*If you need a source of approachable quant geekspeak to one-up people at cocktail parties, wow, they've got and they're shipping.
I like it that they all seem to be ardent Republicans. Futurists should go way out of their way to read Republicans right now.
Why? Because it's not trendy, that's why.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
http://maxedoutmama.blogspot.com/
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/
*And now a few cheering words from one of my favorite pundits,
H L Mencken. I used to hear a lot that this guy was sarcastic, downbeat and acerbic. Then I read a bunch of Mencken...
his "secret diaries", letters, editorials... and I thought: "Why do people say that about him? Everything he says makes perfect sense – he's simply being factual as a man of his times."
That's when I realized that, I, too, am sarcastic, downbeat and acerbic.
I've got a Menckenesque temperament.
I don't mistake him for Shakespeare or anything; we just share some metabolic weltanschauung. He still makes good sense to me, he strikes me as an honest thinker grappling forthrightly with reality as he perceives it.
Ninety-nine percent of our fellow hominids, they tend to approach reality otherwise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.L._Mencken
H. L. Mencken: "What Is Going On In the World," 1933
"The psychic effect of the depression, it seems to me, is generally a good one.... It has taught people the difference between speculative values and real values. It has hastened the death of sick industries, and proved the vigor of sound ones. It has blown up the old delusion that the amount of money in the world is unlimited, and that every American is entitled to a police captain's share of it. Best of all, it has taught millions that there is really no earthly reason why there should be two cars in every garage, and a chicken in the pot every day.
"A few years back we were all leaping along after the pacemakers, and making shining fools of ourselves. Life in America had become an almost unanimous effort to keep up with the Joneses, and what the Joneses had to offer by way of example was chiefly no more than a puerile ostentation. So many luxuries became necessities that the line separating the one from the other almost vanished. People forgot altogether how to live well, and devoted themselves frantically to living gaudily.
"It seems to me that the depression will be well worth its cost if it brings Americans back to their senses. Once they rediscover the massive fact that hard thrift and not gambler's luck is the only true basis of national wealth, they will discover simultaneously that a perfectly civilized and contented life is possible without the old fuss and display."
*"New Modesty," eh, Henry? Cuttin' way back on the ol' bling-bling, eh?
Putting aside childish things! New spiritual values, discipline and sacrifice!
*You know what's missing here? The stark fact that when you cut your budget you're cutting somebody else's throat. If they get all "New Modesty," they're not gonna give you any income, Jack.
Destroying your prosperity through fear and remorse *is* their
New Modesty. They're gonna show up in their sackcloth and be really grown-up about throwing discount flowers on your grave.
*I forgive Mencken for saying this – in fact I'm grateful.
But that was freakin' 1933, people. I don't see why we have to repeat that mistake twice.
