View from cafe in Amsterdam

 

slit to shoot arrows from German castle

 

End of Reaganomics?

So are we ready to look to the Federal government as the answer to, rather than the source of out problems? The New York Times had a good article on this, and I think, explained fairly well the purpose of shrinking the income gap, and how that would help to alleviate our current economic troubles.


I've been reading Robert Reich's Supercapitalism and, though it seems like everything that talks about economics before last fall is way out of date, I have really enjoyed the analysis of how our role as consumers and investors have trumped our role as citizens. As consumers and investors we have demanded lower prices and higher returns and have gratefully accepted those despite the squeeze it puts on production costs, resulting in downsizing, off shoring, unionbusting, etc.. This, along with a variety of other factors are squeezing the middle class.

So with a squeezed middle class leads to less discretionary spending and likely less spending generally. If you even as the total income of the country grows of that growth is going predominantly to those with higher incomes as real incomes for those in the middle stagnates or falls, I think this creates some of the structural problems that make this economic trouble so difficult to get out of. Where as middle income earners spend a large percentage of the there incomes on good and services higher wage earners would seem to invest and save a larger percentage. There are times when this is what the economy needs, right. But right now it seems that we need to reliable increase demand across the economy so that businesses can be confident in hiring and preparing for future production.

I think that this likely explains ll this a bit more clearly but I hope this signals a turning point in our economic priorities

New years resolutions

I've decided to make all the resolutions this year no more: over-eating, smoking, drinking or frivolous spending. Much more: exercise, saving/debt reduction, weight loss, travel, time with family, going out with friends ...

Almost all of these work very well in the short term but are hard in the long term. At this point I've been attempting to find just the right mix of pharmaceutics and consumer electronics to keep my resolutions.

Cubicle Drone

I've been working at a new job for the last month or so and for the most part I like it. After graduating law school my intention was to enter into private practice at a small to medium sized firm. I worked at a very small office for a while but, unfortunately the workload was really feast or famine with much more famine than feast. The office worked primarily in civil litigation and I enjoyed working on the cases but I needed more certainty and stability. I took a new job for a large legal publishing company and I now work supporting their electronic legal database. Basically lawyers call in and I help them with their research. In many ways it is a glorified, well slightly glorified, call center job. But on the other hand, it is akin to a research exercise I was assigned in law school. In the guerrilla research project we were given a research question and had a limited amount of time to come up with an answer. I do enjoy that aspect of it. A lawyer will call in with a legal question that is confounding them and in ten to thirty minutes I will work with them to find the answer.
I wonder sometimes about how this work will position me for any future work in private practice, but if nothing else, the ability to quickly find answers to befuddling legal questions is a good skill to have.

Giuliani strategy

Today Obama swept Maryland, DC and Virginia building on his momentum. The Clinton campaign rightly points out that there are still the big states of Ohio and Texas to come, and I believe she is polling well in those states. But doesn't this 9th inning grand slam strategy sound familiar. When Giuliani decided to cede the early states, as Sen. Clinton now seems to be doing in upcoming states like Wisconsin, he saw his chances in Florida evaporate because he had lost momentum. I wonder if the strategy will work better for her.

Social Spending and Deficit Security

There is somewhat less talk lately about the 'crisis' in Social Security. It works like this, since social security contributions have been used by the general fund(?) And because of the age demographics (that is people living longer and fewer active workers per retiree) the social security system would become insolvent in like 34 years. Some argue that this means we should scrap the system and set up personal savings accounts so you are basically getting your own money. Really just dropping the system and telling people they really should be saving because we are taking away the what flimsy safety net is left. Social Security should be a intragenerational pact. I'll chip in to help the widow down the street or the quiet old couple across the hall, and when I've put in my time in the economy I'll get some help and be able to retire with respect. Social Security says pay your dues to the previous generation and expect the like from the next generation.

Deficit Spending says I'll take my payout now and the next generation is saddled with the bill. Rather than putting in our fair share now and tightening our belts we are borrowing to give ourselves more cash in the form of tax cuts and 'defense' spending (I feel like 'defense spending' or 'department of defense' just seem a bit outdated)

Looking at these two things together, you can see that the ME generation wants the world and it wants it NOW. Break our pact with our grandmothers and grandfathers and keep that Social Security money for ourselves AND Spend our way into deficits that will haunt our children.

Not to mention skimping on infrastructure and educational investments, wringing every bit of economic advantage from deregulation and interest rate cuts, and passing the much of the full cost of our lifestyles to future generation through environmental degradation.

Imagine you inherit the family car. Its given to you by your parents with new tires, a full tank of gas, and that new car smell inside. Your parents just ask that you give them a lift to their appointments now and again. You let the tires go bald, drive it until its coasting on fumes, tell you parents that you've started a new system where everyone is going to save up their own cab fair to get to their appointments, and smoke big cheap cigars with the windows rolled up and the Air conditioning on. Will you be able to look your kids in the eye when it is time to turn the keys over to them.