This must be the year of change… The US President rode into office on a platform promising change (although he seems to be forgetting that). So, in keeping with this change theme, I’ve decided to change my life, or at least my career. To that end, I am going back to school – a rather scary thing to do amongst the California budget crisis since the class schedule, for example, is being revised. Hopefully, the classes I want to take are still being offered when they’re done slashing… What am I going to study, you ask? I have been accepted … Continue reading »
Jul 242009
May 252009
Watching “Enron: The Smartest Guy in The Room” now – in the midst of the financial crisis – is eerie. The Too Big To Fail banks are all over that one as well. Citibank, JP Morgan, Chase, Credit Swisse, the who’s who of banking loaned money to Enron without questioning, gleefully swallowing the crap they were told as long as they were making money themselves. It almost looks like Enron was just practice. The bigger house of cards was still to be built; only this time it brought down the world economy when the house of cards collapsed. But why … Continue reading »
The Pew Forum presents an interesting chart showing what people think about global warming: If it occurs and if so, what causes it. All this is broken out by religious affiliation. Overall, 71% of the US population agree that the average temperatures are rising but only 47% of the population (or two-thirds of people who agree with a warming trend) think that this is mostly due to human activity. So, one-third of those observing the warming trend think it’s caused by natural patterns. Apparently, they know better what’s going on than the experts… But fully 21% don’t even notice that … Continue reading »
Apr 132009
Last week, an ice bridge broke off in Antarctica. And at work, we started a new recycling program. Each day, I notice the recycables in the trash and the trash in the recycling bin. How hard can it possibly be to get this right? Sure, some things are confusing but what is more obviously recycable than newspaper?!? It is frustrating! The Antarctic is falling apart but people are too lazy to recycle.
Mar 122009
Our current capitalist system, especially the unregulated variety in the US, is built around ideas that are fundamentally not life affirming. The system is built on the idea of growth, which ultimately is unsustainable. The idea of growth drives critical aspects of the system: Growing companies, growing profits, growing monetary wealth, growing markets (including by increasing the population), growing consumption, growing GDP. Without growth, capitalism would collapse. The current financial crisis has made a farce out of growing monetary wealth. The recent stock market increases – possibly most of the growth since the 1980s – has been driven by bubbles, … Continue reading »
Jan 232009
Obama’s campaign was all about change. Presumably his presidency will be about this as well, if his first few days in office are an indication, there certainly will be quite a few things changing, for the better. But is this change fundamental enough? I suspect not. The financial crisis and the specter of climate change are clear reminders that our way of life is not sustainable. There is a limit to growth no matter what economists are trying to make us believe. We need to rethink our fundamental assumptions instead of calling on each other to defend our way of … Continue reading »
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