble, Ellen. Japan's lost decade wasn't because of their societal make up but because they hid and never dealt ruthlessly with all the debt and loss, particularly property with the repurcussions to the financial sector, and clear it all out. Their very closed economy, both externally and internally, couldn't handle the disruption in any straightforward manner.

The reason I object is that an aging demographic doesn't have to mean lack of growth and the US really needs to rethink this widespread dogmatic blindspot. For the economy and ecology.

Posted at July 21, 2008 2:31 AM in response to Inequality and the Fannie/Freddie Bailout

Apologies for the double post. Was informed that my first message had not posted as I had entered too many posts recently.

Must have mistook me for offensivetoyou!

Posted at July 15, 2008 6:14 PM in response to George Bush Pep Rally

Christ! offensivetoyou is more of a child and more psycho than the last time I saw him destroy a blog. It would be nice if we could keep to the subject and avoid ad hominem baits.

Perhaps if you stepped outside and tried a normal conversation with a complete stranger?

Posted at July 15, 2008 6:12 PM in response to George Bush Pep Rally

Christ! offensivetoyou is more psycho than ever. Does he really have to take over a conversation with rediculous disconnects and obvious ad hominem baits.

Get a life.

Better, find a friend a have a normal conversation.

Posted at July 15, 2008 6:06 PM in response to George Bush Pep Rally

Whether you fall on one side or the other, could we all agree that "wipe Israel off the map" is a deliberate misquote endlessly repeated to simplify this administration's neofascist approach to foreign relations and its antagonism to Iran as the sole remaining leg of their imaginary axis-of-evil stool. Anybody sustaining this mindless propaganda needs a heavy dope slap.

The reflexive use of force before even attempting all other possible avenues shows a distinct lack of imagination in both the method of achieving the goal and the associated costs, short and long term.

I know. I know. Imagination and this administration is oxymoronic. 6 more months to make things worse than what they've already achieved. Nothing could surprise me with these self-reinforcing clowns.

Read the posts over at Haaretz. No wonder humanity is in trouble.

Posted at July 7, 2008 4:22 PM in response to Ha'aretz Columnist: An Israeli Attack on Iran Would Be Suicidal

Thanks for the reminder k1maynes.

Right on, socraticgadfly, but LBJ used up a hell of a lot of political capital -- real political capital, unlike this idiot -- to get the country to make the jump through equal rights, voting rights and schooling. Imagine the country if these had never happened. How much worse could it be?

Three cheers for Thurgood Marshall, his 100th Birthday, and the work still to be completed. God only knows this is still a racist and fractured country.

Good luck to you and all yours, Ms. Franklin.

Middle-aged, white, male, Brit, and angry at what I see.

Posted at July 3, 2008 1:10 AM in response to Happy 100th Birthday, Thurgood Marshall

Anecdotal arguments, not facts, tend to come from the NRA. Like their oft repeated accidental death rate "due" to doctors (ha, ha) compared to the accidental death rate from guns. Conveniently leaving aside all the gun owners who murder and kill compared to the doctors who...what?

Cars don't kill people, drivers, inatttentive pedestrians and, sometimes, plain bad luck can kill people. But we test and license drivers and vehicles, requiring them to carry insurance for any damage that might result. Anybody can own a car, you just don't get to appear in public with it unless you meet some modest societal norms for the privilige.

So it's not the guns you have to worry about, it's the society and behavior within it.

The US is notable in that it deals with the problems of gun crime, murder and accidents by doing precisely nothing.

A number of years ago, when there was a mass murder by gunfire on Tasmania, the Australians redrew all their gun laws. When a Swiss reservist used his military SLR (that thousands of them keep at home) to murder, they reinspected their controls and safety. The UK, who have always had strict gun laws are now facing the problems of open borders and weaponry from Eastern Europe, and a surge in knife crime alongside, again saying more about societal problems, that Brits seem aware of.

The idea of always carrying a side-arm was only ever common at all in a portion of the US and even there could be banned by city promulgation. For a while it pretty much went the same way as the "gentleman's" sword for the same reason. We already limit what sort of weapons individuals can own and it would seem obvious that we would not want the mentally imbalanced to get their hands on any guns.

Yet that is not uncommon and exactly what happened with Reagan's would-be assassin in 1981, and just lately with the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007. Anything changed? Not likely. Oh, no. Gun ownership is far too precious. How many was it at VTech? 30 plus dead and more wounded who would have suffered no trauma if gun ownership required any effective tests and review.

Yet absolutely nothing gets done because some people think their inalienable rights so inviolably precious, and deaths don't matter stacked against them.

We're not talking anecdotes. Annually we're talking over 30,000 people dead by gunshot -- murder, suicide and accidents -- and another 70,000 and more wounded, 2/3 by violent crime. Take out the suicides and we're still talking every year 3 times the deaths and two, nearer three times the wounded of US military in 5 years of Iraq war and occupation!

As this is multiply higher than any other comparable western society, it says more about us and our choices than any insuperable problem.

Posted at June 17, 2008 3:16 AM in response to Michael Moore Aside, Guns are Everywhere

I continue to fight for "existential" to be used as defined, not in the new, "it means what I want it to mean", fashion. This is all part of the Repug style of newspeak word use.

Good article though.

Posted at June 12, 2008 4:47 PM in response to An American Renaissance - Turning Our Military Industrial Capacity Into Entrepreneurial & Non-Profit Capacity

If you have concerns about Obama's "undivided Jerusalem" at least give him a whistle as I did earlier this afternoon.

Posted at June 4, 2008 6:25 PM in response to At AIPAC Today, Obama Shows How He Will Win (Postscript on Jerusalem)