The politics of Shinzo Abe continue to fascinate. It is actually quite amazing that Japan has been so conventionally orthodox when it comes to macroeconomic policy. Japan hasn't deviated from conventional thinking all that often in the post WW II period but when she has—such as when MITI organized the rise of her automobile industry through central planning and cartels—she has been astonishing successful. Given such a track record, Japan should be much more daring and even arrogant in her economic thinking. Yet she has just spent over two decades allowing her economy to be hollowed out in the name of the global conventional wisdom. Yeah, I don't get it either. So along comes Abe who is quite the nationalist and one of the manifestations of that nationalism is that he is refusing to follow the economic norms.
Krugman, who is about as surprised at this move from orthodoxy as I, takes the story from here. All I can say is, Go Japan! The conventional wisdom is literally killing us so it is refreshing to see someone try something new.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
The corn belt drought grinds on
As someone who hates to shovel snow, this extra-dry winter should make glad my heart. Unfortunately, this winter's drought is threatening the global food supply. The immediate problem is the winter wheat crop. But as this thing grinds on, more and more farmers will be facing a real economic crunch. So far, high commodity prices and crop insurance have kept most of the grain growers afloat. But high grain prices are killers for the folks who feed livestock and crop insurance is not a bottomless well either.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
About that trillion-dollar coin
In a move that shocks absolutely no one, the Obama White House has announced that it wants nothing to do with the Trillion-Dollar-Coin. As monetary "solutions" go, the big Coin wasn't much of an idea by historical standards. But for an administration that can't bring itself to prosecute some of the more egregious financial criminals in history, taking on the big actors of monetary policy was literally unthinkable. I mean, look at the presidents who actually took on the money boys—Jackson, Lincoln, FDR. Obama has MUCH more in common with W than those three. To take on money power, one needs both courage and a deep intellectual understanding for why it should be done. Obama has neither.
Under ordinary circumstances, I would just provide a link to my discussion of money from Elegant Technology. I worked very hard to write that thing and I am pretty sure I cannot top it. But this story deserves comment for one overwhelming reason—it has opened up the subject of monetary theory to the general public in a way that hasn't happened since World War II. This awareness is critical. Monetary power relies on no one questioning their game. It's why William Greider called his magnum opus about the Federal Reserve Secrets of the Temple. It's why the so-called Nobel economics prize is actually a creature of the Swedish Central Bank (Riksbank.) It's why the Federal Reserve exercises monopoly control over the economics profession. The folks who create the money want total control of the conversation over the creation of money.
That control has been lost. And once someone begins to think about a $Trillion coin, cannot more imaginative ideas be far behind?
Under ordinary circumstances, I would just provide a link to my discussion of money from Elegant Technology. I worked very hard to write that thing and I am pretty sure I cannot top it. But this story deserves comment for one overwhelming reason—it has opened up the subject of monetary theory to the general public in a way that hasn't happened since World War II. This awareness is critical. Monetary power relies on no one questioning their game. It's why William Greider called his magnum opus about the Federal Reserve Secrets of the Temple. It's why the so-called Nobel economics prize is actually a creature of the Swedish Central Bank (Riksbank.) It's why the Federal Reserve exercises monopoly control over the economics profession. The folks who create the money want total control of the conversation over the creation of money.
That control has been lost. And once someone begins to think about a $Trillion coin, cannot more imaginative ideas be far behind?
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Let's Try These 10 Budget Fixes
Trying to find the original source of the graphic below, I found this really cool site: Connect the Dots for Democracy USA. There are a few dozen excellent graphics, arranged by topic, here.
Friday, January 11, 2013
A new agenda for the new year?
Probably not. We start out with a pretty decent list of the problems being inflicted on the real economy and why these problems are routinely ignored. You'll have to click on the link to see Johnson's solutions. Mostly they involve sending money to his pet non-profits.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Huge disconnect between bank deposits and bank lending
A huge disconnect between bank deposits and bank lending has developed since the crash. A stunning graph from ZeroHedge a few days ago clearly shows how dysfunctional the U.S. financial system has become. What's happened is that the Federal Reserve has created trillions of dollars in new deposits to prop up the TBTF banks, but rather than use those new deposits to advance new loans into the economy (as the myth of fractional reserve banking posits should happen), the banksters have grabbed the money and run off to play in their speculative derivatives casino.
And, as the ZeroHedge comtributor writres, it also "proves undisputedly that the US economy is much weaker now than it is purported to be as end consumers and business have far less desire to risk becoming indebted even in a zero interest rate environment."
And, as the ZeroHedge comtributor writres, it also "proves undisputedly that the US economy is much weaker now than it is purported to be as end consumers and business have far less desire to risk becoming indebted even in a zero interest rate environment."
Drive a stake in banksters' hearts - MINT THE COIN
Fortunately, the idea of the U.S. Treasury minting a $1 trillion platinum coin has broken into the open.
Unfortunately, a lot of people seem bewildered by the outlandishness of the idea.
But most unfortunate of all, people do not realize what the real, HUGE issue of platinum coin seigniorage is: breaking the monopoly hold of private banks' (ie, Wall Street's) over creating new money.
This is what the whole issue really comes down to: can we, as a sovereign nation, create our own money that is dedicated to the general welfare, or must we rely on bankers to create money only for private gain?
General welfare versus private gain. Which goal do you want your monetary system oriented toward?
Reading the various blogs that have appeared the past few days about the issue, it is downright shameful how few supposedly progressive bloggers and commenters understand this issue, and the need to destroy the banksters' monopoly on creating money, and retsoring the government's role in creation and allocation of money and credit.
The good thing is that this issue of seigniorage (seigniorage is the difference between the value of money and the cost to produce and distribute it) shows that the financial crash is finally forcing into public debate the issue of our monetary system, who owns it, and for what purpose they operate it.
So, this is similar to the late 1870s to 1880s, when the Farmers Alliances were forced to recognize that local organizing of cooperatives alone could not beat back the sustained assault of financiers and bankers. This new consciousness by the Farmers Alliances led directly to their organizing for reform of the monetary and banking systems - organizing which unleashed the grass roots forces that created the populist movement of the 1880s. The combination of the financial crash of 2007-2008, with the craven attempt by the rich to avoid taxes, has led to these ridiculous political showdowns over imaginary "fiscal cliffs." The only positive aspect is that this has forced American citizens to begin considering the very nature of the financial and monetary systems.
Joe Firestone (who uses the internet handle "letsgetitdone") recently offered an outstanding intellectual history of the trillion dollar coin idea, which includes links to the very first substantial proposal for minting a $1 trillion platinum coin; the intense discussion and debate of platinum coin seigniorage at Warren Mosler's blog; and what Firestone identifies as "the most comprehensive and rigorous discussion available of the relationship between" coin seigniorage and inflation, by Scott Wiler.
Unfortunately, a lot of people seem bewildered by the outlandishness of the idea.
But most unfortunate of all, people do not realize what the real, HUGE issue of platinum coin seigniorage is: breaking the monopoly hold of private banks' (ie, Wall Street's) over creating new money.
This is what the whole issue really comes down to: can we, as a sovereign nation, create our own money that is dedicated to the general welfare, or must we rely on bankers to create money only for private gain?
General welfare versus private gain. Which goal do you want your monetary system oriented toward?
Reading the various blogs that have appeared the past few days about the issue, it is downright shameful how few supposedly progressive bloggers and commenters understand this issue, and the need to destroy the banksters' monopoly on creating money, and retsoring the government's role in creation and allocation of money and credit.
The good thing is that this issue of seigniorage (seigniorage is the difference between the value of money and the cost to produce and distribute it) shows that the financial crash is finally forcing into public debate the issue of our monetary system, who owns it, and for what purpose they operate it.
So, this is similar to the late 1870s to 1880s, when the Farmers Alliances were forced to recognize that local organizing of cooperatives alone could not beat back the sustained assault of financiers and bankers. This new consciousness by the Farmers Alliances led directly to their organizing for reform of the monetary and banking systems - organizing which unleashed the grass roots forces that created the populist movement of the 1880s. The combination of the financial crash of 2007-2008, with the craven attempt by the rich to avoid taxes, has led to these ridiculous political showdowns over imaginary "fiscal cliffs." The only positive aspect is that this has forced American citizens to begin considering the very nature of the financial and monetary systems.
Joe Firestone (who uses the internet handle "letsgetitdone") recently offered an outstanding intellectual history of the trillion dollar coin idea, which includes links to the very first substantial proposal for minting a $1 trillion platinum coin; the intense discussion and debate of platinum coin seigniorage at Warren Mosler's blog; and what Firestone identifies as "the most comprehensive and rigorous discussion available of the relationship between" coin seigniorage and inflation, by Scott Wiler.
Solar plods forward
In theory, anyone blessed with an oil boom should immediately start thinking about what the new-found wealth should be spent on. Unfortunately, since the temptations of materialism are virtually infinite, altogether too many oil nouveau riche opt for the Beverly Hillbillies solution by demonstrating their primitive ways out by the cement pond. However, those who like the idea of being rich and intend to stay that way for many generations would immediately start figuring out how to make their oil windfall last beyond the life of the oil fields.
Actually, this is a pretty obvious solution. Oil is natural capital. The income from extracting this capital should be invested in harvesting energy income. Turn that short-term income into something nearly perpetual. This SEEMS to be what is happening in Qatar. And since they have both significant oil income and land being blasted by solar energy, this conversion to a long-term income stream is mostly a matter of investing in some smarts.
Actually, this is a pretty obvious solution. Oil is natural capital. The income from extracting this capital should be invested in harvesting energy income. Turn that short-term income into something nearly perpetual. This SEEMS to be what is happening in Qatar. And since they have both significant oil income and land being blasted by solar energy, this conversion to a long-term income stream is mostly a matter of investing in some smarts.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Japan's experiment with stimulus
The actions of Japan's Prime Minister-elect Abe to reduce the Yen's value has the money wise guys thoroughly confused. In their world, they cannot imagine anyone wanting to drive down the value of their own currency. After all, they have just spent decades bullying the countries of the world with the threat of sabotaging the value of their currencies. So how do you bully someone who wants the same outcome?
Well, you do what the financial press has done—throw up your hands in cultural horror at Japan's "unconventional" actions. The scribblers must do SOMETHING. After all, if Japan succeeds here—and there is a very good chance that they will—everything the purveyors of the "sound money" conventional "wisdom" have claimed over the years will have been proven wrong (again!). Of course, merely being wrong will barely slow them down—after all, George Will and Thomas Friedman are usually wrong about something every damn day and they still have their gigs.
Well, you do what the financial press has done—throw up your hands in cultural horror at Japan's "unconventional" actions. The scribblers must do SOMETHING. After all, if Japan succeeds here—and there is a very good chance that they will—everything the purveyors of the "sound money" conventional "wisdom" have claimed over the years will have been proven wrong (again!). Of course, merely being wrong will barely slow them down—after all, George Will and Thomas Friedman are usually wrong about something every damn day and they still have their gigs.
Climate change in the southern hemisphere
Those of us who worry about climate issues often neglect to look at the Southern Hemisphere. And for pretty good reasons. Only a small fraction of the earth's population actually lives south of the equator and they produce a tiny fraction of the greenhouse gasses. But as the temperatures soar through the Australian summer, it looks like they aren't escaping any of climate change's more baleful effects.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Stiglitz writes about the real economy
Stiglitz is an interesting guy. He grew up in a New Deal Democratic household in Gary Indiana—the classic South Shore steel town. He was born in 1943 so he was educated in the era of Keynesian dominance. Yet, he has been conventional enough to win the Clark and Riksbank (Nobel Memorial) prizes and his academic work has been appropriately narrow and trivial.
One is tempted to ignore anyone who has had conventional success in this era of neoliberal madness, and I guess I have been a little bit dismissive of Stiglitz. But in the essay below, he is as serious and deep as I could have ever wanted. I trace his big leap in seriousness to his participation in the IPPC study that won the 2007 Riksbank Prize. The subject of climate change will do that to you. Perhaps he is entering his sage stage of life, but I couldn't have ordered up better thoughts on the real economy than the following.
One is tempted to ignore anyone who has had conventional success in this era of neoliberal madness, and I guess I have been a little bit dismissive of Stiglitz. But in the essay below, he is as serious and deep as I could have ever wanted. I trace his big leap in seriousness to his participation in the IPPC study that won the 2007 Riksbank Prize. The subject of climate change will do that to you. Perhaps he is entering his sage stage of life, but I couldn't have ordered up better thoughts on the real economy than the following.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Hudson on brutal austerity
Michael Hudson is a delightful throwback to the glory days when economists actually knew what they were talking about. Contrast this stuff with the foolishness of a Glenn Hubbard—the man who was going to be Mitt Romney's economic guru. Hubbard may be the Dean of Columbia's business school but as events of the past ten years have demonstrated, he hasn't been right about anything. The fact that a profession glorifies such a buffoon and does not exact major penalties for being catastrophically wrong is just further evidence that economics has devolved into a really bad (Westboro Baptist Church bad) religion.
This is the last of Hudson's new year's trilogy. I encourage everyone to read them all. They are superb. Read them and you will be about as well informed about modern economic problems as anyone you know.
Part One is here.
Part Two is here.
This is the last of Hudson's new year's trilogy. I encourage everyone to read them all. They are superb. Read them and you will be about as well informed about modern economic problems as anyone you know.
Part One is here.
Part Two is here.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Peak oil and secondary recovery
Because the Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota is in the same general neighborhood as the town (Tioga) I lived in for 18 months when I was in high school, and because Bakken is one of the epicenters of the practice of fracking, I feel compelled to be extra-careful about what I say on the subject. I have had relatives in the oil business who probably think I am a Liberal Arts idiot anyway, so I have extra incentive to get this right.
But here's the basics. Peak Oil explains that when an oil field peaks, there is still as much oil left in the ground as has been extracted. But what has been extracted was the EASY half. Getting the rest will probably be very problematic. Getting the rest has inspired a host of "secondary" recovery techniques. Many things have been been tried including steam injection (one cousin remarked that this proved to be a particularly bad idea noting, "you would be astonished how hard it is, and how much energy it takes, to change the temperature of the earth.") But fracking seems to work after a fashion. It's an environmental disaster that has produced flaming drinking water and man-made earthquakes, but it does produce recoverable fuels.
And so North Dakota is having an oil boom that rivals the original in the 1950's and 60s. Keep in mind the original was pretty much a big boy game from the start. The wells could be over 3 miles (5km) deep. Such wells were very expensive to drill so there was serious need for sophisticated underground mapping techniques. This is North Dakota—a place where getting outdoor work done in the winter is nearly impossible. And even then the wells were not especially productive—a good well in western North Dakota produces in a month about as much crude as one of the superwells in Saudi Arabia or Iraq produce in a few hours. This was a modest enterprise. I lived in an oil town and except for the refinery and the little airport with a runway long enough for corporate jets, it was as unpretentious any other small town out on the high prairie.
Fracking is not a refutation of Peak Oil. In fact, it proves it. This is especially true of the economics. Fracking is pretty expensive (it's astonishing how much it costs to rearrange the underlying geology of the earth) and because it is a secondary recovery technique, production drops off pretty rapidly. Of course, none of this matters to the free marketeers with their 15-second time horizons who look at the current temporary glut of petroleum products and see a salvation for the fossil-fueled economy. That inspires article like this.
But here's the basics. Peak Oil explains that when an oil field peaks, there is still as much oil left in the ground as has been extracted. But what has been extracted was the EASY half. Getting the rest will probably be very problematic. Getting the rest has inspired a host of "secondary" recovery techniques. Many things have been been tried including steam injection (one cousin remarked that this proved to be a particularly bad idea noting, "you would be astonished how hard it is, and how much energy it takes, to change the temperature of the earth.") But fracking seems to work after a fashion. It's an environmental disaster that has produced flaming drinking water and man-made earthquakes, but it does produce recoverable fuels.
And so North Dakota is having an oil boom that rivals the original in the 1950's and 60s. Keep in mind the original was pretty much a big boy game from the start. The wells could be over 3 miles (5km) deep. Such wells were very expensive to drill so there was serious need for sophisticated underground mapping techniques. This is North Dakota—a place where getting outdoor work done in the winter is nearly impossible. And even then the wells were not especially productive—a good well in western North Dakota produces in a month about as much crude as one of the superwells in Saudi Arabia or Iraq produce in a few hours. This was a modest enterprise. I lived in an oil town and except for the refinery and the little airport with a runway long enough for corporate jets, it was as unpretentious any other small town out on the high prairie.
Fracking is not a refutation of Peak Oil. In fact, it proves it. This is especially true of the economics. Fracking is pretty expensive (it's astonishing how much it costs to rearrange the underlying geology of the earth) and because it is a secondary recovery technique, production drops off pretty rapidly. Of course, none of this matters to the free marketeers with their 15-second time horizons who look at the current temporary glut of petroleum products and see a salvation for the fossil-fueled economy. That inspires article like this.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Inside UPS's gigantic Louisville hub
Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz, for pointing to this virtual tour of United Parcel Service's gigantic sorting and distribution center in Louisville, Kentucky. UPS calls it Worldport, and its 5.2 million-square-feet includes 70 aircraft docks and
155 miles of conveyor belts able to process and sorting 416,000 packages an hour during peak operations, serviced by UPS's fleet of 230 jet aircraft. During peak operations, meaning the holiday season, one UPS jet lands at Louisville nearly every minute. Worldport achieves a sorting accuracy rate 99.9994 percent - which means 16 packages need to be "rescued" each hour. The virtual tour explains how this happens.
Inside UPS' Worldport: How a shipping titan moves 2,000 packages every 17 seconds.
Inside UPS' Worldport: How a shipping titan moves 2,000 packages every 17 seconds.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Our home energy audit
So the other day, we finally got a serious energy audit of the home place. A big handsome guy with a truck full of instruments began to expose the 1958 thinking of how a house should be insulated. Not surprisingly, there were plenty of problems.
First of all, the first ceiling insulation attempt had been done with vermiculite—a substance that sometimes contains asbestos fibers. The immediate problem this caused was that it made it legally impossible to use his air door. So some of the big infiltration tests we wanted to run were not going to happen because the air door could suck stray fibers into the house.
Then we encountered the occupational bias of our auditor. His background was HVAC so while we got the 20-minute lecture about our primitive water heater and how it wasted energy, other subjects such as how many vents the roof needed got a much more cursory treatment.
Mostly, however, the audit was a real eye opener. His infrared sensor / camera revealed wall cavities that had been filled with something (what, we could not determine) that had settled over the years leaving a space of at least a foot at the top where there was no insulation whatsoever. And even without the air door, it was pretty easy to tell that the 55 year-old windows and doors were very leaky.
But what was most interesting about our auditor is that he had been trained to suggest solutions that had relatively short paybacks. In practice this meant that new windows were probably not a good idea from cost / benefit standpoint no matter how leaky they were. Even his suggestions about how to upgrade the water heater came with the caveat that it probably wouldn't pay for itself for a very long time "because natural gas prices are so low these days." In fact he must have brought up low gas prices at least a dozen times.
So unless someone like us wants to upgrade the insulation systems for the house to create a more comfortable and less drafty space, there really isn't a whole lot of reason to do anything right now. Of course, natural gas prices will not be forever low and when they rise, all those calculations change.
Because we don't believe it is a good idea to heat the outdoors during the winter, and because climate change is a real problem, we will be fixing our leaky old house. It's just that there isn't any economic pressure to do something right away. This is a good thing because fixing our house will require a lot of careful planning. But at least we have started the process.
First of all, the first ceiling insulation attempt had been done with vermiculite—a substance that sometimes contains asbestos fibers. The immediate problem this caused was that it made it legally impossible to use his air door. So some of the big infiltration tests we wanted to run were not going to happen because the air door could suck stray fibers into the house.
Then we encountered the occupational bias of our auditor. His background was HVAC so while we got the 20-minute lecture about our primitive water heater and how it wasted energy, other subjects such as how many vents the roof needed got a much more cursory treatment.
Mostly, however, the audit was a real eye opener. His infrared sensor / camera revealed wall cavities that had been filled with something (what, we could not determine) that had settled over the years leaving a space of at least a foot at the top where there was no insulation whatsoever. And even without the air door, it was pretty easy to tell that the 55 year-old windows and doors were very leaky.
But what was most interesting about our auditor is that he had been trained to suggest solutions that had relatively short paybacks. In practice this meant that new windows were probably not a good idea from cost / benefit standpoint no matter how leaky they were. Even his suggestions about how to upgrade the water heater came with the caveat that it probably wouldn't pay for itself for a very long time "because natural gas prices are so low these days." In fact he must have brought up low gas prices at least a dozen times.
So unless someone like us wants to upgrade the insulation systems for the house to create a more comfortable and less drafty space, there really isn't a whole lot of reason to do anything right now. Of course, natural gas prices will not be forever low and when they rise, all those calculations change.
Because we don't believe it is a good idea to heat the outdoors during the winter, and because climate change is a real problem, we will be fixing our leaky old house. It's just that there isn't any economic pressure to do something right away. This is a good thing because fixing our house will require a lot of careful planning. But at least we have started the process.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
The Predators win another one
I am old enough to remember when economists still made a huge distinction between "earned" and "unearned" income. Not surprisingly, the "unearned income" folks made out like bandits in the latest so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations. What is less surprising is that almost no one even brings up this distinction anymore. After all, this was a central concept of the Progressives and New Dealers that neoliberals have tried so hard to discredit. So I was pleased to find someone who has analyzed this latest economic debacle in terms I understand and approve of.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Glenn Hubbard stars again
Dean of Columbia's business school Glenn Hubbard is something of a celebrity—and quite famous by the standards of the economics profession. His star turn came as the snarling heavy in Charles Ferguson's documentary Inside Job (a real favorite around here) where he attacks his interviewer for having the temerity for asking how much he charged for his relentlessly pro-bankster advice.
Well now we know. It's about what a medium-priced hooker in the financial district charges. But I think it somewhat unfair to compare Hubbard to an honest working girl. In addition, it isn't really whoring because Hubbard actually believes the crazy shit he writes and since he is from the reality-optional, faith-based neoliberal community, he doesn't have to work as hard as he would if he actually trafficked in verifiable facts.
Just think, this wretched creature was being talked up as a possible Treasury Secretary in a Romney administration.
Well now we know. It's about what a medium-priced hooker in the financial district charges. But I think it somewhat unfair to compare Hubbard to an honest working girl. In addition, it isn't really whoring because Hubbard actually believes the crazy shit he writes and since he is from the reality-optional, faith-based neoliberal community, he doesn't have to work as hard as he would if he actually trafficked in verifiable facts.
Just think, this wretched creature was being talked up as a possible Treasury Secretary in a Romney administration.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
A Producing Class hero is something to be
Back in September, I posted an article about a brave crew that had sailed a 31' Hallberg-Rassy through the Northwest Passage thereby proving pretty conclusively that climate change was melting the Arctic Ice Cap.
Well, it turns out that the NW Passage had been navigated before including a trip in 2007 by a guy who, even though I never knew him, was almost a neighbor of mine. Roger Swanson was a perfect example of a regular phenomenon of my youth—the super-smart farm kid. He went off to the University of Minnesota to get a degree in electrical engineering but would soon return to the family farm—which is about 35 miles straight south of the tiny town where I grew up. Eventually he would put his obvious mechanical genius to work starting a half-dozen small manufacturing companies.
Swanson would soon have the spare cash and free time for a big-time hobby. Being a good Swede he decided to try his hand at sailing. The lakes in the vicinity of his farm were in the category of glorified mud puddles so it wasn't long before he was chartering larger boats in the Caribbean. One thing led to another and Swanson became the proud owner of 57' ketch. This folks, is a serious boat with something like 8 times the interior volume of the 31' Hallberg-Rassy (just remember, volume is a cube function.)
Swanson was a lot like the guy who taught me to sail—electrical engineer, inventive, and entrepreneurial. Apparently they also shared the desire to keep their boats absolutely shipshape and always had the perfect tool to fix anything that went wrong. Sailors like that tend to die in their beds of old age.
Well, it turns out that the NW Passage had been navigated before including a trip in 2007 by a guy who, even though I never knew him, was almost a neighbor of mine. Roger Swanson was a perfect example of a regular phenomenon of my youth—the super-smart farm kid. He went off to the University of Minnesota to get a degree in electrical engineering but would soon return to the family farm—which is about 35 miles straight south of the tiny town where I grew up. Eventually he would put his obvious mechanical genius to work starting a half-dozen small manufacturing companies.
Swanson would soon have the spare cash and free time for a big-time hobby. Being a good Swede he decided to try his hand at sailing. The lakes in the vicinity of his farm were in the category of glorified mud puddles so it wasn't long before he was chartering larger boats in the Caribbean. One thing led to another and Swanson became the proud owner of 57' ketch. This folks, is a serious boat with something like 8 times the interior volume of the 31' Hallberg-Rassy (just remember, volume is a cube function.)
Swanson was a lot like the guy who taught me to sail—electrical engineer, inventive, and entrepreneurial. Apparently they also shared the desire to keep their boats absolutely shipshape and always had the perfect tool to fix anything that went wrong. Sailors like that tend to die in their beds of old age.
Finance capitalism destroys everything else
I have been writing about the distinctions between finance and industrial capitalism since the 1980s It is truly amazing the massive destruction the moneychangers have been causing in their naked grab for whatever has not been nailed down (and much that is.) Any honest historian in the future will be at a loss to explain how one tiny sliver of the real economy was allowed to destroy the rest of it. Here Hudson offers some suggestions as to what actually happened.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
