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Lex, who covered the health care beat while at the N&R, offers some thoughts on the health care debate.
links for 2009-08-12
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links for 2009-08-11
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This is the essay that Helene quoted in LibraryBytes. The essay is 15 years old and still very relevant and thought provoking.
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Helene quotes from a 15 year old essay from Wired. Fascinating stuff, and here's my two favorite quotes she pulled: "'Information is an action which occupies time rather than a state of being which occupies a physical space, as in the case with hard goods. It is the pitch, not the ball, the dance, not the dancer.'" and "'The central economic distinction between information and physical property is that information can be transferred without leaving the possession of the original owner. If I sell you my horse, I can’t ride him after that. If I sell you what I know, we both know it.'"
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Graphic showing the reach of Goldman Sachs. As Lex points out, the company does indeed have eight arms. Reference to "vampire squid" is from Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone article "Inside the Great American Bubble Machine."
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Fec's on a roll. Human nature rears its ugly head in the mortgage sector. Ever wonder where the scumbags are these days? I think you'll find some of them here.
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Fec compiles some interesting economic numbers for Charlotte. In short it's a mixed bag; commercial sector is weak and unemployment is up while the housing sector looks to be coming back.
Thomas Jefferson on Ideas
I'm constantly amazed at some of the thinking that is revealed in quotes from the Founding Fathers. This one from Thomas Jefferson is astounding to me in its timelessness (from a 15 year old essay in Wired. h/t to Helene for the lead.)
"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property." – Thomas Jefferson
On Facebook
I'm finding the Facebook thing more and more interesting. Not Facebook itself, but the Facebook thing. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is that it's the first tech related thing that my kids use regularly and have kept using even after "old people" started using it in droves. Of course the fact that old people use it in droves also makes it interesting.
Personally I love Facebook because it's allowed me to reconnect with all kinds of people that I actually want to reconnect with and haven't seen in real life in decades. Literally. Of course there have been a few who have contacted me who I wish would have stayed un-reconnected but that's a very small minority. My wife, who is much more cautious than I am, has resisted the Facebook light because she fears it will be a giant time suck. She's right of course, but in my mind that's no reason to stay away. Productivity is way over rated.
And of course the reason people leave Facebook is equally fascinating to me as the reasons that people use it. Being stalked by a wacko from the gym? By all means kill your Facebook account. Actually, I think Fec has come up with the single best reason I've seen for killing a Facebook account:
I killed my Facebook account when I found all my old girlfriends had become lesbians, not that there’s anything wrong with that
links for 2009-08-10
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From the article: "Growing income inequality 'is a national story, but the South may show it most dramatically because they pushed the low-wage strategy most successfully,' says Joseph Persky, an economist at the University of Illinois in Chicago, who has studied the economy of the South. He believes the region’s low-wage, anti-union model won’t survive as the economy moves away from traditional manufacturing industries. '[The South] can’t compete with Mexico, let alone China.'
and
"'Conservatives maintain their faith in the Southern model. The South’s economy may be struggling now, but in the long-term, it is more likely to be successful,' says Patrick Fleenor, chief economist at the conservative Tax Foundation in Washington.
'The way to fix this economy is to invest in human capital and encourage people to invest in themselves. The state can’t fix the wage gap through income transfers,' he says.'"
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A rebuttal of the "government can't do anything right" argument.
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Man, this is a good piece. Best explanation I've seen for the current American cynicism and how Obama might be blowing it. From the column: "It’s in this context that Obama can’t afford a defeat on health care. A bill will pass in a Democrat-controlled Congress. What matters is what’s in it. The final result will be a CAT scan of those powerful Washington interests he campaigned against, revealing which have been removed from the body politic (or at least reduced) and which continue to metastasize. The Wall Street regulatory reform package Obama pushes through, or doesn’t, may render even more of a verdict on his success in changing the system he sought the White House to reform." h/t to Ed Cone for the link.
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Great post by a rabbi in Greensboro about the need for civility in the healthcare debate, and the nasty effect of using the terms "nazi" and "national socialism" in comparison to the healthcare plans being proposed by the Democrats.
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Winston-Salem Journal's editor writes about criticism the paper has received as a result of its coverage of the National Black Theater Festival. Basically readers are complaining that the paper is too "black." Ken does a nice job of addressing the issue.
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Sarah Palin takes the same passage from the House healthcare bill that Rep. Foxx got in trouble for misrepresenting as a way for the government to kill the elderly and adds her own level of misinterpretation.
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Winston-Salem's Bookmark book festival is being held downtown in the arts district this year after being held at Bethabara Park for the last few years. Date is September 12, 2009 and time is 9:30 to 5:00.
Why Not a National White Theatre Festival?
This past week Winston-Salem hosted what has become a very prominent arts festival, the National Black Theatre Festival. It's a big deal and it's a heck of a boost to the city, and as you'd expect the Winston-Salem Journal has given it significant coverage. Also not surprising is the feedback that the Journal's editor has gotten. In a couple of words it's that the paper is "too black." In his blog post about the issue Ken does the best job of explaining why there's not a "National White Theatre Festival":
One of the issues is of course terminology, its the National BLACK Theatre Festival. And so one caller asked when we were going to cover the National WHITE Theatre Festival and wouldn’t people be up in arms if such an event existed. But of course, such events exist. They’re just not labeled as such. And we do cover them. The labeling along racial and ethnic lines is part of minority groups—racial, ethnic, religious—banding together to tell the majority that they exist. Majority groups don’t have to label. They’re implied.
I think he's right, but I'll add my own two cents. I don't think there's a need for a national "white" anything, but the day is approaching when whites will no longer be the majority in America. When that happens and when someone decides that there's a need for a National White Theatre Festival I hope that the same acceptance applies.
links for 2009-08-07
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"For the most part, our industry as a whole is still reactionary, non-participatory, and generally unengaged. Who is reaching out to renters across social media sites? What apartment homepages foster community or have ratings and reviews? What Internet listings sites host apartment ratings? Who is openly communicating or allowing open communication with residents on the web? Aside from a select few, there seems to be very little movement."
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Very cool interactive graphic that shows how we all spend our days. Sub-categories by age, education, race, children/no children, employed/unemployed. You'll notice that in all groups "socializing" is done by a surprising minority of people, and invariably it's less than watching TV/movies.
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"Most of us are afraid of strategy, because we don't feel confident outlining one unless we're sure it's going to work. And the 'work' part is all tactical, so we focus on that."
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"This illustration-rich book provides a peek under the hood of the mechanized world we inhabit. David Macaulay, with tech writer Neil Ardley, has that rare gift of technical understanding paired with an ability to convey complex concepts through visual imagery. Kids, parents, Lit. majors, curious people – all can learn, and laugh, from the interpretive drawings that fill this wonderful tome, granting insight into the workings of everything from twin-rotor helicopters to printing presses to self-winding watches and even modems."
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"A better indicator of the strength of the labor market is the proportion of the adult population that is employed. As shown in the graph below, this number dipped to 59.4 percent, the lowest percentage in 25 years."
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"when I think about the book as digital format from a larger perspective, I see a much bigger picture unfolding. Not only is knowledge no longer bound to its physical format, it’s no longer bound as medium designed primarily for consumption. With digital formats offering the ability to connect with other readers (consumers you might even say) over networked platforms, the consumption of knowledge can actually become a participatory activity resulting in the creation and sharing of new knowledge."
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Matt Taibbi wrote a monster piece on Goldman Sachs for Rolling Stone and has been taken to task by the traditional biz press for it. This CJR piece explores why the mainstream press might be making a mistake. (h/t to Ed for link)
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From the story: "The number of commercial and multifamily mortgage loans taken out during the second quarter was 50 percent higher than the first quarter, but 54 percent lower than the same period last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association."
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Good piece in the Observer that provides a nice overview of the story in Lincoln County that Fec's been tracking for months. I'm glad he linked to it because I was getting lost. Anyway, it shows how social media has changed the landscape for the powers that be.
links for 2009-08-06
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Interesting look at the varying perceptions of the government's stimulus efforts and how they might be seen through the class prism. h/t to Ed Cone for the link.
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Ken Ashford has the top 10 trade ins and the top 10 new cars bought in the government's cash for clunkers program.
Why Today I Don’t Know as Much Worthless Stuff as Yesterday
News: Twitter is down due to a denial of service attack by hacker. FB also having issues. Will now tweet blog in <140 characters.
Logical Vacuum
North Carolina's "Tax Holiday" is this weekend and you can rest assured that lots of stores will be busy with back-to-school shoppers. That's all fine and good, but when you juxtapose this event with the other tax news coming out of Raleigh as the legislature tries to balance the state's budget, you begin to wonder what kind of weird logic is being used over there. To wit, here's the first paragraph from a story at WXII about the weekend:
State leaders said this weekend's sales tax holiday is a needed boost to help North Carolina families shop for back to school during a difficult economic time.
Now here's a paragraph from a Winston-Salem Journal article about the 2009-2010 NC budget that the legislature sent to the governor for approval:
By far the largest part of the tax package is a one-penny increase on the sales tax, bringing the sales tax rate in most counties to 7.75 percent from the current rate of 6.75 percent. That represents a 15 percent jump in what consumers will pay in sales tax.
I'm not going to go on a tax rant here, but I would like to know how giving me a two day holiday on a limited number of items and then raising my year-round tax rate by 15% is helping me? Believe me, I'd gladly give up my holiday in exchange for a 5% increase or no increase at all. Sheesh.
Befuddled 