Philosophers Deli

After many years of attempting to reduce oil consumption, the world is in for a much needed break: Arab countries are going to help us reduce our dependence on oil. Yes, you heard me right. The specifics, although still under wraps, have been conveyed to the world’s major oil consuming countries, and the response has been favorable.

What has leaked out is this. The Arab oil giants have decided that their future lies in transportation, rather than just in the sourcing of fuel for transportation. So they are collectively going into the car business. They will produce electric/gas hybrids equipped with monitors that record when you are using gas and when you are using electric. This has the immediate effect of employing those in the Arab world that, although educated, might otherwise not be employed due to a shortage of jobs. This could also put a dent in the number who drift into radical groups.

How does that help with our fuel problems? Well, it’s part of a program. Drive ten miles in electric mode, and you get a credit good for the gas that would have taken you ten miles. Included is a factor that accounts for your vehicle’s gas economy and any adjustments needed to control any unacceptable inflation in the number of credits issued. These credits are transferable, and so, if you have a computer, you could buy or sell them on EBAY or Craig’s List or Entrecard, or to your next door neighbor. As the gas/electric stations are rolled out, the cash purchase of gasoline would be restricted, but you could buy all you want if you have the gas/electric credits necessary. As a tipping point is reached, gas could be bought only with electric use credits. Needless to say, the credits could also be used for battery swapping or recharging. And that service aspect might eventually bring service stations back to inner city areas, where few gas stations can now be found.

So the more electric you use, the more gas credits(or electric use credits) you earn. It is suggested by the participating oil countries that governments signing on to the program offer income tax credits in exchange for the gas credits in order to clear out any excess credit inflation, to attract more participating drivers, and to consolidate credits to be used in an international cap-and-trade system, should one develop. All of this serves to establish and maintain an economy that won’t inflate, and can be merged into a larger cap-and-trade system.

Where do the oil countries benefit? Well, first they source the cars. The jobs created would address some of  the domestic difficulties these countries are facing. Then, they get to set up and either run or sell or franchise individual gas/electric fill-up stations, established in a geographically cohesive plan, and in cooperation with government and oil industry stake-holders. Profits, cost savings, and jobs are there for all. And some more Americans may be able to pay their mortgages. The degree to which oil countries get to participate in these new or retro-fitted fuel stations would depend on their cooperation in other areas.

Where do the oil companies benefit? Well, they would still be selling gas to gas stations, as long as they can still dig enough oil out of the ground to ensure that gas remains available at enough stations to make it a reliable nation-wide fuel. They could also collect service fees from the government for collecting and consolidating energy credits being passed out of the local gas/electric credit systems. This income would offset losses coming due at a time when enough oil to supply a nation-wide network of fueling stations cannot be sourced. Tax incentives could initially subsidize any reduced revenue, should that be required.

Creative sourcing of the expanding needed electricity would become economical due to volume requirements. Oil companies have the resources to participate in that in a fundamental way.

Let me know what you think.

There’s always someone looking over my shoulder.

-an old philosopher

I remember one evening when I took my wife out for pizza in New Haven. It wasn’t long ago. I ordered, after she told me what she wanted. It was a white(no red sauce), whole belly clam pizza with buffalo milk mozzarella and ricotta, some fresh basil, a little olive oil, and a touch of garlic. “Thin and crisp”, I added.

This is in New Haven, so you can go into a pizza place, slip the waitress a $20, tell her to give you the next one out, and you’ll still be in heaven. Great beer selection, too.

Anyway, after I ordered I forgot whether I mentioned the basil. In the few minutes it took the pie to arrive, I began to think a bit about free will, and why we do what we do. I’m sure we’ll know a lot more about this in another hundred years, but I’m not sure it’ll be good news.

Meanwhile, the question remains. Do we have free will? Many, and perhaps most, of our decisions are made unconsciously. Factors influencing our decisions are usually ones that we’re not aware of; perhaps if we were we would choose differently. Do our minds work like little computers adding and subtracting until a decision is reached, with this process possibly going on at or below the level of consciousness? Or are we able to put some space between ourselves and these factors, deliberate, and then truly decide. In a pizza joint, do I really want to estimate the calories in the ricotta on that pie I just ordered, or will my enjoyment and circumference reach a happy agreement(one less slice).

I may want answers to questions about free will. But mostly, I just wonder:  how can blood cells, lung tissue, ligaments, bone cells, brain cells, hair(dead by the time you see it), each of these cells having lived or living separately, call its’ collective self an individual? To me I seem like an individual until a tooth hurts. Then I become an individual with a tooth that’s got to go. Later, am I less an individual?  I guess some cells are weighted greater than others in this formula.

Is there a minimum set of cells, or types of cells, necessary to allow one to say “That is a human being?” And how responsible for one’s state, condition, actions, etc are we to hold ourselves or others? Does free will vary with age, an infant having none, a college student having some, which grows with each new course, and, by the time we’re too old to be “useful”, an again diminishing amount? How would you draw the curve?

The pizza was really very good. We took a few slices home in order to have one of our favorite breakfasts, toaster oven pizza with just a drop or two of olive oil. We also went home with a doggie-bag full of important questions for our next trip into town.

Here’s something come along to make a difference in my life. Entrecard, as I understand it, is starting a program to sell some of the impressions that pop up on my widget when people visit my blog.

Then, depending on how many visits I get, they’ll give me some money.

I don’t have to do anything new to get this money. But if I write more frequently and can improve the content, I may get even more money.

Now like all of us here(or we wouldn’t be here) I’ve enjoyed meeting new folks and I’ve learned a lot about things I’d never really have gotten out to see, as I’m disabled. I’ve also had the satisfaction of making my takes on some of today’s hot issues visible to those who would care to look.

But I never really thought about money. Or maybe I did think a little about it, but just couldn’t seem to get going down that road. Well, here’s the road rising to meet me, I hope. And letting go of half the impressions I’d be hosting won’t hurt my advertisers because my readers tend to visit my site several times for each article I write. Just as I tend to stop and drop multiple times for a site myself.

And with Entrecard comes a commitment to quality so that I needn’t concern myself about offensive ad content.

Yes, the extra money will be nice. In fact, I will probably write more often and try for a higher level of post to attract a wider audience. It seems they are solving a problem for me, how to turn traffic to my site into money. Ya gotta love ‘em over at Entrecard.

And as for this new Roman god, if I make enough I’ll travel to my favorite Italian restaurants to pay homage to him repeatedly. All Hail Pecunious! Maybe I’ll get to the Pantheon itself.

An old philosopher

O.K. so I’m old. And people don’t really care that much about existentialism anymore because it has finally dawned on them that they are screwed anyway.  And, if they are less than sixty years old, they’re screwed for the rest of their lives.

That’s where pasta comes in. Pasta is no culinary fool’s gold paving the way to Elysian Fields long on beauty but short on taste and satisfaction. Pasta is the real deal. So why, in a country that’s still able to do a good job in the fixing, has this star begun to fade? Why am I offered stuffed endive, and only Christ knows what had to be done to get the stuff in there( it is always unrecognizable ), instead of lobster ravioli in a light tomato cream sauce with caviar, when the latter is so much to be preferred while on a preprandial stroll in a friend’s garden on a warm afternoon? Scallops make an equally valid claim for culinary excellence as a ravioli stuffing, sliced thin, cooked quickly, and sauced just the same.

There is  duality in all things. In bad pasta, or no pasta, this duality was first recognized by the Egyptians. Their names for the annihilating aspects of the good life were two: women and grain. In a more modern venue, the grocer’s, let us ponder. There is mice writing on the package which any processed pasta comes in, and, for the most part, it no longer says “made of 100% durum semolina”. In other words, it’s not pasta. No doubt some feverishly busy little Frankensteins occupy basements of food companies across the world, cranking out ever cheaper versions of a once fine food that costs nothing to begin with; but why are we so easily snookered?

This is where the women come in. No doubt, some read labels. In an attempt to discourage this, pasta makers have made the labels longer and longer, thus seriously detracting from time the fairer sex could be spending in aisles of more interest, having to do with fragrances, perhaps. But, let all know, in a fine pasta all one ever sees is 100% durum semolina. No added vitamin D. No gum. Nothing else. If there’s something else in that bag or box, put it down and pick another product, or another store. Or make your own.

In closing, let me say that I may be one of the small number of pasta machine owners who truly enjoyed a Saturday or Sunday hour with my young children cranking out the various shapes of pasta for that day’s consumption. We had an old hand crank machine, but very well made, and with practice( which we enjoyed ) we got fast and developed expertise. We could make a pound of tagliatelle faster than my wife could go purchase it. And it cooked in a minute or two, not ten, so we got the sauce to perfection before the pasta went in.

Now my kids are grown and scattered. My back doesn’t allow me to crank the machine anymore. My wife is happy to fill the gap with her own delicious creations. But honestly, what could be more enjoyable than cannelloni hot and fresh from the kitchen, served in a way unique to your family. Memories are often made of little things like that. Enduring memories. Happy memories. Gems that sparkle even in a fading light.

Enjoy some real pasta while you still can.

An old plilosopher.

p.s. I only left out the existential poetry because it’s dinner time. Believe me, you’ll digest better.

Remember the days when an incoming president had a grace period of a few months before critics started raising objections? I don’t either. So let’s get started.

First thing to know is that nobody in government today is really sure of whether or how the downward slide in the economy can be stopped.

Second thing. The situation is real, it’s big and bad, and it’s here. Republicans brought it on, but it’s everyone’s problem now. A new president has been put in place through a legitimate democratic process, and given executive power to deal with the economy among a host of areas neglected or damaged in the preceding eight years. Anyone who is not helpful to this man and his goals, please just shut up and get out of the way, you’re not needed or wanted.

Third thing. There are important differences between this and other economic downturns. These differences make it dangerous to call what is happening a recession or a depression or any other label that might mask these differences. What’s different? The nature and degree of economic connectedness between the U.S. and so many other countries on this planet. Our actions, both the successes and the mistakes, will have very real consequences for many millions of people outside our borders. In fact, and unfortunately, that has already happened.

When I think about the consequences of this interdependence, a few things stand out. One is that by spreading prosperity to so many of the world’s people, and then in effect letting it dry up, we have whipsawed the economies of lots of countries that are much less stable then our own. This creates a fertile ground for war, revolution, economic collapse, and terrorism, as existing governments are shown to be unable to meet the rising expectations of their own citizens. Even the most competent governments will be challenged to replace the prosperity now being lost. Our new Secretary of State will have to staff up at a time when our understanding of other cultures, languages, and history is insufficient. She will have the unenviable job of having to bring order out of chaos. But she will not be able to save the economies of the world.

Fourth thing. There is enormous suffering among people who are holding untenable mortgages on homes they purchased to raise their families. Or who have lost their homes, jobs, credit, and prospects. This after years of education and hard work. Some of these people are friends of mine. But I really never met anyone who bought a condo in Palm Springs hoping to flip it for a quick buck. The holders of “toxic mortgages”, a term unknown when these mortgages were sold to them by companies with good reputations, believed what we all did when we bought our first homes: America is good; hard word and education are worthwhile; the efforts of today will create a better tomorrow.

The bedrock values associated with home ownership must be preserved, even if the cost is high. These people will power a recovery if we can set up the proper conditions; we cannot fail to help those who have and will again energize our youngest citizens. We cannot afford to skip a generation in the hope that for the next generation, a safe patch to land on will be just past where we are now. We live in a very complicated world in which each generation must nurture the next. In effect, each generation is now building the hop-scotch boxes that the next generation will have to land on. Government must make a huge commitment to keep people in their homes, or get them into homes. Credit ratings need to reflect not the dollars in a person’s wallet, which may be few when times are hard for all, but the values in that person’s heart. Let them reflect a future ability, not the idiocy of the last eight years of W.

Last thing. Most Americans are unaware of the extent and nature of our treaty arrangements, obligations, and responsibilities. In the economic sphere, we have extracted enforceable concessions in the agricultural area from many poor nations in return for promises on our part that have remained, to a large extent, promises not kept. We also have defense treaties that young men and women should be aware of when making decisions as to a possible career in the military. In a volunteer army, the soldiers need to have confidence that the conduct of their government will be such that only just wars will be fought, only after all other courses exhausted, and only in accordance with standards of conduct enshrined in international law. War is a failure of civilization, not a tool of diplomacy. Our press, while facing challenges, has a clear public moral responsibility to inform and to educate. So, also, do our leaders, and ourselves. Wars fought are lives lost, families and friends struck by horror, our communities diminished, our enemies only emboldened by our ignorance of who or what the enemy is.

One last frightening thought. There exists a significant body of expert opinion that we will be the target of a terrorist attack sometime in the next few years. Something tragic, surprising. Unscrupulous political hacks are already threatening President Obama should this happen on his watch. In the midst of a national emergency, such talk should be considered treason, and appropriately punished. If a case is to be made, the appropriate time rolls around every four years. One should be careful to distinguish between loyal opposition and obstruction.

Ahem… I did foresee Senator Elizabeth Dole going down in flames. In former times she nearly forced many species of wildlife into extinction. I thought, but did not call, that she would be swept up in flames of voter anger and desire for change. But I am surprised and delighted to see that Congressman Christopher Shays has been defeated by Jim Himes, as I am a resident of Connecticut. And I am astonished that New Hampshire did not hang on to veteran legislator Senator Sununu. I’ll be pondering that for a long time. By the way, although it would be big news on any other night, Mo Udall’s son has won a seat in the U.S. Senate. Sorry, Senator. Tom Udall has won a seat in the U.S. Senate. Hailing from New Mexico, he is positioned to bring sanity to an area of the country that has been hard to govern. Water rights and immigration policy are just two of a long list of complicated issues he faces. His dad was, in my humble opinion, one of the finest legislators this country has ever seen. It’s been just about ten years since Morris Udall has passed on, and I believe his voice has been sorely missed during the last eight. The nonsense and tragedy brought about by Mr. Bush would not have escaped Mo Udall’s incisive criticism. He was a true gentleman, a true patriot, and a great leader. Tom has a guiding star few of us are blessed with, and we should expect excellence in office from this man.

Folks, this looks less and less like an election and more and more like a route! With the senate and congress riding his wave, Mr. Obama will be entering office with a Peacemaker on each hip! How’s that for mixing metaphors? I think Mr. Obama is tough enough and smart enough to meet the challenges ahead, and he will certainly have the legislative support he needs. Also, he may be selecting a few Supreme Court justices within the next four years. But he’s going to have to line up his targets wisely. If this election is turning on anger and not merely a desire for a new direction, there will be very little margin for error among this huge electorate.

Well, I guess that’s about it. We have not been well served by our government over the past eight years, and voters are shouting for a just government, a government that puts our citizens ahead of our bankers, a government that believes that war represents the failure of diplomacy, and not its instrument. Tonight, I’m going to ask Ashurbanipal, or Yahweh, or Jesus, or Mo Udall(the gods may have elected him already), or whoever is in charge up there to cast and eye and lend a hand to this little speck of dust in a distant corner of a not very large galaxy among the billions out there, that has not has much luck lately. Given that our voice is once again united, perhaps the gods will listen.

Congratulations, America. I never thought I’d see it. But today, you’ve done something great!

~an old philosopher

I usually don’t get involved in elections. My crystal ball is a bit dusty. However, for this historic election, I polished it up and did a lot of homework. The results: People feel change in the air. People feel they’ve been lied to. People are worried that their votes won’t count. So the tactic, if it can be called that, is to overwhelm the Republicans in votes. Republicans will focus on heavy turnout of core constituencies. I call Virginia Democratic. I call Florida Democratic. I call Colorado Republican. I call Ohio Republican. No! No! Early results call Ohio Democratic. Senator McCain has no path to 270!

It’s All Over,  Folks!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS A WIPE-OUT! SENATOR BARACK OBAMA IS THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! 1:30 P.M. EST

Thanks for visiting, and yes, your vote does count. Please vote if you have not done so already.

~a somewhat older philosopher.

ps. The comments below show how wrong an old, experienced observer of human nature can be. I thought this was an election until about ten minutes ago.  But it’s a landslide. I’ll leave the comments, for those who may be interested.

I call Pennsylvania Democratic. And I call California, which really is not a no-brainer, Democratic.

I think Indiana will be key to this election, and is too close to call. If Indiana goes Republican, then there is a flaw in my theory in who does what. That’s the problem. Having spent a good deal of time there, I’d have to say “keep an eye on this one.” Same with Missouri. Placeholder lawsuits will be off and running unless Obama carries these states big. And I have doubt that he can do it. Ever been to Indiana? Then you have doubts, too. They use Obama images for rifle practice.

Look for the Indiana call, and the Missouri call. If it comes early, then we will wake up tomorrow with a new president. Without Indiana and Missouri decided, your Thanksgiving turkey and mine may taste a little colder.

Please vote.

An Old Philosopher

We here at Philosophers Deli are spending a lot of time lately discussing issues of the day as they relate to the elections that are finally rolling into a polling place near you. Sometimes we agree on a few things, and when we do, we post our opinions here, where they may be read by all, but are acted upon by few. On election day, you maybe able to cast a ballot if you can prove a) that you are actually you, and not some stooge or terrorist that has recently been registered. And b) that nobody else is you. If you have a common name, like “Jones” you may be in for a tough time. You may have to cast a provisional ballot, because so many Jones over the years have manages to which are limited in number by the size of the trash can in back of each polling place.

So, having just ordered out, we are going to offer our two cents in discussing the issues that are most important, and how much the elections could help. You’ll see what we mean as we go along. The first issue we’ll discuss is:

The Housing Crisis.

So far, neither congress nor the executive has offered any relief, except to banks too big to operate prudently. We all knew we were in for a bad ride as two things happened. The first was the tightening bankruptcy laws. This reminded me of a hangman tying a noose. The second was letting houses sell at prices unsupported by the purchasers’ incomes.

How Will the Election Help.  

The new president will be hesitant to offer relief to families and other homeowners because of one widely unrecognized fact. The banker owns the mortgage. To change it without his consent is illegal at present. To buy the mortgage at face value requires more money than we have. All we can really do is buy the banks. But there are too many of these to handle. Look for a lot of forced consolidation in this area. Still, assuming that banks are purchased, government will have to stay out of day to day management of the banks due to conflicts of interest. So let’s remember that the bankers have a fiduciary responsibility to make their shareholders as much money as possible. We will see a lot of our taxes spent to give the government a bully pulpit. Dive for cover when you hear the words “we’re working on it, but the problem is complex.” Also, expect a lot of litigation.

At the bottom of the list, as always, are those who rent. They don’t get the tax breaks on mortgage interest. When houses aren’t selling, there is more competition for rental units, and rents go up. That weakens the ability of the renter to save for that first house, further weakening the housing market. Look for no legislation in this area because congress hasn’t a clue as to how to help, and won’t want to anyway because you are a transient voting population.

Everyone is talking about the housing bubble and how it burst. As Santa won’t be saying this year, “Ho Ho Ho.” Let’s look at this reasonably. Unsound financial instruments were created and endorsed under the Greenspan Federal Reserve. During his chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, he praised these instruments, like credit default swaps, as allowing for greater economic growth. This gave banks the ability to sell risk(the mortgages), and brokerages the ability to dilute risk by slicing up the mortgages and packaging them with some pretty good stocks. All was rosy, except in the eyes of those who saw housing prices rise faster than incomes. At that point, anyone with a brain new that housing prices would fall, as they have in the past. The trick was not to be the last one out.

Anyone who has worked for a lending institution knows that some loans will be underperforming. That means that some borrowers won’t pay back some, or even any, of the money lent to them. And loans go bad all the time. In fact, there is such a long history of loans going bad that, given sufficient information about market conditions, a lender can pretty closely estimate the dollar amount of “non-performing” loans. In fact, given sufficient history and a degree of stability in the marketplace, lenders can closely estimate losses or costs in any aspect of their businesses and set aside money for it.

Why do they set aside money for failed investments, purchases, and loans? Simple. For a long time now, banks have not been permitted to print their own money. So, in order to get money to lend at interest(the interest being the lender’s income), the lender has to borrow it from me, or you, or some financial entity. When it’s time to pay me back, the banker had better have the money, or I won’t lend to him in the future.

So, when bankers say they can’t put a value on the credit default swaps, what they are really saying is that they have no history of the reliability of these financial instruments. They can easily calculate the “book value” which is what the debt would be worth if everyone paid everything he owed. That’s just a matter of multiplying and adding. And they have computers and programmers to do that. But that’s not good enough.

Even if your paper has no history, if it is based on house prices, and house prices decline, you had better raise some cash and put it aside in a reserve account so you can  pay back your lenders. Unfortunately, many of those who saw what was coming simply sold the debt they owned at prices that were higher than reasonable. So it is no wonder that banks don’t trust other banks anymore. Banks view other banks as complicit in a huge cover-up, and themselves as victims.

And they see that cover-up as largely funded by Wall Street. And they see Wall Street as having sold the farm to, … well, lets stop here. This is only a blog, after all.

Paul Krugman, a very good economist, wrote in the New York Times on Thursday that he hopes coordinated action can be taken by the US and “all the major players” over the weekend, so they have something to stabilize the market with come Monday.

Ain’t gonna happen. All the major players are on different teams.

The Federal Reserve has just announced that it will toss another $200,000,000,000.00 into the “bailout”. I think people and brokers just want to be in cash now and this won’t help restore lending. I think it’s going to be a tough Christmas.

What do you think?

~an old philosopher

The only difference between Wall Street and Las Vegas is that on Wall Street you don’t have to put up cash.

-an old philosopher

I just wanted to make a brief point concerning the financial meltdown on Wall Street. Over the past summer, there was a really hot day. I forget which one, but it was the hottest. My wife said it was the humidity, but hey, who knows.

My pockets being empty, I looked in the freezer where she sometimes hides the money. There was a Fudgsicle! My eyes almost popped out of my sweat-soaked head. I grabbed it quick before anyone caught on. I ripped off the wrapper and inhaled the deep, rich, and cooling aroma that only a Fudgsicle can provide. I took a small bite. Oh, God! Oh, Holy Assurbanipal! But I had to stop with the praying cause the Fudgsicle was starting to melt. These opportunities don’t last forever. Plus, some one might want some of the Fudgsicle, although now it was MY Fudgsicle. It started to drip. I started licking the chocolate goo on my hands, but I couldn’t keep up. It was so hot. I shoved the whole thing in my mouth and stood there in bliss as cool Fudgsicle juice slid down my throat to a happy tummy. My eyes rolled and rolled unfocused.  I seemed to drift in and out of Castaneda’s realm of nonordinary reality. Much too soon it was all gone. Gradually my eyes settled on the freezer in a vain search for more Fudgsicles. My wife walked into the kitchen. She asked me what I was doing standing there with the freezer open and two Fudgsicle sticks in my mouth. I spat them out and gave her a glowing look of confidence and determination. I smiled and hoped that she felt reassured that I was in command now. Then I lost it.

“I must have Fudgsicles!” I began running around in circles of pop-eyed desperation.

She stared at me in disbelief. I said, “Hurry, the store closes at two on Sunday. Give me all your money, quick. Other people may be buying the Fudgsicles right now. Hurry! Hurry!”

She didn’t give me any money for Fudgsicles. If there is a god up there in that great land of lakes in the sky, I hope he has Fudgsicles. Each night, before I close my eyes, I pray to Whatever- Is-Up-There( and I hope It is generous ) that it puts aside another Fudgsicle for me. If I live for another fifty years and my prayers are answered, I will get 18,250 Fudgsicles when I die. You can cleanly split a Fudgsicle in two. If I do that, and only have one piece of Fudgsicle a day that will last me only the first 100 years in the afterlife. Obviously, I want much, much more but if Assurbanipal hears my prayers I don’t want him to laugh at me, considering that there are poor and suffering people down here.

I think I understand the ancient Egyptians better now. Like me, they probably worried that they were going someplace hot. And they didn’t have Fudgsicles. But they did have tasty, icy deserts. You had to start with like five tons of ice from Kilimanjaro just to get the equivalent of a single Fudgicle by the time you got to Main Street, Giza. In their ancient writings they refer to this as the “trickle down effect.” But the Egyptians thought big and were very persistent. Long before boats full of penguins brought Fudgsicles to Plymouth Rock, the Egyptians probably filled the pyramids with Kilimanjaricles many times over. Maybe they figured out a way to take it all with you. They certainly didn’t leave any for the rest of us.

On Monday, September 29, 2008, congress is going to take a $700,000,000,000.00 dollars of taxpayer money and hand it over to Wall Street. Well, not exactly. They are going to give it to Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and let him spend it buying junk bonds, failed companies, anything, really, that Wall Street wants to get rid of. The idea here is that the garbage loans constitute something of a logjam on an economic river called liquidity, and oncw we clear that logjam, all will be fine and people will take big leaps into this placid but flowing river by lending and borrowing. Over the last several months. Mr. Paulson, Secretary of the U.S. treasury, has told us that if only we prop up company X or company Y things will be O.K. with the economy. It was all horse shit. He knew it. We knew it. It was just theft, really.

A liquidity crisis is a serious thing. It means that people stop buying cars and boats and vacation homes and condos. It stops much of the spending that has made the folks who head to work on Wall Street very rich. Taking action to clear a financial institution’s books of worthless securities cleans up their balance sheet. It’s like putting out a sign that says “We’re Open for Business, Again.” It does not guarantee that anyone is going to walk in the door. Was it Henny Youngmann  who said “My wife’s credit card was stolen but I didn’t report it. The crook was spending less that she did.”

“The Trillion Dollar Grab” will be a fiasco, according to some economist friends whom I trust, and a disaster unlike any we’ve ever known. And it will not sort out the economy; it will throw us into an economic abyss. Want to know why? Want to know why this will send us into the worst depression in our country’s history?

Well, it’s simple. We’ve spent all our money. Or they’ve taken it, your choice. We did a good job, though. First it was Japanese cameras, which were excellent. Screw you, Kodak! Then Japanese cars(which run practically for ever), giving the finger to Detroit. It was lots of things: little Russian toy cars with lead paint(or was that China) Then came food with no nutritional value and mechanized Frankenfarms with no families in residence. To hell with you, farmers. We turned all the farms into Giant Rube Goldberg machines. We’re eating cows that are eating other cows. Are we dumb, or what? Mr. Goldberg, I believe, sought to entertain us, and maybe add a little enlightenment. Not to blueprint our country.

So it comes down to this. No matter how good a company’s books look, few people will be buying anything they don’t need. And no matter how bad a company’s books look, people with needs will purchase to fill those needs, from the Ford 250 for the Colorado rancher, to Junior’s college education, if they can. Where government can help is where there is no money to borrow for Junior’s education, no ability to get out from under a junk mortgage. And the price tag will be a lot less. And with prudent purchasing, we will be forking over less money to Asia than otherwise would be the case.

Listen, I could go on. But there’s no time. Please call, fax, or e-mail your senators and representatives. Tell them that you don’t want this bill. Tell them it’s time to slow down, let the Wall Street gunslingers take a few hits, and think about how to use that $700 billion to build a better America.

-The Old Philosopher

I remember years ago taking an economics class. The professor had his PhD in economics, as well as two law degrees. He was old, and he said that perhaps this was the last course he was going to teach, that it was time to pass the baton to the next generation. He had fought his fights, won some, lost some, but had tried to leave the country a better place. He warned us of a few things.

The first was to beware of a service economy. In a service economy, all you do, “net net” (he was always saying net net for some reason) is spend money. No new money comes in to take its place. This is because you have to produce something tangible in order to have long term wealth. He derided the “increase of productivity”, and maintained that this was just people being coerced to work longer hours, or to use computers more efficiently. It didn’t mean that more of anything was actually being produced.

The second was that every country can benefit from a large agricultural component in  which families live on farms. He said that the reasons for this were too numerous to mention, but that economies without this component were always weaker and less resilient to the economic ups and downs that always occur. The resilience came from the fact that with a significant portion of the population practically self sufficient, you have less bailing to do if the Ship of State starts to sink. The strength in part came from the preservation of a greater variety of agricultural produce. He emphasized that is was worthwhile to put up and maintain barriers to entry to crops grown here in the U.S.

The third is that countries have to produce, to manufacture. That means you don’t give away your technological knowledge to other countries. He said that the hard reality is that you can only sell what you manufacture if your goods are cheaper than the competition, or of a higher quality than the competition, or if the competition doesn’t exist. Once you give away your know-how, you can’t get it back.

He talked of the history of the NLRB ( Nation Labor Relations Board ) and of the importance of keeping it close to neural, but with a slight bias toward labor, which needed more protection than it was getting. He opined that businessmen were starting to use the NLRB as a club to hit labor over the head with. Reading their decisions, he maintained, would make their negative bias palpable.

He said that he wished he were younger, because he thought of how much he had been hearing about the new “service economy” and that he wanted more time to tell people that they were in the process of building an economic Titanic.

Lastly, he regretted most that people, individually or collectively, had not learned to plan. If you looked at most towns, most counties, most states, and the country as a whole, you wouldn’t find a picture of what the towns wanted to look like ten years from now. How much land for parks and open spaces, how much for farms, etc. You didn’t see how health care was going to be made available to those who didn’t have it. You didn’t see any link between income and home prices. There was no plan for the sourcing of energy. It wasn’t that these things were unknowable. It was only that people had to meet, to discuss, to vote, to commit. People, he hoped, would stop moving from place to place and give a little stability, a basis from which planning could arise.

It seems to me that over the past few weeks, as we’ve had Ben and Henry bail out institution after institution, each of their actions failed to produce the desired result. In other words, people didn’t respond to Ben and Henry’s actions in the ways that Ben and Henry had expected they would. That sounds like Ben and Henry don’t know what they’re doing. That’s incompetence. That sounds like grounds for removal.

They are now almost hysterical in their plea for a lot more money immediately. Hysteria does not instill confidence. Surely, given the supposed magnitude of these difficulties, our president could address the nation from the oval office, explain what the problems are, tell us why Ben and Henry thought that what they did would fix those problems, and why their actions didn’t work. He could then go on to propose what he thought was a reasonable course forward, and why that course would be effective. This could be the start of a fruitful discussion leading to a plan that would be helpful. Assuming we need help. A trillion dollars worth of help.

What is being proposed by Ben and Henry constitutes the dissolution of congress, and perhaps even our sovereignty. I actually believe that Mr. Bush does not realize this. Would it not make more sense for us to start a process similar to what was mentioned above, and send Ben and Henry back to whatever institutions let them out.

I am certainly no fan of Vladimir Putin. You don’t get to be head of the K.G.B. and then President of Russia by being a nice guy. You have to be super tough in a part of the world where toughness almost defies description.

Still, I viewed his recent remarks about the U.S. having pushed Georgia into the recent hostilities as possibly having some merit. Russia has changed a lot over the last four years, and feels threatened and demeaned by encroaching U.S. influence in Russia’s back yard.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see what they can do: to be able to hang numbers on their ability to coordinate troop movements: to be able to assess the quality of their motorized artilliary: to know with what determination the Russian soldier marches into armed conflict. And much, much more about individual Russian field commanders. Hell, I was surprised they still knew the back roads just wide enough for their vehicles, even if using them was a bit of hubris on their part.

So much to learn, and so easy to do. When the next Serbia comes along, both sides will know what to expect. Russia will attack, while holding back a little to look like the good guy. The United States will write a check to the proxy army for equipment and toss in some intel before setting the hook.

Well, this will be another Olympics I’ll skip. It seems an incredible fact that they are being held in China, and that controversy concerning the dust in the air serves merely to obscure the hostilities between Russia and Georgia. It is obvious on its face that the timing is not an accident, and that Georgia is counting on some help from abroad.

There is a danger that this could get really big. Neither side wants to lose face, of course, and, once again, oil is involved. China has agreed to look the other way, probably in return for Sudan’s oil, and has an additional issue of Tibet to flog if the masses start to inquire too closely into the motives of the players in this ugly game.

To me, the planning appears impeccable. It’s almost as if the U.S. and Russia decided to have a proxy war in advance, and came up with a scenario wherein nobody would care. That’s frighteningly clever. Perhaps years in the making.

But one thing does seem clear to me, even though I’ve been hoodwinked once again. One side or the other has made a mistake. I’m not sure which.

Russia is no longer the busted up superpower in disarray. It may be smaller, but it is more focused and less tolerant of dissent than has been the case for a long time. It is also has a more modernized military, and it has shown a willingness to use energy restrictions in pursuit of foreign policy objectives.

Georgia is counting on the U.S. for assistance of some kind in this clash. But the U.S. has a long history of helping itself, first. Any leftovers go to the U.K. And I think that’s the deal here. I think that this is an attempt to repay the U.K. for their support in Iraq by prying Russia’s hands from the U.K.’s throat. Secure the oil pipeline in Georgia, and the U.K. remains standing.

However, one side will have to stand down. This has the potential to make Iraq seem like a dust up between school boys.