In Favor of Risk

Tom Vander Ark, in today's Huffington Post, seems to make a case for less, rather than more, oversight of financial institutions, afraid that risk-capital may get sent overseas.
To quote: "The uniquely American combination of market capitalism, extraordinary universities, and risk capital--specifically venture capital and growth equity--are the engine behind a century of remarkable progress."

That may be so, but in my opinion that run has come to an end, not just because of the so-called toxic assets that Wall Street and banks dabbled in, but also because there are other forces at work as well, such as the melting of polar ice, global warming, rising waters, peak oil, mounting unemployment, and industries that continue producing crap that's not needed, nobody wants, and ultimately clogs our rivers and landfills.

His article is based on old-school thinking. There's not a new idea in it. It's typical for the ugly investor we no longer can trust.

Separating funds from morals has lead to a breach in the economic levees and the funds have been drained out of it, not because there was no oversight, but because an environment had come to exist in which bigger equaled better, and richer equaled more desirable. All that now looks silly and out of touch.

Risk capital fleeing to Asia is like water that seeks its own level, like big fish looking for a place to spawn. If he wants that capital to stay in America conditions will need to be created for new investment, not by lax oversight or lack of regulation, but by appealing to a different mindset than playing Russian roulette, knowing that the government will cover your risk in case you bet wrong.

So, while he's talking about risk as a virtue, Mr. Vander Ark seems unwilling to risk anything new. He simply assumes that the same kind of people will be back wanting more of the same. Mostly, he seems afraid. Not exactly the risk taking kind...

So, I'm not sure what it exactly is he's asking for. Venture capitalists can be as supportive of the new economy that will emerge as they want to be. If great American talent and opportunity is going to be skipped over in favor of foreign investment in same than so be it. If you want to preserve capitalism as the only (other) God, than be prepared for how it behaves, like an irresponsible, greedy, destructive, resource-devouring beast.

Perhaps now is the time to look at a better use of capital than purely squeezing profit from it. Money is a natural resource as well, in a way, that helps make things possible. Wonderful things, sustainable things, innovative things, that may nourish us and excite us without creating toxic by-products that smother the environment and in the end our dreams and hopes. Perhaps the new investor will look upon our efforts to recreate the economy with the brave foresight of the risk taker who sees not only opportunity and profit, but also understands that what we all want is to live in harmony. Yes, that investor may not yet have emerged, but those are the ones we're all waiting for. Who goes first?

About Taxes
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Oversight Of Financial System and The Right To Arm Bears...

There are always folks that consider themselves "real" Americans in the way only a Sarah Palin will recognize that worm themselves into every blog thread with no regard to its topic, only to spew some vitriolic ideas 360 degrees.
Today, I encountered the following interruption of Geithner's economic discussion with the following remarks:
"Because of the violence in Mexico, Hillary is talking about banning assault weapons here in the USofA. Time for me to go out and purchase a few more assault weapons to add to my tactical weapons collection.
I have every right to defend my home against any and all evildoers. God Bless America, and God Bless our Troops."
To that I couldn't help but reply thusly: "Hey pal, you walked into the wrong discussion group. This one's about the economy. The creepy survivalist, kill-em-when-they-come, paranoid, fearful, big-mouth, finger-on-the-trigger, semi-fascist, neo-nazi, hiding-in-a-fox-hole, bunker-building, Timmy McVeigh-worshipping sad sacks discussion group is over to your far, far right, down the hall, in the basement. Be careful when entering and don't use the word "government" or you may get a load of your own fear fired at you by your com-patriots..."
I know, I shouldn't have, but hey, I carry ammunition too...

About Timothy Geithner
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Oversight Of Financial System Obama's Form Of Socialism?

One recurring accusation of Obama's attempts to attach some strings to Bush/Paulson's plan to bail out overnight-no-longer-profitable mega corporations with tax payers money is that he has a socialist agenda.
I think it's so demagogue to accuse Obama of socialism. If one insists on the term though, consider that it was the Bush gang that decided to take people's money and throw it no strings attached at those that were bringing down the capitalist system. Essentially, it was Bush's form of socialism that was implemented. Obama et al are in the uncomfortable position to make sense out of a senseless act. The premise of capitalism is that companies survive and profit by competition. In my opinion, these companies failed and money is better spent on helping those that have become victims of this failed concept of profit without responsibility. All the pollution, fraud, bribery, and political control that these mega conglomerations have effected is now old-school. Forward thinking is needed that takes into account our well-being and the health of ourselves and the planet. All those that are now losing jobs and homes would be well served if innovative measures are equally applied to the taxpayers that are in distress and whose funds are being taken without any say on their part. I'd call that fair, but some may call it (a form of) socialism, because at the basis the idea of fairness scares them.

About Timothy Geithner
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Facebook And Kids: Yet Another Parents' Nightmare...

Kari Henley writes on Huffingtonpost that she recently joined Facebook, so she "could track her kid's antics like a sneaky James Bond spy." Now she is hooked, but claims she uses Facebook a bit different than her kids do (like, for exchanging recipes), and that plenty of kids are getting addicted, use it for bullying, or to say things they would never in person. She's worried there have been many reports of teen suicide from internet related bullying.

Bla bla bla. Here's your typical out-of-touch American parent getting all nauseous as they always do about their pampered but grossly misunderstood litter.

The rest of her article is all about fear of this and fear of that. In spite of her claim of having done research for the article she doesn't appear to know that there have been NO suicides, except one traced to a mother() bullying a kid. She even goes into at what age a child's brain is fully developed with the premise that kids underdeveloped brains can't cope with the modern world...

Puleeze!

Kids are fine and will pick their fights based on what they can handle. They are way ahead of adults when it comes to how they communicate, either parents like the ways in which they do it or not. They have this "new" technology long figured out before parents have. The main point is that parents don't need to play cyber police if they have crafted a good relationship with their children. Many adults act either dismissive or overly protective when it comes to their kids. Let them talk from early on and listen to what they say and respond in an adult manner. Adults often shut kids up since way back when baby's blatter sounded just like goobely-doobely. To baby that's exactly how you sound! Treat kids early on like persons and not like fairies by painting them an innocent pink or blue wonder world occupied with choo-choos and horseys.

I recall when my baby first ventured up the stairs. The women present panicked. I calmly grabbed his ankles and let him go further, then backtracked, and repeated going forward and backward until he "got it." From then on he could not only to go up but also come down safely. That's teaching trust. Yanking him off the stairs is not.

If you're concerned about that big mean world out there then act like animals do and prepare your offspring for it. All the self-indulgent "concerned" psycho-babble of Kari Henley shows her disconnect, which is all too common. Simplify your thinking. Avoid cliché babble like "How was school?" and don't accept cliché replies. Get to know your kid by communicating in an adult manner since day one and you will have an adult relationship. You reap what you sow. Your children are a reflection of you.

About Facebook
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Limbo The Clown Now Official Mascot Of GOP...

Just when you think the country cannot be any further in limbo and along comes Limbo "The BOMBastic Radio Clown" (pictured here before he let himself totally go and turned into a bag of lard). Let's not waste time on discussing the language on his balloons. He drove into the circus ring in a cardboard car and is now doing a fine job of laying a fuse under the Big Bloated Elephant pinata and doesn't need any help turning it into confetti. Go Rush! (Applause)

About Celebs Talk Politics
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Emmanuel Rahm calls Rush Limbaugh "The Voice, Energy And Intellect Of The GOP"

Rahm Emmanuel is right. It's clear that in absence of a vision the GOP has its conservative action strategies dictated by media clowns like the ever-ballooning Rush Limbaugh and the heartless, meatless, and bloodless Ann Coulter with their obnoxious late-term lovechild Jonathan Krohn—who escaped being thrown away with the bloody bath water of so many Republicans trying to wash off the death and destruction brought on by their support for Bush, the waffling self-proclaimed "Decider" and his paranoid policies.

It would actually be funny as a Republican sideshow of thick-skinned ruddy-faced elephants and their adorable pink offspring, were it not that the evidence from the last eight years teaches us that the ad-nauseam repeated sound-bite rhetorical phlegm production they trumpetted as proof of brain activity has delivered nothing for the economy, the environment, and the well-being of a changed America. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. These self-described conservatives conserve little else than the nostalgic notion that they are the fossilized godzilla guardians of little more than the idea that the Sixties were America's finest hour.

I'd say, let this public circus of worn-out slogan slingers and dapper Don Quixotes parade all it wants as it blindly beats a noisy path into the nocturnal and dank dawn-less forest where old dogmas die under the applause of one hand clapping, and let its historical grandstand linger on in fitful dreams of a return to dictatorial days by the Hannitys, O'Reillys, and Malkins that drunk with absent power have fallen off the political relevancy bandwagon...

You can neither fight windmills nor windbags.

About Rahm Emanuel
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost