Almost Classical

What happened in the United Kingdom during the summer of 2016? The working class revolted, in fear and disgust. How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday... and why - Lord Ashcroft Polls The "Remain" side predicted collapse, which for two days was a self-fulfilling economic event… that ended quickly. The pound sterling is back to $1.35 and rising, the FTSE is up 2% for the last two days, and people are now realizing the EU, as a trade group, never finalized treaties with China, India, Australia, Canada, or even the United States. The only trade agreements were internal, and many of those ineffective due to internal politics (French farmers come to mind). Both campaigns relied on so much hyperbole that neither was believed by the general population. I listen to BBC WS, Bloomberg London, and CNBC International for hours daily (in the car) and all these sources are slowly agreeing the End of the World™might not happen after all. The EU nations need the UK. Contrary to sto...

The following was posted to the comments section of a very old blog post: The Top Ten Reasons I Hate Capitalism: 10: Kim Kardashian 9: Vast economic inequality destroys democracy 8: Survival of the fittest (I'm definitely not among the fittest) 7: Donald Trump 6: The Attitude of the Fittest toward the Unfit 5: Reality TV 4: Walmart 3: Mark Zuckerberg 2: It appeals to the worst aspects of human nature And the #1 reason I hate capitalism: I am not Bill Gates! Envy! Perhaps that's what it comes down to. That's what the conservatives and defenders of Capitalism would have us believe. Or perhaps there is just something inherently unfair and unjust about it. Yes, it is easy to dislike some of the wealthy in our supposedly capitalist nation. And the easy response is that the United States is not a purely capitalist nation, certainly not as Adam Smith envisioned capitalism and not in the sense that the Austrian economists believed in and promoted either a minima...

While nobody would suggest that Europe is about to embrace the United States' model of social democracy, it seems obvious that some countries are meandering towards our limited safety-net model just as we are racing towards their failing democratic socialism. Germany began reforms nearly 15 years ago, and it is doing well. There are many other variables, and Germany is not America — or even Canada — but it is shifting towards a more flexible labor market and less "generous" social programs. Now, it seems Denmark is following the German lead. That's a big shift in thought, and one driven by the stark realization that the social safety-net is unsustainable. Consider this article from the New York Times: Danes Rethink a Welfare State Ample to a Fault http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/world/europe/danes-rethink-a-welfare-state-ample-to-a-fault.html COPENHAGEN — It began as a stunt intended to prove that hardship and poverty still existed in this small, wealthy cou...

I've long argued that the Great Banking Crash of 2007 was and is simple to explain: bad loans were made to people unable to repay the loans. In the United States, pressure from the federal government to create a "homeownership culture" backfired. Nonsense like the "Community Reinvestment Act" and other pressure to make questionable loans… resulted in defaults. Shocking, right? Well, the same problem struck in the United Kingdom. Bad loans were made. The crises was not about all the fancy financial instruments the U.S. Congress and the U.K. Parliament hope to regulate. Gov report: Actually, evil City traders DIDN'T cause the banking crash • The Register   The full report is only for masochists and journalists - to the extent that those are different groups, anyway. Below is, in full, what you really need to know about what happened: This was a traditional bank failure pure and simple. It was a case of a bank pursuing traditional banking activities and...

In the last few days, various economists and experts have been quoted declaring "Austerity in Europe has failed." For some examples of this see the following on CNBC: Spain Downgrade Proof Austerity Not Working Published: Friday, 27 Apr 2012 http://www.cnbc.com/id/47200362 The problem with this argument is that neither "austerity" nor "stimulus" will help Europe recover until the real problem with the EU national economies can be addressed: they are anti-business, anti-innovation, and anti-growth. You can spend all the money (stimulus) imaginable, but if national policies dissuade or punish private innovation and job creation, the stimulus cannot and will not create permanent growth. When the stimulus ends, job losses and declines will resume. Likewise, you cannot cut (austerity) your way to prosperity if you do nothing to revitalize industry and job creation. Cutting government is good, but pointless if you aren't also encouraging busines...

If everyone earned no less than $30,000 and no more than $50,000 a year, we'd have far greater "mobility" between classes. So argues the chattering class, most of whom occupy the evil top one percent. No, that's not what they are saying and writing, but they are complaining that the United States has less social mobility than other nations. The problem? Those nations have less mobility because they have artificial floors and social limits on how far people can climb. To which nation was the U.S. compared by the New York Times? Denmark. American men born in the bottom quintile are more likely to stay there than the Danish, according to a study of earnings across generations. — http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/04/us/comparing-economic-mobility.html?ref=us Denmark? Compare education attainment. Compare the makeup of the society, including such factors as immigration and emigration. This is a strange comparison. Denmark, unlike the United States, is inc...

Today, the Pew Research Center released the following: The American-Western European Values Gap It should be no surprise that Americans value personal freedom more than they value a social safety net. The United States is a nation built by explorers who managed to survive frontiers. Even immigrants celebrate the rugged individualism of our national heros. A table of the survey findings: Notice that the data are mirror images. Europe has a different history, one shaped by two world wars and various upheavals. Neither approach is "right" or "wrong" — but I definitely fall in the personal freedom camp. I do not trust governments to solve problems and would rather be left alone to succeed or fail, as much as possible. Most Americans support a minimal safety net, but nothing comparable to the European welfare state. Individualism and the Role of the State In the U.S., Britain, France and Germany, views of the role of the state divide significantly acro...

CNN and other news outlets are reporting that Europeans prefer Obama to McCain by a 5:1 ratio. CNN: Cafferty File Why do we care do much about European opinions? These people don't have a single popular leader in their own nations. France's president is below 30% in the polls, Number 10 is (ironically) between 10 and 20% favorable, and even Germany, with a decent economy, doesn't give majority approval to the chancellor. So, these are relatively unhappy people, politically. They are beyond cynical — they're just plain unhappy. Part of the problem is that when you have a parliamentary system, the leaders in power seldom win leadership posts with a clear majority. You can cobble a parliamentary majority together with a 30% plurality and a dozen smaller, usually more radical, political parties. The end result is that no one is content. But, there is a larger reason: their systems, which they resoundingly claim are better than the U.S. system and our economic mode...

Regardless, calling something "direct democracy" does make it sound, to the public, as if they are in control. On this matter, I must admit Chomsky is correct (gasp!) -- you can tell people they have rights and powers, yet make them so difficult to exercise as to render those rights almost meaningless. Sartre and Camus claimed words were both meaningless and all we have. We can manipulate them to control people, or to free ourselves. If women could not vote until 1971, and men (the voters) made the decision to allow them power, it's almost laughable. That's like saying "All men are created equal" then making Africans count as only a portion of a man (which the United States did). French-speaking Catholics were restricted in Switzerland until 1978, when public protests (phrasing it nicely) resulting in full rights and even a Catholic state. You can call yourself a democracy, but is it democracy when only certain people get to decide the rules and laws f...

A curious survey was conducted in Europe by The Economist, using the size of Europe as a starting point for developing the questions. First, remember that America is a system of "states" with independent central authorities. A common currency and common defense was developed, but each state oversees: education, most welfare, transportation, local security, medical care... et cetera. Even the death penalty is a state-by-state issue at present. In other words, The Economist began with the historical comparison of the US to the EU. So, we have 50 States. How many were in the EU? I recall, at least at one point, 15 major members. Anyway, the question then became how many could name the States in the USA, at least two governors, explain the Republican form versus European Parliamentary forms, et cetera. It turned out most Europeans thought the USA had a single system, one set of standards for education, one national set of laws, et cetera. The results of the survery were q...