the albatross of desperation

Saw "Slumdog Millionaire."

Tough to take, perhaps a bit contrived, but powerful, powerful, powerful. With heart.

Reminds one that our systemic comfort can often be at the harrowing expense of others, thousands of miles away.

The Albatross of Deflation

Deflation.

It's a downer, in't?

It weighs one down like an albatross around one's neck, especially if one is an economy.

Deflation.

Who'd have thought?

The price of gas goes below US$2 per gallon, and it scares me.

Oh, I've heard some people exalt over this development, but after all is said and done it's hardly cause for rejoicing. Come to think of it, just ask yourself: Are we better off now than a mere four months ago (when gas was over US$4)?

I think we know the answer.

Who'd have thought?

The Albatross of Semantics

Commonweal (a three-sentence drama)

[manservant] "Would you like some socialism with your tea, sir?"

[man in smoking jacket, sitting in leather chair, sipping claret] "No, thanks; I like my capitalism straight up, even if it kills me -- as well as the body politic."

"Good night, sir."

The Albatross of Risk

Is it possible it takes just one man to crash the party?

Is it possible one individual can send the financial system tumbling like a heavy albatross around a dove's neck while in flight? Like a bowling ball on your wrist whle you try to drive your car? (How many bad analogies does it take to ruin a Street?)


Google "Joseph J. Cassano" and get back to me on that, will you?


(I know. One person would need help, would need complicit partners and those in denial and naysayers and factotums and toadies and accomplices and yes men and yes women and obsequious superiors and ambitious underlings and all of us to look the other way now and then -- just as history's notorious ones always have had, yes?)

What Comes Around . . .

In a subterranean sense, a pulsing undercurrent sense, this blog anticipated the financial upheaval in its inaugural post.

Abundance and greed and unsatiated want for more and more were but symptoms of a malaise gurgling underneath us like the rumblings of an apocalyptic volcano.

Eh?

S&L, Anyone?

This financial crisis reminds me of the S&L (savings and loan) crisis of the 1980s and '90s.

We hear talk of greed, greed, greed from the McCain camp.

But the traditional champions of the free market (unfetered free market) have traditionally clamored for a policy of government hands off.

Starting with their hero, Ronald Reagan, the conservatves ushered in an era of deregulation.

Hands off.

Certainly, as a small-business owner myself (the preceding hyphen is needed; otherwise, you are speaking about my physical height) I see the value of cutting through red tape.

This isn't about red tape, though.

It's about the proper role of government and its need to protect us from the worst among us.

It's a classic case of the need for prudent regulation.

The Democrats should be saying "I told you so," but I have a sneaky suspicion they abandoned their calling and their "liberal" (it ain't a bad word now) principles long ago and went along for the Deregulatory Ride.

FW: FW: FW: 2U2

I hate getting forwarded emails. Loathe them. Especially the chain-letter type.

Oh well. Extreme times demand extreme measures. So, read on.



If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire."
If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."

Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."

If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential "American story."

Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you're "unpatriotic."
Name your kid Track, you're "colorful."

If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you're "reckless."
A Republican who doesn't fully vet is a "maverick."

If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new African Amerian voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.

If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you've got the most executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.

If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with millions of people you are an "arrogant celebrity".
If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are "energizing the base".

If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his own decisions you are "presumptuous".
If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you refuse to explain, you are a "shoot from the hip" maverick.

If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are "an elitist-out of touch" with the real America.
if you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of Anapolis, with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.

If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an "empty suit".
If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an "experienced executive".

If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are "extremist".
If you believe in creationism and don't believe global warming is man made, you are "strongly principled".

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman with whom you've been wed to for 19 years and raising 2 beautiful daughters with, you're "risky".

If you're a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her water breaks to seek medical attention, you're an irresponsible parent, endangering the life of your unborn child.

But if you're a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you're spunky.

If you're a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you "First dog."

If you're a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you "beautiful" and "courageous."

If you kill an endangered species, you're an excellent hunter.

If you have an abortion your not a christian, you're a murderer ( forget about if it happen while being date raped.)

If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.

If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If you're a Republican senator who solicits gay sex in an airport bathroom, you get to return to your job in the Senate and are encouraged to run for re-election.
If you're a Democratic Senator who is out of public office and have an affair, your political career is over and your wife who has terminal cancer is to blame.

And finally:

Quiz question for the RNC, specifically those on the Religious Right.

Who is one of the most revered, and famous community organizers in history?

......
.........
............

JESUS CHRIST

The Albatross of Reengineering Semantics

Michael Hammer, who engineered the term reengineering and popularized it in the 1993 book he coauthored, Reengineering the Corporation, has died at 60.

According to his obit in The New York Times, Hammer regretted how his concepts were exploited as an excuse to fire workers.

"It is astonishing to me the extent to which the term re-engineering has been hijacked, misappropriated and misunderstood," he is quoted to have told Time.

"I'm saddened and offended by the idea that companies exist to enrich their owners. That is the very least of their roles; they are far more worthy, more honorable, and more important than that. "

Amen.

The Albatross of Wealth, contd.

This item from Reuters, posted yesterday.

Hardly surprising.


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The old saying holds true: The rich do get richer.

Even as world financial markets broke down last year, personal wealth around the world grew 5 percent to $109.5 trillion, according to a global wealth report released on Thursday by Boston Consulting Group.

It was the sixth consecutive year of expanding wealth. The fastest growth was among households in developing regions, such as China and the Gulf States and among families who were already rich.

That wealth also is increasingly concentrated among the richest.

The top 1 percent of all households owned 35 percent of the world's wealth last year. Meanwhile, the top 0.001 percent, ultra-rich households holding at least $5 million in assets, commanded $21 trillion -- a fifth of the world's wealth.

The planet also continues to mint new millionaires rapidly. The biggest jumps in 2007 came from emerging countries in Asia and Latin America. Overall, the number of millionaire households grew 11 percent to 10.7 million last year.

BCG notes that, while the rich are still rich, they have been making some adjustments as a result of the financial crisis.

This year, assets are being shifted to more conservative investments, more money is being kept onshore in home markets and some individuals have curtailed new investment.

Yet BCG cautioned the outlook for wealth markets and the banks who serve them, is dimmed by the current financial crisis.

North American personal wealth growth slowed to 3.8 percent last year, compared with 9 percent in 2006, reflecting the the mortgage crisis and the onset of the credit crunch last summer.

"The financial crisis continue to cast a pall over established wealth markets," said Victor Aerni, a Zurich based partner who coauthored the report.

BCG, which advises banks and wealth managers, forecasts personal wealth will continue growing, but at a slower pace. This year, with Wall Street suffering through one of its worst slumps in decades, growth in assets is expected to rise less than 1 percent.

Things will improve over the next five years, BCG said, with personal wealth growing more than 3 percent annually -- well off the 8.5 percent set between 2002 and 2007.

Wealth is growing at much faster rates among the rest of the world. Households in Asia, the Pacific Rim excluding Japan and Latin America saw the greatest growth, with wealth rising 14 percent. That growth was fueled by manufacturing in Asia and commodities in Latin America and the Middle East, as well as more currency and political stability.

BCG observed that banks, brokerages and money managers will have little choice, but to expand their presence in these fast growing centers. Dubai and Singapore, the firm said, are becoming regional private banking centers offering greater competition to traditional havens such as Switzerland.

(Editing by Andre Grenon)

The Albatross of Social Proof

Social proof (think of the so-called bandwagon effect) is a strong influence factor.

That's why Sarah Palin resonates with legions of "hockey mom" types, people struggling to make ends meet, and professional working moms.

It's a strong factor and not to be discounted.

But having such "I can identify" with her feelings does not mean I should vote for her.

According to the same line of reasoning, of course, if I am a person of color and can identify with Barack Obama's candidacy, that's not reason enough to vote for him.

But we know people routinely make all kinds of decisions every day based on social proof.

And we don't even know it!

Now I'm really worried.

That is not meant to mock any candidate's gender or race.

I'm worried on the issues.

We cannot afford four more years of the same: not morally, economically, strategically, internationally, ethically, philosophically, practically.

We need a change.

Top to bottom.

The Albatross of Miscommunication

File this under the topic parallelogrammar, because clear and elegantly balanced writing calls for what is termed parallel construction, wherein you stay consistent with grammatical structures.

So, if you start one part of a sentence with the present tense of a verb, don't shift tenses -- just to cite one pretty freaking vague example.

Well, maybe this is best illustrated by the practice of not observing parallel construction.

On the front page of The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York, on July 24, 2008, we find this sentence:

"Corn was flattened by wind and soybeans shredded by hail in the Cato-Meridian area of Cayuga County."

I did a little extra chewing on my Special K Protein Plus cornflakes when I read that.

The wind and the soybeans shredded by hail conspired to flatten corn? Some soybeans!

This former copyeditor of that journal would have insisted on:

"Corn was flattened by wind and soybeans were shredded by hail . . . "

That's just me.

Also, alarmingly, the same newspaper has taken to using ME in headlines, for Medical Examiner. Poor. Poor. Poor.

The Albatross of Statistics and Vocabulary

You may be shocked to hear this:


According to the latest data from The New York Times, via the Bureau of Economic Analysis, via Haver Analytics, fuel is a smaller part of personal budgets (4.2 percent) than it was in 1980 (6 percent).

Incidentally, speaking of the psychology of recession and depression, which Phil Gramm just got crushed for, can't newsreaders and writers find any alternative than soar or soaring to describe fuel prices?

RFK, Remembered

Speaking of wealth, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. had it but chose not to sit along the Riviera drinking highballs, as Pete Hamill put it today on NRP's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Bobby Kennedy was shot 40 years ago today.

I was a college student. And as I reflect back, I think I experienced violence fatigue, some kind of withdrawal, some kind of escapism.

Months before, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assaasinated; nearly five years before it was JFK.

I didn't follow the RFK funeral much or the eulogies or the media coverage, any of that.

Enough already.

Maybe it was sophomoric escapism or solipsistic narrowness, but looking back I think it was depressing, defeating, a killer of idealism, a dreary enterprise. I couldn't take it.

Somewhere around this time Malcolm Muggeridge wrote in Esquire magazine that Americans had entered into a kind of collective psychosis. We couldn't tell the difference between ketchup or blood, from a TV program's fictional violence and reality. (Forty years later, I remember that essay in Esquire.)

Maybe so.

And we have not been yet lifted from that psychosis.

What is the medication you would prescribe for us?

I pray a dose of Obama does some wonders.

But alas it may be irrational to pin so much hope on one flawed human.

The Albatross of Entitlement

According to the Wall Street Journal of May 28, 2008, here's the price of gas of a gallon of gasoline in May in select countries, and the percentage of increase from a year ago:

U.S. -- $3.72 -- 20%

U.K. -- $8.42 -- 17%

Austria -- $7.66 -- 15%

Ireland -- $7.43 -- 13%

Greece -- $7.01 -- 13%

France -- $8.44 -- 8%

Germany -- $8.38 -- 4%

What can one conclude?

I'll let the numbers speak for themselves.

They say a lot.

A wealth of policy is behind those numbers.

Labor's Love Lost

 just finished reading Joshua Ferris's

Then We Came to the End, 

a fine debut novel -- and hugely entertaining website, linked above.

I albatrossingly doubt many novels have captured the flavor, angst, tragedy, and insane humor of today's office workplace

with humanity too

read it and weep

and laugh

Berlin

Speaking of metaphors of reinvention, to Berlin.

Land there on Saint Patrick's Day, casting out the snakes in me pants.

Will be searching for runes amidst the ruin of ruins rebuilt.

The Mothers of (Re)invention

The grace is this: I am forced to reinvent myself. All those Gaulloise-smoking existentialists merely talk of creating themselves; this is life. Life.

This "joblessnessness" makes me:

• define "work"
• label myself with new tags
• surrender
• accept
• ferret out possibility
• expect surprise
• welcome change
• create opportunity
• insert verbs
• shake hands with gerunds
• dangle participles
• delight in expletives
• pronounce ejaculations
• foment accord in tune with discord
• denounce resentment
• nurture gratitude

Such is The Proletarian Litany of Lost and Found Dreams.

The Albatross of Unemployment

I will view joblessness as a mere pause, a station, a bahnhof, along the way to a more gleaming opportunity, a more fulfilling role, a diverse-destination portfolio of skills delivered but -- this time -- received with more appreciation, as opposed to the view of joblessness that many hold: an albatross of despair and loss and grief; a view I will not ignore, taking the opportunity to feel such anguish but not be vanquished by it, affording myself the chance to practice compassion and understanding, such as understanding Can Man, who wheels his shopping cart around Tipperary Hill, ferreting out discarded bottles and cans for their return value, and who shines with wonder when someone stops, gets out of the car, and surprises him with a crumpled dollar bill proffered in the icy wind.

Albatross Airways

This tops 'em all:

An airline to evacuate just you

and yours beyond the fray:

A community of the few

the proud

the elect.

The Ultimate Albatross.

The Albatross of Solipsism,

transporting you out of the hurricane of commonality.

Commonweal? An archaic word long ago expunged from the flight manual.

The Lap of Luxury

The problem with the looming recession will be that haves will figure they have less to dispense with, and the have-nots will have even less, in the process having more of have-not-ness.

And I comfortably sit typing on a computer keyboard, the biggest hypocrite of all.

I tap away while sitting in the lap of relative luxury (compared to many), but not at a laptop.