et alli.

1) Without mention of his country's need for oil above $50 a barrel Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister opines again that oil between $60 and $70 is Goldilocks land.

Saudi Says $75 Oil Helps All Energy Types

2) Just before President Obama addressed a Session of Congress on health care reform September 9th  Kathleen Sebelius was snoozing with Olympia Snowe in the well of the house.

Seducing Olympia Snowe: The Key to Health Reform

3)  Proliferation of fake news stories  on the Internet means its only a matter of time before I get sucked into this growing art form.<G>

Oh noes! Teh Internets makez u gulible

 

Brad DeLong post titled Bubbles! points to a chart, "Households and Nonprofit net worth as a percent of GDP",  at Calculated Risk without comment.  Or rather the title Bubbles! is his only comment.

My amateur chartist eye sees a likely Head and Shoulders formation in this chart.  I wonder if Head and Shoulders chart formations commonly indicate bubbles?  Is this idea too Kafkaesquest?

This is Senator Stabenow's copy of what is called the "Chairman's Mark" of the health care reform bill.

Presumably it is the product efforts by the "gang of six"

http://stabenow.senate.gov/healthcare/Baucus_mark.pdf

Its hard to do fresh analysis on a topic like last night's address to Congress and the American people.  The speech was standard Obama.  Well organized points presented logically.  A warm tone of voice.  Something new was confrontational tone served more to the right than the left.  The President looked at Republicans when he spoke about dishonest descriptions of his plan.  The speech was well larded with lines requiring Republicans to stand and applaud.  How could Republicans not applaude tributes to capitalism and free enterprise?

At the end the speech moved out of “Standard Obama” and into greatness.  He invoked the memory of Ted Kennedy.  He invoked the nations history and the things that make America great at least in the minds of Americans.

'You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem.  They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom.  But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited.  And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter -- that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges.  We lose something essential about ourselves.
 
That was true then.  It remains true today.  I understand how difficult this health care debate has been.  I know that many in this country are deeply skeptical that government is looking out for them.  I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road -- to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term.
 
But that is not what the moment calls for.  That's not what we came here to do.  We did not come to fear the future.  We came here to shape it.  I still believe we can act even when it's hard.  (Applause.)  I still believe -- I still believe that we can act when it's hard.  I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress.  I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history's test.
 
Because that's who we are.  That is our calling.  That is our character.  Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.'

Executive Overview

The Obama Plan: Stability & Security for all Americans

The Speech

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS ON HEALTH CARE

Tomorrow President Obama will address Congress and American Health Care Reform.  On Labor Day at a union picnic he began to focus on the issues.  A Public Option is back in the mix.  This is good because its key to reducing health care's share of Gross Domestic Product.

One hears the question how will we pay for health care reform?  The United States with 25% of the world's economic activity and only 5% of its population shouldn't really be too concerned about how it will pay for health care which is universally available to citizens of less rich countries.  A better question is whose rice bowl gets broken or more accurately redistributed.  Will it be hospitals, pharmaceuticals, medical doctors, the rich who have benefited from tax deductions, employers, labor, or some combination?  Most likely a combination and no rice bowl will be broken but some interest may be put on a diet.

I think covering every resident of the country is the right thing to do.  One Hundred Per Cent coverage will help the United States compete in global markets.  It will put small American companies, the source springs of economic growth, on an even playing field with big companies for  hiring skilled labor...every American worker will be “with health care benefits”.

There are pointers at the end of this post.  I've used a Wikipedia article for the in depth coverage of American Health Care Reform.  Sorry but it was the best balanced coverage I found.  Actually Wikipedia has many balanced coverage issue articles.

How we do “health care benefits”  is important.  If Republicans choose to have nothing to do with the legislation then it will be a courser sausage than if they participate in the process.  I suspect there will be a monetary cost, more expensive health care reform, if Republicans opt out.  For a party which trumpets its “in theory” opposition to deficits this is curious...and stupid.

Executive Overview

Another Overview

In Depth
Health care reform in the United States

 

Labor Day Weekend Gordon and I drove up to KC for the Mid-America Regional Gathering.  He has a little Mazda Roadster and it was a fun top down drive although I came back a bit sun burnt. 

It was an older crowd.  I would estimate 58 average.  Mensa as an organization has not done a good job of perpetuating itself across the generations.  If we are not careful we will wind up like the Shakers. 

The venue was said to be a former Sheraton now a HoJo franchise.  Spectacular loby, carpets had been replaced, and the towels were fresh and unscratchy.  A bit shabby here and there.  Big rooms still furnished with some danish modern almost collectable furniture. If I owned the property I would make most of it condominiums.  Its across from a big new town center style shopping center called Zona Rosa.  KCI is nearby.  Its a long way from Royals stadium.   But if esprit de corps will get a hotel through the recession this hotel has it from the manager down to housekeeping service.  Every staff member is friendly/perky/efficient.

There were several interesting lecture/presentations.  I liked best  Lewis Diuguid's (Kansas City Star) lecture on media and Miss Lovinia, Dominatrix Extraordinaire's candid observations on sadomasochism. 

Lunch Saturday Gordon and I drove down to Country Club Plaza.  I wanted to refresh my memory of Kansas City Steak House Soup and compare todays soup at its source to the many internet recipes.  Gordon asked how I would describe the Plaza.  Big grin...”that's easy.  Its 'The World's Original Shopping Center”.'  That's the chamber slogan and I don't see any sense in reinventing wheels.

My book for the weekend was George Friedman's THE NEXT 100 YEARS.  At  Mensa gatherings a book is an ice breaker, an invitation to “What are you reading?”.

Saturday evening in the Hospitality Suite two old boys (one my age and one about 10 years older) were bull shitting over glasses of wine.  The older one said he kept a log of Greenspan's market moving comments and claimed the time line of those comments was a Fibonacci series.  Hmm...he thought this was proof of a conspiracy between Greenspan and his “rich friends.  I think conspiracy would plot events out in a more random time line but a natural economy could generate events which need to be addressed by the Federal Reseve Chairman.  Those events might occur in a Fibonacci series time line. 

Driving home we began with the scenic route at Shawnee Mission  in the Country Club District and drove south on Mission Road with a side trip on Tomahawk Road.  Gordon was fascinated with landscaping on modest looking but expensive saltbox  houses.  South on Mission Road is like going outward through onion layers of suburban domestic architecture/gardening culture.  Lots of public statuary and bits of landscaping around them at street entrances. It was suppressing to see MacMansion infill in Prairie Village.   I wondered if they simply enlarged 1600 sq. foot ranch houses or tore down the older houses Beverly Hills style.

The Flint Hills are wonderful this time of year with late summer plants in full bloom (sunflowers) or beginning their autumn colors (sumac).  Still its good to be home and googling topics from the weekend... Media, endomorphins and Sadomasochism, hail resistant roofing, Japanese Yew, Greenspan and Fibonacci...

 

>>The Afghan war began as a just response to the Taliban government providing shelter and support to the Bin Laden terrorists.  The oil argument serves to keep our forces in Afghanistan long after they should have been recalled.  Personally I think its insane to think of building pipelines in a country with Afghanistan's history of strife and instability.<<

>To say nothing of the geography involved.<

The purposed oil and gas pipelines would run from Turkmenistan through western Afghanistan.  When you hear Herat and Kundahar mentioned that's the Afghan leg of the route.

Two key drivers of growth in world economies are energy and credit.  The focus of the new Great Game is whether Central Asia's energy will flow north through Russia or South, to the world's markets.

Executive Overview here.

In depth here....PDF File, 4008 Kb

Council On Foreign Relations conference where Steve LeVine said “US policy is pipeline-driven..."

Bill O'Reily/Stratfor twist here.