Commentary

491 posts

Everything We Buy is Made in China Except the 97.3% of the Time When It’s Not

Two economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published an interesting report this week that analyzed the potential for Chinese currency inflation to affect  U.S. consumer expenditures.

In non-wonky English, they looked at how much money Americans spend on goods and services from the U.S. vs. China. What they found is that only a tiny percentage of our spending actually ends up in the hands of the evil communist Chinese.


The fed report is pretty damning when you look at in terms of the pre-conceived narratives about China that we’ve been told by both the commie-hating right and the Walmart-hating left.  Continue reading →

Update on the Japan Crisis

Nearly five months after a magnitude 9 earthquake unleashed a massive tsunami, caused northeastern Japan to spring 13 feet to the east and utterly crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, details about the extent of the damage and the amount of radiation that’s still spewing from the troubled reactors is only now coming to light. The Japanese government, in collusion with the nuclear regulatory agency and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) tried to hide critical information from the public concerning radiation levels in the Tohoku region not only to ostensibly curb panic, but to avoid having to pay damages to those who make their living in the region and/or shoulder the expense of relocating even more evacuees. Continue reading →

Guns are the Cause of or the Solution to All of Our Problems

In today’s media landscape, when something like the rioting in London happens, you can be sure that each side of the political spectrum will draw their own conclusions from it.

Current discussion of the riots generally falls into two camps: those on the left who connect the riots to economic inequality and recent austerity cuts to social services, and those on the right who scoff at any such attempt to “make excuses” for what they believe to be nothing more than a mob of subhumans spoiled by the welfare state. Of course, the predictable racial invective is there too, as a quick scan of the comments on any article about the riots will reveal. Continue reading →

Laughing at Funerals

If you’ve been to many funerals you know that emotions are raw and grief can easily tip over into hysteria. That hysteria usually takes the form of tears but it can also take the form of laughter. Fortunately or unfortunately, I’ve never walked away from a funeral without a funny story. This probably says a lot more about me than it does about any of the funerals I’ve been to. For me, something has always happened that let me get some of the energy out through laughter. I don’t think this makes me a bad person and I really don’t care if someone else thinks it does. If they do, I’m going to bet their funeral to age ratio isn’t as high as mine, but whatever. Continue reading →

You Can’t Vote Against a Yuppie Takeover

First, read this fairly tone deaf article on gentrification in Harlem and Bed Stuy from the New York Times on the August 4, 2011.

Then read this elegant evisceration of the idea that gentrification “just happens” or is somehow the fault of the minorities who get forced out of their neighborhoods.

To really understand the harm perpetrated by gentrification you have to know your history. Continue reading →

S&P’s Downgrade of US Debt

I am writing this post on Sunday and I must say that I am quite anxious about Monday and how Wall Street will act in response to this downgrade.  We will get an inkling of the response once the Asian and European markets open on what is Sunday night in the US, but I suspect it won’t be pretty.  I do suspect some of the response is already built-in given last week’s market malaise. My bigger concern is the institutions which hold US debt as reserves that may be forced to unload it do to their charters’ requirement of holding AAA debt. Continue reading →

What Might a Liberal Tea Party Look Like?

“There must be some kind of way out of here”
Said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion,
I can’t get no relief”

This week on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher did an extended monologue in the “New Rules” segment on what a Liberal Tea Party might look like. Maher may be a terrible person, but as a political comedian he’s top notch. Regardless, it got me thinking:  what might a real Liberal Tea Party look like? Continue reading →

What Can We Learn From Twitter’s 2011 Trending Topics?

 A little while ago, Twitter published their top trending topics for the first half of 2011. For all that has been said about Twitter promoting triviality, thoughtlessness, Biebermania and every other sign of the apocalypse, the trending topics reveal a bit of hope for the Twitter generation after all – and also emphasise Twitter’s international spread.

Continue reading →

Can Social Media Plus Celebrity Make a Real Difference?

Way back in May of this year, Conan O’Brien featured a sketch on his TBS show highlighting a small alley in an industrial part of Van Nuys, California. The purpose of the sketch was to jokingly ask the city of Los Angeles and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to change the name of West Raymer Street to Conan O’Brien Blvd.

In the initial sketch, he showcases the surrounding area of the dead-end alley, which is located next to some railroad tracks. What we see is familiar to anyone with experience in industrial or less wealthy neighborhoods in many cities. There is abandoned furniture, graffiti and what looks like an abandoned vehicle. It’s neighborhood blight. Continue reading →