Conservative Capitalism is Maturing!, October 3, 2008
Gordon K. Durnil
As true conservatives start realizing that both parties are evil and both parties have been corrupt in both selling out to Wall Street and in mandating “party line” voting, the tide is turning in favor of common sense and what I have been calling “reality-based” policy and budgeting.
This author deserves very high marks, and I am disappointed that the book has not attracted any reviews at all. Published in 2001, this author was years ahead of the pack, and along with Governor Mitch Daniels, himself rather special as a former Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), I am finding more and more reasons to look to the heartland for common sense.
Understood Difference Between FREE Trade and FAIR Trade, October 3, 2008
Alfred E. Jr. Eckes
I give the author high marks for explaining early on the difference between FREE trade and FAIR trade. While he is an avowed protectionist and much of what he offers must be balanced by more progressive views, the tide is turning as “true costs” become established and we all begin to realize that between exporting solid jobs for the middle class and the earnest blue collar trade specialists, and allowing illegal immigration and the Reagan-led destruction of the trade unions, we have put a stake in the heart of THE fundamental source of national power and prosperity: people.
Too Tough for Most, Here is Short Version and Links, October 1, 2008
Kevin Phillips
I admire this author, very much, and consider him to be one of the more thoughtful public intelligence minutemen–sadly, the media has failed us, as have the think tanks, and we who wish to know the truth of any matter are left very much on our own.
Here is the short version of this book (ending with NO on the bail-out) courtesy of and with permission of Sterling Seagraves, co-author of GOLD WARRIORS:
Many Continental European banks ARE stronger than USA banks, because they have more experience with disaster in past centuries. As do some current EU governments like France, Spain and Germany. But they are exposed for 2 reasons: 1, they found it easy to borrow money from USA banks, so they became somewhat addicted to easy money, and are now having to adjust to that source of money drying up. 2, most big banks not long ago set up divisions in Paris (for example, SocGen, CredAgri, Paribas) that were to play the investment game of derivatives and short-selling. In the case of SocGen, this was exposed recently but blamed on only one man, a trick to protect many others. With CredAgri, all their regional commercial banks are very solid, but their newer Paris investment division is in deep shit because of emulating New York and London corrupt practices.
The basic problem is that citizens must have a secure place to put their savings. Conservative banks initially use this money to make conservative investments, but as time passes the young and ambitious “upstarts” (arrivists) begin to make crazier investments to advance their careers and enlarge their private wealth — but still speculating only with the savings of citizens who trusted their bank. Eventually, these upstarts went crazy. But they were encouraged to do so by their bosses, and then by the Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr administrations. During the first year of the Bush Jr administration, it had such a terrible reputation and the US economy was in such terrible condition, that it was decided to increase “housing starts” (home construction) by giving mortgages to everyone (even if they could not pay-back) because the statistics would look good on paper. This soon became a “feeding-frenzy” by the Piranha, creating a global feeding-frenzy by almost all big banks, including UBS and CreditSuisse.
The reason none of the “authorities” sounded the alarm is because they, and the politicians, and journalists, and professors, are all tied together like black slaves on a slave ship. If one goes overboard, they ALL go overboard. So they protect themselves by protecting “the system”. The proposed 700-billion US$ bail-out was simply the final robbery by the Bush admin, shared with all the big bank owners. In fact, the ECB has given that much to banks in the last two weeks to “increase liquidity” (put money in the pockets of the malefactors), so the Bush/Paulson bail-out was just a way of feeding their personal friends.
The people who are cheated are the citizens who trusted the banks with their savings. It is better to have the criminal banks crash, because only that will provoke a serious reform. I hope we are getting closer to the time when citizens will rise up and get violent. It is very healthy for governments and politicians (and bankers) to get their asses kicked, to be put in the tumbril and sent to the guillotine. This must be done every several generations to keep them afraid, because nothing on earth will keep them honest except fear. The Bush regime postponed the guillotine by mis-directing the fear of citizens toward Muslims, and avoided a quick military coup at home by sending most soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan where they are no danger to Washington. I may have put this very simply, but there are times when things need to be put simply.
END SHARED INFORMATION
Here are books that are easier to read and make the same case, but please note that all of this can be traced back to Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) and his deregulation of the financial industry with a 200+ page amendment that none of the other Senators read. Clinton “went along” because “easy money” was a popularity enhancer.
Dr. Ben Gilad, considered a leading developer of competitive intelligence (CI) theory and practice in the US, is a former Associate Professor of Strategy at Rutgers Universityās Graduate School of Management. Giladās first CI books, The Business Intelligence System (1988, AMACOM, co-authored) and Business Blindspots (1994, US: Probus/Irwin; 1998, UK: Infonortics), paved the way for the CI evolution in US corporations, many of which emulated the basic principles of Giladās CI process model. He is the co-editor of the definitive analysis book, The Art and Science of Business Intelligence Analysis (1996, JAI Press), reprinted and updated with Jan Herring in 2008.
In 2004 Gilad published his breakthrough book,Early Warning (AMACOM, 2004), which defines for the first time a new role and scope for CI practitioners based on his innovative work with two strategic early warning systems in two leading global corporations. For this new risk management perspective of CI, CI Magazine labeled him “our CI guru”. The Society of Competitive Professionals honored him with its highest Meritorious award in 1996.
5 for intent, 3 for immaculate conception, 4 on balance, September 29, 2008
Thomas L. Friedman
I was not going to buy this book, having become generally disenchanted with the journalists style of ignoring the past 10-20 years of pioneering work by others, and instead interviewing one's way toward an immaculate conception of the same stuff.
HOWEVER, I was won over by his appearance on television, his passion for going green, and his articulate summarization of complex ideas. If you read a great deal, the book is a fast read with way too much detail. If you do NOT read a lot, this is a 5 star book with a wealth of detail you will not find in any one place elsewhere, buy it, read it SLOWLY, and be all the better for it.
A few notes for my failing memory and those who follow my reviews:
1) Better than average index, indeed, quite good and a real pleasure.
2) President Reagan undid most of the energy conservation progress made in the 1970's, costing us the equivalent of everything we are so desperate to get now.
3) Denmark is an example of getting it right, and of energy policy producing jobs and savings and quality of life beyond most people's wildest imagination.
4) George Bush Junior blew it (but the author is careful not to mention Dick Cheney's obsession with secret meetings with Enron and Exxon to plot the invasion and occupation of Iraq). The new president chose deliberately–and the author is compelling in quoting the White House press person on this point–to continue cheap gas and profligate energy waste as an American birthright of sorts.
5) Cradle to Cradle and Divesity are hot now. Duh. I quelch my annoyance as not seeing any credit to Herman Daly or Paul Hawkin or Club or Rome or Limits to Growth and so on, because later in the book he discusses how localities can become Noahs and Arks, and I like this section very much.
7) Energy Internet, Where IT Meets ET is quite special and alone worth the price of the book for those of us that do read a great deal.
8) Innovation *is* happening, and I am extremely impressed by his account of how the US Army has been discovering the value of going green, for instance, using renewable energy to power remote outposts so as to dramatically reduce the need to truck fuel over roads, reducing both targets and costs for the entire force.
9) US Government has no energy policy, and the private sector desperately needs one if the private sector is to make the 30-50 year bets on nuclear, wind, solar, bacteria, biomass, and so on.
10) China has 106 billionaires, and the balance of the book on China, both its challenges and its potential to go green and not make our mistakes, is also very valuable and provides coverage I have not seen elsewhere.
I found a number of gifted turns of phrase in the book, and they helped to balance the verbal vomit of facts and figures stuffed into the book.
Here are two quotes that I consider worth highlighting:
“American energy policy today, says Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network, a strategic consulting firm, can be summed up as ‘Maximize demand, minimize supply, and mmake up the difference by buying as much as we can from the people who hate us the most.'” [Schwartz forgot to mention that we borrow the money with which we buy….] p. 80.
“All the human energy and talent is here [in the USA], ready to launch. Yes, it can go a long way on its own…[b]ut it will never go to the scale we need as long as our national energy policy remains so ad hoc, uncoordinated, inconsistent, and unsustained–so that the market never fully exploits our natural advantages.” p. 375
The author appears to ignore or not include the extreme greed and the predatory capitalism that characterizes the energy companies, for example, Exxon eternalizing $12 in costs to the public for every $4 in gas we buy [i.e. they did NOT make a $40 billion windfall profit this past year, they instead stole this money from the public now and in the future.]
Here are some books that I read before this one, and that I recommend very highly for those who wish to delve into the pioneering ideas of others. The author is himself a distiller and obsever, not a pioneer, but unlike his other books, on this one, I give him extra credit for being relevant, on target, and passionate in the most positive way.
Mr. Gill is President and Founder of Penfield Gill, Incorporated, a consulting firm specializing in New Media communications, marketing, and strategic planning. Currently, Mr. Gill is a cofounder of the not-for-profit Grass Energy Collaborative and the for-profit Biomass Commodities Corporation. From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Gill was Director of Special Projects in the Office of Media Affairs at The White House, where he was a key member of the communications innovations team which introduced electronic publishing, public access email to the President, and, in October 1994, the first White House web siteāWelcome to the White House. Mr. Gill is a speaker on the history and future of information technology and new media. He has also been a senior product manager at Lotus Development Corporation, and was the founding president of Computer Access Corporation. http://www.jockgill.com.
Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the Centre for International Governance Innovation Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada, and is a Professor in the Centre for Environment and Business in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo.
Conservative Capitalism is Maturing!, October 3, 2008
