U.S.A.

A daring adventure beyond the limits of the “Think Globally–Caffeinate Locally” mindset reveals surprising vistas. Corporate Coffee and Crazy Aunt Coffee are competitors, but they need not be enemies. It was, after all, Starbucks which moved the latté into our daily consciousness. CoffeeCorp made all those artsy-activist mocha mills possible.

As usual, I'm with Travis:

Q: Yes, but can we assume that Travis, as a libertarian / anarchist, is against government intervention?

A: Surprisingly, no, my stance isn’t that simple. The first point I have to make is that despite the above, I don’t understand squat about all of this. Which is much less than most of the folks involved, even if what we have in common is that none of us knows enough to really know all the details.

Preliminary and unresearched, but seemingly a bit more than plausible…

Uncertainty about asset valuation has investors buying Treasury securities rather than stock equity or bonds. The Fed is taking that investor wealth and buying bonds and equity in companies holding un-valuable assets derived from mortgage loans.

Will history make much of the financial volatility we’re seeing? Will September 15th, 2008, achieve a legendary nickname, like Black Monday, or Black Thursday?

I don’t know. And, despite the huge amount of opining facilitated by the internet, nobody else knows, either.

In choosing, the wise consider both the seen and unseen consequences. It makes life seem harder. Art Carden, reacting to a hurricane-induced spike in the price of gasoline, gives an example:

In the previous post, I made a distinction between “pork eaters” and “pork producers”. Palin seems to grasp that distinction. Zip ahead to 2:59 in this clip:

Following are excerpts from the StarTribune's comment section on an Associated Press story titled McCain equates earmarks with corruption even though Palin is seeking earmarks herself.

First, a bit of AP’s reporting for context:

Engram, the proprietor of Back Talk, does his usual stellar job finding and presenting facts, this time about the USA economy. His assessment of those facts:

the facts have just not supported the idea that the economy was falling into a recession despite the mortgage crisis. GDP grew at 0.9% in the first quarter and at 3.3% in the second quarter.

My contribution to the comments on that post:

Today I received a notice from United Airlines alerting me that oil speculators are responsible for the hardships of their firm and their industry. The same industry that has seen a major bankruptcy every couple of years for the past quarter century. During most of that span fuel averaged less than 30% of today's price.

Maybe fuel cost isn't the root of airline industry problems.

In 1926, President Calvin Coolidge spoke in Philadelphia on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Known as “Silent Cal” for his reserve and discretion in his personal life, Coolidge was an effective orator. His remarks stand as a clear enunciation of the spirit and intent upon which the United States was built.

This, from the Antiplanner, seems relevant to wondering what
happened to thriving neighborhood nodes in the 60s and 70s and to today's potential for niche districts (kitsch/arts/whatever):

Here's one possible reason for the observed minimal effect of $3/gallon gasoline on our standard of living:

Amid the overwhelming reports of people concerned about the US economy possibly moving into recession, I have one primary admonishment:

Go do something productive!

The more we replace worry with work, the more productive and valuable each of us becomes. As individuals do more and better, the aggregate measure of all people (The Economy) grows and rises.

On a recent trip to TJICistan, I was struck by this perspective on the tax forfeiture shut-down of an ice cream shop. If government was a person, it would be an evil stepmother.

You see, deprived of $140k, the state can not do necessary things like pay for seven hundredths of one percent of the cost of a new high school in Newton with a restaurant and a “trendy, zigzag shape; and an indoor pool”