It was a great World Series with one of the most exciting games, game six, matched only, arguably, by the famous Red Sox-Reds game six of 1975 when Carleton Fisk waved his home run fair. The final game I expected: the Rangers left their hearts on the field the night before, while the Cards were psyched up.
The Rangers stayed close for a few innings, but that disastrous three-run "gift" caused by three walks and two hit-by-pitcher sounded the death knell. A sad way to go out.
Actually, the relief pitching, one of the Rangers' fortes all year, went south in the series, and there was the difference. Clutch performances such as Scott Carpenter's pitching under pressure in the seventh game was a superb addition.
Having a mid-America series was a real treat. It's nice to know that money can't always buy happiness, so the Yanks and the Phillies sat this one out, while the Red Sox died a premature death in September. The Heartland has had a rough economic time for many years, and this psychological shot-in-the-arm was good for what ails us.
I have an affinity for the Cards, because they have a similar background to my beloved Cincinnati Reds: both river towns, German-burgher mentalities, big on culture and sports, hotter than hell in the summer, even though they hate each other right now, probably because they are so much alike!
At the same time, it would not have bothered me if the Rangers had lost their virginity and won a national championship. Nolan Ryan and his boys are doing a great job of building carefully and sytematically a dynasty.
In any case, the National Pastime got a good shot in the arm and is alive and well. Who says baseball is as exciting as watching grass grow?
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN
I know many of you are bored by tennis, but enough of you are nuts about it as I am. You can remember when the U.S.A. dominated the singles game, going way back to Bill Tilden, Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonsalez, Tony Trabert, Vic Seixas, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, et al. Them days are gone forever or, at least, a helluva long time. In doubles, the current Bryan Brothers may be the best team ever.
In women, we have a similar tradition, going back to Helen Wills Moody, Alice Marble, Pauline Betz, Doris Hart, Maureen Connolly, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova (though Czech-born),Lindsay Davenport, The Williams sisters, et al. Same problem as the men---not many ranked players left.
Here are the current rankings of American men in the top 100: #8---Mardy Fish, #14---Andy Roddick, #23---John Isner, #36---Alex Bogomolov, Jr., #43---Donald Young, #60---James Blake,#73---Ryan Harrison, #93---Michael Russell. Note, one guy in the top ten.
For the ladies, #12---Serena Williams, #42---Christine McHale, #54---Bethany Mattek-Sands, #72---Irini Falconi. #77---Vania King, #92---Sloane Stephens. Got that? Nobody in the top ten. Incidentally, Venus Williams has dropped out due to injuries, but her best days are past.
What happened? Well, first, the rest of the world caught up and took up tennis with a passion. Look at the Russians, the Czechs, the Serbians and Croatians, the French, the Italians, the Argentines and Colombians, and especially the Spanish. In women the Chinese are coming on strong, and you can probably expect the men to make a big noise soon. The Aussies, once a powerhouse in tennis, have been in the doldrums, although a few new names are coming on strong. Even the Brits have a #3 in Andy Murray!
Second, the proliferation of competing sports like golf, in particular, track and field, soccer, rugby and the like siphoned off a lot of participants worldwise.
Third, America has individual training camps like Nick Bolleteri in Florida who has trained many of the world's best players, but no coordinated national program to develop talent. The Czechs, Serbs, Russians, Spanish and French put real emphasis on this, and the results are apparent.
It's a pattern we have known before. Witness Basketball, a truly international game now. We still tend to dominate when we seriously train and put a national team together who learn to play like a team and not as individual egos. If we don't, we have seen what has happened. Look at the number of international players in the N.B.A. now.
Golf is a another case in point. A few years ago eight out of the ten top spots in golf were Yanks. As of today. it's half of that with none in the top three.
It seems to be the way of the world, but it saddens me not to have a few Americans on top. Maybe next year, as we say in baseball!
In women, we have a similar tradition, going back to Helen Wills Moody, Alice Marble, Pauline Betz, Doris Hart, Maureen Connolly, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova (though Czech-born),Lindsay Davenport, The Williams sisters, et al. Same problem as the men---not many ranked players left.
Here are the current rankings of American men in the top 100: #8---Mardy Fish, #14---Andy Roddick, #23---John Isner, #36---Alex Bogomolov, Jr., #43---Donald Young, #60---James Blake,#73---Ryan Harrison, #93---Michael Russell. Note, one guy in the top ten.
For the ladies, #12---Serena Williams, #42---Christine McHale, #54---Bethany Mattek-Sands, #72---Irini Falconi. #77---Vania King, #92---Sloane Stephens. Got that? Nobody in the top ten. Incidentally, Venus Williams has dropped out due to injuries, but her best days are past.
What happened? Well, first, the rest of the world caught up and took up tennis with a passion. Look at the Russians, the Czechs, the Serbians and Croatians, the French, the Italians, the Argentines and Colombians, and especially the Spanish. In women the Chinese are coming on strong, and you can probably expect the men to make a big noise soon. The Aussies, once a powerhouse in tennis, have been in the doldrums, although a few new names are coming on strong. Even the Brits have a #3 in Andy Murray!
Second, the proliferation of competing sports like golf, in particular, track and field, soccer, rugby and the like siphoned off a lot of participants worldwise.
Third, America has individual training camps like Nick Bolleteri in Florida who has trained many of the world's best players, but no coordinated national program to develop talent. The Czechs, Serbs, Russians, Spanish and French put real emphasis on this, and the results are apparent.
It's a pattern we have known before. Witness Basketball, a truly international game now. We still tend to dominate when we seriously train and put a national team together who learn to play like a team and not as individual egos. If we don't, we have seen what has happened. Look at the number of international players in the N.B.A. now.
Golf is a another case in point. A few years ago eight out of the ten top spots in golf were Yanks. As of today. it's half of that with none in the top three.
It seems to be the way of the world, but it saddens me not to have a few Americans on top. Maybe next year, as we say in baseball!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
OUR VALUE SYSTEM
Do you get as concerned as I about some of the misplaced values in this current world of ours? I'm sure you do.
Here is a prime example. I read in the Huffington Post a column by Dan Solin, which really touched a nerve.
He mentions a guy in Shreveport LA named Roy Brown, who faked a stick-up in a bank (he pretended he had a gun), took $100.00 and told the teller he was homeless and needed food. He turned himself in the next day, stating he was not raised to be a criminal, and was later sentenced to fifteen years.
Then Solin mentions the one I was so hot about in my last blog, "The New Alice in Wonderland", where Citigroup was fined 385 mill and made to reimburse investors whose subprime mortgages Citigroup bet against by selling short. No jail, just a fine, which is like a slap on the wrist to these big firms who plead nolo contendere and walk away.
Then he mentions the countless real estate scams involving billions of dollars where the criminal sentences range from three months to eight years.
Is something wrong here? Is this the result of money and influence prostituting justice? It makes one appreciate the sentiments of The Occupy Wall Street protesters still making noises and gaining converts.
Another example to me of misplaced power and values are these new so-called "Super-Pacs", the latest legal way to get around the ban on large individual and corporate gifts. What really changes except the name? I also note both parties have 'em!
When money means power and power means influence---it's as old as time---you run this risk. I don't like what it means today in this lightning world of instant communication where everything happens quicker.
The value system becomes invalid.
Here is a prime example. I read in the Huffington Post a column by Dan Solin, which really touched a nerve.
He mentions a guy in Shreveport LA named Roy Brown, who faked a stick-up in a bank (he pretended he had a gun), took $100.00 and told the teller he was homeless and needed food. He turned himself in the next day, stating he was not raised to be a criminal, and was later sentenced to fifteen years.
Then Solin mentions the one I was so hot about in my last blog, "The New Alice in Wonderland", where Citigroup was fined 385 mill and made to reimburse investors whose subprime mortgages Citigroup bet against by selling short. No jail, just a fine, which is like a slap on the wrist to these big firms who plead nolo contendere and walk away.
Then he mentions the countless real estate scams involving billions of dollars where the criminal sentences range from three months to eight years.
Is something wrong here? Is this the result of money and influence prostituting justice? It makes one appreciate the sentiments of The Occupy Wall Street protesters still making noises and gaining converts.
Another example to me of misplaced power and values are these new so-called "Super-Pacs", the latest legal way to get around the ban on large individual and corporate gifts. What really changes except the name? I also note both parties have 'em!
When money means power and power means influence---it's as old as time---you run this risk. I don't like what it means today in this lightning world of instant communication where everything happens quicker.
The value system becomes invalid.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
THE NEW ALICE IN WONDERLAND
"FOR Goldman Sachs, it was losses in private equity. For Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, it was a decline in the spread between what they pay for deposits and what they get on assets. For Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, it was the accounting lunacy that allowed them to extract profits from a decline in the value in their own debt."
This quote is from "The Economist", the beginning lines of an article entitled "Darkness Visible" regarding the woes of the banks.
Bank of America fell off its perch as numero uno, replaced by JPMorganChase. Both of them are having problems. Citigroup was found guilty and fined for the problems it shares with Morgan and Bank of America, putting together high-risk sub-prime loans in portfolios and then betting they would go down! They only were fined 95 mill but had to reimburse suing investors principal plus interest.
Can you believe this kind of chicanery and hypocrisy? To screw your investors and make money against them! That old-fashioned and obviously obsolete word comes to mind---MORALITY---where the hell did it go?
It's shades of George Orwell and 1984: right is wrong, war is peace, lies are truth.
What kind of hole has the modern Alice fallen into?
This quote is from "The Economist", the beginning lines of an article entitled "Darkness Visible" regarding the woes of the banks.
Bank of America fell off its perch as numero uno, replaced by JPMorganChase. Both of them are having problems. Citigroup was found guilty and fined for the problems it shares with Morgan and Bank of America, putting together high-risk sub-prime loans in portfolios and then betting they would go down! They only were fined 95 mill but had to reimburse suing investors principal plus interest.
Can you believe this kind of chicanery and hypocrisy? To screw your investors and make money against them! That old-fashioned and obviously obsolete word comes to mind---MORALITY---where the hell did it go?
It's shades of George Orwell and 1984: right is wrong, war is peace, lies are truth.
What kind of hole has the modern Alice fallen into?
Monday, October 17, 2011
THE DEEP ABYSS
“Median family income, adjusted for inflation, grew only about one fifth as much between 1980 and 2007 as it did in the generation following World War II, even though the postwar economy was marked both by strict financial regulations and by much higher tax rates on the wealthy than anything under current political discussion.”
This quotation from Princeton Economist and columnist for “The New York Times” Paul Krugman really shocked me. Klugman cited these statistics in a column in “The Times” called Losing Their Immunity regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement. The far right despises the Nobel laureate Krugman as a damned socialist and liberal. Krugman does not bandy about false statistics or information, believe me.
In his article Krugman points out the hypocrisy of the financial community in espousing how much they have done for the American economy and understands the wrath of Occupy Wall Street movement, which, it would appear, is now a national movement, at least in major urban areas.
1980 was the beginning of the Reagan era and Supply-side Economics. After George H.W. Bush lost the 1990 election by his famous reversal of “Read my Lips---No Tax Increase” and raising taxes, Bill Clinton got in. We were in a period of booming economic growth, and Bill Clinton was content not to screw around (economically, that is!) with this boom. Then we got W., and you know the rest of the story: the draining of our economy in two wars, the financial meltdown and the beginning of the worst Recession or mini-Depression since the big one in the thirties. And now we are in that wonderful era of Do-Nothing-Just-Screw-Obama by the Republicans, plus, I admit, Obama has not frequently helped his own cause.
Here we are with the top one percent getting richer all the time while middle and lower income people struggle to subsist. If income growth between 1980 and 2007 was one fifth of the previous era, what the hell is it now between 2008 and 2011? Don’t ask…
I would not be surprised if the Occupy Wall Street movement nurtures the seeds of an even broader revolt against the financial status quo. Certainly the polls demonstrate that the vast majority of Americans is fed up with the inaction of politicians. I think it could grow bigger and better than the Tea Party whose sole aim seems to be just cut the heart out of governmental expenses. Wouldn’t it be interesting if it galvanized some political action to take economic action?
Most of this country is in a deep abyss. Can someone throw a rope down there and help people?
This quotation from Princeton Economist and columnist for “The New York Times” Paul Krugman really shocked me. Klugman cited these statistics in a column in “The Times” called Losing Their Immunity regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement. The far right despises the Nobel laureate Krugman as a damned socialist and liberal. Krugman does not bandy about false statistics or information, believe me.
In his article Krugman points out the hypocrisy of the financial community in espousing how much they have done for the American economy and understands the wrath of Occupy Wall Street movement, which, it would appear, is now a national movement, at least in major urban areas.
1980 was the beginning of the Reagan era and Supply-side Economics. After George H.W. Bush lost the 1990 election by his famous reversal of “Read my Lips---No Tax Increase” and raising taxes, Bill Clinton got in. We were in a period of booming economic growth, and Bill Clinton was content not to screw around (economically, that is!) with this boom. Then we got W., and you know the rest of the story: the draining of our economy in two wars, the financial meltdown and the beginning of the worst Recession or mini-Depression since the big one in the thirties. And now we are in that wonderful era of Do-Nothing-Just-Screw-Obama by the Republicans, plus, I admit, Obama has not frequently helped his own cause.
Here we are with the top one percent getting richer all the time while middle and lower income people struggle to subsist. If income growth between 1980 and 2007 was one fifth of the previous era, what the hell is it now between 2008 and 2011? Don’t ask…
I would not be surprised if the Occupy Wall Street movement nurtures the seeds of an even broader revolt against the financial status quo. Certainly the polls demonstrate that the vast majority of Americans is fed up with the inaction of politicians. I think it could grow bigger and better than the Tea Party whose sole aim seems to be just cut the heart out of governmental expenses. Wouldn’t it be interesting if it galvanized some political action to take economic action?
Most of this country is in a deep abyss. Can someone throw a rope down there and help people?
Friday, October 14, 2011
IT’S 1940 ALL OVER AGAIN
It’s like living in 1940. I can listen to the radio but cannot use my television or my computer.
It all started last evening, after returning from a birthday party for a dear friend., I tried to turn on the TV and, behold, a framed message from Comcast informed me that my service was interrupted and to call their 888 number. The last time I tried that, I waited over thirty minutes to reach a human being, and I was too tired to go through that Mickey Mouse procedure last night. So, this morning, bright and early, I got through, almost immediately. I was instructed by a very earnest and patient woman customer service person that I needed to get the serial number off all three of my digital adapters, a recent addition to my television sets. Comcast in the middle of June made these adapters a necessity to get the full range of channels. Since we were away for the summer and my TVs were “on vacation”, I didn’t have these adapters installed until our return in September. Two surly types came a couple of weeks ago and installed these gadgets, as if they were doing me a big favor, working me into their busy schedule.
Back to today, I barely had time to drink my black coffee, an absolute necessity to get my old body working. I shuffled from one room to two others, trying to read the microscopic serial numbers on the bottom of these 2 1/2” adapters, finally resorting to a magnifying glass to decipher them. The patient lady said it could be defective adapters or, possibly, the cable to my house may be in bad shape. I’m rooting for defective adapters, which will be gratis, whereas a worn-out cable will be at my expense. She then said she would have technicians come to our house tomorrow, the earliest they could come. I bowed to the inevitable.
I then went to my computer and was able to check my mail online. Among other messages was an email from our lawyer in U.K. that I needed to refill some forms regarding the sale of our house there and that then the deal could be consummated. I barely had time to answer her and thank her when my computer cut out. and I have been unable, all day, to use it. I tried all the old tricks of pulling the plugs on the router and the modem and then, after three minutes, reconnecting them---to on avail. So, the Comcast man will have double duty, and I’ll probably get stuck with an invoice, anyway.
Tonight, my wife and I will have conversations over a drink, as is our usual wont, and then, after dinner, we’ll talk some more and read. I can think of worse ways to spend an evening a good old-fashioned way
It all started last evening, after returning from a birthday party for a dear friend., I tried to turn on the TV and, behold, a framed message from Comcast informed me that my service was interrupted and to call their 888 number. The last time I tried that, I waited over thirty minutes to reach a human being, and I was too tired to go through that Mickey Mouse procedure last night. So, this morning, bright and early, I got through, almost immediately. I was instructed by a very earnest and patient woman customer service person that I needed to get the serial number off all three of my digital adapters, a recent addition to my television sets. Comcast in the middle of June made these adapters a necessity to get the full range of channels. Since we were away for the summer and my TVs were “on vacation”, I didn’t have these adapters installed until our return in September. Two surly types came a couple of weeks ago and installed these gadgets, as if they were doing me a big favor, working me into their busy schedule.
Back to today, I barely had time to drink my black coffee, an absolute necessity to get my old body working. I shuffled from one room to two others, trying to read the microscopic serial numbers on the bottom of these 2 1/2” adapters, finally resorting to a magnifying glass to decipher them. The patient lady said it could be defective adapters or, possibly, the cable to my house may be in bad shape. I’m rooting for defective adapters, which will be gratis, whereas a worn-out cable will be at my expense. She then said she would have technicians come to our house tomorrow, the earliest they could come. I bowed to the inevitable.
I then went to my computer and was able to check my mail online. Among other messages was an email from our lawyer in U.K. that I needed to refill some forms regarding the sale of our house there and that then the deal could be consummated. I barely had time to answer her and thank her when my computer cut out. and I have been unable, all day, to use it. I tried all the old tricks of pulling the plugs on the router and the modem and then, after three minutes, reconnecting them---to on avail. So, the Comcast man will have double duty, and I’ll probably get stuck with an invoice, anyway.
Tonight, my wife and I will have conversations over a drink, as is our usual wont, and then, after dinner, we’ll talk some more and read. I can think of worse ways to spend an evening a good old-fashioned way
Saturday, October 8, 2011
THE NEW (BUT REALLY OLD) REALITY
What is it with so many frustrated types living in the “reality” shows of today? I guess it’s a kind of voyeurism, a Peeping Tom complex that lies dormant in us and then is awakened to action when titillated.
Who gives a ratsass if Kim Kardashian got married? She’s a pretty girl with a good body, granted, and she’s married now to this beanpole. Who cares what narcicisstic antic Paris Hilton is currently into? What have Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton contributed to the betterment of the world? If they are so clever as to glean all this publicity and garner followers sighing at their every move, couldn’t they do something of constructive value?
Maggie Furlong, on AOL TV wrote an amusing column about the planned four-hour Kardashian wedding and what alternatives you might have. One choice in that time span was to take sixteen showers. Not a bad idea…
Publicity seeking is a disease. Some avid seekers are successful. Look at Madonna. She may be out in space some part of the time, but she has made a contribution to the world in her art of singing and acting. That gives her a few credentials for opinions, even if some seem wacky. Or Lady Gaga---offbeat but talented.
In England they are as nutso as we about “reality” programs. One of the biggest is “Big Brother” where a bunch of lowlifes live together and the camera records every moment of their action, except perhaps going to the bathroom—and that may be on the agenda later.
Thoreau said it more than a hundred years ago: “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” And to watch a gaggle of publicity hounds avidly sniffing their way to notoriety is, to me, quiet desperation.
But then I am a bit of a curmudgeon.
Who gives a ratsass if Kim Kardashian got married? She’s a pretty girl with a good body, granted, and she’s married now to this beanpole. Who cares what narcicisstic antic Paris Hilton is currently into? What have Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton contributed to the betterment of the world? If they are so clever as to glean all this publicity and garner followers sighing at their every move, couldn’t they do something of constructive value?
Maggie Furlong, on AOL TV wrote an amusing column about the planned four-hour Kardashian wedding and what alternatives you might have. One choice in that time span was to take sixteen showers. Not a bad idea…
Publicity seeking is a disease. Some avid seekers are successful. Look at Madonna. She may be out in space some part of the time, but she has made a contribution to the world in her art of singing and acting. That gives her a few credentials for opinions, even if some seem wacky. Or Lady Gaga---offbeat but talented.
In England they are as nutso as we about “reality” programs. One of the biggest is “Big Brother” where a bunch of lowlifes live together and the camera records every moment of their action, except perhaps going to the bathroom—and that may be on the agenda later.
Thoreau said it more than a hundred years ago: “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” And to watch a gaggle of publicity hounds avidly sniffing their way to notoriety is, to me, quiet desperation.
But then I am a bit of a curmudgeon.
Friday, October 7, 2011
QUO VADIS?
A treasurehouse of commentary has been written to eulogize the death of Steve Jobs, the visionary, innovator, independent thinker and genius. He epitomizes the best in America---the pioneer iconoclast who ignores the conventional wisdom and forages ahead, defying the odds.
In one of the obits, I read an interesting observation: the iPhones and iPads have inscribed on them words to the effect of "Designed in Silicon Valley, California, Made in China". That is an tronic epitaph for our times. We,the great inventors and innovators of the last one hundred years, now send our best ideas to China to be converted into real objects. Fifty years ago, this occurred---but only rarely. Yes, we brought cheap toys and china from Japan and China, but the manufacturing base in America was one of the bulwarks of our society.
How did this happen? Well, start with the maxim that business chases profit: go where you can make it cheaper and maximize your return. My own background is a case in point. My grandfather bought control in 1900 of an underwear manufacturer started the year before in our small town in Ohio. By the middle of the century, we were the largest employer in the town. A partner and I sold the company in the seventies to a midwestern conglomerate,who were excellent accountants and lousy marketers. By the late nineties the business was gone. Now I can put part of the blame on the lack of marketing expertise, but an equal part must be ascribed to the textile business going overseas to Asia.
New England was the original cradle of American textiles; then, in the twenties and thirties, it moved to the south. (We were always an anachronism, being located in the midwest, along with competitiors Jockey and Munsingwear, but the main business had gone south.) In the seventies the trend started to snowball downhill away from the U.S.A.
Another example: the last company I worked for, an Ohio-based manufacturer of jackets who had five manufacturing facilities in Louisiana, was just starting to import from Asia their first jacket when I retired in 1995. Last year, they ceased manufacturing any jackets in America: the last domestic jackers were the wool varsity lettermen's jackets---and they moved to Mexico.
Textiles are not unique in this phenomenon; it has happened in almost every industry in America. The whole clothing industry is long gone. Look at the steel industry. The automobile industry got a shot in the arm from governmental subsidies of two of the Big Three. The foreign competitiors are also manufacturing here for many years, which has helped the economies of the states in which they are located: BMW in Alabama and South Carolina, Toyota in Tennessee, Honda in Ohio, to name a few. The foreign competitors have frequently been the innovators of new ideas in automobiles, although I am delighted to see that American innovation and quality has improved dramatically.
India and China are becoming dominant in manufacturing because of cheap wages, stealing the best ideas, and brilliant engineering. We used to attract the best brains from around the world because of the opportunity for innovative thinking. Now a lot of the Indian and Chinese are staying home.
So, where are we going? Will we continue to become a Service nation and not a Manufacturing nation? Can job stimulus, if politicians can ever agree on anything, start an upward trend toward creativity and new fields of industry? I am not optimistic but faintly hopeful.
Remember the old Chinese adage: may you live in interesting times. Let me say, they are REALLY interesting.
In one of the obits, I read an interesting observation: the iPhones and iPads have inscribed on them words to the effect of "Designed in Silicon Valley, California, Made in China". That is an tronic epitaph for our times. We,the great inventors and innovators of the last one hundred years, now send our best ideas to China to be converted into real objects. Fifty years ago, this occurred---but only rarely. Yes, we brought cheap toys and china from Japan and China, but the manufacturing base in America was one of the bulwarks of our society.
How did this happen? Well, start with the maxim that business chases profit: go where you can make it cheaper and maximize your return. My own background is a case in point. My grandfather bought control in 1900 of an underwear manufacturer started the year before in our small town in Ohio. By the middle of the century, we were the largest employer in the town. A partner and I sold the company in the seventies to a midwestern conglomerate,who were excellent accountants and lousy marketers. By the late nineties the business was gone. Now I can put part of the blame on the lack of marketing expertise, but an equal part must be ascribed to the textile business going overseas to Asia.
New England was the original cradle of American textiles; then, in the twenties and thirties, it moved to the south. (We were always an anachronism, being located in the midwest, along with competitiors Jockey and Munsingwear, but the main business had gone south.) In the seventies the trend started to snowball downhill away from the U.S.A.
Another example: the last company I worked for, an Ohio-based manufacturer of jackets who had five manufacturing facilities in Louisiana, was just starting to import from Asia their first jacket when I retired in 1995. Last year, they ceased manufacturing any jackets in America: the last domestic jackers were the wool varsity lettermen's jackets---and they moved to Mexico.
Textiles are not unique in this phenomenon; it has happened in almost every industry in America. The whole clothing industry is long gone. Look at the steel industry. The automobile industry got a shot in the arm from governmental subsidies of two of the Big Three. The foreign competitiors are also manufacturing here for many years, which has helped the economies of the states in which they are located: BMW in Alabama and South Carolina, Toyota in Tennessee, Honda in Ohio, to name a few. The foreign competitors have frequently been the innovators of new ideas in automobiles, although I am delighted to see that American innovation and quality has improved dramatically.
India and China are becoming dominant in manufacturing because of cheap wages, stealing the best ideas, and brilliant engineering. We used to attract the best brains from around the world because of the opportunity for innovative thinking. Now a lot of the Indian and Chinese are staying home.
So, where are we going? Will we continue to become a Service nation and not a Manufacturing nation? Can job stimulus, if politicians can ever agree on anything, start an upward trend toward creativity and new fields of industry? I am not optimistic but faintly hopeful.
Remember the old Chinese adage: may you live in interesting times. Let me say, they are REALLY interesting.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
THE SKY IS FALLING
What the hell is going on in the monument world? First, I read the Washington Monument was damaged by the quake, and repairs are underway to ensure its stability, while visitors cannot go near it. Then I see that the National Cathedral in Washington, the main cathedral of the American Episcopal Church, is undergoing repairs at a cost of $25mm. Today I read that the Taj Mahal will need serious and extensive repairs to its wooden foundation and that already cracks are appearing and the domes are slightly tilted.
I think it rather symbolic that these landmarks are in trouble, reflecting the disrepair and decay so prevalent in the economic and political worlds of today. So many of our values and beliefs are undergoing stress tests in these hard times that you begin to feel the impermanence of our world more than ever. All the kings horses and men are having more trouble than ever with all those broken pieces and shards.
And it shows in our fragmented and divided thinking of what and how to do with the world. Republicans are still set in concrete; Democrats are still squabbling among themselves; the President is pushing for a jobs program that doesn't go far enough in dealing with our economic and political problems.
It looks like, at the minimum, we all need a good lube job. More likely, we need a systemic overhaul.
I hear Chicken Little screaming louder than ever.
I think it rather symbolic that these landmarks are in trouble, reflecting the disrepair and decay so prevalent in the economic and political worlds of today. So many of our values and beliefs are undergoing stress tests in these hard times that you begin to feel the impermanence of our world more than ever. All the kings horses and men are having more trouble than ever with all those broken pieces and shards.
And it shows in our fragmented and divided thinking of what and how to do with the world. Republicans are still set in concrete; Democrats are still squabbling among themselves; the President is pushing for a jobs program that doesn't go far enough in dealing with our economic and political problems.
It looks like, at the minimum, we all need a good lube job. More likely, we need a systemic overhaul.
I hear Chicken Little screaming louder than ever.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
LET THE JOY BEGIN!
WRITTEN BY MRS FLESHPOT:
It's October 4, 2011, three days after our granddaughter Ashlee's wedding to Tim on the beach at Myrtle Beach SC. It was quite wonderful! While the surf was rippling in the background, Ashlee, looking gorgeous in her white swathed formfitting bridal dress, said her vows. And Tim readily replied.
Anne, Ashlee's Aunt and Godmother, read from Corinthians, followed by Celtic prayers read by Bebs and GooGoo, the bride's grandparents. The minister conducting the service was a friend of the groom's family who had known the groom all of his life.
The groom's brother was Best Man, while the bride's sister, Lindy, was Maid of Honour and cute as a button. What joy and jubilation followed! As sandals sank into the sand, everyone hugged each other on such a joyous occasion.
The reception followed under a perfect sky with a gorgeous half moon at a house just off the beach the bride's parents had rented with a big tent in the back garden near the beach. Everyone ate and drank well, and the party and dancing went on into the wee hours. And just a perfect evening with that half moon!
It's October 4, 2011, three days after our granddaughter Ashlee's wedding to Tim on the beach at Myrtle Beach SC. It was quite wonderful! While the surf was rippling in the background, Ashlee, looking gorgeous in her white swathed formfitting bridal dress, said her vows. And Tim readily replied.
Anne, Ashlee's Aunt and Godmother, read from Corinthians, followed by Celtic prayers read by Bebs and GooGoo, the bride's grandparents. The minister conducting the service was a friend of the groom's family who had known the groom all of his life.
The groom's brother was Best Man, while the bride's sister, Lindy, was Maid of Honour and cute as a button. What joy and jubilation followed! As sandals sank into the sand, everyone hugged each other on such a joyous occasion.
The reception followed under a perfect sky with a gorgeous half moon at a house just off the beach the bride's parents had rented with a big tent in the back garden near the beach. Everyone ate and drank well, and the party and dancing went on into the wee hours. And just a perfect evening with that half moon!
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