Kudos to Senators McCain and Mark Cantwell who have introduced legislation to breakup large financial organizations. I am quite tired of Too Big to Fail. If that is true, they are simply too big.
McCain would restore the Glass-Steagall law prohibiting banks being in the brokerage business. This was a lesson we learned in the Great Depression and then forgot it under the slogan of one-stop shopping. It is time to restore it before the next financial crisis hits us again.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Old growth forests
Good news!
December 17, 2009, New York Times
Foes Unite to Support Bill on Old-Growth Forests
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
Calling a truce in a long and bitter battle, timber executives and environmentalists united Wednesday in supporting legislation to codify and expand current protections for old-growth forests on federal land in eastern Oregon.
After nearly eight months of talks, representatives of both groups joined Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, at a news conference in Washington as he introduced a bill that would ban cutting of trees more than 21 inches in diameter and protect delicate watershed areas.
Such prohibitions are already in place in many forests but are administrative in nature rather than mandated by law, and subject to rollback at any time.
In return for their support for such limits, which they had previously fought, timber groups were promised steady, unimpeded access to younger trees as part of a broader program to assure the health of the forests and fire prevention.
The bill will also limit construction of permanent and temporary roads, while seeking to cut the overall number in forested areas. The legislation applies to six national forests spanning nearly 10 million acres east of the Cascades.
December 17, 2009, New York Times
Foes Unite to Support Bill on Old-Growth Forests
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
Calling a truce in a long and bitter battle, timber executives and environmentalists united Wednesday in supporting legislation to codify and expand current protections for old-growth forests on federal land in eastern Oregon.
After nearly eight months of talks, representatives of both groups joined Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, at a news conference in Washington as he introduced a bill that would ban cutting of trees more than 21 inches in diameter and protect delicate watershed areas.
Such prohibitions are already in place in many forests but are administrative in nature rather than mandated by law, and subject to rollback at any time.
In return for their support for such limits, which they had previously fought, timber groups were promised steady, unimpeded access to younger trees as part of a broader program to assure the health of the forests and fire prevention.
The bill will also limit construction of permanent and temporary roads, while seeking to cut the overall number in forested areas. The legislation applies to six national forests spanning nearly 10 million acres east of the Cascades.
Environment & jobs
The standard response to proposed environmental improvement such as CO-2 limits, is that it raises cost and reduces jobs. Cost of any action is always there, and new laws don't create them, they just change who bears them. As for jobs, markets are designed to allocate resources to their best use. We have been substituting natural resources for labor for a long time. If we increase the cost of natural resources, it should result in more demand for labor over time.
Obama's Peace Prize
If the Nobel committee hoped that Obama could rise to deserve the prize, they must be greatly disappointed as I am. When will we learn that our wars create more terrorist? Our economy needs more stimulus, but we waste resources on senseless wars.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Afghanistan
Our top General in Afghanistan says unless we send more troops, we are in danger of losing the war. We lost the war in Afghanistan the day we sent the first troops. Only vain glory could lead us to think we could do what the Russians had failed to do. When will we learn that the outcome of a guerrilla war with a nationalistic bent can't be determined by outside intervention. The French could not do it in Viet Nam and neither could we. We have not controlled anything but the capital city for some time. We create more determined enemies by these efforts than friends. We are seen as the terrorists.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Symbiogenesis vs. Darwinism
Economics utilizes metaphors and ways of thinking from the natural sciences. Neo-Darwinism provides convenient support for the story of the beneficent outcome of something called free market competition. Darwinism holds that adaptations occur exclusively through random mutation that sometimes produces genes with useful attributes that give the organism an advantage in competition with other organisms. This view is being challenged by the research of Lynn Margulis, who observes that complexity at the level of the cell is not the result of lethal competition, but rather symbiotic relationships between gene sets.
Prof. Margulis argues that even new species occur over time when symbiotic partners fuse. She says, “we are all walking communities of bacteria.”
Consider what an economics built on both cooperation and competition would look like. Is it coincidence that my latest book is entitled, “Conflict and Cooperation.”
Prof. Margulis argues that even new species occur over time when symbiotic partners fuse. She says, “we are all walking communities of bacteria.”
Consider what an economics built on both cooperation and competition would look like. Is it coincidence that my latest book is entitled, “Conflict and Cooperation.”
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Health Care REform
There is nothing on the table now that can cover the uninsured and keep taxpayer costs reasonable. What would it take? First two key facts. About 25 % of Medicaid and Medicare funds are spent in the last year of recipients' lives. Second, the clever medical researchers will continue to invent ever more costly technologies and drugs to increase life a few more months or years. The nation must face the tradeoff between the ideal and what we want to spend. The only way that we can improve the care of those whose only option now is hospital emergency rooms is to insure them for basic medical care-- no open heart surgery, etc.
Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with cancer, and even with the best of treatment, his life was extended only a few months at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those dollars could have paid the annual health insurance for 47 million uninsured.
There could be a list of medical procedures that simply are not available at public expense, such as is now operative in Oregon. The slogan-makers who obfuscate the unavoidable tradeoffs will throw smoke on this suggestion railing about making the the poor and uninsured second class citizens, but of course they are third class now and since few want to pay substantially more in taxes, they will remain such. Here, the unobtainable ideal is the enemy of substantial improvement. It would be nice for everyone to have the latest technology and drugs to extend their lives for a few more months. But, few including seniors during their tax-paying years want to pay for it. And, they know there is no end to ever more costly medical wonders.
Setting aside the scare words of “death panels,” these are the tradeoffs that could improve care for many and not break the bank. A public option that might reduce insurance administrative costs is a good idea, but the bitter debate over it is diverting attention from more essential tradeoffs.
If Obama is to make good on his promise to keep spending near present levels, then he must cap medicare and medicaid spending and divide the pie differently. Cover more people at reduced, less grandiose levels.
Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with cancer, and even with the best of treatment, his life was extended only a few months at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those dollars could have paid the annual health insurance for 47 million uninsured.
There could be a list of medical procedures that simply are not available at public expense, such as is now operative in Oregon. The slogan-makers who obfuscate the unavoidable tradeoffs will throw smoke on this suggestion railing about making the the poor and uninsured second class citizens, but of course they are third class now and since few want to pay substantially more in taxes, they will remain such. Here, the unobtainable ideal is the enemy of substantial improvement. It would be nice for everyone to have the latest technology and drugs to extend their lives for a few more months. But, few including seniors during their tax-paying years want to pay for it. And, they know there is no end to ever more costly medical wonders.
Setting aside the scare words of “death panels,” these are the tradeoffs that could improve care for many and not break the bank. A public option that might reduce insurance administrative costs is a good idea, but the bitter debate over it is diverting attention from more essential tradeoffs.
If Obama is to make good on his promise to keep spending near present levels, then he must cap medicare and medicaid spending and divide the pie differently. Cover more people at reduced, less grandiose levels.
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