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mallorys_cameraAm I a bad person? Didn’t listen to Obama’s speech last night. I’m bored with the oratory.
Keynesian economics supposes that the government must step in to remedy a temporary lapse in private demand. But see I’m not at all sure what we’re looking at is a temporary lapse in demand. I think it's transitional pangs – that henceforth the model will not be a GDP that grows several percentage points a quarter but rather one that doesn't shrink i.e. a sustainable economy. If that's the case, then all the money we're sinking into bailouts is wasted money.
I think the global economy may well have reached the end of the Petri dish beyond which it’s simply not possible to grow unless something else contracts. Oh, we’ll see what look like bubbles in the agar – the switch from an oil-based economy (which I reckon will begin for real within the next five years) will be a major one. But unless we find an inhabitable planet and the technology to get there, there are no more new frontiers. And the world’s economy for the last six hundred years since Columbus has been based on the premise that there are always new frontiers to expand into.
Any bailout measures that’s designed to simulate a private sector demand that’s no longer there is a waste of money.
Here’s where I break with the conservative party line though:
What isn’t a waste of money are investments in resources that will help the economy sustain itself and these do include energy, health care (humans are resources after all!) and education. So those expenditures I approve of.
One thing I really disapprove of…
The New York Times summarizes: Mr. Obama challenged Congress to pass a bill to cap emissions of the heat-trapping gases that are warming the planet and use $15 billion a year of the revenues from the program to pay for renewable sources of energy.
What does this mean exactly? California-like car requirements? Sure it looks good on paper. But here’s the thing: most working Americans are hostages to their cars. Through no real fault of their own. There is no public transportation. Suburbs were built far away from commercial centers. Very few people work close to where they live. This is not a choice that people make, it’s a choice the infrastructure has made for them. Much better to tax something that has discretionary use.
Of course Obama didn’t say he was taxing individuals. Maybe he’s thinking of taxing corporations?
###
Any way you slice it though, I’m collateral damage. The Little Store – closing in three days – made a whopping $25.50 yesterday. Three people came into the store; two of them bought things. Since Bill Grimm, the Cannery Row Company’s Executive VP of BS told us business is booming for other stores I looked around. Are the customers all invisible?
One of the sales was to a German tourist. “Toad Sweat. You do have Toad Sweat?”
We did have.
“You do have Key Lime Toad Sweat?”
We did have Key Lime Toad Sweat. Our very last bottle, as a matter of fact.
So she left happy.
Other sale was to a couple that owned a gift shop in Utah, on the road to Bryce Canyon. They’ve managed to survive so far by slashing all their prices 45%. “People who weren’t going to buy anything maybe buy, and people who were going to buy buy two things,” the woman explained.
I considered this model for the Little Store. It wouldn’t have worked because what we’re seeing is actually a huge drop in potential customers. There’s no one to convert into a buyer.
Also the manager of the candle store stuck in the remote corner of the Starbucks building trotted over to review the property. Bill Grimm has been glad handing the owner apparently. They currently pay $900/month rent and are just covering operational expenses; Bill Grimm offered them the Little Store spot for $2200 (considerably less that we’re paying.) I suppose he told them the extra foot traffic would make up the rent differential and more, and I just wanted to laugh – that would make the third candle store in a two-block radius and I had to work very, very hard for visibility in this location. Still I kept my mouth shut. Sabotage though tempting is unprofessional.
Max’s twenty-second b-day today. I made him a shadow box because I couldn’t afford to buy him anything or throw cash at him. I felt terrible.
But Robin reported that Max told him two weeks ago, “Mom is very smart. I think this memoir she’s writing is gonna turn it all around. If anyone can do it, she can.” A vote of confidence it felt good to have earned – I’d snuck a copy of Chapter 1 into his overnight bag last time he was down, maybe he even read it.
Keynesian economics supposes that the government must step in to remedy a temporary lapse in private demand. But see I’m not at all sure what we’re looking at is a temporary lapse in demand. I think it's transitional pangs – that henceforth the model will not be a GDP that grows several percentage points a quarter but rather one that doesn't shrink i.e. a sustainable economy. If that's the case, then all the money we're sinking into bailouts is wasted money.
I think the global economy may well have reached the end of the Petri dish beyond which it’s simply not possible to grow unless something else contracts. Oh, we’ll see what look like bubbles in the agar – the switch from an oil-based economy (which I reckon will begin for real within the next five years) will be a major one. But unless we find an inhabitable planet and the technology to get there, there are no more new frontiers. And the world’s economy for the last six hundred years since Columbus has been based on the premise that there are always new frontiers to expand into.
Any bailout measures that’s designed to simulate a private sector demand that’s no longer there is a waste of money.
Here’s where I break with the conservative party line though:
What isn’t a waste of money are investments in resources that will help the economy sustain itself and these do include energy, health care (humans are resources after all!) and education. So those expenditures I approve of.
One thing I really disapprove of…
The New York Times summarizes: Mr. Obama challenged Congress to pass a bill to cap emissions of the heat-trapping gases that are warming the planet and use $15 billion a year of the revenues from the program to pay for renewable sources of energy.
What does this mean exactly? California-like car requirements? Sure it looks good on paper. But here’s the thing: most working Americans are hostages to their cars. Through no real fault of their own. There is no public transportation. Suburbs were built far away from commercial centers. Very few people work close to where they live. This is not a choice that people make, it’s a choice the infrastructure has made for them. Much better to tax something that has discretionary use.
Of course Obama didn’t say he was taxing individuals. Maybe he’s thinking of taxing corporations?
Any way you slice it though, I’m collateral damage. The Little Store – closing in three days – made a whopping $25.50 yesterday. Three people came into the store; two of them bought things. Since Bill Grimm, the Cannery Row Company’s Executive VP of BS told us business is booming for other stores I looked around. Are the customers all invisible?
One of the sales was to a German tourist. “Toad Sweat. You do have Toad Sweat?”
We did have.
“You do have Key Lime Toad Sweat?”
We did have Key Lime Toad Sweat. Our very last bottle, as a matter of fact.
So she left happy.
Other sale was to a couple that owned a gift shop in Utah, on the road to Bryce Canyon. They’ve managed to survive so far by slashing all their prices 45%. “People who weren’t going to buy anything maybe buy, and people who were going to buy buy two things,” the woman explained.
I considered this model for the Little Store. It wouldn’t have worked because what we’re seeing is actually a huge drop in potential customers. There’s no one to convert into a buyer.
Also the manager of the candle store stuck in the remote corner of the Starbucks building trotted over to review the property. Bill Grimm has been glad handing the owner apparently. They currently pay $900/month rent and are just covering operational expenses; Bill Grimm offered them the Little Store spot for $2200 (considerably less that we’re paying.) I suppose he told them the extra foot traffic would make up the rent differential and more, and I just wanted to laugh – that would make the third candle store in a two-block radius and I had to work very, very hard for visibility in this location. Still I kept my mouth shut. Sabotage though tempting is unprofessional.
Max’s twenty-second b-day today. I made him a shadow box because I couldn’t afford to buy him anything or throw cash at him. I felt terrible.
But Robin reported that Max told him two weeks ago, “Mom is very smart. I think this memoir she’s writing is gonna turn it all around. If anyone can do it, she can.” A vote of confidence it felt good to have earned – I’d snuck a copy of Chapter 1 into his overnight bag last time he was down, maybe he even read it.
