Which Republican Candidate Would You Trust With Your Grandchildren for the Weekend?

Posted on January 19, 2012 by

Tonight’s Republican presidential debate on CNN was introduced as a sensational TV extravaganza, complete with a wildly cheering audience. My first impression was that American politics has descended to the level of one or all of the following:

  • Gladiators fighting to the death for the entertainment of spectators in a coliseum.
  • A reality television show devoid all meaning and without redeeming social value.
  • A Super Bowl without the great commercials, cheerleaders, and halftime show.

Is it possible to lower the standards any further? You had only to wait for the sponsors of the first two commercials:

  • Movies on Demand: “Watch Lady Gaga anytime.”
  • Wrestle Mania.

Despite the demeaning atmosphere of the televised debate, I thought the four candidates made strong efforts to focus on important issues of government and character.

Imagine, if you can, the words that would describe each of the four candidates in a high school yearbook:

  • Mitt Romney – “Mr. Handsome” and “Most likely to succeed in business.”
  • New Gingrich – “Debating Team Champion” and “Most likely to steal your girlfriend.”
  • Rick Santorum — “Mr. Personality” and “Most religious.”
  • Ron Paul – “Most Intellectual” and “Most likely to succeed in medical school.”

I’m a true-blue Democrat, so I make no claim to objectivity. In my opinion, President Barack Obama would most easily defeat either Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney.

If the Republican candidate is Mr. Gingrich, I fear that the election will turn ugly and  racist. Mr. Gingrich makes no attempt to hide his disdain for President Obama and all African-Americans. I think a Gingrich campaign would bring to the surface a great deal of racism. I’m afraid a significant segment of the country would rally to Mr. Gingrich, but the majority would be so repulsed by the blatant racism that Mr. Obama would win easily.

If the Republican candidate is Mr. Romney, the divide between Romney’s wealth and his brand of vulture capitalism will contrast so sharply with the fortunes and values of working people, the election might indeed resemble “class warfare.” I believe that Mr.  Obama would defeat Mr. Romney in a landslide of possibly historic proportions.

An election between either President Obama and former Sen. Santorum, or Obama and Rep. Ron Paul, would provide American voters with a clear and honest choice. I think both Santorum and Paul are strong advocates of a strong conservative tradition in American politics. President Obama would be favored over either of them at the outset of the campaign. But both Santorum and Paul ane impressive men and either one of them might close the margin to 50-50 during the fall campaign. I see Obama, Santorum and Paul all as wholesome role models for American young people, and probably qualified and competent for the high and demanding office of president of the United States.

A campaign featuring Ron Paul would be quite an educational experience for the American people, probably offering the clearest and least emotional discussion of the issues. Mr. Paul is the longshot, but his ability to answer nearly any question concisely and with clear logic, without dodging, is refreshing and enlightening. I think Mr. Paul and Mr. Obama, as opponents, might bring out the best in each other and in American politics.

Before the age of television and internet, it was believed that the American people most wanted a strong, trusted father figure or grandfather figure as president. Mr. Obama occupies the White House as a family man in the “Father Knows Best” tradition that warms the American heart.

Let me finish on a light note by asking which of the Republican candidates you would be willing to leave your grandchildren with over a long weekend? Here’s my reaction to that question:

  • Mitt Romney – A trusted family man, a good role model, he can easily afford to feed the kids well for the weekend. The drawback is he might spoil them with a lifestyle the children will never again experience.
  • Ron Santorum – Certainly! Mr. Santorum is an excellent role model and would make a fine church youth leader. He’d take the children to church, picnics, and a baseball game. An All-American weekend.
  • Ron Paul – The best grandfather figure, kindly and intellectual. He might introduce the kids to logic or science, or just take them to a good G-rated movie and have a relaxed family weekend.
  • Newt Gingrich – Mr. Gingrich can be very entertaining. He’s a man of the world and a brilliant scholar. I wouldn’t let the children anywhere near Mr. Gingrich. I wouldn’t want the kids picking up any bad habits.

– John Hayden

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Ebook and Indie Book Revolution Is Reflected in Blogs

Posted on January 16, 2012 by
English: Latest Kindle (2011) showing Esperant...

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings, patient readers and friends. Yes, I’ve been neglecting ConsterNation while I work on writing an e-book. Thankfully, the end is in sight.

E-books might be the new blogging. Writers flocked to blogging when it became popular about six years ago, and now writers are flocking to e-books. I’m not suggesting that e-books will replace blogging. I’m sure that won’t happen. However, I think e-books have already affected the evolution of the blogosphere. At the height of the blogging craze, many of the most successful and popular blogs were blogs about blogging. Many gurus offered advice on blogging, and some even suggested that a lot of money could be made in blogging, if one followed their advice.

Something similar is happening now with blogs about e-book publishing. Many veteran authors and some newbies have established blogs offering analysis of the publishing revolution and suggestions on how writers might proceed. One of my favorite new blogs in this category is “Let’s Get Digital,” a WordPress.com blog by David Gaughran, who focuses on his own experiences as a writer and e-book publisher. A blog by a veteran author who’s made the transition from traditional publishing to e-books is “A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing,” by K.A. Konrath. (Mr. Konrath has the zeal of a convert who’s seen the light.) Although there is much talk about pricing and book-promotion strategies, most e-book gurus are warning that few if any writers are going to get rich quick through Indie publishing.

An even more significant trend for the long run, I think, is the explosion in blogs and Web sites listing and reviewing e-books. One of my favorites in this category is a new blog on WordPress.com called Bargain Books for your Nook. And thousands of previously existing blogs about books and writing have added e-books and Indie publishing to their coverage. I expect I’ll be calling your attention to many of the blogs reporting on and reviewing e-books during 2012.

I first noticed the incoming wave of Indie books and e-books early in 2011, and wrote a long post which is still a good introduction to the subject. I think it’s safe to say that at the beginning of 2012, a full-scale revolution in book publishing is well under way.

Amazon’s Kindle started it all — slowly — a few years ago, and Barnes & Nobel followed with their Nook. The SmashwordsWeb site was a pioneer in promoting e-book publishing, and it continues to be a major source of encouragement and empowerment for unpublished writers. Smashwords’ fabled “Meatgrinder” set the pace for simplicity in uploading e-books, and Smashwords’ commitment to free service and wide distribution to as many outlets as possible remains exemplary. Apple’s iPad was designed to be much more than an e-book reader, but Apple’s entry into the book sales business makes it one of the four big players for 2012, along with Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. You may have other major players to add to the list, but those are the big ones on my radar.

Amazon maintains dominance in the e-book marketplace, and Amazon’s announcement in the fall of 2012 of the Kindle Fire, the first color Kindle, was the event that transformed the smoldering e-book and Indie book movement into the raging prairie fire that New York’s traditional publishers have long feared. (Let the record show that Barnes & Noble was already out with a color version of the Nook.)

I suspect I’ll be writing a whole lot more about ebooks and publishing this year, and I’ll probably continue to comment on politics and the economy, as well. In fact, the present political and economic crisis affecting the U.S. and Europe is the subject of the novel I’m finishing now. It might be ready to upload it in February. You, patient reader, will be the first to know.

– John Hayden

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eBooks and Indie Books Might Be the Greatest Revolution Since Printing

Posted on January 22, 2011 by

Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type and the printing press, in the 15th Century, was the most revolutionary development (my opinion) in the history of technology, the history of communication, the history of everything.

Using moveable type, a printer created lines of words and sentences. Wikimedia Commons photo

Mr. Gutenberg could never have imagined offset printing, the printing revolution of the 20th Century, so he definitely would not understand or believe the advent of the eBook, which could be a defining revolution of the 21st Century.

After all the technological revolutions of my lifetime (** See “A Personal Perspective,” below), I do not understand — and can hardly believe — the sudden rise of the eBook. Nonetheless, this week I purchased my first eBook.

Just another stack of books. Wikimedia Commons photo

I had associated eBooks with the development of digital book readers, starting with Amazon’s Kindle. (The price of the Kindle has dropped like a rock as competitors emerged, putting the technology within reach of even frugal folks like me.) With a Kindle or one of its imitators, you can download books, newspapers, magazines, etc., and carry them around in a small, handheld device, to be read at will. Amazon boasts that the Kindle could hold a small library of books.

I thought the Kindle and its competitors, like Apple’s iPad, were primarily  devices on which you could copy and read real, old-fashioned books, like “To Kill A Mockingbird,” or “The Grapes of Wrath.”  You know, books with paper pages produced by a publishing house in New York. Books with covers, called hardbacks and paperbacks. One apparent advantage of devices like the Kindle is that you can purchase and download virtual copies of paper books, including new bestsellers, for much less than you could buy the hard copy in a bookstore.

But here’s the truly revolutionary thing about eBooks:

eBooks need not ever be published on paper. They don’t need to be accepted and edited by a traditional New York publisher.

eBooks float in the cloud of the Internet. You can buy them from the Web sites of budding eBook publishers. You could buy an eBook and have it printed out for you on paper, but the fundamental point is to bypass paper entirely.

You can buy these virtual eBooks and download them onto your Kindle, iPad, or similar device. But you don’t need a special device.

eBooks can be downloaded onto any computer.  You can read your eBook on the computer screen. Or if you have old eyes, like me, you can print your eBook out on your home printer.

(The eBook that I purchased is “Smalltopia: A Practical Guide to Working for Yourself,” by Tammy Strobel. The eBook is 156 virtual pages and it has neither an ISBN number, nor a copyright. I found the book interesting, but it’s not really a “practical guide,” in my opinion.  “Smalltopia” offers encouragement and inspiration, and general suggestions, but little concrete information. It contains numerous links to other bloggers and writers who are also trying to make a living by working for themselves.  Ms. Strobel blogs about “social change through simple living” at http://rowdykittens.com/ )

Where do you buy eBooks? How do you publish your manuscript as an eBook?

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon Smashwords, (“Discover Great Ebooks and Indie Authors and Publishers”). What is an “Indie Author?” I had to look it up. “Indie” means “Independent.” Of course. How could I have been nearly blind to the world of Indie music, Indie video, Indie books, and who knows what else? Indie book publishing is sort of the online version of what used to be called “Vanity Publishing.” Unknown authors often paid to have their books published on paper. In the brave new world of eBooks, any author can self-publish for free.

“Smashwords publishes and distributes ebooks. Authors and publishers retain full control over how their works are published, sampled, priced and sold. If an author wants to charge one dollar or ten thousand dollars, or give it away for free, they have that freedom.  Smashwords was launched in May 2008, and in this time we’ve become the leading ebook publishing platforms for indie authors and publishers, with over 25,000 ebooks published.” – Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords

Smashwords is only one of many eBook publishers. They do not suggest that authors are going to get rich quick on Smashwords. In fact, many authors sell their books for very low prices, like 99 cents, or give them away free.

I think one of the larger eBook publishers may be Lulu, which claims over a million published authors, over a thousand new titles a day. Then there’s eBooks.com, which claims to be the leading online store for eBooks.  And Issuu (“You Publish”), which offers both free and “pro” publishing services.

Apple's Steve Jobs introducing the iTab. Wikimedia Commons photo

There must be hundreds of online eBook publishers and sellers. I can hardly scratch the surface here. But the one I don’t want to overlook is iBooks for the iPad. You can download the iBooks app for free, natch. Apple has had huge success with its iTunes store, so I would have to guess iBooks might be a player in the new world of eBooks.  Who can predict how this new industry will shake out?

I think it’s safe to say that the quality of eBooks covers the spectrum from worthless to priceless, and everything in between.

The number and variety of books available online is already huge, in the millions. That’s an important aspect of the eBook revolution. eBook authors and Indie publishers are tapping into what Chris Anderson has described as “The Long Tail.” Mr. Anderson’s blog is on hiatus, but it contains a wealth of information on the long-tail phenomenon.

Anderson posits that the demand for variety in the marketplace is much larger than old-fashioned retail stores can handle. Even a mega-bookstore can offer only a small fraction of the world’s books for sale. All the books you can’t find in that bricks-and-mortar bookstore are in the “long tail,” and they’re available to browse and buy as eBooks on the Internet.

The world of book authorship and book publishing will never be the same.

** (A Personal Perspective)

I have witnessed and participated in the transition of the newspaper industry from letterpress (hot type), to offset (cold type), to computer pagination (no type).

My first technology purchase was a used, Royal standard typewriter, bought from the Wheaton Typewriter Co. for $99 in 1965. I adapted easily to the IBM Selectric in the early 1970s; but I had to be dragged — kicking, screaming, and hyperventilating — from my typewriter to a primitive computer terminal, in the 198os. (That first computer used a word processing program called WordStar. You will never, ever hear about WordStar again. You do not have to remember WordStar for the test.)

I survived to help one newspaper transition from printing to pagination, using Quark xPress page design software, in the 1990s. And then at the turn of the century, I was a minor, unwilling accomplice in the final destruction of the printing trade, as a major daily implemented Harris pagination in the newsroom.

Are you ready to write or read an eBook? Please comment below.

– John Hayden

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What I Believe About America In 2011 (With 16 Comments)

Posted on July 26, 2011 by

Image via Wikimedia Commons

(Please click on “comments” at the bottom of the post for an interesting back-and-forth between polar opposite points of view.)

The deadlock over raising the debt limit seems almost like a clash of religious beliefs. The two sides hold different beliefs. The deadlock has helped clarify my thinking about what I believe. Maybe this debt crisis of 2011 will help us all clarify who we are, and what we believe.

Image via Wikimedia CommonsI believe that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the best part of America. I believe that without Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, a large part of the American population — more than half the people over 65 — would fall into hopeless poverty.

Some people believe it would be impossible to balance the American budget without deep cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I believe that America is still, right now, the most prosperous society the world has ever known. I believe that America can afford Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

I believe it would be fair for the most prosperous among us — those with incomes of $250,000 or more a year — to pay a little more in taxes for the good of America. These people have prospered in America. They live the good life. Aren’t they patriotic enough to want to keep America strong? I believe they ARE patriotic and willing to help. It is inconceivable that they could be otherwise.

Some politicians say they oppose any tax increase because a tax increase would “destroy jobs.”

I don’t believe it. How would a modest tax increase destroy jobs? The president is not talking about making rich people poor. He’s talking about a modest tax increase on incomes over $250,000. How exactly will that destroy jobs? Will people earning $250,000 or more even notice a small tax increase? Will a small tax increase change their way of life? I don’t think so. Some may believe otherwise.

I believe there are other ways to balance the American budget. I believe we are spending far too much on a worldwide military presence. I believe we do not have to be fighting foreign wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. I believe we could drastically reduce foreign military spending, pull American soldiers out of harm’s way and closer to the North American continent. We could reduce defense spending by perhaps a third, and still have a military that is by far strong enough to defend the North American continent.

I simply cannot understand why anyone would want to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. I believe the vast majority of Americans support these programs. I believe that common-sense cuts in general government spending and defense spending, combined with a small increase in taxes on the most fortunate among us, would bring the American budget into balance.

What do you believe?

THIS CHART PUTS THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY IN PERSPECTIVE. BEGGING THE QUESTION: IF MODEST CUTS WERE MADE IN U.S. SPENDING ON GENERAL GOVERNMENT AND DEFENSE, AND SOME EFFICIENCIES ARE FOUND IN MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY, THEN HOW MUCH WOULD STILL NEED TO BE RAISED IN TAXES? Chart via Wikipedia

Keep the faith.

– John Hayden

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“A Storm Hits Valparaiso” Ebook released

Posted on December 29, 2011 by

I haven’t read this new epic, but I think it might be a landmark in ebook publishing. It’s worth a look.  – John

A Storm Hits Valparaíso – Released Today!.

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Ann Patchett’s ‘Run’ — Book Review

Posted on December 1, 2011 by

ANN PATCHETT

Blogger’s note: This review was originally published in December 2007, in three installments, on my first WordPress blog, Maryland On My Mind. Time flies, posts get buried, new blogs are born, and great books live forever. – John Hayden

Ann Patchett’s ‘Run’ — Preview

Dec. 8, 2007 – When you read about Bernard Doyle, the former Boston mayor with great ambitions for his sons, you can’t help but free-associate: Kennedy.  At least I can’t. Two of the sons are named Tip and Teddy!

And then I free-associate: Skeffington. Bernard Doyle and Frank Skeffington. Two Irish-Catholic mayors who loved their city, and were beloved by many. The voters turned on both of them. Doyle told a lie to protect his family and faded away without achieving his own ambitions. Skeffington stayed on too long. Again, I free-associate: William Donald Schaefer.

Ann Patchett reminds me of Edwin O’Connor. I discovered O’Connor’s 1956 novel, The Last Hurrah,  in high school, and read all his other books. The two authors have insights about the same subjects – people, politics, family, God — and breath-taking writing talent, honed by attention and effort.

I’ve read only the first six chapters of Run.” I don’t know if my free-associations with the Kennedy family or the Skeffington family have any significance at all.  I don’t know what will happen to Tip or Teddy, or their older brother, Sullivan. I do know that Tennessee (like the state) and Kenya (like the country) are central to the family story.

And I know for sure that Patchett is reporting with keen understanding on life and family in America. More to come.

Ann Patchett’s Run

ANN PATCHETT, Photo by Melissa Ann Pinney

Dec. 13, 2007 – Finished the book this morning. Run is a beautiful book, a masterwork. Bravo!

I won’t write an in-depth report about Ann Patchett’s new novel until I’ve given it more thought. After a few weeks have passed, I will read Run again. There is so much to the story.  Run is about family, of course. It is about life and loss, and grieving the losses. The author has something to say about guilt and penance. The reader is prompted to ponder privilege, talent, and poverty.  References to health insurance are subtle, but impossible to overlook.

Don’t be put off by “ichthyology.”

A Maryland note:  Run takes place in Boston. It’s about a Boston family. Surprisingly, the story concludes in Baltimore.

Ann Patchett’s ‘Run’ — The Characters

Dec. 18, 2007 – How do you write a great novel with all good guys and no bad guys? Ann Patchett has created for us a family of wonderful characters. The reader is pulling for every one of them. Where is the conflict?  I’ll get to that question in a future post. First, the characters of Run.

  • Bernard Doyle - Former mayor of Boston, widower, devoted and doting father with grand ambitions for his children.
  • Bernadette Doyle - Bernard Doyle’s beautiful wife. She did not share her husband’s love of politics, but she lovingly supported him. Bernadette wanted a big family, many children, and especially a daughter. When she had only one son, she turned to adoption. Ann Patchett writes: “She did not ask for anything as ridiculous as a redhead or a girl, just a baby.  Any baby would be fine.”
  • Sullivan - Bernard and Bernadette’s first and only biological son. The bad boy of the family, with a weakness for alcohol and drugs, but he is the privileged son who cares most deeply about the underprivileged. He is the one who has the gift of connecting directly with people in pain.
  • Tip and Teddy - The Doyles’ adopted sons. The Doyles are Irish-American. Tip and Teddy are African-American. Ann Patchett writes: “Tip was smarter and Teddy was sweeter.” They are young men now, college students, Tip gifted with a deep interest in the study of fish and evolutionary biology, Teddy possibly gifted with a vocation to the priesthood. Bernard Doyle still hopes to turn one or both of them toward a career in politics.
  • Uncle Sullivan - A frail and elderly priest, Bernadette’s uncle and her children’s great-uncle. He has the gift of healing, perhaps. Teddy is devoted to Uncle Sullivan; the others ignore him.
  • Tennessee Moser - Mother of Tip and Teddy, and Kenya. She was going to be a lawyer. She gave it up to be a mother. She was poor, she was wise. She loved her children. She is the heroine of this story.
  • Kenya Moser - Daughter of Tennessee. Eleven years old, a Girl Scout, a gifted natural runner. Kenya is a bright and beautiful child, improbably wise and mature for her age.

The family is so compelling that you hardly notice the brief appearances of minor characters:  Bernadette’s great-grandfather and great-grandmother, her two sisters, the driver of the SUV, the ambulance attendants and the police, a doctor or two, a nurse, two orderlies, the student gate-keeper at Harvard’s indoor track, a few runners on the track, and the convocation speaker at Johns Hopkins. Ann Patchett could not have told the story without them. Each of them has an important role, some key information or insight to contribute.

Of all the major characters, Bernard Doyle is the one I understand after one reading. (Full disclosure: You don’t find a leading man named Bernard every day. Bernard is my grandfather’s first name, and my father’s, and mine.)  Ann Patchett’s Doyle is both father and mother, and a good politician as well. He does not dwell on what might have been, but dreams of what might yet be.  More about Bernard Doyle after Christmas.

Meanwhile, I’m re-reading Bel Canto.  After a break, I’ll take another look at Run. More on Ann Patchett’s two great novels after New Year’s.

Have you read Run, or Bel Canto, or any of Patchett’s other books? Your comments are welcome below.

– John Hayden

Blogger’s note: I’ve written many posts since 2007, but I’ve yet to keep my promise to write more about Ann Patchett’s great books. A blogger’s work is never done. Just now, I’m working on an ebook. It is an American story in “reality fiction.”

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Tiny House News from Smalltopia

Posted on October 26, 2011 by

Those of you who are fans or members of the tiny-house movement will get a kick out of this post about the completion of a brand new house, with lots of photos, over at the RK blog. Enjoy.

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More on Stillness (from Under The Apricot Tree)

Posted on October 24, 2011 by

Just discovered a new blog called “Under the Apricot Tree.” It’s a blog “about new life on an old farm.”

The most recent post is here: More on Stillness.

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Thank You, Mayor Bloomberg

Posted on October 14, 2011 by

It looks like Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the right decision.

Occupy Wall Street continues today in Zuccotti Park, New York City, albeit with some tension. The situation remains fluid.

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Occupy Wall Street Needs Support As New York Sends In Police

Posted on October 13, 2011 by
Michael Bloomberg - Caricature

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

What can NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg be thinking? What is he smoking? Can he getting advice from idiots? Up to now, he’s been doing the right thing.

NYC has been reasonably hospitable to the Occupy Wall Street protest, so far. But other cities have been arresting protesters on flimsy pretenses, and New York is about to follow suit.

I understand that Mayor Bloomberg plans to send in the police to clear Zuccotti Park at 7 a.m. Friday morning, so it can be ”cleaned.” NYC is imposing new rules that won’t allow protesters to continue to occupy the park.

Mayor Bloomberg, what happened to freedom to peaceably assemble and freedom of speech? Is this still New York City? Is this still America?

The Occupy Wall Street protesters have been standing up for middle-class and working-class Americans against corporate greed on Wall Street and the corporate takeover of American democracy. It’s time for ordinary Americans to stand with them. Please join me in signing a petition to Mayor Bloomberg asking him not to evict the protesters. Please use the link below.

http://civic.moveon.org/defend_ows/?r_by=31974-19251048-tS1sTtx&rc=c4_defend_ows_letter.email.g0

I pray that all the Occupy Wall Street activists will respond with total commitment to nonviolence. Thanks for being an involved citizen.

– John Hayden

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American and European Workers in the New Economy

Posted on September 27, 2011 by

It’s possible that we’re on the brink of historic collapse. Maybe not the Dark Age that Jane Jacobs suggests in her final book. Maybe the decline and fall of the Roman Empire is not an apt comparison. Maybe it will be more like the decline and fall of the British Empire. Or the breakup of the Soviet Union. Maybe only partial collapse, failure of some systems, here and there.

Is the era of labor-intensive capitalism over in the U.S. and Europe?

You can trace the demise of the factory to decisions made in the 1950s. The actual dismantling of American industry began in the 1970s. By 1982, the process was so advanced that we spoke of the industrial heartland as the “rust belt.”

The remaining labor-intensive parts of American industry were taken apart and exported during the globalization of the 1980s and 1990s. After the manufacturing base was hollowed out to a shell, the next labor-intensive sector to collapse was the construction industry.

Capitalism remains strong. But for the first time, capitalism doesn’t need many workers, at least not in America and Europe. What about the knowledge industry? Won’t that provide jobs? Google is big, but its workforce, not so much. Yes, there will be jobs for the lucky, the talented, the highly educated. But ask a recent college grad how easy it is to find a job.

We have what’s left of retailing. Count the vacant stores at your local mall. Walmart thrives. We have fast food. Many jobs, minimum wage.

The new capitalism is technology-intensive and finance-intensive. And coming soon, computers that “think,” to compete with slow, old-fashioned humans.

As manufacturing jobs slipped away, the financial sector created an illusion of growth and wealth.

The workings of the financial sector are a mystery to me. But the events of the past few years have caused me to view banking and finance with fear and loathing. Based on what little I know, the world financial system — many currencies and fluctuating values, with competing central banks and regulators — is dysfunctional and completely irrational. Finance is a crazy system, more likely to create chaos than order. It’s FUBAR (go ahead, look it up).

The institutions of finance have no soul or conscience to oppose corruption. American banks, corporations and wealthy individuals are awash in money, while average Americans, especially underwater “homeowners,” are awash in debt. For whatever reasons, the wizards of finance refuse to spend or invest.

If high-tech, high-finance, American and European capitalism can profit without much labor input, what happens to the surplus workers?

Economic, political and social systems will have to adapt rapidly, or risk collapse. The European Union looks kind of unstable. In the U.S., some states are financial basket cases. Maybe collapse is happening now.

– John Hayden

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Ocean City End-of-Season Damage Report, 2011 (via Ocean City Blog)

Posted on September 20, 2011 by

Economic trouble often leads to political and social trouble. Prolonged economic recession has taken a heavy toll on political tranquility in the U.S. At the local level, disagreements can be particularly disagreeable. Here’s a view from my little part of America, as reported in my other blog.

Ocean City End-of-Season Damage Report, 2011 More than usual, it feels like something is ending in Ocean City this September.  But take this report with a caveat: Events and perceptions often appear distorted after a long summer season, to those who remain when the visitors go home. This year, Hurricane Irene put an exclamation point at the end of the season.  Ocean City was fortunate to survive a nearly direct hit with hardly any damage. The eye of the weakening hurricane swept by offshore … Read More

via Ocean City Blog

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Social Networking Applications of the Future

Posted on September 12, 2011 by

Image via Wikimedia Commons

The resident blogger is tired, but not dead.

He’s at an undisclosed location, developing an improved version of Twitter, the primitive social networking system that transmits Tweets, a truncated form of brief communication.

Twitter was developed as a faster alternative to the original Telegraph. Unfortunately, the previously fashionable Twitter has now been taken over entirely by Twits.

The new, advanced social network will be named Squawker. It will transmit highly opinionated Tweets, called Squawks.

If the rollout of Squawker succeeds, it will create demand for an even more versatile, advanced networking system, provisionally named Dogger.

Dogger 1.0 would handle not only barks and woofs, but also howls and growls. Version 2.0 of Dogger is expected to handle doggerel.

More specialized systems are at the concept stage. Whisper is envisioned as a medium-secure system for transmission of sensitive information, sometimes referred to as gossip. The military and CIA will have a classified Whisper channel for transmission of secrets.

An open-source Whisper, called Elite, could be customized by hackers to handle any sort of foolishness, such as politics and economics, or even weather and rumors.

The resident blogger will resume ConsterNation when he recovers from his nervous breakdown.

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The Great Jobs “Creation” Debate: Confusion And Delusion

Posted on September 8, 2011 by

CAN ANY PRESIDENT REALLY "CREATE JOBS?" Public domain photo, Wikimedia Commons

See if you can find any cause-and-effect relationship in this repartee from Wednesday’s televised debate among Republican presidential candidates:

Moderator Brian Williams:  ”Gov. Romney . . . Massachusetts ranked only 47th in job creation during your tenure as governor . . .”

MITT ROMNEY

Gov. Mitt Romney:  ”We created more jobs in Massachusetts than this president (Barack Obama) has created in the entire country . . .”

Gov. Richard Perry:   “We created more jobs in the last three months in Texas than he created in four years in Massachusetts . . .”

Perry:  ”. . . Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt.”

RICK PERRY

Romney:  ”Well, as a matter of fact, George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor.”

We are doomed if we base our debate about the economic crisis on a fallacy. The fallacy is that a governor or a president can create jobs, or fail to create jobs.

Truth is, the president of the U.S. and the governors of the states can not and do not directly create jobs, nor do they have any but the most ephemeral impact on economic conditions and events that affect jobs in the private sector.

If a governor decided by himself to add an employee to his executive staff, then I suppose you could give the governor credit for creating one job. If a governor decides to add a new bureaucratic agency, consisting of 100 state employees, then I suppose you could credit him with creating 100 jobs.

But the president and the governors do not have it within their power to add or subtract a single job from the private economy. Even the Federal Reserve Board has only feeble power to affect the economy, through manipulation of interest rates and money supply, and the FED is independent of the president and Congress.

Congress has limited power to indirectly stimulate the economy by increasing government spending. But just now, spending is out of favor, and many politicians and voters support cutting government spending and debt.

The only way government can directly impact private job creation is by funding a project or a program that must hire workers in the private sector. For example, the government could decide to build a bridge, or a water system. The government would contract with private business to build the bridge, and the business would hire workers.

Presto! New jobs are really created to build the bridge! That’s a direct cause and effect between the bridge and new jobs.  Plus, the bridge project and its workers have a ripple effect, adding more jobs in the community, and perhaps opening up the property on the other side of the bridge to new economic development. Simple, no?

– John Hayden

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