Odds and Ends at 1:45 AM

Let me share with you a poem written on the back of an Introductory Economics quiz for my colleague and friend Sasha, from the Undergraduates:

"Sasha- I missed you very much today :(
you better be here on final day!
Your smile shines so bright,
You are the light that we all like!
Love the Chi Omega girls."

My Ukrainian friend has apparently garnered the attention of several Chi O girls who write notes for him during quizzes. The TA's like to read them to him during breaks. Especially in little girl voices. Congrats my Ukrainian friend, you have the attention of one of the most powerful sororities on campus. Since he was sick today I posted the poem found on the back of the quiz to his office door... then told all the faculty I could about it. There was a line outside his office by 3 PM to read the note. Awesome.

Speaking of awesome the US Senate actually stalled the bailout bill for car companies.
Look, let me break it down for you. Forget the history the US has with auto makers GM and Ford. Forget this myth about our past generations supposedly being smarter and more heroic than we are, and therefore we should preserve their lifestyle completely. Think about what would have happened if the US government had killed Apple and Microsoft in the 1980's to protect IBM.

Let Creative Destruction happen. Keep the 25 billion for alternative fuel sources (despite how much I loathe ethanol). Give it Tesla. Give it to T-Boone Pickens. Give it to anyone EXCEPT GM, Chrysler, and Ford. They are unprofitable, unsupportable, shrinking companies. There is a reason the market is punishing them, and it is NOT just exorbitant labor costs. It is just that no one is buying their latest models. Why is no one talking about bailing out Toyota? Ask yourself this. Then ask yourself what differentiates the workers in a Toyota plant (int he US) that isn't getting bailed out from the workers in a GM plant who might be.

So take the bail-out money (from the 700 billion), give all the money to the recently laid off workers in the forms of scholarships for community colleges and/or worker re-training programs and move on. Let the CEO's and the inefficient corporations die on their own. Still don't believe me? Change the name of Ford to Wal-mart. Are you still willing to give them a bail out? Especially when Wal-mart employs more people than Ford does? I thought not.

Manufacturing is dead. Long live the US economy.

And Pelosi... I despise your position. I want to move to San Francisco and vote against you. Retake ECON 101 you poor congressperson and learn what supply and demand is all about before you talk about how car manufacturing is good for America. And before you wave around BLS reports trying to frighten everyone else into your point of view. If you want to be truly progressive and lead the US into the future, you will lead them into the future on more than token social issues. Take the lead on REAL economic issues, and be the Speaker that we all know and expect you to be, instead of a puppet politician for certain groups.

Change is inevitable. Very few of us will have the jobs of our fathers and forefathers. The car maker, the farmer, the banker, they are all our past. If we cannot let go of our past we are doomed to be trapped by it. The future is now. If you cannot adapt, then get out of the way and don't run for elected office. People foresee the end of capitalism... I see on the horizon the closest realization we can get to of "Economic Man." The mobile the adaptive, and the self aware utility maximizing consumer who supplies his labor where necessary and trades for goods on a global market where perfect competition is prevalent. Markets are reacting faster than ever. Capital and Labor are shifting between sectors faster than ever. The Invisible Hand is far from dead. In fact the recession is the Invisible Hand doing what it is supposed to be doing: cleaning house every now and then. Recessions are a part of it, and to be expected, especially after long periods of rampant speculation. We still live in the age of Schumpeter, Keynes, Smith, and yes Friedman (heresy of heresies!).

Look, we can do better. We have the opportunity in this crisis to better ourselves. The chains of past expectations are falling off, and the possibility of building a new future is rising. It all depends on how you look at it.
Are we going to hold on to a historic and crumbling sector of our economy, or free up labor and resources to let other sectors grow? Are we going to pump billions of dollars into trying resuscitate what is already dead?

Seriously though... a car czar? Are you KIDDING ME?
Anyone from DC who wants to tell me how to live my life and run my business can just turn around and walk away now.

Edited at 9:07 AM to change cut early morning "crazy man" rants. All apologies to Mrs. Pelosi, Tom Brokaw, and the UAW.