I agree with a left-liberal black man

I love the comic/show, The Boondocks. It's well-designed, it's smart and most importantly, it's hilarious. I can't wait to see more of Huey and Uncle Ruckus.

Recently, the creator of The Boondocks, came under fire for saying that the 44th President wasn't black. He has explained himself and it is one of the most thought-provoking pieces out there. 

He explains his view of who Obama is and what he represents. He is factually right and since I can't speak on the black experience, I won't comment on the rest. It is interesting to note that a lot of black people have adopted him as one of their own, though.

I do not agree with him about the imminent collapse of America and I do not believe America is beholden to corporate interests as much as is believed, at least in the executive branch. Congress is a different issue entirely. But I did find myself agreeing vehemently with one paragraph:

After 9/11, I witnessed most of this country become obsessed with squashing dissent and silencing critics. I hope this election does not turn Black America towards this same, fascist mind state; but already I am starting to see it, and it saddens me greatly. I absolutely wish our new President and his family success and safety. But after all I have witnessed in my lifetime, and especially in the last eight years, I am not ready to lay down my skepticism or my outrage for this government. To do so would be unwise and, ironically enough, anti-American.

I see a lot of people willing to give the new President a honeymoon period and willing to forgive any mistakes he makes because he's better than the alternative(s). But that's not right, and as Aaaron puts it, it's down-right anti-American. In his defense, even the President wants people to challenge him and that is impressive.

The Spirituality Crisis

Yet another religious figure has attempted to identify the causes of the current economic crisis. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader and Nobel Prize winner, has voiced his belief that the current situation is a consequence of flagging spirituality around the world. He notes:

People have become selfish and materialistic, which has led to the economic slowdown.

This reflects the view of Pope Benedict XVI who said in his Christmas message:

If people look only to their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart.

Both of these men, as leaders of spiritual and religious movements, would prefer us to focus our attention and resources on spiritual and religious ideas. This is as natural for them as it is for Wall Street financiers to extol the virtues of finance and sell their trade. The only difference is that you don't see JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs preaching about religion.

As a matter of economics, however, the question is how well spirituality correlates with economic well-being. One can point out the poverty in Tibet, the Dalai Lama's home, as a rather scathing rejoinder, or that we had centuries of focus on religious activity before we gave capitalism (aka greed) a shot, but let's try actual research.

Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary released an NBER working paper, entitled Religion and Economic Growth, in 2003 documenting the effect of religion on economic growth. They reach the conclusion that belief in certain tenets of religion (like heaven and hell) correlates positively, and church attendance negatively, with economic growth. They reach a similar conclusion in their article, Religion and Economy, for the Journal of Economic Perspectives (Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring, 2006).

Spirituality, however, is not the same as belief. Spirituality would entail more church attendance and more participation in religious activity. That, as the researchers note in their work, would take resources away from other, non-religious sectors for very little benefit.

Democracy and Freedom

As the world takes small, Zeno-esque steps towards freedom on all fronts, certain countries are taking giant leaps backwards.

The British government has quietly adopted a new plan to extend warrantless "remote searches" by the police of PCs anywhere in the UK. More importantly, this is taking place across the EU for which it's called "warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property" and European police can instruct the British (and one presumes vice-versa) to conduct intelligence-gathering on their citizens. This is all nothing more than flowery language for hacking. 1984 is only 15 years late.

Not to be out-done, the incoming US administration is constructing an economic stimulus bill which may contain "buy American" provisions "that could favor U.S. companies over foreign competitors". This only a few months after Obama voted 'yes' on a bill extending warrantless wire-tapping of the very citizens whose votes he was trying to win.

This is what we have come to after years of freedom: society over citizen, citizen over foreigner. Both are immensely mis-guided in their efforts. There is no protection gained in the evisceration of the freedom of individuals in the guise of security and there is no economic benefit gained by subverting market processes and the freedom of trade in the name of patriotism. 

The sad fact is that the ordinary voter would have no major issue with either policy as politicians are adept at selling these abhorrent ideas as beneficial to their electorate and the ordinary voter has no idea why it's not. Even sadder is that we cannot expect government to fail in carrying out these plans. As Sir Humphrey Appleby once said, "[w]ell, almost all government policy is wrong, but...frightfully well carried out."

Arnold Kling's Lectures on Macroeconomics

Arnold Kling has started blogging his take on Macro-economics in a series of lectures. They are thoroughly enjoyable as they link real-world scenarios with micro-economics concepts and marcoeconomic theories.

Here's the course outline:

1. Introduction
2. Misconceptions about labor markets
3. Unemployment as an Adjustment Problem
4. Why Wage Cuts are Rarely
5. The Dotcom Recession
6. Labor Markets in the Post-industrial Economy
7. Imperial Origins of Money
8. The Relationship Between Government Money and Private Quasi-Money
9. The Nonfinancial Sector and the Financial Sector
10. Money or Credit?
11. Leijonhufvud and the corridor
12. Herd behavior, Procrastination, and Business Cycles
13. Multipliers and Model Estimates
14. A Recession as an Information Problem

Alternatively, you can read the entire series in one go.

For those of us who've taken an economics course before, we will notice that the lectures deviates from the norm. I do believe, however, that this is a better way of introducing students to the concepts by discussing events rather than introducing theoretical breakthroughs. After all, macro-economics is hardly a science.

Happy ♬ Year

Why is it that certain motorists feel it is appropriate to ring blare in the new year with a sound generally associated with frustration at the inability to move forwards?

Opportune moments

Dr Richard Wiseman, psychologist, magician and skeptic, wrote in his book, The Luck Factor:

Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected.

He came to this conclusion after running a rather interesting experiment. He asked volunteers, who described themselves as either consistently lucky or unlucky to contact him via ads in national newspapers. He then asked them to rifle through another newspaper counting the number of photographs. One of the photographs was an Easter Egg. The lucky participants spotted it more often than the unlucky ones.

It does appear to be, then, that luck has something to do with an open, positive attitude and a keen eye for opportunities. It's a pity that Dr Wiseman didn't consider how the unlucky ones were able to spot the opportunity to participate in his experiment in the first place.

Thought of the day

"We're in a race to see whether politics will become the dominant means of allocating financial wealth in this country." - Tyler Cowen

Tyler is no hard-core market fundamentalist and I'm ill-placed to say if he's right or wrong on this, but if it is so, it's rather disturbing.

Every time politics and politicians have dominated the allocation of financial wealth, there has been ruin, be it under the guise of monarchy, communism, fascism, corporatism or any other -ism out there. Maybe we've forgotten this lesson of history because TARP doesn't end with those three letters.