Kimball Corson
08/12/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

Geez, Republicans

Debunking conservatives is tiresome, repetitive business, especially when there is no coherency to their larger macro positions and much is simply nitpicking.

Again, for the billionth time, Obama's large budgetary deficits arise from --

1) reduced tax revenue at given rates because the economy is down from the recession;

2) reduced tax rates yielding even less tax revenue put in place by Bush, and

3) increased social safety net expenditures due to the Great Recession and its lingering effects.

All are the legacy of the conservative Bush administrations, as was excessive war mongering expenditures which won us the hearts and minds of the Arab world.

If conservative politicians were serious about reducing the deficits they could

1) adopt policies to induce economic growth to a) increase tax revenues and b) reduce social safety net expenditures and

2) increase tax rates on all, but especially those getting more income, to also increase tax revenues.

Is this rocket science or are we awash in idiots?

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/12/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

A Passing Observation

A democracy can function no better than the informed intelligence of its electorate. We are dummying down and becoming less accurately informed at an accelerating rate. Our future therefore quite properly looks bleak. America is a gang of corrupt or slow witted rowdies that can't shoot straight.

Do you doubt it? Consider this: That we have dummying down in our schools, universities and public life is a well observed phenomena. It cannot be without implications. How many have a clue about Ryan's budget proposals? or know the House passed them twice? or know they are the centerpiece of the Republican party or know that, wanting to be elected, Romney is back pedaling away from them like crazy? This is basic walk and chew gum stuff.

Next, how many can economically critique the Ryan Budget proposals and get the basic aspects of the critique correct. Ryan argues that America cannot borrow and spend its way to prosperity, but that is false. Borrowing and spending is exactly how America has became prosperous. Ryan simply does want government doing any of it because he is an ideologue. He wants the fat cats to have that money instead so they can keep it out of circulation by sitting on it or playing with it in the stock and bond markets.

It is a recipe for more and worse malaise.

Is this hard to figure out, at least in its basic outlines?

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/12/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

Libertarian Economic Misconceptions

I read with alarm this reaffirmation of free markets by one Libertarian:

"Spontaneous order is a natural phenomenon that occurs when complex organization emerges from individual interacting without central coordination."

Although it is high and knowledgeable sounding, my response is the Libertarians have to be kidding. More like spontaneous opportunism . . . if history is any guide. The crash of 2008-09 arose largely out of deregulation and opportunistic greed in markets that had been freed from meaningful regulation. But conservative Libertarians simply ignore that, just like they ignore the ensuing Great Recession. None of it happened, in their books. The facts cannot be allowed to interfere with their ideologies.

Multiple markets on Wall Street and all over the country, too largely freed from effective regulation and in a frenzy of greed, simply failed and collapsed, substantially wiping out the shadow banking system, the housing market, the mortgage markets and threatening to destroy our entire banking system, but Libertarians in America, in their misguided zealousness for, and ignorance of free markets didn't even notice or have rationalized it all away as this quoted nonsense indicates.

Spontaneous order was not at all what ensued. Not even close. Chaos was more like it. What happened cannot be rationalized away by blaming government for easy money, the Community Reinvestment Act, Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae or anything else nor can these events be ignored by the Libertarians either. Markets simply failed in a fit of unrestrained greed and collapsed.

Free markets do not always allocate resources correctly nor do they always properly value assets. Those are myths. Like the humans who participate in them, markets can make mistakes and get things wrong. They can fail. Libertarians do not understand economics well, as this indicates. Their ideologically streamlined models are simply absurd as this note makes clear.

And I say this as a well-trained Chicago economist who never has believed everything he has heard or read or was taught.

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/12/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

So What Is Paul Ryan's Trademark Budget Plan?

It privatizes Medicare; cuts Medicaid, cuts food stamps, cuts other safety net expenditures and cut expenditure on transportation infrastructure. To further satisfy the rich, it cuts the top tax rate from 35% to 25%, eliminates the Alternative Minimum Tax, cuts the 35 percent corporate rate to 25 percent, eliminates taxes on foreign profits and eliminates the Estate Tax.

As to Medicare, the Ryan budget eliminates it as a government-run program and converts it to a privatized program where seniors receive a voucher or premium support to purchase health insurance from private insurers. It would also repeal Obama's health care program, the ACA.

The Ryan plan would also force states and localities to drastically cut services, due to the substantial cuts in federal funding they would receive. The plan cuts federal funding for the federal-state Medicaid by 34 percent. It is a clear recipe for recession in my view on these two points alone.

The Congressional Budget Office said the plan would force most seniors to pay more for their health care than under the current Medicare system. However, The Heritage Foundation has praised the budget proposal and the Koch brothers think it is ducky.

A study, based largely on Congressional Budget Office calculations, finds the Ryan Budget Plan will add trillions of dollars to the cost of Medicare due to the lower efficiency of private insurance as compared to the current Government program. Other studies indicate that unlike Obamacare or the ACA, health insurance costs will not be reduced.

Ryan and his allies say this is a bold plan - reforming entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid - and that slashing discretionary spending is needed to reduce the deficit and debt. But critics argue that the pain comes primarily from the poor and middle class. An analysis from the liberal-leaning Center on Budget Policies and Priorities says that 62% of the spending cuts in the Ryan budget would come from low-income programs, while 37% of its tax benefits would go to those making more than $1 million per year.

The Republicans call the Ryan Budget Plan -- the Path to Prosperity: A Blue Print for American Renewal. Mitt Romney has endorsed the Ryan Plan lock stock and barrel. But Nobel-Prize winning Economist Paul Krugman called the Plan "ridiculous and heartless" due to a combination of income tax rate reductions for the wealthy) and large spending cuts that would affect the poor and middle classes very adversely. The New York Times editorial board wrote: "We are also certain that repealing [Obama's healthcare] reform - the Republicans' No. 1 goal - would do enormous damage to all Americans and make it even harder to wrestle down health care costs, the best way to deal with the country's long-term fiscal crisis."

This pig won't fly with the American people. Romney has his foot in his mouth and is back pedaling. He and Ryan are going to get hammered.

Now watch the flip flopping and watering down on this monstrosity start. This duo of cads will really start to weasel.

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/12/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

Why Choose Ryan and Disavow His Signature Budget?

I smell a rat. Did party leaders and planners force Ryan on Romney? It looks like that is a possibility. Otherwise, why chose Ryan for the only thing he is known for, and then disavow it? Something is fishy here. Is there an internal split being patched over?

Within minutes of tapping Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee, the Republican nominee Mitt Romney was distancing himself from the congressman's controversial budget plan, which includes steep cuts to government programs and basically throws Medicare to the wolves on Wall Street.

The Romney campaign sent out talking points on Saturday that made the case that he was supposedly his own man on matters of Medicare and Social Security and that he wouldn't be tied to the Ryan budget plan he once insisted he'd sign into law immediately and once called "marvelous." Clear double speak from an errant rat.

Is America too dumb to notice, even on an issue this important.

Comments [1]

Kimball Corson
08/10/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

Letters spill out across the page.
One arrangement evokes genius,
Another, stamps an idiot's brow;
Who's to say? The gatekeepers
Of convention or does Merit
Yield up a true intrinsicness?

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/09/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

How and Why Much of America Has Shifted to the Far Right

Conservatives today -- especially those of religious or libertarian disposition -- have their historical political roots in the John Birch Society and its beliefs. That Society was co-founded in the late 1950s by Robert Welch and, Fred Koch, the father of the contemporary Koch brothers, crusaders on the far right.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, "Birchers," as they were called, were thought to be far right wing kooks, well outside of the political mainstream, who were laughed at and ridiculed. Not so now. They are border line mainstream.

Contemporary conservatives have no coherent explanation for how they became who they are because they ignore their history and they refuse to acknowledge the indoctrination efforts on them and the American public by Koch & Friends who used Powell Doctrine and spent about two billion dollars on the effort since about 1972, much by setting up bogus think tanks like The Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation to generate bogus research that mainstream economists reject and often cannot duplicate-- at least those who are not bought off.

Conservatives today think a Rockefeller or Eisenhower Republican is a border-line Communist. That is how far the right has shifted to the right. Why, I always ask them. Incoherent stares and sometimes simple reaffirmations are the only responses I receive.

Kooks without a coherent history. Just born that way, perhaps.

Comments [3]

Kimball Corson
08/07/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

The Trial of My Attempted Murderers Is Postponed

From mid August 2012 to mid January 2013. But the delay is not going to pin me here in American Samoa further. The prosecutors' office has agreed to fly me back on their nickle if I do not go further than Tonga or Fiji. I have already lived in Tonga for a year, so my target will probably be Fiji, especially for the cyclone season.

However, I will go to Tonga with a friend to photograph the great humpback whales this year just before the cyclone season starting in early November and to say good-bye to friends there before I then scamper to Fiji to hole up for the season.

However, I do have to wait here until the end of August for a new outboard motor that is coming in then by ship. It is due to arrive August 28, 2012.

With good conditions, it is only a few days sail from here to Tonga and slightly more from Tonga (Vavau) to Fiji.

Ah, foot loose and fancy free again . . . almost.

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/06/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

Why Obama and the Republicans Are Failing Us So

Robert Kuttner puts it well with a bit of my aggressive editing:

"Government needs to do two things that neither Democrats nor Republicans have been willing to do.

"First, we need a massive program of mortgage refinance, not just for borrowers with plenty of equity (who have been refinancing) but for underwater homeowners with negative equity.

"The administration has been unwilling to embrace such a strategy for fear of the impact on bank balance sheets. However the Treasury has supported the idea of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac supporting more refinancings. But Ed DeMarco, head of the agency that regulates Fannie and Freddie has opposed the idea. DeMarco's own agency thinks the approach would help. . . Obama should begin . . . a far more aggressive program of mortgage refinance by firing DeMarco.

"But even with more robust efforts to deal with the overhang of excessive mortgage debt and depressed housing prices, the economy will still be stuck in a hole.

"We need massive public investment on a scale that is far outside mainstream debate. How massive?

"It took World War II to cure the Great Depression, and during the war the government ran deficits averaging 25 percent of GDP for four straight years.

"Government also had high surtaxes on the wealthy, with top rates of 91 percent. It turned around and spent and invested that money. The war restored the productive capacity of America, put fifteen million people to work, and restored household purchasing power -- even though most of that production was blown up. . .

"There is so much that we could spend that money on -- energy self sufficiency, infrastructure, a smart electrical grid, public transportation, better education at all levels -- all of which would not only create economic activity and jobs, but would make for a more productive economy.

"But nothing like this is part of the mainstream conversation. If you propose this sort of thing, you are packed off to the Museum of Un-reconstructed Keynesians. White House economists quietly admit that you are right, but you are politically radioactive (even with a Nobel Prize.)

"Though President Obama strikes the right rhetorical notes, the actual budget debate is the Republicans demanding that we cut more while the Democrats respond that we should cut a little less. Nobody is declaring that only massive public investment will cure the shortfall in private purchasing power. [No one is even seriously arguing that any significant spending cuts are going to damage the economy and the recovery.]

"And so we will continue with growth depressed, and unemployment stuck above 8 percent, with some slightly better months of job growth like July, and some worse ones like April, May, and June.

"Despite this feeble performance, President Obama may get re-elected, thanks to the reliable ineptitude of Mitt Romney. Unless Obama's feistier campaign performance translates to a Democratic Congress and a much bolder recovery program, Obama's second term will be a time of continuing economic frustrations."

This man has it absolutely correctly. With Krugman, he is one of the very few to understand. I too have been saying as much. Obama and the Republicans take us in wrong directions. Even if he were not blocked by the Republicans, Obama would be too timorous and fail. Too, the Republicans push very hard in all the wrong directions. It's a mess.

Comments [2]

Kimball Corson
08/05/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

The Focus of Animal Rights Activists Is too Narrow

Much hoopla is made in the US over animal welfare and rights. However, the need is by far less there than in much of the rest of the world. Take dogs for an example.

From northern Mexico, well into South America dogs suffer badly at humans' hands and look terrible. Ditto throughout the South Pacific where a common sight is a seriously overweight woman walking down a sidewalk eating and dropping food as she goes and a mangie, diseased, bag of bones of a dog is trailing after her scrounging up the crumbs and dribble she leaves. Only in the highlands of Guatemala do the dogs look fed and healthy. There, the mountain Indians eat them.

Animals, especially dogs in the third world fair horribly. Many a time I have stepped into a restaurant to grab a bite of food for a mangie mutt and watched him scarf it like his first real meal. I have fed dying dogs at curb side after being deliberately hit by cars. In some areas, there are no vets. Dogs are there to be abused seems to be the take. It is sad and reflects badly on us as humans.

Dogs in the US don't know how good they have it.

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/05/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

My Favorite Actresses

They probably say more about me than I care to. But here goes. They are very few and far between.

Most actresses leave me indifferent or affirmatively put off. The two that decidedly don't are Emily Deschanel -- or Brennen, more accurately, in the Bones TV series -- and Natalie Portman, reaching back to her childhood role with Jean Reno as Mathilda in Leon:The Professional, a hit man recall.

Both actresses are intelligent and beautiful in a way I prefer, quite classy, well educated, a bit aloof and personally very private. Jody Foster misses the cut, as too much less appealing, because of her strident ways, looks and lesbianism, although I am intrigued that her parents' intercourse to conceive her occurred three years after their divorce.

No others I find have the marbles or much appeal. The heart of my liking centers on Brennan and Mathilda. Their ages are irrelevant. Strong, smart women, both, but still hyper feminine.

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/05/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

Why Congress Is Awful

Economic problems created by Congress are heating up now. Congress has to yet figure out what to do about the expiring tax cuts and scheduled spending cuts at year end that make up the "fiscal cliff." Economists say the combination would cause a recession if nothing is done. Both are Congressional creations.

Economists including Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Ethan Harris say the prospect of the cliff is already freezing business investment and hiring, and dampening consumer spending. The impact of uncertain European and American policy is showing up in everything from consumer confidence to factory orders. These impacts are also Congressional creations.

Such Dufuses.

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/03/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

On the Importance of Unpopular Choices

I have long believed that a person's effective intelligence, thinking and thought processes are significantly determined by the people around him or her. We rise or fall to the level of people we are with. We come to think in a similar fashion and at a similar level as they do. We are socialized by them.

If true, this has profound implications, if we value such intelligence. First, it means we must choose our parents carefully and well. We must also avoid those who dull our wits and take us in wrong directions. Here, the old adage applies that great minds focus on ideas, typical minds focus on events and people and baser minds revel in gossip.

Secondly, education and higher education in particular must be chosen carefully. The idea here is to surround yourself with smart, interesting and interested people - students and faculty alike. Life is short and you must go for it. Finally, in choosing the company or firm and environment where you will work, the same approach applies. Go for those of intelligence and greater or more intense interests.

Avoid others where feasible and offense is not given, for as Nietzsche teaches us they distract us, lower our sensibilities and try our patience. However, good social skills do allow us to interact to some extent with all types of people as we must and we should not be arrogant at the effort, but gracious about it. Indeed, there is merit in becoming good at it, but do not expect too much. However, the synergy of interactive helpfulness is worthy and should be cultivated, independently, but all needs to be kept in perspective.

My own views are that these perspectives make for a better and more interesting life, but they will win you no popularity contests, but that really shouldn't matter to you, should it?
______

For this piece and by those who know me, I have been dubbed "a snob, but a lovable snob." That is probably true.

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/02/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

Duetsche Bank in Trouble

The mainstay of Europe, Germany's once mighty Deutsche Bank not only faces huge fines in the LIBOR price fixing scandal, but worse, its profits "are collapsing" and many layoffs are planned.

The bank has a real difficult road ahead. It is thought to be too big and bloated to be competitive. Profits in the second quarter fell by 80 percent compared to those of the first quarter, which were down. The bank's balance sheet is loaded with high risk, depressed mortgage instruments. Its investment arm is doing even less well.

New officers are trying to sort out the mess. Meanwhile there is a huge capital flight from Spain. In the first five months of this years, the outflows came to $163 billion.

Comments [0]

Kimball Corson
08/02/2012, Pago Pago, American Samoa

Another Salad Brained GOPer Proves His Worth

Criticizing President Barack Obama's health care reform law on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) likened the requirement that private insurance plans provide contraception coverage to the attack on Peal Harbor and to 9/11.

"I know in your mind, you can think of the times America was attacked," he said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "One is Dec. 7, that's Pearl Harbor Day. The other is Sept. 11, and that's the day the terrorists attacked. I want you to remember Aug. 1, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates."

What a mind!
______

From a friend:: No. Rep. Mike Kelly only underlined the rule to NOT KILL. We usually call it murder. We firmly believe that the "fetus" becomes a person at the moment of conception. We talk about a woman's right to make decisions that have to do with her own body. Well, about half of all aborted babies are little women. What about their right to decide what happens to their own body?

Kimball Corson: This is all relatively "new" religious theory from the religious right whereby the conservative, religious right wants to control the behavior of others who disagree with them and that theory. Throughout history the real distinction, and one recognized earlier by the law of most nations, has been between feticide (the killing of a fetus) which has been legal and infanticide (the killing of a baby which has been born) which was not. The earlier theory in practice and under the law for millennia, was that the fetus was a part of the woman's body to do with what she wanted. That status did not change until birth, when the fetus became an infant and received legal protection as a person. Religious conservatives have tipped this age old system on its head and have imposed their new theoretical system you describe on the rest of us and not surprisingly there is debate and with Roe v Wade, also compromise.

Kimball Corson: It is interesting that about eighteen to twenty years after Roe v Wade in the US -- and legalizing abortions, for the first trimester or thereabouts or at any time, in other countries -- researchers found that the crime rate automatically and by it self dropped very substantially in such countries. Crime tends to be a youthful phenomena and those aborted, as the evidence shows, included many if not most of those who commit crimes. Some of us consider such practical consequences important for society and believe the old distinction for millennia was the better one or, better yet, a theory based on natural fetus/infant viability outside the womb so as not to pick nits on the instant of being born, but still honoring practical and sensible considerations.

Kimball Corson: You see many of us do not believe in souls, or God per se or an afterlife or Heaven or Hell at all or, in this case that the "fetus" becomes a person at the moment of conception. It simply lacks too many of the characteristics of real or significant personhood in my view. It is not meaningfully "alive" as a person per se. Just my unindoctrinated, self considered views.

Comments [0]