The Economy in my Lifetime

Yes, I still plan to continue on with my series of posts on ethics, I just need to stop being lazy. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share this link to an interview with Michael Hudson since he does a great job summarizing everything I've come to understand about how our economy works in the period since I've been alive, a period of increasing debt, stagnant wages, private takeover of public goods, tax cuts for the wealthy, increased corruption and increasing inequality.

Progress

The last time the global economic scorekeeping system ran into trouble because a few players were hoarding all the poker chips (the 1930's) so nobody else could bet, the only thing the folks in charge could come up with as a high enough priority to merit redistributing the chips more equitably was a World War.

This time around, our weapons are advanced enough that a war fought with the same intensity as World War II would probably bring about the collapse of our civilization - so the folks in charge will have to come up with some other solution. Or we could just have a feeble global economy indefinitely, I suppose.

Dark Age Ahead

The title, borrowed from one of Jane Jacobs' last books, seems appropriate for the topic of the Conservative government's incredibly stupid decision to make the long form of the census optional, rather than mandatory.

For those who don't know anything about sampling, the problem with making the long form of the census optional is that the results will be biased to overrepresent the sorts of people more likely to complete the census form, and underrepresent the sorts of people who are less likely to complete the form. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. The census data is some of the best, most fundamental data available for all sorts of important analysis and research done in all areas of life (setting electoral boundaries, municipal planning for roads and schools, analysis of the impact of economic policies, etc. etc.)

Credit to Stephen Gordon for initially bringing this to my attention.

The Pundit's Guide has an excellent summary of some of the uses of the census data in Canadian Elections here.

It's depressing to have this great country governed by morons, especially when they received less than 40% of the votes in the last election.

Straight Faces

"These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't smile baby, don't smile
Don't smile"

I got my driver's license photo updated today. I think that if I was writing a book about the current era, I'd title it, "Don't Smile."

But then, I've always had a bit of a glass half empty outlook on things...

Money For Nothing

Personally, I thought $1 billion for security for the Winter Olympics was high. But spending over $1 billion to host a weekend G8/G20 summit is truly absurd. At some point the Conservative hide-under-the-bed-cause-the -terrorists-are-out-to-get-us security mania will have to give way to common sense. Right?

Instead of buying sonic cannons to attack protestors with, how about the leaders try a conference call next time and give us a transit line or a hospital instead - thanks in advance.

Deja Vu

All of this has happened before
All of this will happen again...

Here's a quote that seems relevant to the current financial situation,

"Another way of defining moral hazard is that it is what results from the combination of privatized profit an socialized loss. In the words of Kenneth A. Guenther, executive vice president of the Independent Bankers Association of America, "The combination of interest rate deregulation with 100% deposit insurance is like the invention of gunpowder - sooner or later it was bound to explode" But deregulation of banking and finance was all the rage ... and the banking sector wanted "the government off its back." Nowadays the last thing it wants is for the government to leave the scene of the train wreck. Ironically, the degree of government involvement in the financial sector ... is proving much greater than before. ... Those deemed 'too big to be allowed to fail' are of course especially favoured, further encouraging bigness.

...

To analyze or even recount the recent and unfinished consequences of the financial deregulation disaster in the United States, or the international debt crisis, is far beyond our scope. We are sure that the consequences will eventually have to include a large dose of reregulation in the public interest."

That's Herman Daly and John Cobb from the 2nd edition of 'For the Common Good', published in 1994. I wouldn't be too optimistic about that reregulation bit, we're just going to go from crisis to crisis without anything changing if the last few decades are anything to go by...

Copyright Lockdown

Over at No More Shall I Roam, Jonathan has posted the follow-up to his excellent post on the new copyright legislation which may be coming in Canada and why it's a bad idea.

Like Jonathan, I have a link on the right side of the page, which provides contact info for your MP, in case you feel like reminding them that they were elected to represent your interests and not the Disney Corporation's.