A Mighty Stimulus

I’m going to be a bit more wonky than usual because I’m going to be making the case that we may need a bigger stimulus package that either the Democratic party or Republican party may be prepared to pass.  Right now, it appears the only thing that will get by the Senate right is a package [...]

An open letter to President Roosevelt

  John Maynard Keynes is the the father of modern macroeconomics and Roosevelt’s New Deal.  His suggestions to President Roosevelt during the depression are still regarded as the map that led us our country out of The Great Depression.  The UK Guardian just did a reprint of parts of it and it made me think.  So, on [...]

Brilliance as an expression of Humanity

just because …

Italian Text
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che tremano d’amore
e di speranza.
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun saprà!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò
quando la luce splenderà!
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
che ti fa mia!
(Il nome suo nessun [...]

In Pursuit of Gross National Happiness

Whenever I teach my undergraduates the meaning of measuring the economic development of nations, I always mention the one country that does it differently.  This is the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan.  I know that you all think I’m biased here, because I am a Buddhist in the tradition of the Himalayan region.  (My Guru [...]

Never Surrender the Pink!

I was driving across the bayous today listening to NPR on my way to campuswhen the most empowering and delightful story happened.  It was about the “Gulabi Gang”  or the Pink Sari Ladies that have decided to take on the corrupt and ineffective men running Northern India.  They wear bright pink saris and carry sticks.  [...]

Another Notch for Nawlins …

Business Week just named New orleans one of the Best Cities for Riding out a Recessions.  These are some of the facts included in the article.

New Orleans, La.
Share of jobs in strong industries: 40%
Number of workers: 101,752
Metro area unemployment rate: 4.7%
Agriculture jobs: 1.21%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical jobs (legal, accounting etc.): 7.17%
Education jobs: 12.23%
Health-care jobs: 13.50%
Public [...]

Where’s the Lone Ranger when you need him?

We have not entered uncharted territory in the economy yet.  I suppose that should be reassuring in a world where uncertainty seems to rule the day.  The deal is this, while economists have charted the territory, we’ve never be in the position of stopping so many things from heading that direction.  That is what is [...]

Who is this man and why is he harshing Obamalot’s Mellow?

Gerald Celente is one of those folks paid to spot trends.  He correctly predicted the stock market crash of 1987 and the fall of the Soviet Union.  You’ll start a farm and buy a rifle if you watch this video and take his predictions seriously.  He says within four years there will be [...]

This is the Obama voter gene pool …

One of the best laughs I got all year was watching a Howard Stern video on youtube that got a ton of voters to agree with basically everything John McCain had said and done–including the choice of Sarah Palin for VP–simply by ascribing it to Barack Obama.  The video I posted below is along that vein [...]

The Press, Wall Street, Politicans, the DNC, Banks: ALL MIA

Riverdaughter assigned all PUMAs and Confluencians a project:  figure out where to go from here so we can continue forward as a movement with relevancy.  Being a scientist, I always look for the roots of the problem.  I check for the problem and the catalysts.  You can get frustrated by the symptoms but you never [...]