Dear William,

We're back with a special report on what is happening in the car. We have always allocated space in the disc changer for some of those kids cd's that alleviate the continual questioning and occasional whining. A great phenomena really turn on some music and bring on the sing-a-long and restored balance to your moving vehicle. You've probably got your own favorites so I won't bore you with the details of ours except to say they haven't left the car in years but now we're moving on, making space for some new tunes. Going to miss a few classic like "Say Hello"--did you know "in Vietnam its CHOW BANG that means hello to you" but not the ones that sound like records playing too fast, annoying. Anyway, for whatever reason William is enthralled with music and I have been rebuffed from my usual muses(He responded to a story on NPR recently saying "Is that happening in our World? That's not good". The progression into proper music has be...

History is repeating itself. The drum beat of a Keynesian resurgence is faint but as the continuing poor economic news mounts the real ingredients for results will come together despite the blather. It has been clear for some time, and now especially with the Gulf of Mexico spill, that energy security spending is our WWII. If only we could muscle the political will and leadership to make that case we might begin to make some progress. Hire Deficits Until start working, the economy won't By Robert Kuttner May 11, 2010 The economy needs a half million new jobs every month for the next four years, just to return to the prerecession unemployment rate of 2006. And that economy was nothing to brag about, with average wage growth lagging behind inflation since 2001. Perversely, austerity has become the cure du jour. Top administration officials say there will be no new jobs initiative, because deficit reduction is needed to reassure the bond market. President Obama’s new fiscal commissi...

BREAKING NEWS In a shake up of the Obama economic team, Treasury Secretary Geithner is moving on from his post to an as yet to be determined position in the financial sector. The President in making the announcement praised Geithner for shepherding the financial sector through the crisis, that he was partly responsible for, but that it was now time for a real economist to finish the job. If ONLY! I understand the selection of Geithner as a defacto transitional actor in the Obama cabinet someone to appease Wall Street and the feared market in the interim. But the banks have all their gambling chips back and have returned to reporting daily profits special thanks to late,toothless regulatory reform that could still end in disaster again(for immediate results see market roller coaster of the last three weeks). Still the retooling of the economy is barely out of the starting blocks and debt consolidation fears are rampant. Opinion and ideology spewed as factoid news without perspective a...

“Because markets cannot and do not think ahead, the United States needs a capacity to plan. To build such a capacity, we must, first of all, overcome our taboo against planning. Planning is inherently imperfect, but in the absence of planning, disaster is certain.” James K Galbraith I have always been anxious to put a qualifier on this period of time, the post Cold War Era. What garbage will we carry with us that will be the toughest to shed? What can't we leave behind that will impede our ability to move forward and progress as a society and civilization? They are difficult to identify with the myriad economic, social and technical developments that have occurred since the early 90's. The single greatest development that began with the fall of the Berlin wall has been the nationalist, independence movement and continues to provide for the majority of unrest across the globe. In the US, we only began to internalize the consequences when 9/11 put the military blow back into per...

Three cheers for the Tea Party. Hip Hip! I was reminded recently of an acquaintance who like me was socialized deep in the heart of movement conservatism. He maintained his love of all things Republican while I had moved on. Still we would see each other occassionally and always enjoyed debating the current trajectory of public policy. Then around 2005 he said, "You know I am really more Libertarian than Republican." And we proceeded with a discussion of what this high school career counselour thought it meant to be a libertarian. Well, since then he has voted for democratic candidates including a presidential vote for Obama. My point is that true Republican or movement conservatism leads down the road to libertarianism and ultimately anarchy, really. As Egan points out once the reality of what that really means becomes apparent, as it has, no former actor turned California governor can spin it any other way. Rand Paul's victory is huge because he bypassed the ou...