Alien Probe » A day in the life

Take one more step outside your comfort zone

Henrik — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:54:18 +0000

This is a wonderful interview with a spicy lady (pun intended):

Thanks, Keith Olbermann for sharing this with us.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I had no idea I was such a Keynesian

Henrik — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:11:08 +0000

I have heard a lot about Hayek and Keynes and how they influence the current financial politics, but not until I read this article in The Nation did I realize how much of a Keynesian I am.

For a long time I have considered myself a classical liberal. But I have also seen the consumer economy as a big ponzi scheme, which i guess it is. It is always the people coming in at the end (consumers) that end up paying for all the other people. When the consumers is 99% of the US population, then there isn’t much hope for the country as a whole.

So where did the USA lose its way? I believe it was when they started believing the sirens of Wall Street, who claimed that playing in their casino was actually investing, and that their ideas of what valued a company became the measuring stick. From then on the only measurement that mattered for publicly traded companies was the stock market valuation, and the way of keeping that going up was to very short term inflating the numbers. It ended up being about quarterly results, and companies were rewarded for closing factories and firing staff. This combined with outsourcing based on cheap labor and production has led to a significant trade deficit.

And that is where I learned that I was very much in the school of Keynes. He was very much against big trade deficits, and I guess to some degree to a large trade surplus as well, since somebody else would get a deficit because of that. However, increasing that trade deficit is exactly what all our US corporations have been doing, with moving manufacturing abroad and having the US population buying all the goods. The long term effect is that we have almost no manufacturing base, which means that we are losing research in manufacturing disciplines, since they need factories nearby to test anything new and make improvements.

That is why I’m a Keynesian, and I believe that we need to start making products in the US again, not just services. We don’t want to be like the spaceship that crashed into the second earth in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Comment on the Mount Vernon Statement

Henrik — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:44:41 +0000

I was looking for some information on George Washington the other day, because I wanted to collect something about him for his birthday. During my research I stumbled across the very recent Mount Vernon statement. I had a look at it, and although I generally don’t see eye to eye with the right wing of the Republican Party, I thought it was interesting that the point they put forward are things I can support. Just look at how I read their bullet points:

It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal.: I agree. We should limit the government based on law. We should never allow the government or its agencies to commit crimes like whole sale wire tapping, torture and illegal support to corrupt regimes abroad.
It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.: Individual liberty is essential. We should all be free to make decisions that are about our life, bar some protection to avoid infringements on other people’s rights and their property. For example, if it doesn’t harm you or your property I should be allowed to marry somebody of the same sex, or decide whether I want to take a pregnancy to terms or have a doctor help me to end my life if I feel that is the best thing. To be allowed to do what I want with my life as long as it doesn’t infringe on somebody else’s right to live their life.
It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.: I think that far to much of our corporate world are getting welfare. I look at farmers producing super crops with subsidies only to have their crops unfairly undercut another farmer. Banks that are allowed to continue to exist, although they have neither the means nor the knowledge to stay competitive on their own. Fighter planes being produced because members of congress have some of the manufacturing in their state, not because the plane is needed. I can go on, but I think you get my drift when it comes to corporate welfare.
We also have the support for the individual entrepreneur. Free health care and education to make sure that he or she can focus on doing what he or she is good at, without having to worry how to get enough money to buy health insurance for the family and save for college for their kids.
It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.: Most tyranny is based on keeping people suppressed and uneducated. Make sure that you help support education and transparency. Call out corrupt governments and fine the corporations that support them.
It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith.: Allow me to choose how I define my family, neighborhood and community, and allow me to have whatever faith I want. Or none at all if that is what I want.

As you can see there are more than one way to skin a cat, although my cat would disagree. She thinks there is no way to skin a cat. The two points I’m trying to make are, firstly, that if you are unspecific of what you mean it’s easy to read into it what you want, and, secondly, that if we could take off our red/blue polarizing glasses I believe that there are a lot of things we could do. Together. For a better and more vital United States of America. But it’s going to take a lot of listening and thinking.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Pardon, what was that again?

Henrik — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:43:27 +0000

I know. I have said elsewhere that I’m tired of Sarah Palin. And I am. However, that does not stop me from being fascinated with the fascination for Sarah. Now with her book tour in full swing, and the facebooker¹ herself reportedly being in my state for Thanksgiving I couldn’t help being absolutely stunned by her recent Bill O’Reilly interview. Thanks to TheYoungTurks for bringing it to my attention.

Here is my transcription of one question from O’Reilly and Palin’s answer:

Bill O’Reilly: Let me be very bold and fresh again. Do you believe that you are smart enough, incisive enough, intellectual enough to handle the most powerful job in the world?

Sarah Palin: I believe that I am because I have common sense and I have, I believe, the values that are reflective of so many other American values, and I believe that what Americans are seeking is not the elitism, the um, the, kind of a spineless, a spinelessness that perhaps is made up for that with some kind of elite ivy league education and a fat resume that is based on anything but hard work and private sector free enterprise principles. Americans are… could be seeking something like that in positive change in their leadership. I’m not saying that it has to be me.

If that made sense to you, you are smarter than you look. Don’t you just hate that bold and fresh gotcha journalism that Bill O’ Reilly uses. If you don’t believe me and want to see it for yourself? Here is the episode from TheYoungTurks:

Priceless!

¹ I cannot really call her a blogger, since she doesn’t blog. I guess I could call her author, but that would imply that she had written at least one book. I’m not even sure she writes her facebook postings herself.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.