my dad and my son

 

 

 

 

 

Gilman at the park

 

 

 

 

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Robert Reich's Supercapitalism and, though it seems like everything that talks about economics before last fall is way out of date, I have really enjoyed the analysis of how our role as consumers and investors have trumped our role as citizens.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.