Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Scratches to Sketches
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
The Undervaluing of China and What it Will Mean in a Transforming Global Economy
With the world economy entering a period of take-off, the two great cultures of the globe will meet and transform each other. One, the West, is overvalued economically against the other, the East. As the valuations of these two great civilizations merges together, the potential benefits are enormous while the risks of tension can be managed with effective leadership in both communities.
The World She is a Changing
We are witnessing the transformation of the world. Never before have so many different and strongish forces for change coincided as in this and the coming decades; financial, ecological, technological, social, environmental, psychological, economic, medical, political. You name it. Whatever, sphere you can think of is a-changin.
What we are seeing is a shift from a world driven by linear thinking into one that is modestly non-linear. What this means is that the resolution of many problems is finally being tackled in the international arena. This is potentially the period of take-off in which the many non-)participant economies around the globe begin to participate more and more effectively. However, it is a period in which the forces against change will be enormous. There are many vested interests in the old linear orders.
Rather than allow the change to advance, those against change will press for order and regimentation. The fear of change is such that many will force the issue of keeping things the way they are against their own best interests. This could produce nasty conflict.
The thing to understand about a non-linear world is that it creates natural variety and moves increasingly away from homogeneity. It is the rainbowing of culture that will strike most people the hardest. As cultures increasingly intermingle, those vested interests within cultures will battle against the variety of options that will allow people to substitute away from regimentation and regulation.
The old norms will be replaced by variegated strains of wonderful opportunities for those that have been held back artificially and who did not see their future as within the world community. Global forces will add to the change process given greater scope for creativity in more and more arrangements.
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
The investment in housing is no longer an engine of growth and never could be sustaining
That the lives of the baby boomers and their home-seeking marrying children should overlap in the past decade should come as no surprise.
That there now may well be too many houses and not enough households to fill them should come as a matter of the demographics that could easily suggest a long term slump in the housing industry in America.
Europe may be different.
What this means for the growth pundits in America and Britain is quite interesting.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449352676306326.html?mod=djemTEW_h
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
That there now may well be too many houses and not enough households to fill them should come as a matter of the demographics that could easily suggest a long term slump in the housing industry in America.
Europe may be different.
What this means for the growth pundits in America and Britain is quite interesting.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449352676306326.html?mod=djemTEW_h
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Monday, 23 August 2010
Civilized Society's Greatest Enemy
What brought down the Roman Empire was simply debt burden. The leaders of the Roman Empire could not pay off their debts.
What brought down the British Empire was it's debts to America.
What brought down the German Empire was it's debts to France which led to the greatest recession the world has even known.
What is bringing down America is it's debt.
The writing is on the wall, you United States. Your civilization is doomed because you are so much in debt and you don't even change your ways.
Doomed, I say! Doomed!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22gret.html?src=me&ref=business
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Are Houses an Investment Any More?
Of course houses are an investment, but that the position of houses has fallen in the league table of investments should be looked on as a good thing. We don't want people and governments to use the housing market as a tool for economic growth because it's a very dangerous thing to do in the long term.
If governments such as those influenced by Bush and Brown use housing as a way to gain popularity and political muscle, they will again sow the seeds of financial disaster. The value of houses needs to grow in line with the ability of income growth to sustain mortgage payments that actually wind down individual debt over time. Thus, we can see that it is beneficial that within a lifetime a household pays off the mortgage.
It's very easy to raise house prices by artificially creating a market with excessive growth in money supply. One simply engineers a money based demand ahead of what would occur naturally over time with a moderate demographic expansion and normal growth of incomes. Moderate and normal can be estimated. We can all see when peoples purchases of property are pushed forward in time because they panic that they will not be able to afford a home. It is sheer nonsense that this should have happened in the United States and Britain. It is sheer economic incompetence! It is the fault of the FED and the Bank of England and other regulatory entities. Don't blame the banks. They always are predictable in their behavior. What happened was regulatory failure!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/business/economy/23decline.html?src=me&ref=general
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
The Benefits of Economic Growth Go Mainly to The Rich
That the benefits of economic growth favour the rich should not be a surprise to anyone. When the US and British governments save the banks, the main beneficiaries will be the richest in Britain and America.
Having said that one would think that it is a good idea to tax the rich very heavily and not worry too much about the growth consequences. After all if the rich benefit the most from growth why do you want to grow. It's not that the rich benefit the most it's that the rich benefit alone and the middle and lower people scarcely benefit at all.
In fact, it is probably the case that balancing the budget should be the very least that is achieved. Often by taxing the rich one creates scope for the nouveau rich, those who aspire to become rich but whose progress is hampered by very rich. The rich can slow down the rate of economic development, buy out promising technologies and close down competition. It's important thus to tax the rich the most, not just a little bit, but a lot!
What does the American economist Paul Krugman have to say about America's taxing of the rich?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/opinion/23krugman.html?src=me&ref=general
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
A Reader's Response to The Light and Suzi Malin's Artistic Future
My well versed reader of economics writes to me:
Suzi Malin has my sympathy if she indeed looses the light in her studio. I have, however, some difficulty in understanding why the light coming into her studio is so much superior to light in other locations. Maybe existing structures and buildings creat a special effect on the light falling into her studio. If that is the case, maybe she should pay the owners of these structures and buildings a fee for the service that she receives through the light bounces. Do not be angry at me, I am only trying the say that all situations have two sides. The school could refrain from its expansion plans or Suzi could move her studio to another location.
All over the world people are facing situations like Suzi's and most adjust to a new situation without complaining too much.
I myself together with six neighbours were apset about another neighbour who set up a small open saw mill among us. We complained to the authorities and even took a lawyer. We did not get anywhere and certaily did not get any compensation. I moved with my family as My daughter developed astma because of the sawdust that blew to our house.
L
Arthur, life is not fair and just because Suzi happens to be a known artist, why should she be given a special treatment. Let her fight her own fight and do not call the artists of the world to unite in her favour. Your call goes against my sense of fairness.
Dear Reader:
Thank you for your message and discussion of fairness! You obviously have a point about the way light behaves and I believe that the school does not provide secondary light other than what the students receive naturally from above.
My general point is that development is frequently negative and the costs are most frequently not quantified because economic science has no relationship to the real world other than through the price mechanism as exemplified by work of Stiglitz - micro and Friedman - macro.
Fairness represents a negotiated or mediated outcome between interested parties educated in the science of valuing externalities rather than a political process which relies on brute force. If the valuation of externalities were to become a proper economic science then I think real progress would be occurring in economic science.
Unfortunately, economics as developing cannot yet liberate itself from politics or the price mechanism.
Art can be much superior to economics because art can show the way.
Economics in my view has missed the point of engineering to make an environment cozy and loving instead of brutal and depersonalizing. It's not just education but education that is tolerant of art. Sure the kids of Camden who come from outside the locality will benefit, but it is local people who struggle to make a living in the here and now and for which the light is important to only a minority.
In the future, we will need to build churches, houses, educational centers and studios that meet environmental energy saving standards because the old standards have failed us miserably. We have no real pressure to art and quality. Our buildings are based on the profit motive rather than design for excellence and the technical arts. We leave out the values of the past and and future in an obsession with how the present fabric of our efforts can pay for themselves in the shortest space of time.
Proper respect for light is import and we don't appreciate how much dimming the light or shaping it through vegetation and tree canopy can improve our lives.
Can you think of a fair resolution of the conflict between art studio formally Quaker Meeting Hall and school development?
I think Suzi's artistic solution is the best, which is to design the school extension in such a way that it sets an example to the students of the best in cooperation and art and education. We should retain the canopy of trees and diffused light and let our kids explore natural phenomenon, which is why place matters so much in education. Putting kids through school in the concrete city jungle is not optimal!
Design and art, design and education, design and cooperation!!
Words an economist would rarely utter!
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Sunday, 22 August 2010
The Light and Suzi Malin's Artistic Future. ... Artists of the World Unite!
The conflict is between a school and a world renowned portrait artist and author. Suzi Malin has a studio right next door to a school. She has created some of her finest work and some of Britain's outstanding portraits using natural light that feeds into her London, England studio. A school next door wants to expand and in the process it would deprive Suzi of the natural light she needs.
The economics of this are fairly simple. For the loss of light Suzi should be paid what is called a compensation due to a negative business externality coming from next door. In the case of Suzi Malin's potential contribution to the art world from the studio as is with the natural light and that without the natural light, we are looking not merely at potential, but capacity. Suzi has the capacity to produce masterpieces that would be essentially priceless. In other words, the cost would be more than the School could afford over many centuries. Such is what economists would argue!
Obviously, the school should not be expanded unless it can afford to pay Suzi a reasonable compensation, such as forty or fifty million pounds. David Hockney supports Suzi!
Suzi is a very reasonable person and she deserves her fair compensation, but the story continues as she is put in the position of having to fight for fair treatment.
http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2010/jul/lost-light-artist-suzi-malin-turns-developer
Suzi and I shared the studio for a few days in 2004. I would have to agree with her that a studio with such light is worth fighting for. The light in Suzi's studio is amazing.....artist to artist. I would not give it up.
Suzi, fight on! We support your battle for a fairness. Will the school see the light or just take it?
I will definitely follow up on this one.
http://www.thecnj.com/camden/2009/073009/news073009_05.html
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
The Emerging Age of More Cautious Living
Most people have witnessed financial institutions making serious mistakes with their money. Thus it is that the sensible person takes a hard look at all issues financial and adjusts spending, saving and transaction behaviours. That this is not easily accomplished is also evident.
With new technologies it seems easier for scammers to make enormous amounts of money which they then hide:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22digi.html?th&emc=th
People gradually are becoming more cautious with their hard earned savings:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22invest.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
With new technologies it seems easier for scammers to make enormous amounts of money which they then hide:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22digi.html?th&emc=th
People gradually are becoming more cautious with their hard earned savings:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22invest.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-18/economy-sets-democrats-for-autumn-of-discontent-commentary-by-albert-hunt.html
But, have the bankers learned anything?
The IMF is doubtful:
Should you be more cautious and cynical about what goes on in the housing sector. Will the banks reform or is more needed?
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/
http://www.coutts.com/news-and-insights/market-perspective/monthly-investment-strategy-update/2010/august/
You would be foolish to be optimistic about self regulation and a change in personality of banking, especially US banking institutions:
People realize that the environment is precious and that they need to be more aware of the poor governance of our larger institutions and pick them up on the poor citizenry:
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Fruit Fly Trap
This time of year fruit flies can be an annoyance. Take a bowl. Put two or three pieces of a cut up pear, or similar sweet fruit. Add a squirt or two of vinegar. Cover bowl with Saran wrap. Puncture a hole about a quarter inch. Place on floor or somewhere you won't notice and out of sight. Fruit flies should find the treat and when they get soused take bowl outside. Remove Saran wrap carefully releasing flies into the wild. Recover and begin stages anew! Gone flies after about three trips.
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Friday, 20 August 2010
Faith and the Availability of Purpose
Social and psychological systems have at their core the notion of purpose. Because I am alive, it may be said that my purpose is to live. When born into a social system that supports life, the purpose of life to live and the act of living is reinforced.
It is a purpose that is available. Within such systems faith in the purpose of life which is living reinforces it's availability and reinforces it's generality. The parents of those living reinforce the purpose of life as living just by staying alive.
When death appears, the purpose of life is first questioned, then weakened by the fact of death. Without purpose the act of dying is easier and the purpose of living in order to die is reinforced. It is at such a time that faith needs life to reinforce purpose. Thus, a strong life force in any member of the social network creates a revision of purpose back to living and away from death.
We need to have strong life forces present in our social networks. The older person needs a younger person to take an interest in their life so that they can have purpose. Similarly, a young person needs an older person to reinforce their purpose of life, which is to live.
Should a society focus on the after life instead of living, or focus on death instead of living? Surely, there is a cost to a society that focuses on a purpose which is it's elimination from a living environment to one that is either dead or hypothetical.
Thus can Gurdieff speak of the living dead. Such are those whose purpose is focused on death rather than life.
Death will come. Premature death will come to some of us. For the living dead, premature death is a consequence of a weakening purpose in living. It seems ironic that some who want to die will live much longer productive lives than their purpose for living.
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
What do you think about the BP oil spill now?
What you can't see or sense can't hurt you?
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
2 Plus 2 Most Definitely Does Not Equal 4 As A Generalization
In mathematics, we make generalizations, such as 2+2=4. That they are definitely errors as generalizations is fact and yet we let people literally kill themselves believing that such generalizations exist.
We truly believe in relationships that really do not exist in general, and one is the generalization that 2+2=4.
What the mathematical generalization implies is that if you take two like entities and two more like entities, you will end up with four like entities. The problem begins with the notion of two like entities.
No two entities are alike in all their characteristics. For a start, our physics shows us that all physical entities will occupy a different space. That is a pretty big difference, two things being located in two different places.
So if I had and orange in California and an orange in Ontario and I add an orange in Nigeria and one in Helsinki, I will come up with four oranges?
Come on! Give me a break. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Do you see my point?
We take for granted basic truths that are inherently falsifiable. So what else is true.
I think that the philosopher, Gurdieff, had a point when he said that man tends to argue rubbish most of the time, or nearly always.
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/george_gurdjieff/
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
We truly believe in relationships that really do not exist in general, and one is the generalization that 2+2=4.
What the mathematical generalization implies is that if you take two like entities and two more like entities, you will end up with four like entities. The problem begins with the notion of two like entities.
No two entities are alike in all their characteristics. For a start, our physics shows us that all physical entities will occupy a different space. That is a pretty big difference, two things being located in two different places.
So if I had and orange in California and an orange in Ontario and I add an orange in Nigeria and one in Helsinki, I will come up with four oranges?
Come on! Give me a break. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Do you see my point?
We take for granted basic truths that are inherently falsifiable. So what else is true.
I think that the philosopher, Gurdieff, had a point when he said that man tends to argue rubbish most of the time, or nearly always.
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/george_gurdjieff/
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
It is your time, and it is my time! What are you grateful for?
Far be it for me to occasionally lapse into a philosophical mode, but life is really based on magnificent good fortune. You have to realize that without something moving along making things possible for you, there would be no you!
Part of your being says that you should express gratitude for what you have received as a gift from what many of us call, the Almighty. That there could be more to enjoy is our expectation based on optimism derived from what we already have received.
That we should attribute our good fortune to some entity that has as is very minimum qualities that we possess is all very natural. That we should go beyond that in our imagination is entirely normal and fitting.
It is fitting to believe in God and in the miraculous powers of communication from a saviour such as Jesus the Christ, who represents the coming together of positive forces for our future fortune. Such belief is entirely fitting and normal, healthy, and entirely to be expected. It is also fitting to maintain a place in our hearts for Jesus as a God of love and unity, a saviour of all that is good in a world full of challenges.
That we should attribute our good fortune in living to something minor is unfitting and slander. We occupy an extremely minor segment of a gloriously vast creation that we can see only a portion of. There is obviously something superior in this vast machinery around us. That it could create what we see as self reflection and intelligence is remarkable, but to assume that it does not itself possess such attributes is even more remarkable. It is undoubtedly true that our vast universe is conscious and self reflective and sees itself at levels we cannot imagine. That we should think of a small part of it as God is to be expected and quite fitting.
That God exists and a powerful agent for good is not to be disputed because we are indeed witness to the fact every day of our bleeting little hearts! That God came down to earth as Jesus is remarkable, but not unfitting, and that Jesus should save us in some way from doubt that we are within a conscious world that will nuture us for all time is almost certainly an outcome of being logical loving individuals in Christ.
That historically, there should be a organized religion to define such a battle for our souls is unremarkable and go be expected. There are no surprises under the sun other than we should not be grateful for so many messengers proclaiming that we are loved by our creators.
So:
http://www.uclick.com/client/wpc/fw/?wpisrc=nl_tech
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Another great ride
For those who have the money!
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
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Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
For those who like to drive see what you are missing when you drive an ordinary vehicle
We all receive advertising from local car dealerships, and this is one I received today. This vehicle is absolutely brilliant, but on a retirement pension far out of my league. There may be readers, however, who would enjoy the opportunity to drive such a magnificent beast.
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
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The Great False Unity
There is in the human mind the need for harmony and unity. That such a state is no more than a temporary balance between enormous forces in conflict should produce the question whether we should even begin to value this balance or equilibrium.
Obviously, my mind is torn between the notion that the balance is not what we are about, and the realization that the balance is a support for what we are. Without our harmony and unity, we cease to provide a vehicle for many dependent forces that derive their essence from our harmonies and unities.
Whether we should value harmony and unity depends on whether we should value the derivatives that such states conceive. They may be our very existence.
In my art and writing, when I begin a painting or paragraph, there needs to be a sense of unity and harmony before the product is created as an image or sentence. That unity may be engineered should be obvious. Each line and word is the result of a temporary equilibrium of opposing forces, the chemistry within my image or prose.
Some would have us believe that unity is a continuing state easily achieved as if their were no positioning of hidden forces over which we have no control. We can some times be blind to the artificiality of the unity thinking that it comes as a result of what we do. This mistaking of reality leads us to many false conclusions and actions.
Our forefathers, foremothers, had the correct idea that unity is a gift of more powerful forces than we can imagine. That they should refer to those unifying forces or force as gods or God is to their merit. They understood better than our present generation of minds that the unities and harmonies we see are gifts form which we should be grateful and for which many have died. Do we have gratitude that we are blessed occasionally with unity and harmony? We could be grateful.
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
The Conflict Within Between Preservation and Change
What we are taught represents the outcomes of numerous conflicts within the minds of those who teach us. What we teach represents the outcomes of conflicts within our own minds.
Many of the so-called conclusions we arrive at are premature.
We present our ideas and conclusions as though they were conflict free and we had peace of mind in their presentation. Yet, reality is more complex. It is a collection of numerous forces in opposition to each other harboured within systems that engineer resolutions to conflicts.
Some people maintain the conflict longer before arriving at conclusions because they are more aware of the delicate balance of forces moving in conflict, like so many winds whirling in different directions.
Overcoming the constant wars within our own minds and worlds is in our nature for whether we accept it or not, we are the outcomes ourselves of vast and powerful energies moving in opposite directions. Our creation, our conception was the result of conflicting forces. That we exist at all is such an enormous mystery in the constant motion of forces moving this way and that.
I remember just sitting silently trying to conjure up an image of how much energy it took for me to raise a finger. The amount is staggering. It is enormous because it is the outcome of absolutely monstrous amounts of energy in conflict. I may not recognize this fact because time itself is a product of conflict energies in which the forward arrow of time represents outcomes of staggering billions of conflicts.
We have the impression of time moving forward when the reality is not that there is progression, but that there is an outcome of conflicting forces moving in very different directions. We can not even begin to imagine what these directions are. Whatever our understanding is so much a result of conflicts that we are subjected to misinterpretation.
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Why Mathematics and Physics Separately Convince Me That There is Life After Death
This is a very short blog just to wet your appetite.
Firstly, it only takes that the past, present and future to co-exist for there to be a means of moving from one to the other. That there is significant matter and energy that does not obey the exclusion principle suggests that routes between all points of time and space are conceivable and potentially feasible.
Secondly, there is obviously more than three dimensions. Only one additional dimension is needed for it to be feasible to move to any point in three dimensions.
Thirdly, the whole universe may recycle and obey the law of complete determinism either wholly or statistically.
Fourthly, we know that plants now use the quantum world to survive, and it is logical that humans and animals do so as well. The quantum world may be much more effective in recreating universes than we can ever imagine.
Fifthly, the world may be be like a holograph and be a projection within a projection, each being identical and each self referential.
Sixthly, we have evidence of mankind guessing the existence of life after death and I am not so stupid as to doubt the belief of so many over time.
Seventh, what goes forward also goes backward even though we may not be aware. In mathematics this is facile. Our reality may be that what experience is simply are the product of mathematical abstraction, as in the case of being a strange loop.
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
Costs and Economics of Sewerage Project for Lambton Shores
If you are concerned about the costs of proposed sewerage systems being passed onto you, then read:
http://www.bsra.ca/priorities/sewers_and_water.htm
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.
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