“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here”*

George M. Dennison served on the Board of Plum Creek Timber while also serving as the president of the University of Montana. When asked how he could justify this apparent conflict of interest, he claimed not to have any such conflict, as he did his work for Plum Creek in his off hours.

He knew better, surely, as he is no fool. “Conflict of interest” has less to do with how a person spends his time than service to two masters. If the objectives of one do not line up with those of the other, then Dennison was obligated to resign one position or the other. If UofM and Plum Creek share common objectives, then UofM is obligated to watch out for Plum Creek’s bottom line. That’s the only reason the company exists.

Dennison did not resign either during his tenure. It’s emblematic of our new Gilded Age.

Avoidance of conflict of interest is why elected politicians set up blind trusts, why judges recuse themselves from certain cases, and why law firms diligently search their records for potential conflicts before taking on a new client.

Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera
This came to mind this morning as I read the following passage from the book All the Devils are Here, by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera. They are financial reporters who wrote about the recent financial meltdown, and the passage I cite (p 289) is about attempts by some people to stave off future losses by helping people who were under water with their mortgages:

In fact, around this time [March, 2007] there had been efforts by some of the big Wall Street firms to salvage their triple-A tranches by buying actual mortgages and preventing enough foreclosures to keep those trances from eroding. Bear [Stearns]…announced “Mod Squad”…, which was supposed to help delinquent borrowers avoid foreclosure. Other firms, including Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, were meeting to see if they could do something collectively to keep homeowners from defaulting.

Continue reading ““Hell is empty, and all the devils are here”*” →

The Help

We went to see the movie “The Help” last night. It’s a good movie – the characters are caricatures and the plot is held together by a thin piece of thread (having to do with a pie), but afterwards over pizza it led to some really good conversation that would not otherwise have come about.

The movie is about black maids in the south in the early 1960’s. These women raise white children during the day and their own at night. They must endure white attitudes about black people without the ability to speak up or out, a most undignified situation. Because it is a movie, bad people get what’s coming to them, good people prevail, and the people in the middle are changed for the good.

Continue reading “The Help” →

Why free markets work – examples abound

It’s a wonderful system, this free market capitalism. So I take this opportunity to celebrate and offer examples of how it works and makes life better for all of us. Since we recently traveled from Denver to the east coast, I’ll start with the airlines in the wake of Jimmy Carter’s deregulation:

Baggage: Once airlines charged to carry customer luggage in addition to the ticket price. But one airline saw a market opportunity, and offered to carry bags as part of the ticket price. Soon all the other airlines were forced to go along. Bags now fly free. Markets work.

Legroom: Airlines once squeezed as many people on to an airliner as possible. This allowed them to run fewer flights. Then one of them saw an opportunity to increase its market share, and increased passenger comfort by increasing legroom. All the other airliners, for fear of losing market share, went along. Markets work.
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Avoiding mistakes made in Iraq

This link is to a long and interesting essay by Gilbert Achcar in Jadaliyya. He attempts to answer the question of just who the Libyan rebels are and who they represent.

The answer is, of course, that it is complicated. There are factions, and NATO is not exactly forthcoming about its intentions. But NATO’s behavior may be telling in that it has refused to arm the rebels and only done light bombing. It’s real mission could well be to do what was done in Egypt, to replace one set of bad actors with another. (Ideally the new regime will appear democratic and still cater to Western interests. That is always the best scenario.)

One factor that raised my eyebrows – the key mistake that Bush made in Iraq was to disband the army. Without it, there was no local mechanism to suppress rebellion, and eventually a huge commitment of US troops had to be used. NATO would want to avoid that mistake, so that it appears that after the rose petals have fallen from the rebellion, Gadaffi’s army will be in place sans Gadaffi. In that manner, the rebellion in Libya will lead to insurgency and counterinsurgency, but with local actors doing the latter, and western troops not used.

Passenger caught brandishing corkscrew

I suppose I could attack someone with a corkscrew, but it would take some time to screw it in and there would have to no resistance. Nonetheless, our corkscrew was confiscated by alert security personnel here at Prague airport, and wrestled to the ground.

We have time to kill, and Internet is free here, and better than Internet that they charge for at American airports. To fly from here we had to go through some questioning by a very nice lady who is trained to look for signs of deception. We are presumed innocent and breezed through. Then we presented passports and headed to our gate.

No problems, we thought. We passed many gates to many destinations, and there are no further security checks for other desitinations, however … Gate B9, New York. Here we were scanned and patted down and our carry-ons manhandled, and that is when we were caught with …. da-dahhhhh … corkscrew!!! Call security. We so scared! We so scared! Passenger has corkscrew!!!

Here’s Glenn Greenwald, citing John Mueller, talking about the threat we face:

“The number of people worldwide who are killed by Muslim-type terrorists, Al Qaeda wannabes, is maybe a few hundred outside of war zones. It’s basically the same number of people who die drowning in the bathtub each year.”

Yes, America this is what has your collective panties in a knot. You’re a bunch of pussies, that’s what you are. Home of the brave, my ass.

Agitprop. They want you to be scared. That is all this is about – to convince you that you have enemies.

Hasty parting notes

The following are hasty notes I scribbled down with my wife’s input last night, no time to edit as we are traveling today. Make of them what you will.

“Very nice conversation with young waiter, not young, 37. Talked to him two nights. Standoffish, reluctant totalk too much, not interested we’re just tourists. I asked him about 1989′ and he expressed no interest as if that too was a tourist thing. Sort of wrote him off disinterested, nothing wrong with that as we are no one of importance to him. tonight reengaged him further, and he was very communicative with my wife and slowly talked more about CZ. Says that borders are easy, too many people come from Romania, Hungary and that we have to be careful, and of course watch out for gypsies. He says that streets are dangerous at night, to be careful. He says there is a national park in CZ that is very pretty. 

He asks about USA, I say it is very big and that people are very afraid. I said that is why we bomb people and he understood. He wants to visit US, see nature.Wants to see NYC. Told him that Canada very big and wild, and that if he wants to see nature in US, that he has to come out west. Also told him people are very nice and that we do not control our government. Being 37 he understood that. 

He said there were cameras all around the square, motioning up there, that we were in, watching for criminal activity, but the way he said it seemed to indicate that he felt watched as well. We said that the US has many security cameras and metal detectors  as well. 

Went to Senato where they gave a pictorial history of events leading up to removal of Soviets in 1991. Almost all credit goes to Gorbachev, and Reagan was only pictured and mentioned once, along with SDI. MG is highly thought of, Reagan not thought of much as far as I could see,but not mentioned in negative light. interesting that they said that the pullback of Russian ground troops eliminated the threat of conventional war in Europe. they saw Soviet troops as a provocation, and not a defense. This is contrary to my view of situation. Must adjust thoughts. 

It’s hard to know the general sentiments of a people being tourists. General impressions when visiting tourist areas are worthless. The feel, police presence, attitude of non-interactive workers are all useful but not that much. Secret presence of cameras really bothered waiter, and he mentioned them with only eye movements. Arms folded in defensive position, yet ingratiating and interested in our thoughts as we were his. Is this hangover, or is this the present? It is as if 1989 did not change his life much. Waiter seemed to want something better. Had bad teeth, and NY to him seemed a bit of an unachievable goal, like a pony. I Felt sad for him.

We talked for long time. He did not look over shoulder, and no one hounded him to get back to work. He offered hand of friendship before we did though we surely would have. 

Tunisian man we met wanted to go back to his home. “

Alien nation

What happens to a person to turn him so sour on the land of his birth? What happened to the starry-eyed notions I had even in my late 30’s? Lisa told Bart Simpson one time that knowing things was not necessarily a good thing. Bart knows better than to know anything. Most Americans simply don’t know anything.

It’s not mere knowledge, but also an intransigent American population, heavily managed and deeply indoctrinated. To break away from that for a while has been a treat. That has been the freedom, the elation I have felt on this trip.

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The John Lennon Wall

This is from a guide book, a place we will visit today if only to mourn once more:

John Lennon Wall

After is murder on December 8, 1980, John Lennon became a pacifist hero for many young Czechs. An image of John Lennon was painted on a wall in a secluded square opposite the French Embassy (there is a niche on the wall that looks like a tombstone), along with political graffiti and Beatles lyrics. Despite repeated coats of whitewash, the secret police never managed to keep it clean for long, and the Lennon Wall became a political focus for Prague youth (most Western pop music was banned by the communists, and some Czech musicians were even jailed for playing it).

Post-1989 weathering and lightweight graffiti ate away at the political messages and images, and little remained of Lennon but his eyes, but visiting tourists began making their own contributions. The wall is the property of the Knights of Malta, and they have repainted it several times,, but it soon gets covered with more Lennon images,peace messages and inconsequential tourist graffiti. In recent years Knights have bowed to the inevitable and now don’t bother to whitewash it anymore.

The imagery is potent. John Lennon was entering his home in New York when a hidden gunman stepped forward, crouched in military fashion, pumped five bullets into him, and then calmly sat down and read as he waited for police.

I don’t know what to make of Lennon the man. He was often angry and incoherent. His music was potent at times, and at other times merely a mush of drug-inspired lyrics. But Lennon the symbol has meaning for me. Somehow this complicated and confused man came to symbolize human freedom.

And this has more meaning for me than anything about him before: The communist culture could only paint over him, and he always reappeared. American culture murdered him, gone forever from life, but never from our memories.