Data Dribbling

   Experts may see troublesome economic signs but don't always admit a sharp drop is on the way.
   Instead, they call it a "market correction" and insist it will be brief and of little or no consequence. Reason: If they use stronger and more accurate terms, investors and managers will cut back, thus worsening the problem.
   But no matter what politicians, academics and managers say or do, the market will fluctuate, sometimes to the point of panic selling, which often has no base of solid information.
   That's why it's called a panic.
   There is, however, one rule that is clear and generous in its application, for good or ill.
   It is the Law of Supply and Demand. Simply put, the more people want some something, the more they are willing to pay for it. That is the Law of Demand.
   Similarly, the more that stuff becomes available, sellers are willing to accept lower payment. That is the Law of Supply.
   Opposites apply in each case.
   There is, however, one factor that ignores the law.
   Greed.
   That is the factor that is driving up prices of everything from bread and eggs to automobiles and housing. Result: Consumers will pay the increase while they can, but when they cannot, demand will drop.
   As a consequence, some folks who cannot afford the higher cost -- of food, for example -- will go hungry.
  Demand drops even as supply holds steady or even rises.
  But if wealthier families can pay higher prices as their demand holds, the net income to suppliers can rise even as the quantity fades.
  Greed rules.

Literary Inquisition

Inquiry is good.
Inquisition is ungood.

   "They are doing the devil's work, and must be stopped. They claim to be neutral and objective, but that's a lie, and lying is a sin. Therefore, to save their immortal souls, this devil's workshop they call a newsroom must be shut down, and we must rescue those poor sinners from their entanglement with Satan."
   -- The Preacher.

   "They have a right to disagree. They do not have a right to tell us what we may publish. That is censorship, and they have no such right. They claim a right of prior approval. We have a right to print all sides of an issue so readers can decide which they agree with."
    -- The Editor.

   People who call themselves true believers are stirring up a big debate. Sad to say it has happened many times in history. But that's what happens when a few people become enlightened, as they put it, and feel obliged to spread their message to everyone else. As if there is only one path out of ignorance on the way to what they decide is the only true way to enlightenment.
   The odd thing is that those who disagree feel the same way.They insist that their way is the right way and the other guys are mistaken in what they claim is the true belief.
   Maybe they're both right.

Book Banning

   Restricting access to literature that the power structure did not approve has been part of American history from its early days, and goes back even further, to 1492.
   True, that was the year Christopher Columbus used a Viking map to reach the Caribbean islands, but he sailed from a nation that was embroiled in banning Muslim and Jewish books. That was the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
   (Didn't expect that, did you? But nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.)
   Later, the group known as the Pilgrims left England because their version of the written religious work known as the Bible was unacceptable to the government. In its way, that was no different from the Spanish government's attitude toward Middle Eastern spiritual work.
   Eventually, when the United States became independent and wrote a new Constitution, the First Amendment to be ratified specified that the government cannot establish an official religion, nor can it limit press freedom.
   That, however, has not stopped people from attempting to ban such works as "Huckleberry Finn" because of its poor grammar, or "To Kill A Mockingbird" because it dealt with racism, or the Harry Potter series because it featured inhabitants of a spirit world.
   Currently, America is facing multiple challenges to schools that use books to teach the negative issues of racism.
   Never mind that such books are being used mainly in advanced placement classes at the high school level for students planning further studies in college.
   The protestors warn of the danger to younger students at the 4th grade level. As if young people don't encounter racism.
   The current proposed ban involves the teaching of Black history in America. As if Blacks in America did not encounter problems during centuries of slavery, nor of discrimination after slavery was banned, nor of the current efforts to encourage knowledge of those troubled times and the work done to resolve and eliminate those problems.
   As if one should ignore the problem, and that means it does not exist.

   But it's important to remember that the teaching of Black history also emphasizes the important contributions to society made by Americans of African descent. Has anyone made a comparative list of such contributions made by Americans of Polish descent, or French, or Spanish, or Italian, or Irish, or Chinese or any other nation?

   And let us not forget the composer of "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

   John Philip Sousa was the child of immigrants from Portugal.

Boring Hecklers

    One difference about President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday evening was that the President was heckled by Republicans in the audience.
   And while the President's speech may have been boring, the heckling gave the news media something interesting to report. Such activity may be routine in the British Parliament, but it's rare in Congress.
   It wasn't until television became widespread in America that the annual comment on how the nation is doing became a major media event. Initially, the report was given in written version to Congress, and attracted little media attention.
   Television, however, gave politicians the opportunity to present themselves to the nation in a well rehearsed effort to offer a glowing report on how well they are governing the country.
   For many years, the speech was carried live on network television, followed by some opposing commentary by a representative of the other political party.
  That in itself is odd, since the other side does not have a copy of the presidential speech before it is delivered. But the broadcast media felt obliged to carry it anyway, to satisfy the demand for "fair and equal coverage."
   As for what President Biden said during his speech, that was widely carried by many news media around the world. I got bored after the first 15 minutes and decided to read about it the next day.

Banning History

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

   Banning books stifles history.
   The odd thing about the latest effort to control what books are assigned to Advanced Placement classes in American schools is that the information in those books -- on Black history in America -- is part of American history.
   Blacks in America were in fact treated badly for centuries, beginning in the settlement era, through the slave era and continuing today. To ban books dealing with the treatment of Blacks in American is to stifle part of American history.
   How about a course on the treatment of Irish immigrants and Italian newcomers in the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th Century, as well as the treatment of Jews, then and now? Or the treatment of Chinese immigrants, supported by federal legislation in the 19th Century?
  And, of course, there was the treatment of the people who were already here and had been in America for centuries before the first Europeans arrived in the 17th Century. These native peoples were treated as somehow less than human. Which was a way of rationalizing the foul treatment of them.
   Now we see efforts by so-called government leaders to ban from their schools books that teach Black history. This is nothing less than censorship, a way of limiting which books are available.
   Proponents claim it is a way of protecting innocent young people from propaganda that will undermine their loyalty to the American way. But that in itself is propaganda, a way of foisting a preferred view of history onto innocent children who are not capable of seeing the fallacies promoted. Also forgotten is the reality that this teaching is designed for Advanced Placement classes, with high-level students who are bound for college. One could argue that this information should be taught to all students. Perhaps not in kindergarten classes, but certainly at the high school level.
   But what if the information is not fallacious, but true?
   There was, and remains, widespread ill treatment of minority groups in America, both those who were brought here against their will as well as those who today coming here on their own seeking a better way.
   Forgotten amid all the political noise is the reality of history.
   Meanwhile, hypocrisy thrives.

"Send me your tired, your poor,
Your huddle masses yearning to breathe free.
I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door."

Greed Endangers Democracy

    Democracy stabilizes greed.

   The danger is that when one becomes powerful enough to dominate the other, society suffers.

   When greed takes on the socially acceptable moniker of capitalism, one group dominates, and workers suffer. But when workers organize their efforts to get what they feel is a fair share of a nation's wealth, it's called communism or socialism.

   Oddly, both words are based on their social roots in their society or their community, when members join a united effort to improve the welfare of all.

   Historically, however, one side was so afraid of losing their dominance that they called their foes evil. Thus, socialism and communism are designated "evil," while capitalism is praised as the natural way to improve things for society's "betters."

   Sadly, that implies that others in society are "lessers."

   In the late 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century, workers organized to strike back at the unfair conditions imposed on them by their overseers -- a word translated from the Latin "supervisor."

   That was when the wealthy insisted that the greed of labor unions would destroy the American way of life.

   In a way, it did.

   But was it greed or a desire for a fair share?

   That "way of life" benefited the few at the expense of the many.

   Fortunately for the American way of life, business management and employers recognized the unfairness as well as the danger of a radical shift in control such as happened in Russia when it became a union of socialist republics, emphasizing social welfare for all rather than mostly for a dominant few based on birth instead of skill.

   However, some other nations and their governments recognized the danger of power being held by only one social group, so they recognized the rights of labor and modified their systems to prevent an insurrection similar to what happened in Russia in 1917.

   Will it happen again? Where? When?

   Answer to the first question is yes, it happens regularly in countries where the few unfairly dominate the many. Then, the dominated group reaches a limit to its tolerance for maltreatment and suffering, and a revolution occurs. That's what happened in Russia in the early 20th Century.

   And it's likely to happen in other countries when the few are unfair to the many. An additional, longer term danger is that the formerly subordinate group takes the power structure to its opposite extreme and a new form of domination takes over.

   Is this a simplified, if not simplistic, version of national political and economic trends? Yes. But it's useful.

   Lesson: All things in moderation.

   Moral: Be careful what you wish for.

Democracy in Danger

    Just published the latest in the Jack McHarg series on journalism vs politicians, this one dealing with the continuing attempt by a preacher to take over the government and convert everyone to his views.

   The title is "Democracy In Danger," and is available worldwide in print or ebook form.

   If all this sounds familiar to present (and past) events, that's the intention. A difference is that Druids and their helping spirits work together to stymie those who want the nation to do all things their way and stifle all other views.

Greed

High prices mean high profits

   Major oil companies reported massive earnings in the most recent fiscal quarter, and they blamed their high prices on the war in Ukraine.
   Food prices also soared, as the agricultural industry claimed a similar consequence.
  Considering that it takes months for crude oil to be carried from Arab nations halfway around the world to refineries in America, then many more weeks to local gasoline filling stations, it's a guess as to why the price hike was almost instantaneous.
   Likewise, farmers in America don't ship all their crops across the world, so why did market prices leap so quickly?
   Answer: Greed.
   We're off to a new era as economists try to match theory with reality. Or is it the other way around?
   Either way, observers try to dissect human behavior as they match it with scientific theory.
   Good luck with that.
   The theory started as academics used the name business economics, to differentiate it from home economics. That was back in the day when girls in high school took cooking classes and boys were limited to auto shop or carpentry.
   Times have changed. Now, students follow their skills, no matter their gender.
  One problem remains, however. That of matching human behavior with rational principles, based on the principle that people are rational.
   If they were, there wouldn't be so much rationalizing. By definition, this means they go to great lengths to explain their behavior as good, even as it has bad results.
   But I digress.
   The point is that corporate managers take advantage of changes in human behavior on any level to increase their profits.
   And that is greed.