Sugar: Symbolic Industry Of Cuba In Shambles

Sugar production throughout the Caribbean has dropped in the last few years, but the industry in Cuba appears to be a disaster. It's the worst harvest in 105 years. Though there are plenty of factors driving the market, a report by Cuban officials places much of the blame on internal issues. Babalu's Val Prieto has a comment and link here.

Thoughts From The Recession

Here is a choice example of the value of participant-observers in helping us understand the American experience. As much as we might long for stability and permanence, our reality is one of uncertainty and change, a social construct with vital, yet delicate, linkages.

I am reminded again of this line from Fritz Lang's monumental film, Metropolis (1927):

Between the mind that plans and the hand that builds there must be a Mediator, and this must be the heart.

Be sure to read the comments following the post. I think you will agree that Hanson's effort touched the heart of many of his readers.

Spreading The Debt Around

It's interesting how the news is coming out more and more on both sides of the political aisle that Obamacare legislation was really more about the redistribution of wealth than it was health reform. Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has more on this story.

That could be the case, but I think the politicians and pundits have it all wrong. In order to redistribute wealth, both tangible and intangible, the bottom line on the balance sheet still needs a plus sign. Taking on more than a trillion dollars of debt to nationalize 17% of our economy and project an improvement in national "health" some decades into the future doesn't sound like much of a wealth building policy. In fact, it sounds just the opposite, given the soon to be upside down Medicare and Social Security programs.

On the campaign trail in October 2008, Obama made the statement that one of his intentions was to "spread the wealth around." I'm not very hopeful that borrowed money from China and India processed through Obamacare will result in any tangible wealth. When was the last time you remember a government business making serious profits? As for the intangible wealth of better health, I be in my eighties before I can tell you, the good Lord willing.

And by that time, the national economy itself is projected to be upside down, flat broke. No tangible wealth to support the intangible health. Sounds like Obama has been spreading something else around the country, and it isn't wealth or debt, my friends.

Reviving The Old Beach Resorts

I really enjoy the coast and it's hard for me to imagine beach towns in decline. Of course, it has happened in recent times, Atlantic City being the leading example. The same fate has beset several smaller Victorian resort towns in Britain. While the gaming industry may have saved Atlantic City, a completely different kind of "gaming," 2012 Olympic style, in conjunction with vast sums of public and private money for the arts and education, will be used for the British beach towns. Clive Aslet writes about this new renaissance in an article at telegraph.com.uk. The host of comments makes for good reading as well.

City Cycles

When OTR left his hometown more than fifty years ago, there were five major industries within an easy commute and thousands took advantage of the high union wages. Today, only two of those industries remain. Both operate at significantly reduced levels. One of them - the paper mill - may soon be on life support due to international trade and environmental issues.

Smaller towns, particularly those in the old industrialized East and Midwest, face similar challenges as the post-industrial world leaves its imprint across the national landscape. When all the variables are positive, the field of urban geography is filled with examples of persistent settlement. When we examine the record, it becomes clear that those variables will likely drive many if not most towns out of existence. It is a hard fate to accept when that town has birthed and nurtured those who can still remember the good times. USA TODAY has explored these issues in a story about Ravenswood, West Virginia. Link to the story here. Be sure to check the comments, now numbering over 1400 at the last update.

America In An Era of Joblessness

OTR is generally not in the habit of spreading pessimism. Like most rational people he is far happier looking forward to better times. But reason operates in a world of observable reality, and sometimes a reader finds something that's not very pretty, but makes good sense. Don Peck has written one of those finds for The Atlantic. For my generation, America was a remarkable post-war opportunity. The national social and political landscape Peck imagines for our young adult children will be significantly more challenging. In fact, he feels a new era of joblessness will grow out of this recession and it will transform our national experience in ways we could never imagine. Here's your link to the article. My source: Instapundit.

Governing From The Left

Today's Opinion Journal has a fine editorial that uses recent American history to explain why the Obama administration and Democrats face continued opposition to their economic fix for a sick economy. Older Americans should have no problem seeing the simple facts of this Democrat dilemma over funding the welfare state.

Amping Up At Government Motors

Your tax dollars bought G(overnment) M(otors) as a gift for the United Auto Workers. The Chevy Volt Dance at the Los Angeles Auto Show should really boost your confidence that the "company" is on the road to profit.



We'll be funding this nightmare for a long time. Absolutely revolting.

Source: National Review Online and a host of others

California As State Of Failure

This article from the current issue of The Claremont Review is receiving growing attention from several bloggers. Well worth reading as I still view the state as a bellwether for the rest of the nation.

High Taxes Continue To Drive Wealthy Out Of Maryland

The Baltimore Sun has another report today about the effect of high taxes on Marylanders with net taxable incomes over $1 million. If you're a tax collector, the 30% decline is worthy of study. Has the recession reduced their incomes or have they abandoned the state for safer tax havens? Maryland faces increasing budget deficits next years and beyond and growing resistance to the state's effort to tax anything and everything. The taxmen had better hope an improving economy restores most of those millionaires to the tax rolls.

Mean Living

If you've read this blog over the past year, you've heard frequent references to the "middle way" or "holding to the center." Seeking the middle way has been good advice in flush times in the U.S. and golden advice when the flush times soured. These days, those who own modest debt can sleep soundly even when the experts mention deflation. Those on the other end of the debt scale live at the mercy of the rule makers. Some of those rules are about to change, bringing wealthy voters to their senses and significant changes to their lavish lifestyles.

When you link to the article later in this post, you'll be reading about a neighborhood in Chevy Chase, Maryland. I know it well from my time in the Washington area. The author presents a very accurate picture of the town as a crowning achievement in the pursuit of capitalism and the American dream. Furthermore, I can understand how that achievement could result in the flowering of Obama yard signs during the last election. When the time is very good, it is time to share the wealth.

But how will these Obama supporters react when the Bush income and capital gains tax cuts expire at the end of 2010 and in the midst of a prolonged recession? Can anyone expect Obama Democrats to support the extension of tax cuts with their new "programs" rocketing debt into the trillions of dollars? Perhaps sleeping with the enemy is in order, but I suspect images of torches and pitchforks will keep Republicans on their feet for the coming election.

In any case, here is Mark Falcoff's brilliant observation on the political and social realities facing those who both live and think far beyond the mean.

American Tragedy

This story has been making the rounds on the Internet today. There is a high school in Chicago where 115 of the 800 girls attending are either mothers or mother-to-be. I've linked to William Katz's comments and story link because he mentions Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003), a brilliant classical liberal and one of the 20th century's finest observers of the American social fabric. Moynihan warned his fellow Democrats and the nation of the dangers of certain welfare policies built into the War on Poverty. He was ignored and paid dearly at the time, including being called a racist, but survived the criticisms to enjoy a long career in the U.S. Senate. Today, much of the dysfunction he predicted, particularly in the black American community, has come to pass. Many agree that forty years of flawed federal welfare policies have contributed significantly to that decay.

Friday Afternoon White House News Dump

Right on schedule, when the weekend is on our mind, here's the dire news coming out of the White House announcing the nation's largest fiscal year deficit since 1945. Source: NRO, The Corner

Hyper-Inflation

Here's a bit of instruction on the Weimar Republic's - Germany, 1919 to1933 - experience with hyper-inflation and some advice on surviving the money explosion should it occur in our near future. Source: Instapundit.

The Wall Street Journal: #1

Via Gateway Pundit, here is an article from The Politico reporting that the WSJ is now the top daily in the U.S., surpassing USA Today by about 125,000 copies per day. The Journal has long been more than a business paper. It's nicely balanced politically, although its editorial page does lean center-right. I've written before how my dad subscribed to the Journal in the late 1950s, hoping it would help him sweep his tiny stock portfolio into a seven-figure bonanza. Never happened. Not even close. Still, I came to enjoy the paper and even subscribed for a time in the 1970s. Today, the WSJ Opinion Journal is one of my must-reads. It should be one of yours as well.

What If The Recession Ended And All We Got Was A Lousy Economy

While our government plays some old Keynesian approaches to improving our economy, it's just not the same old dance. Shrinkwrapped has a perceptive post - loaded with tantalizing links - on why we could be breaking out of a recession and into a flat lining economy.

More Cloward-Piven Activity?

Moonbattery provides us with some analysis of how a global tax proposed by the International Monetary Fund would bring about "hope and change" by driving the United States and the free world into financial ruin. Frankly, I wouldn't give this line of thought a second of my time, but it makes too much sense given some of the loony left policies emanating from the White House these days.

If the Cloward-Piven strategy is new to you, go here.

Labor Day And The American Dream

Labor Day comes Monday, but I figured addressing the theme today would make sense as most of us will be enjoying the day with family and away from the Internet. My most memorable Labor Days occurred in the '50s and '60s when I attended the big day-long picnic sponsored by the paper mill that employed my home town. Three to four thousand people attended those picnics and enjoyed carnival rides, swimming, softball, races, airplane rides, and a playground filled with wonderfully dangerous equipment that could never be built today. It all ended with a movie under the stars at the drive-in theater next door.

Although many of the kids I played with those days ended up working at the mill, I imagine a number of them went on to college and enjoyed the greater incomes and opportunities it afforded. In the long run the college graduates made the right decision. Today, the mill employs only a shadow of its former workforce, perhaps fewer than a third when compared to its post World War II heyday. The picnic is a shadow, too, and now held at a mediocre site. The union wages may still be good, but the jobs are few, and the quality of life is wanting in the region now entering its sixth decade of decline.

In my life, I've always made a point to family, friends, and colleagues that all work is honorable. Every employee, from minimum wage to executive salary, contributes to achieving organizational success. That college diploma stills determines in large part where one will fall on the earnings scale; however, the formula may be changing. In fact, opportunities to develop skills beyond the campus have never been greater. Simply put, the American Dream may be closer to more employees than ever. That should make a lot of people very happy, even in the midst of our economic downturn.
If we could just find a way to resurrect a good liberal arts curriculum in high school, I would be very pleased. Tomorrow's happy workers should at least know about the American Experience and its precedents that enabled them.

William McGurn has more to say on work and dreams in his column at The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Online.

Borrowed Cash For Clunkers

The Cash for Clunkers program ended yesterday. Aside from distributing $2.4 billion - out of $3 billion - in borrowed money to Japanese automakers, increasing the debt load of thousands of Americans, and destroying perfectly usable vehicles, this attempt at stimulating the American economy will have other consequences. The editors of National Review Online provide some observations on the program. If anything, Cars for Clunkers will be remembered for reconfirming that, indeed, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

If you love cars as much as I do, the videos in the link will bring tears to your eyes.

Stirring The Pot

I have no idea how the administration thinks these two decisions will benefit the nation and position the Democratic Party for success in 2010:

Holder to Appoint Prosecutor to Investigate CIA Terror Interrogations; and

Social Security Expects No COLAs for 2 Years

The unhinged lefty Bush Derangement Syndrome crowd will be the only ones cheering this interrogation by the time it ends. If the forces of radical Islam stage another successful attack - it won't have to be large - on American soil, this administration and its party will be finished.

And what happens if inflation hits the economy later this year as many economists expect? I can see Social Security officials making this call for 2010, but why do it for 2011 in such a volatile economy?

UPDATE:

Dr. Sanity has a great post on these stories as a deflection from the woes infecting the administration. Stay tuned for more.