Monkeyfister

Come Sunday, I'll need to rip this whole office down, and relocate it to the new, !PERMANENT! Monkeyfister Manor.

The Local DSL people will hook up the new office on Tuesday, the 26th. I'll be working mornings, and moving afternoons through all of next week, and so well... You get the picture-- Posting will be near non-existent during that time. I plan on taking afternoons off during all of next week, so, I might get some posting in in the mornings (at work, as time allows), and LATE at night, only once I get the bedroom, or at least the futon room set up with the cats and the alarm clock.

Please keep the faith in this blog, and trust that I WILL be back with LOTS of neat stuff, tons of good pictures, and plenty of news by the end of next week.

Holy fuck.. I NEVER thought I'd get to post this notice... It seemed FOREVER before I could do it, and it was right in the middle of grooming Mountain Girl, who is lying next to me-- VERY PATIENTLY-- when I realized that BY GUM!, I need to let y'all know!

It's here! It's Happening!

OK.. Time to finish grooming Mountain Girl and for all of us cats to get to bed!




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Labels: American Dreamblogging, Homeownership, My Life As It Is

For all of my good readers near the Great Lakes Region-- particularly in my beloved Michigan... Tickets to this great event, to which I am a regular attendee, are now on sale... $68.00 per adult.

via Wheatland Music Organization

Wheatland Music Festival - Schedule for 2007

Main Stage

FRIDAY

6:00-6:40 Lost Bayou Ramblers

7:00-7:40 Seth & Daisy May

7:55-8:35 Tom Russell

8:55-9:35 Like Water Drum and Dance

9:55-10:35 Uncle Earl

10:55-11:35 GiveWay

SATURDAY

12:00-12:40 GiveWay

12:55-1:35 Uncle Earl

1:50-2:30 Tom Russell

2:50-3:30 Lost Bayou Ramblers

3:50-4:30 Orpheus Supertones

4:50-5:30 Aubrey Ghent

5:30-6:30 Dinner Break

6:30-7:15 'the Gimbles

7:35-8:20 Mountain Heart

8:35-9:20 Eric Bibb

9:40-10:40 Rhythm In Shoes

11:00-11:45 The Duhks

SUNDAY

10:30-11:30 Gospel Sing

11:50-12:30 Aubrey Ghent

12:50-1:30 Mountain Heart

1:50-2:30 'the Gimbles

2:50-3:30 Eric Bibb

3:50-4:50 Rhythm In Shoes

5:10-6:00 The Duhks

if you're in the area, and buy tickets, PLEASE let me know, as I would LOVE to meet you, and introduce you to a load of WONDERFUL people.


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This video always seems to get torn down with days of its being reposted. It's graphic, but, very worthwhile viewing if you want to know at least an inkling of what is going on in Iraq.



From the Google Video talker:

The torture and slaughter of Iraqi civilians is reaching unprecedented heights with estimates of up to 655,000 dead.

Night after night death squads rampage through Iraq's main cities. In Baghdad, up to a hundred bodies a day are dumped on the streets. Often they've been tortured with electric drills. Yet those doing the killing have little to do with al Qaeda or Sunni insurgents. The majority of the killings are carried out by Shia death squads who want to turn Iraq into a Shia state aligned to Iran.

This shocking film investigates the links between the death squads and high-ranking Shia politicians. It reveals how the Shia militia that these politicians control have systematically infiltrated and taken over police units and even entire government ministeries. It investigates how these units are closely linked to the death squads, indeed they often are the death squads. And the killers act with impunity -- there's little investigation into their activities.

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Labels: Iraq, Iraq Civil War

This needs passed as soon as possible.

via Crooks & Liars

The bill would re-open hate crime cases during the Civil Rights Era, focusing on investigating and prosecuting murder cases occurring prior to 1970. Representatives John Lewis (D-GA) and Hulshof (R-MO) sponsored the legislative counterpart in the House. Only Congressman Paul and Westmoreland voted against the bill. It was set to sail through the Senate via unanimous consent. And then, Tom “rampant high school lesbianism” Coburn put a hold on the bill.

Gosh, what would a Conservative White man like Tom Coburn possibly want to keep buried by stopping this Bill's passage?

Oooohhhhh.... perhaps it's:

COINTELPRO: The FBI's War On Black America":



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Whilst I continue packing...



The boxes just keep piling up, tho'!

I get the keys on SUNDAY!!! Damn, I feel like a kid in December... Santa Claus ain't NEVER gonna get here!


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Well. I suppose that there are plenty of very drunk Wall Streeters moaning, "Thank God it's Friday," right now.

via Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended sharply lower on Friday as a pair of troubled Bear Stearns hedge funds stoked concerns that other investment banks may face large losses from subprime mortgages.

Stocks also fell for the week, with the Dow down 1.96 percent, the S&P; down 1.94 percent and the Nasdaq down 1.44 percent based on the latest available data.

I wonder what kind of creativity they'll cook up over the weekend.


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Labels: Global Economy, Real Estate Crash, US Economy, US Recession

That's creative.

Europe and Asia got a bad case of the jitters overnight, and Wall Street opened lower, with no hope of great expectations, today... It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
via Bloomberg

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell on concern hedge- fund losses at Bear Stearns Cos. may signal wider problems in credit markets.

Bear Stearns, the second-biggest U.S. underwriter of mortgage bonds, dropped after people with knowledge of the company's proposal said it plans to take on $3.2 billion of loans to stave off the collapse of a hedge fund. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Moody's Corp. also declined.

The losses at the Bear Stearns fund, which invested in debt containing subprime mortgages, have sparked speculation that banks, pension plans and other investors of similar securities may have to write down the value of their holdings.

``The mortgage funds at Bear Stearns and the subprime situation seem to have come back,'' said Bill Strazzullo, the Boston-based chief market strategist at Bell Curve Trading. ``That seems to be what is weighing on the market.''

---

`Tipping Point'

``The demise of two Bear Stearns managed leveraged mortgage funds could be the tipping point of a broader fallout from subprime mortgage credit deterioration,'' New York-based analysts at Bank of America Corp. including Robert Lacoursiere wrote in a report published today. They added that the situation could lead to higher rates for new mortgage borrowers.

U.S. 10-year Treasury notes today headed for their seventh weekly decline, the longest losing streak in three years. Yields, which influence interest rates on mortgages and corporate loans, rose two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 5.20 percent today.

Developing.


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Labels: Real Estate Crash, US Economy, Wall Street Fairy

What The Hell?

via Committee On Oversight And Government Reform

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President's office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.

Yo, Dick, you cretinous piece of shit-- you can't have it both ways. You've invoked "Executive Privilege," too many times to suddenly decide that you are not a part of the Executive Branch. If you don't want to be a part of the Executive Branch, then it is time for you to hand over the Energy Taskforce Papers, and the Iraq War Planning Papers, and the Plame Papers.

Sorry, Crashcart-- you lose.

However, in a bit of developing news, as I type this, Rachel Maddow is reporting that Crashcart called the National Archives today, and ordered them to close the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO). What a sad and sorry piece of criminal human waste.

The Newshoggers Have Much, Much More



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Labels: Dick "dick" Cheney

Folks, the Wall Street Ship may have just hit the iceberg... For best understanding of the subject matter of this post, I recommend that you read the article in the post below, first.

via Reuters

By Walden Siew and Al Yoon

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Even as Bear Stearns held out hope of keeping two hedge funds from collapsing, worries over their forced liquidation are reverberating through U.S. financial markets, raising concern about broader contagion.

So far the risks seem contained, but the fallout may be felt everywhere from leveraged buyouts, investment bank earnings and sales of collateralized debt obligations. Those securities have pushed sales of corporate and housing-related debt to record highs in the past year.

Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday sold only $100 million of $850 million of highly rated collateral assets it auctioned after seizing them back from the Bear Stearns funds, said a person familiar with the auction.

Three other banks -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) -- have closed out their positions with the funds.

High-grade CDOs trade infrequently because of their perceived safety relative to lower-rated securities that provide higher yield for investors. It might be difficult to sell such a large quantity, dealers and investors said. The concern is that a generalized markdown of CDO positions could be inevitable and spark a greater wave of selling.

"The problem is that marking down the assets to where the market will bid them may in fact be the right thing to do, but no one wants to take the loss," said Jason Brady, who helps manage $4 billion in bonds at Thornburg Investment Management in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Details about Merrill's auction and efforts by Bear Stearns to offer $2 billion of CDOs were not immediately clear as possible buyers determine how to value the complex CDOs.

A WHOLE LOT of very serious activity is going to go on over night. Asia and Europe will play a very decisive role in what happens to the future of the Mortgage and Credit bubbles while we sleep.

Eyes are Particularly On Europe

By Natalie Harrison

LONDON (Reuters) - A spike in European credit spreads may be the start of a deep and long-lasting correction, or just another blip as fears about the U.S. subprime market and higher rates unnerve investors.

U.S. sub-prime mortgage sector woes have resurfaced after several Wall street banks unwound positions in two Bear Stearns (BSC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) hedge funds that were heavily invested in the riskiest U.S. home loans.

That has added to recent worries about rising interest rates, after the yield on 10-year benchmark U.S. Treasuries shot up to five-year highs around 5.30 percent earlier this month.

Some strategists, however, said the subprime issue was one that for now should not significantly impact European credit markets.

"Clearly what's happened overnight is that unwinds can make a difference to credit. But at the margin I am surprised that Europe has reacted as negatively as it has," said Jim Reid, credit strategist at Deutsche Bank in London.

I have tomorrow off, so I'll be tracking all of this with some focus for you. The spokes-persons all seem to be pretty optimistic, but, a lot can happen in twelve hours.


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Labels: Real Estate Crash, Real Estate Industry, US Economy, US Recession

It's apparently happing right now... Keep your eye on Bear Stearns, tomorrow. I'll cover that in the next post, but, it is explained a bit in the link in this one. Folks, this is some very troubling stuff... Smith warns us that the Mortgage crisis is just a sideshow-- the Main Event is the global Credit Crisis.

via Charles Hugh Smith

This Week's Theme: Context

When 2008 rolls around and the U.S. economy is sinking with frightening momentum into a bottomless quagmire, you'll be glad you read this entry. Why? Because you anticipated every step of the implosion and warned your friends who were still floating complacently down that river in Egypt (de-nial).

In keeping with our theme of context, let's begin by noting that the proper context for the housing bubble is the all-encompassing global credit bubble which has inflated every asset class. With this fundamental firmly in mind, let's follow Deep Throat's advice from the classic film All the President's Men and "Follow the money."

Let's first dispense with "the real estate market". Yes, supply and demand and housing starts and zillow.com and neighborhood sales and all the other market stuff play a part in the coming implosion, but all that noise is more a sideshow than the Main Event. Why? Follow the money. The main event is the credit market, because if you can't borrow money, or can only borrow it at a premium and under tight conditions, then how many houses are for sale in your neighborhood or the median price paid, etc. shrink to near-meaningless. Real estate sales and valuations depend solely on credit. Everything else is secondary.

Next, let's dispense with the notion that the implosion of housing-based lending can be "quarantined" and won't affect the economy. The reason is that mortgage-backed securities, and the CDOs and other derivatives which have been piled in untold trillions onto them, are one leg of an increasingly wobbly three-leg stool. The second leg is so-called "junk bonds" and other commercial paper (which has ballooned to astounding levels--see chart), and the third is government bonds in all their flavors. Once the MBS leg snaps, the entire debt stool collapses.

Third, let's note the critical role real estate ownership, sales and high valuations play in funding local and state governments. Government at all levels is about 25% of the U.S. economy, though in many locales it's more like a third. As mortgage rates rise and credit tightens, real estate sales fall, cutting transfer taxes; as prices fall, homeowners demand lower assessment values, further reducing tax revenues.

This is absolutely required reading, for today. This article puts the whole mortgage meltdown, and all its nasty tentacles into very clear and simple terms. I've really been waiting for an article like this one to come along, and thanks to Bear Stearns suddenly running into extremely dire trouble, we're able to take a good look at why this Real Estate Bubble popping holds such dire meaning.


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Labels: Real Estate Crash, Real Estate Industry, US Economy, US Recession

First day of Summer.











Picture From Here

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Yeah, I knew Digby and Atrios before they had blogs, and before anyone knew who they were... And then...

All of a sudden, into the blogosphere burst a whole set of monied elitists-- the new-coming/well-funded and well-connected set like FDS... sorry, FDL who INSTANTLY became all buddy, buddy SOLELY with Digby and Atrios, Glenn Greenwald and Matt Yglasias. Ahhh, FDL, I can't see past your thick smarm, fat money-roll, and opportunism. Yes, you've done great work, but, if I were a Trust Baby Movie Producer or Lawyer type without worry of such silliness as debt, I could do whatever I wanted to do as well... Buying your way onto the Blogosphere means little to me.

As to the past-- before you realized there was fame and money in blogging... We all at the Bartcop Forum discussed shit like this in detail-- every day... thus setting the standard you now follow... you've a lot to be thankful for, FDL, et. al...

via Bartcop Forum

DIGBY:
Maybe we can just have a referendum on the I/P situation and cancel elections altogether.

Seriously, this Sharon Florida gambit is ignoring one crucial thing. The Jewish population in Florida is largely made up of elderly retired jews from the northeast. Half of these people were commies, for gawd's sake. They don't vote Republican and THEY NEVER WILL. They aren't stupid and they know very well that this new found love of Jews by the GOP is complete bullshit. They've been used before.

That the Jewish community has been amongst the most reliably liberal in American history should not be news to any Democrat. That a small group of objectively pro-facist neo-cons, many of whom are Jewish, also exists should also not be news to anyone. That they are completely different animals is patently obvious.

The larger group consists of reliably liberal Jews who have been one of the backbones of progressivism and the other consists of a cabal of disaffected liberals who have taken the Israeli cause to such absurd lengths that they morphed into right wing crazy people over the last 30 years. This last group is better identified as simple GOP assholes than as representatives of American Jews. They are the ones who are pushing this apocalyptic US/PanArab war that is leading President Gilligan down the garden path. They don't represent the average American Jew any better than they represent the average Iraeli, but they are becoming conflated in the minds of many on the left. This is a mistake.

It seems to me that one thing that is emerging in American politics, relative to the I/P situation, is that the GOP is successfully using it to divide the Democrats, particularly African Americans and liberal Jews, amongst whom there has always been tension on the fringes (i.e. Farrakhan) The neo-cons have been obsessively pro-Israel forever but they were also way out of the mainstream of Jewish American politics. Now, they are in power and are using the Mighty Wurlitzer to portray themselves as mainstream Jews when they are not. Overnight, it seems, a completely liberal community has become a bunch of right wing zealots. This, of course, is bullshit.

But, like everything the GOP propaganda machine sets out to do these days, it seems to be working. I doubt that they expect that the Miami Jews are really going to be so impressed by Ariel Sharon that they will forget that their votes were thrown out 2 years ago. This is not a group of people likely to forget such a thing. But, they certainly hope to highlight tension between the Jewish and black communities over the I/P situation, as with Cynthia McKinney, and they hope to portray Jews generally as zealous haters of Palestinians so as to provide fodder for the internecine fighting as we have seen even on this board.

True, if the Neo-cons had their way, American Jews would also be persuaded that they belong with the GOP, "protectors of Israel and Jewish people everywhere." This won't work with people who think of the Jewish community in terms larger than the Intifada. But, there are a lot of young people growing up without realizing that they are being manipulated by a public relations apparatus that is beginning to rival Germany's, circa 1936. As such they may be amenable to certain ideas that play into the hands of Rovist GOP operatives. If warblogging is any guide, I'm afraid that too much testosterone combined with FoxNews makes for a deadly cocktail of irrational martial exuberance.

In any case it really behooves us to resist simplifying this situation. There is much going on beneath the surface, some of it is even sub-conscious. It is incumbent upon Democrats to keep ouselves grounded in reality, open minded and flexible, but defiantly resistant to being manipulated by the right wing. They are very, very good at what they do and it's not easy.

I'm hearing echoes of certain themes from the past these days that scare the hell out of me. Ancient hatreds never die, it seems. But, liberal Democrats have always transcended that kind of thinking because we are able to see the complexity of politics, look beneath the surface and understand that the broad brush never really captures reality, only an impression. We look to reason as our guide. We are fools if we let them divide and conquer.


---------------------------------
Mesg #56276 "Damn well said digby. Let us reason together, as LBJ said"
Author secondharmonic

Hear hear!

Mesg #56277 "hey Digby!"
Author Atrios
Author Info Member since Apr 20th 2002
1759 posts
Date Wed Aug-21-02 02:46 PM
Message

In response to Reply #20

Would you start a website or a blog or something!

And thus TWO empires were born...


I do my best to follow in such footsteps. Bartcop... Digby/Atrios... The rest of us Bartcoppers...

We bartcoppers all do our best to follow the best of our fellow's examples in our blogging endeavors. Whether it's at Blah3.com, WTF Is It Now, Today in Iraq, Avedon's Side Show, here, or elsewhere... We do our best to dig as deep as we can and bring you stuff that you've not heard or read in the mainstream, so that you can make a real judgment about what is happening to you, in the real world.

Digby is one of the finest examples of Bartcopper Researchers that I can recommend. It's great to finally be able to use her pronoun... It's been really tough trying to work around her HER and SHE. Congrats, Digby, for your BIG AWARD-- You've made a LOT of us VERY PROUD!!!!

Here Is Another Great Thread Of Digby/Atrios/Samela and ... Guest-Mode MF Suggesting A New Thread...

Search Your Own Old Atrios/Digby Discussion threads



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Labels: Atrios, Bartcop Forum, Digby

As you all know, I spend a lot of my time researching topics related to Peak Oil/Peak Energy, Macroeconomics (tho', I'm the first to tell you that I am no expert), and especially, Sustainability. Often, I have, in the course of my readings, come across reference to a a concept called the “Steady State Economy” plan. Richard Heinberg has referenced it, Global Public Media has a good audio piece about it, and a host of websites and organizations have sprouted up in support of it.

The concept, as far as I can ascertain, was introduced by a fellow named Herman Daly. At the link, you can read his basic introduction of the idea. Others have built upon Daly's basics, and developed the idea into a “workable plan,” which is now beginning to gain some traction. One of the organizations espousing Daly's idea is the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy. Here is what they say on their Home Page:

Slowly but surely, economic growth has become a primary threat to our national security, the environment, and future generations. For some visitors, this might seem heretical, but visit our Resources page and expect a paradigm shift. Economic growth was a blessing for much of American history, but now it is causing more problems - dire problems - than it solves. Yet economic growth remains the highest priority in the domestic policy arena! Our students and citizens are continually told that there is no limit to economic growth, in defiance of ecological principles and basic physics.

Why is Economic Growth a Threat?

Economic growth is an increase in the production and consumption of goods and services. It entails increasing population, per capita consumption, or both. Economic growth leaves a larger ecological fooprint, causing civil strife and bringing nations into conflict.

Can technological progress alleviate the threat of economic growth? Technological progress requires research and development,a major expenditure that entails economic growth at current levels of technology. In theory, technological progress could reduce the ecological footprint, but not when it is simply used for more economic growth.

Laws of physics, principles of ecology, and our own common sense tell us that nothing grows forever. Economic sustainability, national security, and international stability require the establishment of a steady state economy with stabilized population and per capita consumption. In a steady state economy, society focuses on goals more noble than economic growth.

Well, I found that informative, in a limited way, so I started poking around the internets, looking for some more information-- perhaps a better, broader explanation. And I found it at a site devoted to Negative Population Growth. A few bells rang in my head, but, I'm curious, and felt it important to understand what this concept is really all about. Negative population growth-- mandated negative population growth, involving “reproduction licenses,” is only a small part of the bigger picture. Yes. That idea rubs me rather wrong, and it IS at the center of the plan. I see that as unsaleable to nearly everyone (try telling a Catholic couple, or a “Right to Life” couple that they can only have 2.1 children or less... Good Luck.) , but, I don't want to dwell on it-- you can read plenty about all of it in the links that I'll be supplying here. The Big Picture revolves around the idea of NO GROWTH in ANY level of the economy-- from your company, to the Global Economy. There is some really good rational behind it-- Sustainability at the heart of it-- and the basic gist is wonderfully noble, but, when it comes to really selling the idea, heck, even putting it into practice, it is going to run into some very serious problems and setbacks.

As a single guy, pretty-much condemned to singledom, I could care less about the 2.1 children limit (even as a Catholic in recovery), but there are other factors that give me a little indigestion in regard to this otherwise noble concept. I see the only way for this idea to actually work as a salable product, is for there to be a Global Depression so huge, that it deeply effects even the MOST Wealthy in our societies. But, perhaps I am getting way ahead of myself, and not letting the Concept speak for itself.

The article from NPG, contains a wonderful lot of very good ideas based on Daly's outline. As far as I have been able to find, Daly hasn't disputed them, so I am only able to determine that he agrees. In the following blockquotes, I'll try and provide the very basics of what a Steady State Economy might be. Later, perhaps in another post, as this on is already getting quite long, I'll discuss why I don't think the world as it is, is willing to adopt the idea-- mainly-- the mainstream doesn't think that we NEED it-- read “are forced to it” yet... OK, here we go with a series of quotes from The Steady-State Economy:
What It Is, Why We Need It-- by John Attarian

The Basics First:

I. Our Growth Economy is Unsustainable

Evidence is accumulating that resources are finite, that we are degrading the environment which supports us, and that our demands on it are too great to maintain for much longer.

The quantity of accessible fresh water is no greater than it was when human life began, and our demands on it are rising relentlessly. With over 1.3 billion people and a hectically growing economy, China has a worsening water crisis. The shallow aquifer under the North China Plain, where about a third of China's corn and over half its wheat are grown, is depleted. China is tapping the plain's deep aquifer of irreplaceable prehistoric water. Of China's 668 cities, 400 have water shortages. Annual per capita water supply is about 2,200 cubic meters, one-fourth the world average. By 2030, when China's population is projected to reach 1.6 billion, it will be 1,700 cubic meters, an "alarm level" by world standards.1

Other countries, including Pakistan, the United States, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Iran are also draining their aquifers faster than they are recharging. Mexico City has subsided thirty feet in the past century, and in places sinks a foot a year, from aquifer depletion. American rivers such as the Colorado are being drained dry.2

Humanity is similarly dependent upon, and rapidly depleting, the world's oil. In 1949 geophysicist M. King Hubbert reasoned that since fossil fuels were created in geologic time and their supply is therefore fixed and finite, annual extraction of a fossil fuel must start at zero, rise exponentially at first, pass through one or more maxima, and then decline to zero. He predicted in 1956 that oil extraction in America's lower 48 states would peak in 1970. It did.3

---

Natural gas is vital for generating electric power and producing nitrogen fertilizer. American gas extraction peaked in 1973. Our gas wells are depleting rapidly, as much as 50 percent (in some cases 83 percent) in the first year of production. We are drilling thousands of wells to compensate; yet output relentlessly falls. Imports, almost all from Canada, accounted for 4.4 percent of American gas consumption in 1981, and 16.2 percent in 2002. Our imports took 56 percent of Canada's extraction in 2002. Unfortunately, Canada's gas is depleting too. North America will soon be unable to supply its own gas needs. Imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be the only other source. Our capacity to import LNG is small.6

Many fish stocks have collapsed from overfishing. The United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization reported that as of 2000, roughly 47 percent of the main marine fish stocks or species groups were "fully exploited," i.e., yielding catches at or near their sustainable limits. Another 18 percent are "overexploited": fish are being caught faster than they can reproduce, so the stocks are likely to decline and yield diminishing catches. Finally, 10 percent are either substantially depleted or recovering from depletion. In short, 75 percent of oceanic fish stocks are either at maximum sustainable yield, or have been fished into actual or incipient collapse.7

The appearance of oceanic "dead zones"--areas of coastal water that are too oxygen-poor to support marine life--proves that we are dumping more nitrogen into the ecosystem than it can absorb. Entering these waters from fertilizers borne by runoff, from combustion of fossil fuels, and from human wastes, the nitrogen promotes algae blooms, which sink and decompose, using up the water's oxygen. Dead zones have been multiplying since the 1960s, and have doubled since 1990. As of 2000, there were 146 zones, clustered along coasts housing large human populations or river mouths carrying large amounts of nitrogen into the ocean.8

We are overloading the ecosystem with carbon dioxide, too. Before the Industrial Revolution, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 was 280 parts per million. As of 2002, it was 372.3 ppm, or 33 percent higher. The rising concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is raising Earth's surface temperature, causing ice melt in the Himalayas, the North Pole, Antarctica, and elsewhere.9

This overburdening of the environment means economic growth cannot continue for long, and that maintaining current living standards long-term, let alone universalizing affluence, is impossible.

---

II. Essentials of Ecological Economics
Whereas mainstream economics either ignores the economy's relation to the environment or assumes that the environment is a subset of the economy, i.e., the extractive industry (mining, energy, etc.), Daly maintains that the economy is a subset of the ecosystem, which is finite, nongrowing, and materially closed--no matter enters or leaves it. The ecosystem is a source of the economy's resources, and a sink for its wastes. Energy and matter enter the economy as inputs, are transformed into goods and services, and leave as wastes, this flow of energy and matter being known as "throughput."10

---

Daly draws on Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971), which explained the economic significance of the second law of thermodynamics (entropy law): in an energetically closed system (no energy enters or leaves), the availability of useful energy always declines. The economic process transforms matter-energy from a state of low entropy to a state of high entropy. The entropy law implies that matter can be recycled only partially, and that energy cannot be recycled at all and can be used only once. It also implies that creating order through producing manmade capital entails creating greater disorder elsewhere in the environment--too much of which will make the environment unable to support human life. The entropy law thus severely limits what we can do, and implies limits to growth.11

---

Mainstream economics treats factors of production as substitutes. That is, if we have less of one factor (labor, say), we can add more of another (machinery) and still produce the same output. Daly argues that natural capital (resources) and man-made capital (machines, tools, buildings, etc.) are complements, not substitutes: they must be used together in essentially fixed proportions, so that adding more of one cannot compensate for having less of the other. We cannot offset a dwindling supply of natural capital by adding more manmade capital (which itself is produced from natural capital!). Indeed, having less of a complementary input means the output must be smaller. For example, if the supply of lumber declines, we cannot just add more hammers and still build a house; without enough lumber, the house cannot get built. A crucial implication of input complementarity is that since the quantity of output is proportional to the quantities of inputs, the input which is in shortest supply is the limiting factor--i.e., the factor which determines how much output can be made.14 If we have enough hammers and saws to build three houses, but enough lumber for two, then only two houses can get built, making lumber the limiting factor. The common sense and realism of all this is obvious.

When the world was "empty" (the economy was small relative to the ecosystem), man-made capital was the limiting factor. Thus, when trees were abundant, the supply of axes, saws, and sawmills determined how much lumber could be produced at a given time; when cod were plentiful off the coasts of New England and Canada, the number and capacity of fishing boats determined the catch size. Now, however, Daly argues, the factors' roles have reversed: the economy has become very large relative to the ecosystem, making natural capital the limiting factor. With large, technologically advanced fleets fishing from depleted stocks, for example, the number of fish in the sea determines how many fish can be taken.15 (True; see Part I above.)

An important concept in ecological economics is optimal scale, which is closely related to limits to growth. Just as individual firms have an optimal scale, so does the economy. Economics teaches that the firm's optimal scale of operations is that at which marginal revenue equals marginal cost--the addition to the firm's revenue from the last unit of output produced and sold equals the addition to cost. If the firm operates at a larger than optimal scale, marginal cost will exceed marginal revenue, making profit smaller. Analogously, the economy's optimal scale is the output level at which the marginal gain from growth (additional utility from increasing the manmade capital stock) equals the marginal cost of growth (lost services from natural capital, pollution, resource depletion, environmental degradation, and so on). Beyond this point, growth generates more costs than benefits. 16

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III. The Steady-State Economy
Daly advocated an economy which, unlike the growth economy, is sustainable--i.e., can continue for an indefinitely long period (though not forever)--in a finite world. Specifically, a steady-state economy (SSE), in which the stock of manmade capital and the population are fixed, and the throughput supporting them is minimized.

Since natural capital is now the scarce input, we should maximize its productivity: get as much utility from it as possible while minimizing its use. Economic growth (quantitative enlargement) is forsaken in favor of development (qualitative improvement).18

Stabilizing population below carrying capacity is crucial. Population should be stabilized, moreover, at a level which allows enough per capita wealth for a good life. Daly's working notion of a good life is Malthus's standard that it would enable one to have a glass of wine and piece of meat at dinner. Adecent standard of living, he maintains, would "rule out populations at or above today's level. What really must be stabilized is total consumption, which of course is population times per capita consumption. Both of the latter factors must be reduced."19

A sustainable economy requires that throughput should be "within the regenerative and absorptive capacities of the ecosystem." Renewable resources should not be taken faster than the ecosystem can replace them. Nonrenewable resources should be taken no faster than renewable substitutes can be developed. Waste and pollution quantities should not exceed a sustainable level of absorption.2

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Our first task, Daly persuasively argues, is to stop growth. Only after we have stabilized the economy at or near its present size should we determine, and move to, an optimum scale. For one thing, since our survival depends on stopping growth, it is imperative that we do so as soon as possible. Besides, settling such issues as the optimal levels of population and per capita resource use will be difficult, as it will entail searching public debate over such fundamental questions as the present generation's obligations to posterity and reproductive freedom. Achieving consensus on them will be time-consuming. Meanwhile the economy would still be growing and further damaging the ecosystem. Also, making the economy smaller can't be done without halting growth first. Lastly, before optimizing, it would be useful to gain experience and know-how in setting up and running an SSE.22

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(1) Maximum and minimum limits on personal income, and a ceiling on personal wealth. If growing inequality in income and wealth is not reversed, Daly argues, private property and markets will become morally dubious. This will make extending the market to include birth licenses and depletion quotas politically difficult. Moreover, curbing these inequalities would make for more modest, and environmentally supportable, consumption. Daly is committed to social justice as well as sustainability, and income and wealth limits obviously serve that goal.24

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(2) Transferable birth licenses. Obviously, population growth is a major force driving resource depletion and waste generation. Stabilizing population is therefore crucial. Daly's suggestion, first propounded by economist Kenneth Boulding in 1964, is to issue each person, or perhaps each woman, a quantity of reproduction licenses equal to the replacement fertility rate of 2.1 births per woman. Each woman would get 2.1 licenses, which she could buy or sell depending on how many children she wants to have.25

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(3) Depletion quotas for resources. The best way to control throughput, Daly argues, is to control the rate at which resources, especially nonrenewables such as fossil fuels, are depleted. Limiting the quantity of resources that enters the economy necessarily also limits how much waste and pollution leaves it. Moreover, since the stock of manmade capital is made from resources, and since the human population depends on resources, controlling the rate of depletion necessarily controls how big the population and capital stock can get.27

These are all just small snippets from the much bigger article, which I highly recommend that you read. There IS something of an imperative in the concept of a Steady State Economy. What we've got right now simply cannot last much longer without radical change, but, it seems very obvious that that change will not come without a radical change thrust upon us.

The options outlined in this article are certainly obvious, and certainly necessary, but, really... TRY selling this plan to ANY populace ANYWHERE in the world. The “Babies Everywhere!” crowd will oppose it for its reproductive controls, the Landrapers will oppose it for its limits on landrape, the manufacturers will oppose it for its limits on producing worthless, irreparable plastic crap, the Wealthy will oppose it, because of the need for wealth redistribution, Republicans will hate it because we'll be forced to negotiate resource allocations annually with the rest of the World at the UN, or some other body... The list goes on and on-- not to mention the horrific nature of the mechanics of making it work, overseeing and maintaining it. But, I'm forced to ask myself-- “Where else?” What other set of policies do we have to turn to in order to grant future generations a future worth living?

I know that I can count my commenters without having to take off my socks, but, I would really love to have a big discussion about what is good about this idea, what is bad in it, and what might be added to be able to sell it not only to America, but the rest of the World. I know that it is a lot of reading-- this is what I was doing over the past few days of leaving “SiCKO” up at the top of the blog.

I'm laying this out in Open Office, and the pagination counter says that it is a seven-page paper... I need to call this to a close, but, really folks-- this is some really serious shit. We can't just continue as we are-- our Grandkids won't have the resources needed to raise THEIR families. We have GOT to enact something. What should it be, and how do we sell it to our peers, to Capitol Hill, to The Stupids, to the Rest of the World?

What do we do?

I'm going to put the "rest" of this post down in Comments. Mainly, this will be my reasons why I don't really think this idea, as it is outlined, and being sold, will work-- beyond what I've already stated here... Please join me there, I'd really appreciate the collective thought process on this.


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Labels: Global Economy, Global Resources, Limits To Growth, No-Growth Economy, Peak Energy, Peak Oil, Steady State Economy, Sustainability, US Economy

Because some folks have been less than kind to me...



I know at least five people who, because of serious illness/injury cannot leave their house(s), but, have DSL, and so can get access to entertainment and information. I know countless folks who can't necessarily afford (for a host of various reasons) to enjoy a night out at the cinema. I also know many people who happen to live in areas where Michael Moore's movies are banned, and won't be able to see the film in a cinema, any way. I'll also make it perfectly clear that *I* wasn't the one who put the file on Bitorrent. Frankly, I suspect that it was Moore, himself.

I like Mike, and I think that I understand him pretty well. I worked with him for several months while helping to launch the East Lansing Film Festival on the campus of Michigan State University. If I ever felt that I was breaking the knees of his financial well-being by posting "SiCKO," I'd have never posted the video in the first place. If this blog got 50,000 hits per day, or week or even month, instead of 50,000 hits per year, I'd have not posted it. As it stands, the 220 or so people-- nationwide-- that saw the movie file that I posted, are now talking it up at their workplaces and in their neighborhoods. A sneak-preview at Groman's couldn't generate that kind of broad-based nationwide promotion. Moore wins.

I intend to buy the DVD of "SiCKO" the minute that Mike offers it for sale through his site, so that he gets the lion's share of the revenue. He'll get MORE money from me that way, then if I went to the Malco, and spent the $9.00 there on opening night.

And further-- I don't, haven't, and never will take money for ads on this blog. I've got a good job, and several other lines of revenue generation. The ONE "ad," for the Mountain Rose Herbs Company, I put up there all on my own, ONLY because I believe in the quality of their products. Making money is not why I blog... I think that I've used the phrase "AllWays Free" here on several occasions (I just noticed that I have it as a Post Lable, as a matter of fact). Money is meaningless to me in this blogging arena. I'm about sharing great information, ideas, and practices, while promoting a simpler, less commercialized, and more sustainable way of life. Period.

For those of you who cannot afford a Doctor for less-serious needs, I recommend This Free Book, and this one Specifically For Women...

and for Dental Needs: This Free Book

All three downloadable books are courtesy of Hesperian Foundation Publishing, found under "Some really Nice Things" in my Sidebar. You will find a whole menu of similar books there. I hope they serve you well.

Now, watch this drive...



"Notcool," you are a TOTAL wanker.


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Labels: AllWays Free, Michael Moore, My Life As It Is, Why I Blog

It looks like the chocks holding back the Long Slide have been kicked away...

via Bloomberg

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- The worst is yet to come for the U.S. housing market.

The jump in 30-year mortgage rates by more than a half a percentage point to 6.74 percent in the past five weeks is putting a crimp on borrowers with the best credit just as a crackdown in subprime lending standards limits the pool of qualified buyers. The national median home price is poised for its first annual decline since the Great Depression, and the supply of unsold homes is at a record 4.2 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.

``It's a blood bath,'' said Mark Kiesel, executive vice president of Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., the manager of $668 billion in bond funds. ``We're talking about a two- to three-year downturn that will take a whole host of characters with it, from job creation to consumer confidence. Eventually it will take the stock market and corporate profit.''

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders fell in June to the lowest since February 1991, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index released this week. Housing starts declined in May for the first time in four months, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. New-home sales will decline 33 percent from 2005's peak to the end of this year, according to the Realtors' group, exceeding the 25 percent three-year drop in 1991 that helped spark a recession.

`Economic Recession'

``It's not just a housing recession anymore, it looks more and more like an economic recession,'' said Nouriel Roubini, a Clinton administration Treasury Department director and economic adviser who now runs Roubini Global Economics in New York.

It doesn't sound like good news at all.


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Well. It's now gone, and it seems that it won't be back up. I hope as many people that needed to see it got to. See Michael Moore's Website for more information.

Back to posting again.


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The issues discussed in this episode of Peak Moment, had me reeling for quite some time. A period that I finally managed to cope with only about a year ago.

Richard Katz and Dennis Brumm burst the technofix dream-bubble by naming the hard stuff: the lack of sufficient alternatives to oil and gas at the enormous scale needed. Overpopulation exceeding the planet's carrying capacity. Potential collapse. But wait! they close with ideas for positive individual responses.

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Labels: Peak Energy, Peak Moment TV, Peak Oil

Alice Malloy's Theremin Bra...




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I think it might be a good idea for BushCo. to listen to him. But, who am I kidding?

via Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States runs the risk of creating new militias in Iraq if it arms Sunni Arab tribesmen indiscriminately to battle al Qaeda, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine(article here), Maliki gave the first indication his government disagrees with the U.S. military policy of arming and equipping Sunni Arab tribes to fight al Qaeda militants under a model first used in Anbar province.

"We want to arm some tribes that want to side with us but on condition that we should be well aware of the tribe's background and sure that it is not connected with terror," Maliki said.

"Some (U.S.) field commanders make mistakes since they do not know the facts about people they deal with. I believe the Coalition forces do not know the background of the tribes," he told Newsweek on Friday.

You mean to say that BushCo is running this show without a clue? Get on with yourself!


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Labels: Idiot US War Planning, Iraq, Iraq War

So, you're a crazy, Right-Wing Nutjob ex-Navy SEAL from Moonie-lovin' West Michigan-- What do you do? Start a crazy, Right-Wing Nutjob ex-Navy SEAL Security Company, and make bazillions from the Cheney malAdministration's Conservative Welfare program, while gutting the integrity of the legitimate US Military. This movie lays it all out about the hideous mercenaries, and their filthy work.



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You taught me well, and though we have our differences, I'll always love you.



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As well it should. I'm quite impressed with the broad-based push to make the Farm Bill a more HUMAN and less Corporatist Policy.

via Memphis Commercial Appeal

This year's Farm Bill is shaping up to be anything but business as usual as the six Agriculture subcommittees cobble together the commodity support, nutrition and Food Stamps, conservation, rural development, research, food safety, forestry and energy policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the next five years.

That's because an unusual coalition of environmentalists, budget deficit hawks, taxpayer watchdog groups, religious organizations, anti-poverty groups, people concerned with the plight of Third World farmers and smaller American farmers eager to broaden the impact of the $80 billion or more annually delivered through agriculture programs may get a seat at the table.

They will, but only after the official committee bill reaches the House floor and can be amended, a process chairman Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., dreads and has called "a recipe for chaos."

Rev. LaSimba M. Gray of New Sardis Baptist Church in East Memphis was on Capitol Hill last week lobbying Tennessee Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker for the group Bread for the World, which wants a Farm Bill that's aimed at strengthening rural communities, helping small farmers and ending hunger both here and abroad, not at enriching corporate farming's bottom line.

"We're appealing to them to ... make farming once again not only profitable but also a source of pride for American farmers," Gray said Friday.

America really needs to get this particular Farm Bill right.


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Labels: Farm Bill

Never ask, "Could It get any worse?" Never.

via AlJazeera

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel sent troops into northern Gaza on Sunday and cut off petrol supplies to the territory as it moved to isolate the Islamic militants of Hamas who are now in full control.

And this just in...
via Reuters

By Benny Dagan

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel (Reuters) - Two Katyusha rockets hit the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the border with Lebanon on Sunday, the Israeli army and police said.

It was the first such attack since last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

There were no casualties.

A Hezbollah spokesman denied any link to the attack. A security source in Lebanon said Palestinian fighters were suspected of firing at least three rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel, an area bombarded by thousands of Hezbollah Katyushas last July and August.

Insanity reigns.


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Labels: Hamas, Hezbollah, Israel, Palestine

I meant to post this up last night. Once again, Sy Hersch gets the BIG STORY, and delivers it. Thank you, Mr. Hersch.

via The New Yorker

On January 20th, the chief of staff at Central Command sent another e-mail to Admiral Keating, copied to General Craddock and Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the Army commander in Iraq. The chief of staff wrote, “Sir: update on alleged detainee abuse per our discussion. DID IT REALLY HAPPEN? Yes, currently have 4 confessions implicating perhaps 10 soldiers. DO PHOTOS EXIST? Yes. A CD with approx 100 photos and a video—CID has these in their possession.”

In subsequent testimony, General Myers, the J.C.S. chairman, acknowledged, without mentioning the e-mails, that in January information about the photographs had been given “to me and the Secretary up through the chain of command. . . . And the general nature of the photos, about nudity, some mock sexual acts and other abuse, was described.”

Nevertheless, Rumsfeld, in his appearances before the Senate and the House Armed Services Committees on May 7th, claimed to have had no idea of the extensive abuse. “It breaks our hearts that in fact someone didn’t say, ‘Wait, look, this is terrible. We need to do something,’ ” Rumsfeld told the congressmen. “I wish we had known more, sooner, and been able to tell you more sooner, but we didn’t.”

Rumsfeld told the legislators that, when stories about the Taguba report appeared, “it was not yet in the Pentagon, to my knowledge.” As for the photographs, Rumsfeld told the senators, “I say no one in the Pentagon had seen them”; at the House hearing, he said, “I didn’t see them until last night at 7:30.” Asked specifically when he had been made aware of the photographs, Rumsfeld said:

There were rumors of photographs in a criminal prosecution chain back sometime after January 13th . . . I don’t remember precisely when, but sometime in that period of January, February, March. . . . The legal part of it was proceeding along fine. What wasn’t proceeding along fine is the fact that the President didn’t know, and you didn’t know, and I didn’t know.

“And, as a result, somebody just sent a secret report to the press, and there they are,” Rumsfeld said.

Taguba, watching the hearings, was appalled. He believed that Rumsfeld’s testimony was simply not true. “The photographs were available to him—if he wanted to see them,” Taguba said. Rumsfeld’s lack of knowledge was hard to credit. Taguba later wondered if perhaps Cambone had the photographs and kept them from Rumsfeld because he was reluctant to give his notoriously difficult boss bad news. But Taguba also recalled thinking, “Rumsfeld is very perceptive and has a mind like a steel trap. There’s no way he’s suffering from C.R.S.—Can’t Remember Shit. He’s trying to acquit himself, and a lot of people are lying to protect themselves.” It distressed Taguba that Rumsfeld was accompanied in his Senate and House appearances by senior military officers who concurred with his denials.

“The whole idea that Rumsfeld projects—‘We’re here to protect the nation from terrorism’—is an oxymoron,” Taguba said. “He and his aides have abused their offices and have no idea of the values and high standards that are expected of them. And they’ve dragged a lot of officers with them.”

This is just one small grab of the full story. It is huge in every meaning of the word.


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Labels: Abu Ghraib, Alberto Gonzales, BushWar, General Taguba, Iraq, John Yoo, Republican Values