"You're mean!"

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Monday March 15, 2010 · 9:50 PM PDT

2010/03/15 · 21:50

I've worked a lot of different jobs, including private security officer (unarmed). One chilly winter's day, as I was sitting at my desk in a lobby, a man started to walk out the door and then turned his head to talk to someone inside. The frigid air rolled over my feet, turning my toes to ice as he jabbered on, until I finally said, "Sir, please close the door, you're letting in the cold."

To my dying day, I'll never forget what happened next. This thoughtless, self-centered man looked over his shoulder at me and said, "You're mean!" It was appalling and instructive, all at once. I believe that he was only unusual in how clearly he showed a fundamental aspect of human nature: people hate being asked to do something that they don't want to do, even to the extent of considering you a bad person for asking.

It recently occurred to me that this anecdote is a perfect metaphor for the "debate" over anthropogenic global warming.

Climate scientists: "Sirs and madams, please stop burning so much fossil fuel, you're trapping in the heat."

Fossil fuel stakeholders: "You're mean!"

Don't Blame Your Mirror for Your Zit

SciVo

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Wednesday February 04, 2009 · 11:54 PM PST

2009/02/04 · 23:54

If the purchasing power parity (PPP) of Chinese currency is (let's say) three times its exchange rate with the U.S. dollar, then the renmibi can buy three times as much in China as the equivalent amount of USD can buy in the U.S. (I haven't followed the PPP in some years but it's been that before.) It seems reasonable at first glance to suppose that the Chinese must be engineering some sinister currency manipulations in that case. I believe that interpretation would be false; it's only our own national character flaws being reflected back on us.

SciVo

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Sunday February 01, 2009 · 6:45 PM PST

2009/02/01 · 18:45

In the Monday, January 26^th Oregonian, there was a fascinating article discussing proposed legislation to create an overall oversight body regulating the financial system-as-a-whole, as opposed to the system-as-parts. It is a badly needed addition, with a fatal flaw: they're talking about giving it to the Fed, which is too deep in the system to view it objectively.

SciVo

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Thursday January 22, 2009 · 7:40 AM PST

2009/01/22 · 07:40

Poll

17 votes Show Results

Robert Barro?

17 votes Vote Now!

Robert Barro?

Ignorant Hack

2 votes

Cynical Liar

3 votes

Both

8 votes

Neither

4 votes

Pie

0 votes

Lawrence Lessig for Commerce Secretary!

SciVo

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Sunday January 04, 2009 · 5:44 PM PST

2009/01/04 · 17:44

SciVo

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Thursday December 18, 2008 · 9:15 PM PST

2008/12/18 · 21:15

[Cross-posted on Congress Matters]

SciVo

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Sunday December 07, 2008 · 12:55 PM PST

2008/12/07 · 12:55

[Cross-posted from Congress Matters]

SciVo

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Sunday October 19, 2008 · 9:23 PM PDT

2008/10/19 · 21:23

In Dr. Loius Tartaglia's excellent book Flawless!: The Ten Most Common Character Flaws and What You Can Do About Them, he saves the worst for last. #10 -- chronic dishonesty -- is called The Trap, because it stands in the way of its own resolution.

That's true to some extent of all character flaws; by definition, they're dysfunctional ways of satisfying a real need for ego self-defense, but they do satisfy those needs in the short run (while making things worse overall, natch). The Trap is the worst because the person most gullible to your lies is yourself, and possession of a character flaw is a threat to the ego, so the fact of chronically lying is the first thing that a chronic liar will lie to themself about.

All you can do with someone in The Trap is try to avoid them and minimize your exposure to their life drama, because they're not likely to change anytime soon, no matter what you do. And, that is why the conservative movement in America is doomed to not learn from its present and future defeats.

~continued~

SciVo

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Sunday September 28, 2008 · 1:00 PM PDT

2008/09/28 · 13:00

Given the recent news about bans on short selling, I thought you might be interested in learning some more about what that is and the role that it plays in our financial system. So, this combines and expands on some different comments that I've made explaining it, with a hat tip to gjohnsit.

If you have the money to buy a stock, that's a straightforward deal. If you don't have money and you want to buy, that's pretty intuitive too; you just borrow the money or "buy on margin." Likewise, if you don't have stock and want to sell, then you borrow the stock or "sell short."

So, selling stock short is an inherently leveraged position. There are three kinds of reasons to do that.

SciVo

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Saturday September 13, 2008 · 11:37 AM PDT

2008/09/13 · 11:37

The world is a big and complicated place, hard to understand. It's particularly hard to understand the world if you don't understand population density and its effects on culture and the economy. For example, in last week's Times Magazine, David Frum claimed:

You’ll hear a lot of partisan roostering from Democrats about the superiority of the Clinton over the Bush economy. But the difference owes little to the policies of either president.

That is false. He goes on to say,

Between 2001 and 2008, the amount that employers paid for labor rose impressively, at least 25 percent. Yet almost all of that money was absorbed by the costs of health insurance, which doubled over the Bush years. In the 1990s, thanks to the advent of H.M.O.’s, health-care costs rose more slowly, so more of the money paid by employers could flow to employees.

I have no reason to doubt that. I can almost hear the exclamations, "Wait, what?" Follow me over the flip and I'll explain everything. Buckle up, because it's quite the journey; Mr. Frum's misunderstanding is tangential to a much, much bigger issue.

SciVo

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Monday September 01, 2008 · 11:17 AM PDT

2008/09/01 · 11:17

This started out as a reply to a comment on D Wreck's excellent diary John McCain's Invisible Tax on the Middle Class, which I encourage you to read. One commenter said,

We collectively have a choice as to what items we buy, how much gas we use, and putting officials into legislature that demand higher fuel efficiency standards, more effective and safe mass transportation, and push for alternative energy.

Do we remember the "Buy American" campaign of the early 90's?

My point is that government has not necessarily done this to us, through lack of education and understanding we have done this to ourselves.

However, we are also empowered to change it.

I decided to use my diary entry for today to amplify my response, because the system dynamic involved is something that I think is very powerful and poorly understood by most.

SciVo

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Saturday August 02, 2008 · 1:05 PM PDT

2008/08/02 · 13:05

From the New York Times:

Decisions like those suggest that what some economists call a neighborhood effect — putting factories closer to components suppliers and to consumers, to reduce transportation costs — could grow in importance if oil remains expensive. A barrel sold for $125 on Friday, compared with lows of $10 a decade ago.

. . .

The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the United States has risen to $8,000, compared with $3,000 early in the decade, according to a recent study of transportation costs. Big container ships, the pack mules of the 21st-century economy, have shaved their top speed by nearly 20 percent to save on fuel costs, substantially slowing shipping times.

The study, published in May by the Canadian investment bank CIBC World Markets, calculates that the recent surge in shipping costs is on average the equivalent of a 9 percent tariff on trade. "The cost of moving goods, not the cost of tariffs, is the largest barrier to global trade today," the report concluded, and as a result "has effectively offset all the trade liberalization efforts of the last three decades."

Continued...

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"You're mean!"

Don't Blame Your Mirror for Your Zit

Regulating Systemic Risk: An Awesome Idea With a Fatal Flaw

Robert Barro: Ignorant Hack, or Cynical Liar?

Lawrence Lessig for Commerce Secretary!

Might Rep. David Wu (OR-01) change committees?

What committee memberships might Sen.-elect Jeff Merkley get? [revised & expanded]

American conservatism is its own worst enemy.

Short Selling and Our Economy

Understand Population Density, Understand the World

How Budget Deficits Gut the Middle Class

Globalization begins the great unwinding.