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Reading stuff like this pisses me off. Capitalism by its very nature cannot fail. The whole point is competitive markets. Just because a huge company fails doesn't mean capitalism collapses, instead it just means a huge company collapsed...that's it. Fortunately, capitalism allows for smaller, hungrier, more efficient companies to quickly fill the void. But no, the Government is too scared to let markets function freely. "We must do something!" was the rally cry, "Or else everything is going to cease to exist as we know it!" was the reasoning. This type of thinking will be the Death of America. We used to be free people that took responsibility for our own actions. What happened to that? Why do we think a government that can't run a whore house and liquor store profitably will do any better with AIG?
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Where we are headed
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Urban Survival...
Between my lawyer/consigliore and The Bond Dude, a picture emerges of how we got here: It begins with the removal of usury laws and the landmark supreme court decisions which said that out of state credit card operations couldn't be held to in-state usury laws. And since the financial lobby has been so powerful in DC a national usury law wasn't (and isn't) going to happen. So once you get state usury laws busted, making 'financial instruments' evolves into the biggest industry in America and when it finally fills up every possible niche, things collapse just as they are continuing to do even now.
Kinda makes you wonder about the quality of leadership that took us onto this slaughterhouse chute that feeds into the 'bankers kill us all' outcome. Now, you'd think that recent events would lead to serious criticism and replacement of some of the folks who got us into this pickle. Oh, you'll see it in the headlines like the one about Senate Banking chair Christopher "Dodd’s AIG Ties, Cash Shortage Threaten Senate Re-Election Bid" but I have come to distrust the voters (or is it voting machines?) in Connecticut, since the voters there have returned him in the past.
Apparently Connecticut voters don't view stories like "Dodd Panel OKs Bill To End Predatory Credit Card Practices" with the same cynicism I do, in that I wonder if this isn't little more than a fund-raising tactic - much as Dodd's you-gotta-be-kidding presidential campaign raised thousands upon thousands from AIG execs. But this morning's report shouldn't be read as a slam of the 'Teflon Dodd' or the lack of clarity on the part of Connecticut voters.
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But speaking of 'slipping it to...' there's another headline to inspect before we get into the really nasty stuff of the day: "U.S. plans to ease GM into bankruptcy: report" catches my eye. Could it be that working stiffs in the auto industry don't mean as much to America's future as financial lobbyists and their pet bailouts? Naw. Certainly not in America, land of the brave, home of the free, at least till usury laws were busted and financing layers upon layers of paper became more profitable than R&D, new products, and plant & equipment. All done to the tune of "Fight Protectionism!" which might have put workers of the world on a more even purchasing power parity basis.
And speaking of purchasing power, am I the only one who sees the irony in that the Third World and developing countries are going to be leading the global recovery? Yep, sez so right here in this Wall Street Journal report: World economy is going to drop 1.7% this year by in high income countries (like you know where) the drop is 2.9% for the year.
Be a good little sheep...move along, nothing to see here. But that's the game for the multi-nationals: Make enough elsewhere and let the standard of living float down more in the phat countries (which used to include the US) and do so under the guise of 'protecting' someone other than multinational P&L's. You see at the top of the heap the deck is being stacked: and "WTO Lamy: G20 Must Be Wary Of "Low-Intensity Protectionism".
What scares the hell out of the offshore tax haven gnomes is that a "Big slide in global trade looms over G-20 meeting" and that the existing (highly profitable) model for corpgov must be maintained at all costs, which is how the G20 meetings tomorrow are being set up. While it's nice that "Obama urges greater economic action" at the international level, I'm sorry to report I've feel a wave of 'Who needs 'em?" washing over me.
If 'saving the global economy' means one more job outsourced to India, one more foreign car company kicking our asses, or a continuation of the 6-thousand miles long trip of apples to America, 6-thousand miles for South American beef, then maybe...and only saying maybe we have some serious reengineering of the old way of doing things so that the whole planet can prosper a little more.
The biggest problem the world faces today from an economics perspective is that there's not enough real work being done. The world is at a kind of super saturation where if we don't need to make more of anything else (need another cell phone?) we have to come up with a proxy for employment to keep money flowing through the system - because without that money flow, the world world grinds to a halt just like sand does when poured into a transmission.
I'm a free market guy...up to a point. That point is when someone comes up with ideas that undermine if not destroy the Constitution and the concept of America. So pardon me if I lobby for protectionism - and an end to outsourcing. Pardon me if I can't believe that Texas residents end up eating Argentine beef. And please overlook my skepticism of a global currency or its bastard son, the global tax.
Depressions really are painful but until we get on with tilling under the old paradigm which is failing in spectacular fashion and plant a new sustainable, purchasing parity regime in its place, the world is going to continue to experience a decline as the paper-hangers meeting in London desperately try to paper over their folly so that the uber rich can profit, the paradigm preserved, and regular folks of the world exploited for the sake of those at the very top.
What's more, it's like to work for a while, linguistics seem to say. Summer of hell and all, but the rest of the melt in the fall seems in the cards. Jokes on us. I'm starting a new campaign for a November Fools Day in the first week of November. Watch closely...
Yo-Yo Markets for Dumb-Dumb Investors
Let me see here: Hmmm...Dow was up 86 yesterday and futures down about 88 when I looked this morning. Can you say "thrashing around looking for direction"? Or, howzabout "looking to decisive G20 action"? Or the most honest answer of all which might be: "Churning".
But Seriously
Who can take government seriously when states like Iowa kick "Hundreds of Iowans out of public hearing" to change the state's tax laws. That's OK, because Iowa has a marvelous marketing opportunity to change its name from IOWA to IOU.
If California doesn't trademark it first, 'natch.
Even More Seriously
Oh-oh....another White House HR boner as Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius has to correct three years of tax returns and send in another $7,000.
How many times do the WH HR folks botch up the screening? Is is that they don't remember to ask, or is it the democorps just don't have that much talent floating around? How about exec auto guys like Rock Wagoner and Lee Iacocca for some of them real jobs?
And Most Serious
"State try to tap high earners" says a report in the WSJ this morning, and making mention of a higher income tax on the rich. But of course, the point is missed that the really, really, really rich take their excess comp offshore as stock options which don't become taxable income until they are cashed in, and that, boys and firls is why there are 50,000 offshore accounts in Switzerland, just to pick a starting point. And then we move on to the Channel Islands, Grand Cayman, Grand Turk, the ABC islands and.....
OMG, how frigging stoopid do they think we are? And what about the uber rich who buy tax-free bonds for an income stream; how you gonna tax that?
Jobs with Uncle
You see this? "CIA launches recruitment drive on internet and TV"? m Wonder if they give hiring preference to folks who can forge Niger uranium documents?
Demons of Iran Department
"US must end Iran nuke drive, or Israel may attack, PM warns". News flash: Iran is a sovereign country.
How's This for Torture?
"Miss Universe says had "lot of fun" in Guantanamo" Look, but don't handle the merchandise...what could be worse torture than this?
Controlled Media
"Fla. Fox affiliate refuses to air Osbournes show." Ozzy Osbourne too profane? Too much adult content? I thought the Puritans landed over on the Atlantic side....
Uncontrolled Media
"TV News Reporter Arrested After Hitting NYPD Horse".
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Coping: Whole Body Scanning
A story on Drudge this morning goes to the idea that whole body scanning of airline passengers is being tested in Salt Lake City. KSL says "Site has airline passengers worried about privacy." Well, yeah.
Show me a technology that has been abused in one way or the other and we can discuss this further. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Also in our 'towering government' file is a report that "surveillance towers planned for Detroit, Buffalo."
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I wasn't just-a-kiddin' when I made the claim that 9/11 launched a whole new segment of the economy - that of 'security'.
Have you been watching what has been going on, from a software development standpoint? Remember in the 1980's (late) and 1990's when there was a kick upward in software development as ERP (enterprise resource planning) software came along? It's still being rolled out, too, by companies like PeopleSoft/Oracle and SAP...not to mention all the open source and not to ignore Microsoft's multiply flavored Dynamics and such.
So now look at an analog in the security industry: GE today has rolled out it's latest version of "Facility Commander Wnx V7.5" which features...
"...Integrating access control, photo identification credentialing, video surveillance and alarm monitoring under one platform ensures customers have immediate access to information; thereby reducing the response time to potential security threats.
Anyway, just a passing note here that it's only a matter of time until someone up the government foodchain somewhere says the GE "Hey! You know that "Facility Commander" product? Can you scale that if we give you the server platform?"
Oh, sure, it'll take some time and I can't even begin to enumerate the middleware nightmares, LOL, but eventually, one can conceptualize a global wide-ranging security platform which will operate something like the ERP platforms used by colleges and universities that interface to the US Department of Ed's financial aid system.
Only this time it will be something like son/further iteration of Facility Commander with a secure interface off to the government NCIC (national crime information center) systems and similar, so instead of processing student loans effectively, the system could look at a face recognition scan of someone coming into the lobby of a building, ID it through NCIC as you having not paid a speeding ticket, and have an officer come arrest you at your meeting on the 37th floor which is the only place your control badge will let you go.
No kidding, smart elevator systems are already being deployed - have been since 2004.
Like I say, there are plenty of middleware/security issues to be worked through, but being a marketing guy, I can see it all coming because as I used to say to the endless irritation of software engineers I've worked with: "It's only code, fer cryin' out loud!".
In the meantime, keep your clothes on. At least in Salt Lake City.
Oh...and don't forget to remember the "old days" when cavities used to be searched only by dentists...
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