Lessons to be learned

Well, oops abound, as we can easily see. This year, we'll continue with the broader scope, yet find time for a focus on the plane program that is scheduled to fly its product this spring (2009).

Here are a few lessons to be learned, for starters.

• -- The WSJ tells us that civil contempt charges can lead to years in jail without trial. Say what? Yes, folks, in the good old US of A, it is possible to get into a situation that essentially requires you to prove your innocence to get out the clink. Can you see how that is opposite the usual approach to criminal justice? The crook can claim non guilt and require the prosecution to prove otherwise. We'll get more into this type of thing. Lessons: Happily, some states, such as Arizona, have put restraints on judges who do this type of thing. Such behavior reeks of hubris, does it not. As well, where do our rights come in?
  
• -- Harvard and others are crying poor now. Just a few months ago, some gloated at the returns going into their endowment funds that were the results of using leveraged techniques. Lessons: Hey, will they learn from this? Or will we, the taxpayers, have to bail them out?
• -- Why just pick on Harvard. Another fund's manager, this one dealing with pensions for hard-working public servants, cried that they need to do risky stuff to get their 8% returns. Lessons: Folks, when you hear this type of argument, think that it's a call for leveraging, by necessity. What it means is that someone doesn't want to pay up the proper basis for the future. Why don't we learn that we're dealing with a near-zero game? Any one who has expanding pockets is sucking it out of myriads more. That is, every winner maps to oodles of losers. Yet, that is argued as fair by many.
• -- Who's the daddy? Well, people thought that those who played the games were the brightest and smartest. Of course, we bailed out some highly paid people, if you folks recall. A recent report showed that Saudi Arabia can survive on an oil price of about $43 per barrel. Other countries need a much higher rate due to many factors, some of which involve leveraging. Lessons: Where is a lot of the Saudi money? US Treasuries. That the markets game needs a lot of attention; it is not the proper basis for an economy.

We'll continue in this vein for awhile, building up material for discussion.

The following are add-ons that will be coordinated with the seeds.

• -- Some think that there is a case for stock in building wealth. Perhaps, this could be true (or was) in certain senses. It is not categorically (refer to fund manager item above). For one thing, a gaming flavor has intensified with the computational support such that we do not know what is what at the end of any day. Okay, uncertainty is always something that we face. Lessons: Describe and discuss how this problem can be resolved. Also, look at how purely gaming schemes cannot be our future (not entirely).
• -- Value and froth are many times synonymous, it seems, in the realms of casino capitalism. Part of this is because financial engineering has no real basis. Lessons: Value is much more than what the market can address, and, yes, it is beyond mathematics, to boot.
  

Remarks:

10/11/2009 -- Discussion has gone over to FED-aerated. Note the 10/11/2009 Remarks about the Business Week article on India's progress' inhibitors. 'Near zero' recognizes that some always suffer more than others, especially in win-win situations, as the whole notion of characterization minimizes visceral reactions by diminishing the real in favor of the abstracted (ah, the modern world, you say?).

09/11/2009 -- Win and lose. Everyone wants the former. The latter actually is what balances the equation.

07/14/2009 -- Looks like more than the finance guys need to learn something. Confounding ought to be left for safe games.

03/30/2009 -- Near-zero will be looked at more closely.

01/27/2009 -- Now a new day and way to consider these matters.

01/12/2009 -- Split out add-ons, which will grow for awhile.

01/11/2009 -- The tone changed above in a few areas in keeping with the Mission and Method. But do note that it says lessons to be learn, not lessons learned. We're dealing with open issues here.

Modified: 10/11/2009