I keep thinking that someone, somewhere within the halls of DC, is discussing a blueprint for developing job growth, and that I simply keep missing the news on this important development. But no, it turns out there is no discussion of a blueprint for job growth anywhere, not even in articles that ostensibly start by [...]
Archive for the ‘E. L. Beck’ Category
But what about jobs?
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged Congress, frank, job creation, joint economic committee, schumer, treasury secretary geithner on November 24, 2009 | 4 Comments »
IEA Whitleblower Claims We’re Past Oil Peak
Posted in Culture, E. L. Beck, tagged IEA, misinformation, Peak Oil on November 10, 2009 | 5 Comments »
The Guardian today ran a story wherein an unidentified International Energy Agency whistleblower claims “the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.”
This may well be, and we need to alternatives to oil if for [...]
The Chasm Between the Economy and Finance
Posted in Culture, E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged corporate profits, economic power, economy, finance, hedge funds, merger & acquisitions, money migration, sovereign funds, threats to governance, threats to liberty, Wall Street on November 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I never feel comfortable with self promotion, but for the indefatigable out there check out my latest essay under the Featured Works section, “The Chasm Between the Economy and Finance.” For the not-so-indefatigable, just check out the intro, corporate profits, and the ending. Comments, as always, are welcomed.
The Treasury Won’t Stop Singing
Posted in Culture, E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged bailouts, Banks, TARP, Wall Street on November 4, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Hang on, ladies and gents, the Treasury is just getting warmed up. Check out this tidbit from salon.com:
As evidenced by two little-noticed sections of the Obama administration’s Wall Street “reform” bill, presidents and their bank benefactors are back to thinking they can pilfer whatever they want — only now they have learned to camouflage their [...]
Jesus Loves the Bankers
Posted in Culture, E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged bankers, Christianity, England, investment banks on November 4, 2009 | 2 Comments »
There is something just plain creepy about having bankers from Goldman Sachs, Lazard and Barclays take the pulpit and preach a defense of powerful banking interests using Christianity. What is it about the Anglican and Catholic churches in England, where they feel the need for Open-Mike Sundays for Bankers?
Running Out of Options
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged despotism, federal deficit, stimulus, tyranny on October 17, 2009 | 4 Comments »
A story on today’s New York Times site outlines the federal government’s $1.4 trillion deficit for the year, and the decreasing options available for future stimulus.
This sets up a real concern for the future governance of our country. As I observed a year ago when I first wrote this page, I feared that by blindly [...]
$526,610 Per Job
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics on October 15, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Am I missing something, or is this just bald-face insanity?
ProPublica.org published a story today, reporting recovery.gov has finally started to post the contracts issued under the stimulus package. A passing sentence within the lead paragraph states:
According to the data, which was posted this morning on Recovery.gov, that $16 billion has created or saved 30,383 jobs.
That [...]
Health Care Co-ops Work…
Posted in E. L. Beck, Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Nation, Politics, tagged healthcare co-ops, healthcare reform on October 15, 2009 | 3 Comments »
…or so states Steven Hill in a recent Salon Op-ed piece. In it, Hill claims,
The good news for both liberals and conservatives is that nonprofit healthcare cooperatives could substantially impact market dynamics, without increasing the size of government.
Of course, Hill adds an important measure to ensure the success of the co-ops:
But while having more nonprofit [...]
Mortgage Mods Rolling out of Hoopla Machine
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged Congressional Oversight Panel, Foreclosures, Making Home Affordable Program, MHA Program, mortgage modifications, Treasury Department on October 12, 2009 | 6 Comments »
The Treasury Department recently cranked up the hoopla machine by announcing that over 500,000 homeowners have begun a trial modification under the Treasury’s $50 billion mortgage modification program.
“Wow,” I thought to myself as I fought back the tears, “over a half million mortgage holders will find sunshine in their otherwise abysmal life as a homeowner.”
Not [...]
Intelligent Evolution
Posted in E. L. Beck, Gods, Nature, Science, tagged creation, evolution, intelligent design, intelligent evolution on October 9, 2009 | 18 Comments »
(Finally, a non-economic, non-political post. Yet, it may stir the hornets’ nest far more vigorously than anything I’ve written to date.)
“By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Genesis 2:2
And so the story of the universe’s [...]
The Long Road Ahead
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged consumer credit deleveraging, hosuehold incomes, household debt on October 8, 2009 | 3 Comments »
In a post from early September, I discussed data that came out of the Federal Reserve and the Census Bureau regarding household incomes versus household debt. In short, from 1989 to 2004, household incomes largely rose by single-digit percentages, while household debt rose by triple-digit percentages.
Well, on The Wall Street Journal’s website this morning, there [...]
Unemployment Unknown Until Late 19th Century
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged industrial era, industrial revolution, local economies, republic era, unemployment, urbanization on September 30, 2009 | 5 Comments »
The American economy faced “panics” throughout its history but prior to the American Industrial Revolution, they were largely contained to a relatively small number of people, communities or, at their worst, a region. Why? In the first half of the 19th Century, our economy had firewalls; they were known as “local economies.” There were land [...]
Thoughts on the Manual Trades
Posted in Commerce, E. L. Beck, Nation, tagged centralized systems, corporate life, cubicles, manual labor, manual trades, Matthew B. Crawford on September 29, 2009 | 6 Comments »
While researching the local food movement in the Chicago area, I had the occasion to interact with a few organizations that catered to the homeless. When offered the choice between pursuing work in the city or taking a bus beyond the suburbs to work on produce farms, I was struck by the willingness of the [...]
Wal-Mart Symbolizes America
Posted in Commerce, E. L. Beck, Nation, tagged big-box retailers, corporatism, globalization, health insurance, Libertarian, local economies, local merchants, medicaid, offshoring, Wal-Mart on September 28, 2009 | 4 Comments »
A new CBS News’ 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll found that “(n)early half of the respondents chose Wal-Mart as the institution that best symbolizes America today….”
Could this be so? Consider:
The Waltons are a perennial favorite for appearing in various lists of America’s wealthiest families. Indeed, America is well known globally for its rags-to-riches stories.
Wal-Mart placed itself [...]
Liberty – A Loose Conceptual Cannon in America
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged A Theory of Moral Sentiment, Adam Smith, Bill of Rights, civic duty, civic engagement, consumers, debt accumulation, dignity, division of labor, liberty, license, materialism, moderation, producers, The Wealth of Nations, unalienable rights on September 17, 2009 | 6 Comments »
The word “liberty” is one of the most used, least understood concepts in the American lexicon. I’ll take it from the beginning.
Citizens of a republic have unalienable rights (i.e., unable to be taken away from the possessor): “WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by [...]
Why Our Federal Gov’t Unravelled, Part 2
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged citizen apathy, civic engagement, civic virtue, George Washington, homo civicus, homo economicus, Isaac Kramnick, John Adams, John Locke, Lance Banning, liberty, local government, local politics, Louis Hartz, state government, Thomas Jefferson on September 17, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I touched on civic engagement in Part 1. Here, I look at why civic engagement is important – even crucial – for a republic.
John Adams recognized the need for citizens to engage in the political process, in the heady days of the American Revolution. He understood that citizens could not take to the sidelines and [...]
Why Our Federal Gov’t Unravelled, Part 1
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged citizen engagement, Federal government ineptness, misguided policy, re-elect no one, RENO on September 16, 2009 | 4 Comments »
There was a time in my younger years during which I felt the Federal government could reform itself, if only we elected the right President, the right Congress, or perhaps with the right alignment of the planets.
Then I witnessed the Bush Administration lead us into a war we didn’t need to fight, take us away [...]
The Way Forward
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged balance of trade, big-box merchants, entrepreneurs, independent proprietors, labor markets, lifestyles, lobal economies, local economies, local food, middle income jobs on September 11, 2009 | 11 Comments »
The steady loss of middle-income jobs from the American economy since the 1980s has left little in the way of economic fuel; consumers are undergoing a massive deleveraging, fewer viable investment choices are left, and while the savings rate is returning, we’re a long way from seeing that capital make a major impact on economic [...]
Small-r republicanism and local economies
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics on September 10, 2009 | 4 Comments »
After yesterday’s post, one may have developed the impression that I called for the dismantling of global finance and by some means reconstruct local economies. Not quite, as global finance is here to stay. That said, global finance has become increasingly divorced from national economies. I believe Wall Street and other financial centers around the [...]
What is Small-r republicanism?
Posted in Community, E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged complexity, decentralization, dignity, republicanism, republicanism attributes on September 9, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I recently joined the Alexandria blog, thanks to H.M. Stuart, and waded into the forum here with a couple of posts on economic matters affecting our country. Now I feel perhaps a fuller introduction to just what the hell my personal blog is all about may be in order….
“…and to the Republic, for which it [...]
Wall Street’s Death Panels
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nature, tagged bankers, Credit Suisse, exotic investment bonds, Goldman Sachs, investment bankers, life insurance, life settlements, Wall Street on September 8, 2009 | 3 Comments »
If I had seen this from other quarters of the Internet, I would have dismissed the story as originating with some wild-eye fanatic.
But no, there it was on The New York Times site: “New Exotic Investments Emerging on Wall Street.”
The gist: Investment bankers want to buy life settlements, that is, life insurance policies that are [...]
Free Trade without Equilibrium – A Hollow Lead Sphere
Posted in E. L. Beck, Nation, Politics, tagged absolute advantage, Adam Smith, cheap credit, China, comparative advantage, cost of money, David Ricardo, declining household wealth, declining investment wealth, Federal Reserve, free trade, Germany, globalization, hollow lead sphere, Japan, opportunity costs, Saudi Arabia, savings, trade imbalance on September 3, 2009 | 6 Comments »
As I previously posted on this blog (“It’s the Lower 80, Stupid”), household incomes have stagnated over the past three decades, yet prices of goods have largely remained the same or have increased. This negative correlation created a substantial gap between what households were bringing in the door and the money going out the door [...]
