Comments on: Have a Nice Day

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:07:20 +0000

Sorry, Helen but lots of people use the shorthand “Westphalian”. If you don’t see it much, you just are not reading the same things I am.

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:13:31 +0000

Pretty much everybody does not use that expression, Lex. It is not correct and modern nation states did not suddenly come into being in 1648. Not over here, on this side of the Pond.

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:35:53 +0000

Helen, pretty much everybody uses “Westphalian” to mean the modern nation state, which did not, supposedly exist beforehand. Shorthand. Not ignorance.

Michael, suit yourself.

By: Michael Kennedy

Michael Kennedy — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:01:40 +0000

I’ll take a pass at further commenting. I thought I was on topic.

By: Helen

Helen — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:44:12 +0000

Why post-Westphalian? People should read that treaty and stop using the adjective to mean whatever they want it to mean. Humpty-Dumpty rules in political discourse. Grrrr!

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:20:24 +0000

Michael, I re-read your comment with a full stomach. Pardon my vicious tone. I see a connection, so all is well.

By: Brett_McS

Brett_McS — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:34:34 +0000

I suspect Robb agrees with many serious thinkers of past and present who are pessimistic about the stability of popular democracy in the longer term. Current crises are therefore seen as part of the inevitable, eventual decline of The Democracy Project.

It’s far from a trivial point of view. We know the economic crises occuring now was engendered by the popular political process. And now the political process is moving wholesale into energy and medicine. We can therefore fully expect future crises in energy and medicine.

The success of countries with a democratic process in the 19th and 20th centuries occured because they were thereby provided political stability while at the same time a sizeable proportion of economic activity was left to the market (the free exchange of information being a big part of that activity). It’s not obvious that this large area of activity will remain free against the popular pressure (especially from women) for control by ‘the people’. Once that happens we enter the realm of the Ponzi Scheme (which the political process always becomes) and it’s game over, even though it may look pretty good in the beginning, as all Ponzi schemes do.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:11:53 +0000

I agree with TMLutas. I realize that Robb is a smart and thoughtful guy, but in this quote he comes across like many financial pundits this year who have been predicting financial depression every time the stock mkt has a down week. Another way to put it is that, after a worst case, he is predicting a series of worst cases to follow. He may be right but it’s not the way to bet. The future will be full of surprises, just as the past was. Many of these surprises are likely to be positive ones, as was the case in the past.

By: TMLutas

TMLutas — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:51:27 +0000

It’s classic Robb. He’s so good at spotting negative black swans and so poor at spotting positive ones. I’m not claiming to be good at it myself, mind you, but I at least understand that they exist and should get us out of a lot of the problems that he foresees.

Historically, positive black swans outnumber negative ones. The green revolution, the transistor, the Internet,

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:36:45 +0000

Michael, what in blazes does that rant have to do with the Robb quote?

Be on topic in future or get deleted.

By: Michael Kennedy

Michael Kennedy — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:43:00 +0000

I’m afraid that age makes one less tolerant of the antics of the baby boomers. When I was in the eighth grade (1952) I happened across my cousin’s high school world history textbook (Hirsch High 1938). It read like a novel and I read it front to back twice. It began with the Doric invasion of Greece, as I recall although there may have been a chapter on Crete and Minos. I remember learning about Crete’s “wooden walls” somewhere in grammar school. Anyway, I wonder how many high school graduates know about the Punic Wars or Minos’ “wooden walls.” I’m sure others will say this is useless information but I would counter with a suggestion that Michael Jackson’s biography should qualify with far more to support it.

I don’t know if college students still find economics available that is not contaminated with Marxism. Right now, I watch Congress repeat the mistakes of Smoot-Hawley that we thought could never happen again.
i wonder if we will survive it as a free people.