That ain't how we do it in Texas...

An interesting article on municipal recycling rates appeared in the NYT. The highlight (or not) of the article was the fact that compared to the national average of 32% waste diverted to recycling from the landfill, Houston diverts a whopping 2%. According to the Mayor, this low participation is due to the fact that the citizens are not so gung-ho on jumping on some liberal, goberment program....

“We have an independent streak that rebels against mandates or anything that seems trendy or hyped up,” said Mayor Bill White, who favors expanding the city’s recycling efforts. “Houstonians are skeptical of anything that appears to be oversold or exaggerated. But Houstonians can change, and change fast.”

The Debtor Society...

It isn't everyday, but occasionally Utilityman columnist David Brooks comes up with a big hit, like his column on our culture of debt in today's NYT. I quote at length below, but take the time to read this column,

Each time an avid lender struck a deal with an avid borrower, it reinforced a new definition of acceptable behavior for neighbors, family and friends. In a community, behavior sets off ripples. Every decision is a public contribution or a destructive act.

And now the reckoning has come. The turn in the market punishes many of those seduced by financial temptations. (Sometimes capitalism undermines the Puritan virtues, but sometimes it reinforces them.)

Meanwhile, social institutions are trying to re-right the norms. The government is sending some messages. The Treasury and the Fed are trying to stabilize the system while still ensuring that those who made mistakes feel the pain.

But the important shifts will be private, as people and communities learn and adopt different social standards. After the Depression, a savings mentality set in. After the dot-com bubble, a bit of sobriety hit Silicon Valley. Now it’s the borrowers’ and lenders’ turn. As the saying goes: People don’t change when they see the light. They change when they feel the heat.

The expectation of the average American citizen to be able to consume more than they produce has gone on too long. We must face the reality that is we are spending too much on too many unneeded things and services. One of the first steps is to start weening the younger generation away from the "I deserve it" attitude perpetuated by the Boomers. I know many Boomers would disagree, but they may be the lost cohort with regard to fixing themselves, so I propose getting proactive with the young folks that still have a much better chance of understanding how to positively impact society through adding more than you take.

As we evolve...

Hitchens always offers something to say and a brief review of the last three posts in his Slate "Fighting Words" column shows that he is two for his last three. The old curmudgeon can still hit a little, eh? The column dated 7/7/08 on the death of Jesse Helms is definately a double to the gap.

I make no apology for calling him a provincial redneck, because that, to be fair to him once more, was how he thought of himself and even described himself. It was a scandal that a man with so little knowledge of the outside world should have had such a stranglehold on American foreign policy for so long. He once introduced Benazir Bhutto as the prime minister of India. All right, that could have happened to anybody. But what about the hearings on North Korea in which he made repeated references to "Kim Jong the Second"? In order to prevent any repetition of this idiotic gaffe, Helms' staff propped up a piece of card on which was clearly written the pronunciation "Kim Jong ILL." The senator from North Carolina duly made the adjustment, referring thenceforth to the North Korean despot as "Kim Jong the Third."

Good riddance Jesse...

I won't go into great detail on his post from July 14th on what he feels is a false zero-sum choice proposed by liberals with regard to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I feel this piece is either a hard line out to right center, or maybe it is reaching on an error by the left side of the infield? I am not as convinced as Mr. Hitchens that the war in Iraq is going as well as he would have it, but he does make one point in reference to the Afghanistan war that I believe to be of import.

It would also be very nice to accept another soft-centered corollary of the Iraq vs. Afghanistan trade-off and to believe that the problem of Afghanistan is a problem only of the shortage of troops. Strangely, this is not the view of the Afghan government or of any of the NATO forces on the ground. The continued and, indeed, increasing insolence of the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies is the consequence of one thing and one thing only. These theocratic terrorists know that they have a reliable backer in the higher echelons of the Pakistani state and of its military-intelligence complex and that while this relationship persists, they are assured of a hinterland across the border and a regular supply of arms and recruits.

Until Pakistan gets serious about the insurgents in the Tribal Regions, an area much neglected and extremely economically and politically depressed, there will be no true "peace" in Afghanistan... no matter how many NATO or US troops are there.

And finally we have the blind salamander column dated July 21st. In this column Hitchens offers an interesting argument against the entire mindset of linear progression, which is of primary import to the Creationists (and is at least partially shared by many other humans). Hitchens proposes considering our current position not as the resultant of a natural progression, but as the temporary status quo of an ongoing and dynamic process, whereby things (cells, organs, organisms, ecosytems, planets, galaxies, etc.) come and go. There is no ultimate end to evolution, it is merely a part of the ongoing change that is the universe.

I am not myself able to add anything about the formation of light cells, eyespots, and lenses, but I do think that there is a dialectical usefulness to considering the conventional arguments in reverse, as it were. For example, to the old theistic question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" we can now counterpose the findings of professor Lawrence Krauss and others, about the foreseeable heat death of the universe, the Hubble "red shift" that shows the universe's rate of explosive expansion actually increasing, and the not-so-far-off collision of our own galaxy with Andromeda, already loomingly visible in the night sky. So, the question can and must be rephrased: "Why will our brief 'something' so soon be replaced with nothing?" It's only once we shake our own innate belief in linear progression and consider the many recessions we have undergone and will undergo that we can grasp the gross stupidity of those who repose their faith in divine providence and godly design.

Lazy Locavores....

For all of my (somewhat many) lazy friends, there is a new option in eating local, which involves little, if any, sweat equity. I have to admit this seems a bit strange to me, but I do love the actual process of doing the sourcing / shopping for my food. I do however recognize that a little glamour in the local food movement might actually help in moving more people to a local diet. Of course and equally plausible result of this lazy food snobbery may be that the average Jane and Joe Sixpack family view the eating local movement as another strange action of the effete snobs on the hill.

Additional market note --- The Hill Farms Farmer's Market on Saturday morning features some of the best milk you can find from Blue Marble Farms. Currently they are running a special on skim milk (as it is a by product of cream production) for only $2 per half gallon. I believe that is a rate that is quite price point competitive with the non-local non-organic skim you would find in the grocery store.

The Best Player in Baseball???

According to a survey of All-Stars by dufus Jeff Passan, Alex Rodriguez is the best. I would make my argument for Albert Pujols of the Cards, but I am admittedly a bit biased. I will say the most impressive player this year has been Josh Hamilton. And that isn't just because of the homerun derby.

Dog Days of Summer '08...

I have not been in the writing/blogging mood at all recently. I am attributing this primarily to the weather and the busy schedule around coaching Little League baseball. One of the primary interests on my radar, however, has been the continued inflationary pressures in the economy. This article in today's NYT highlights just how bad it was in the month of June. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the economy is recovering yet and with inflation pushing up prices, we are caught in a situation that precipitates reminiscent talk of the stagflation days of the late 70's.

The Consumer Price Index, which measures prices of a batch of common household products, rose 1.1 percent in June, the Labor Department said. That increase caps a year where inflation has surged to proportions seen by some as threatening the stability of the American economy. In the last 12 months, the price index has risen 5 percent, the biggest annual jump since May 1991.

The report reinforces what many economists, including those at the Fed, have warned about for months: Americans are being forced to pay significantly higher prices even as the job market weakens and big employers like General Motors are laying off thousands of employees.

Wiffleball... Against the Law???

This article in yesterday's NYT seems to show that it is a legal issue in Greenwich, CT. My good friend Ken scooped me on blogging about this, but it bears additional coverage. This type of ingeniuity and cooperation is to be commended, not litigated. I don't buy that there isn't a compromise to address the "noise" concerns one of the neighbors is making.

The local paper in Greenwich has it right.

“BACK before we lost our collective minds and began shrieking with horror at the thought of kids having fun on their own (as in not part of an official league or otherwise organized activity), they used to do things like find a vacant field, turn it into a makeshift diamond and spend glorious hours in the summer sun,” the local newspaper, Greenwich Time, wrote in an editorial in support of the youths on Wednesday.

I just wish I could get Ken to meet me in Greenwich, so I could strike him out on three straight sliders...

The Rise of the CSA...

A front page article in today's NYT discusses the rise of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA's).

Some shareholders said they found the arrangement a bargain compared to grocery shopping, while others considered it a worthwhile indulgence. Most agreed that the urge to buy and spend locally — to avoid the costs and environmental degradation that come with shipping and storage — was behind the decision to join. Shareholders can pick up their goods at the farm or at a store across the street...

The downside for people who are used to grocery shopping comes when they want fresh blueberries in January or, as was the case at Erehwon last week, the tomato plants needed more time in the ground because of a cold spring.

I have to say from personal experience the CSA we belong to (Green Spirit Farm) has been an exceptional bargain if you compare the produce received every other week to the prices for similar produce at the supermarket. The article does hit the nail on the head as to the biggest detriment of CSA/Farmer's Market sourcing of food being the inablity to secure anything anytime. I am, however, quickly adjusting to the joys of seasonality and the continual guidance nature offers in altering my diet.

If you are fortunate enough to live in the Madison area you have plenty of options for joining a CSA, with share prices as low as $200 for a summer share. Also, at this time you can probably still find a farm with winter shares, which start around $100. Check out the Local Harvest website for more info.

Torture, it is...

Hitchens penned an interesting piece of journalism in the August Vanity Fair, discussing his own experience being waterboarded. His writing is excellent as ever, with some interesting conclusions:

I fought down the first, and some of the second, wave of nausea and terror but soon found that I was an abject prisoner of my gag reflex. The interrogators would hardly have had time to ask me any questions, and I knew that I would quite readily have agreed to supply any answer.

The truly interesting part of this article is that Hitchens doesn't apply his conclusion that waterboarding is torture to the bigger issue of what this means for America and its image. George Packer takes up this idiosynchrosy in his work in the July 3rd New Yorker.

The Federal Budget and McCain's plan...

It seems that most financial experts are in agreement that McCain's fiscal plan is heavily tinted in the color rose. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has their own finances in order, as you can't sustain by holding your revenues constant allow spending to rise 2.4% while already being significantly in debt. In reading this article, I was introduced to the Concord Coalition, which is an interesting non-partisan budget watchdog group. I have been perusing their site, and there are lots of interesting tidbits for either the layman or the budgeteer. Especially of note,

Ludwick and Pujols....

Congrats to the two Cardinals All-Stars for 2008, Ryan Ludwick and Albert Pujols.
Ludwick has been a very pleasant suprise as an everyday outfielder, and Pujols has been his standard first ballot HOF'er self.

Go Cards!

And screw C.C. Sabathia!

Nadal vs. Federer...

A thing of beauty that kept me (and a lot of the world) transfixed for most of Sunday.

Without a doubt in my mind, the greatest tennis match ever.

Thanks gents! What a show.

It's the fundamentals of the economy, stupid...

Today's NYT Business section has Leonhardt offering his prognostication for the economy over the next couple months (while he will be away on paternity leave, good man). Leonhardt discusses unemployment, oil prices, education and home prices in a cogent analysis concluding with the idea that there are some fundamental problems underlying the current American (almost?)-recession.

Regarding unemployment, Leonhardt proposes viewing this issue not through an anti-globalization lens, but by noting what he (and the authors mentioned below) term the innovation deficit.

If you want to understand the causes of the innovation deficit, I’d recommend adding one serious book to your summer reading list: “The Race Between Education and Technology,” by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, two labor economists.

They argue that the American prosperity of the 20th century sprang largely from the country’s longtime lead in educational attainment, a lead that has all but vanished. Future prosperity won’t be based on saving yesterday’s high-wage jobs, as Mr. Katz told me. It has to start with smarter, more strategic investments in education, physical infrastructure and other things that can create the high-wage jobs of tomorrow.

I am a firm believer in the fact that rolling back globalization is not the answer to our problems, and that the appropriate solution to maintaining the accepted American standard of living is to increase our educational attainment levels. The continual chasing of jobs that, in the words of THE BOSS "are going boys, and they ain't coming back," is a reactionary approach to a problem that requires proactive investment in our greatest asset, our people.

Leonhardt goes on to discuss how oil prices are inflated, not by speculators as many politicians would lead you to believe, but by fundamental forces of supply and demand. The world is consuming ever more vast amounts of oil and supply is growing at a much lower rate. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics will tell you that this means an increase in price. Additionally, Leonhardt postulates that the housing values in America will continue to decline over the rest of this year and likely into next year. I know that in comparing prices relative to incomes or rents here in Madison yields a housing market that is still significantly above the historical (and sustainable?) levels.

For the first time on record, an economic expansion seems to have just ended without most families having received a raise. For the first time on record, the typical home price nationwide is falling. The inflation-adjusted value of the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has dropped 20 percent in the last year — and 30 percent since its peak in 2000.

I think the public has called this issue exactly right: the American economy has some real problems. Even if this summer’s downturn turns out to be mild, those problems aren’t mild — or simple — and they aren’t going away anytime soon. It’s going to take some real work.

So, as we ride out this economic downtown, let us hope that our business and political leaders recognize that this is not simply a "short and shallow" recession, but should be an economic wake up call to all of us. Our current levels of consumption relative to production will be difficult to sustain over the long term, our desire for lower oil prices won't make it a reality and a lot of people will lose significant amounts of equity in our homes (which is directly related to the inability to sustain current consumer spending, given that so much of it is reliant on home equity lines of credit). So, here's to a good summer and to hope that we are able to both individually and collectively reevaluate our consumption, spending and economic actions.

To all of my Cubbie fan friends...

In case you thought you have avoided the June Swoon, don't forget we are only halfway home. And it's been a while since you have taken it all down, right?

Let's see if these numbers mean anything to you: 2006, 1982, 1967, 1964, 1946, 1944, 1942, 1934, 1931, and 1926...



See you in September!

Obama's patriotism...

I thought that Obama's speech on patriotism Monday was quite good. There were a few parts that I didn't find particularly solid, but there were just as many or more paragraphs of fairly strong oratory. Perhaps the most salient paragraph to me, was the following:

Of course, precisely because America isn't perfect, precisely because our ideals constantly demand more from us, patriotism can never be defined as loyalty to any particular leader or government or policy. As Mark Twain, that greatest of American satirists and proud son of Missouri, once wrote, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." We may hope that our leaders and our government stand up for our ideals, and there are many times in our history when that's occurred. But when our laws, our leaders or our government are out of alignment with our ideals, then the dissent of ordinary Americans may prove to be one of the truest expression of patriotism.

I have to admit that the line between patriotism and blind obedience has seemed blurred to me in the recent past, and I commend Obama for attempting to cleanse the word of it's most assiduous (and blind) users. I also applaud Obama's attempt at showing that being critical of certain leaders, policies, and laws does not make one unpatriotic. I strongly believe that this questioning of authority and rules is a critically important part of the "American Idea," whereby we allow public discourse to flow freely -- without burning those at the stake with whom we disagree.

The Muddy Middle...

I'm going to pile on with Ken at Mel-Anon regarding the consistently relevant and enlightening analysis by Greenwald at Salon. I don't know if my comrade Mel-Anon would agree that electing Obama is critically important to making America a better place, but my feelings on this issue are encapsulated in solid form by Mr. Greenwald:

There is no question, at least to me, that having Obama beat McCain is vitally important. But so, too, is the way that victory is achieved and what Obama advocates and espouses along the way. Feeding distortions against someone like Wesley Clark in order to please Joe Klein and his fact-free media friends, or legalizing warrantless eavesdropping and protecting joint Bush/telecom lawbreaking, or basing his campaign on demonizing MoveOn.org and 1960s anti-war hippies, is quite harmful in many long-lasting ways. Electing Barack Obama is a very important political priority but it isn't the only one there is, and his election is less likely, not more likely, the more homage he pays to these these tired, status-quo-perpetuating Beltway pieties.

I try to be a political realist* and I understand the need to win the election before you can bring about change, but some of the more recent pandering by the Obama camp to the middle is disappointing to me ideologically, as well as confusing to me with regard to these moves electoral soundness. I'm not sure how backpedalling on every major issue is going to help get you elected, because the Obama campaign had it right from the beginning -- America wants change... but not a lump of cold remanufactured beltway bullshit change.

All that said, McCain is still a very scary candidate. His hawkishness combined with his temper don't seem to me to be the best way to avoid more armed conflict in the Middle East (i.e. Iran). Additionally, his lack of any serious economic policy (other than give the business world more tax breaks) is troublesome. McCain's disdain for universal health care is also a major problem and his new method of repackaging himself as a "green" candidate are laughable, given his desire to go headlong into perpetuating our oil addiction by adding supply instead of working towards alternatives.

* A term that is completely legitimate, but unfortunately has been overrun with muddled middlers.

The dollar in the doldrums...

With the dollar continuing to fall against the Euro and holding at 2 to 1 against the pound, there is a reasonable question as to whether the slide is nearing its end? Speculating on which way and to what degree the dollar will move is beyond my capability, but the current disparity between Purchasing Power Parity of the Euro and the actual exchange rate has been helping the current American accounts deficit. The Economist has an interesting article concerning this issue

Thanks in part to a weaker dollar, exports have helped prop up the ailing American economy. But the current-account deficit has not narrowed by as much as hoped. Figures released on June 17th revealed that it grew to $176.4 billion (5% of GDP) in the first quarter. Though down from a peak of 6.6% of GDP in late 2005, this is still a big shortfall. Strip out the surplus on investment income, and the underlying trade deficit is close to 6% of GDP.