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The world rotates on its axis. The sun rises and sets. Actually, it doesn't move at all, we do, but never mind.
I'm still here, but I am taking a break, waiting for the din to subside.
I came to the conclusion that I had become part of the din, and in danger of being dragged down into the swill of excessive rhetoric that in this era of polls and polarization adds nothing of any substance to the public discourse.
The debt crisis debacle did it. Why comment on insanity?
I fear that our culture is dying.
Our political system seems to be broken, perhaps a victim of instant transmission of whatever sensation presents itself, and the 'round the clock news cycles. Too much abuse of the freedom of speech, and assembly. When is an assembly of concerned citizens in danger of becoming a lynch mob? It may be simply a matter of publicity, and momentum.
I see too much apathy turning from the spectacle of too much ignorant ranting.
I will continue to write, but not in the arena on one-upmanship, where the latest cut, the cruelest dig, wins the day.
I choose not to engage in battles of wits with the witless. It will not be about volume, but about the elevation of ideas.
Reason, ultimately, triumphs over zealotry.
My personal decision changes nothing, I know. It flies in the face of the power of publicity, celebrity, and confrontation, and ratings. But if I believe that reason prevails over rants, I will not be one of those who rant.
Old-fashioned, perhaps, in this era of instant polls, and the abdication of responsibility by the traditional gatekeepers. But if you value substance over popularity, you can sleep better, walk a little taller, and retain hope for the culture.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Rookies in public office are a threat to your financial health
After the vote to raise the debt ceiling and avert tipping the first domino toward default, world markets show LESS faith in the US economy. In fact, the dollar was worth more when we were in crisis last week, so what do we have to do to calm things down?
For starters, according to financial experts who get more time on the air than what TV wants as a "sound bite," it never was about the debt ceiling for those who know what they're talking about when working the numbers. It's about the dollar's reputation when compared to all the alternatives.
Paul Salmon, the economics reporter for Public Media, interviews people from Right to Left, including former financial advisers for both Republican and Democrat administrations. He also gets into the hectic world of financiers, who told him the other day that in essence, the news coverage of the financial crisis misses the point, because it covers it from a political consequences point of view, reporting opinions instead of the facts at hand.
Reporters talk to politicians on the Right and the Left, get quotes from a housewife in the grocery store, the retired guys getting cheap coffee at McDonald's, and others who really, forgive me, do not have a clue as to how to fill out a tax form, let alone a federal budget.
The folks in the back rooms know that those opinions matter, but not always in a good way.
World money markets traditionally trusted the political moderation of our decision-makers. Grownups with some experience in both business and governance, and only the occasional radical reformer. But now we have absolutists affecting the decision-makers; rookies in leading roles who do not understand the impact of cutting spending and not raising revenues.
Wiser heads -- those focused on economics, not ideology -- point out that these economic conditions are not as cut and dried as the normal standards weighed by rating agencies. They say you do not cut spending when what is needed is more cash in the marketplace.
What the market wants to see is not a reduction in the deficit; they want to see buyers coming in to spend money. When the buyers are spending, sellers will hire more people to serve the customers, and to make the products the customers want.
We love to nod sagely at grandpa's sage advice to put your money in a sock, don't borrow anything, and if you have a debt, pay it off immediately if not sooner.
Somewhere between carrying more debt than we can repay and not having any debt at all is that happy medium where we have confidence that we can pay off the credit that we use today.
I know the Pandora's box of instant polls and using electronic media has been opened, and will never be closed. But we'd all be better off if we turned off the talk shows, ignored the polls, listened less to the rants and read more about the solutions to complex issues.
Unlike so many of my colleagues in the media, I believe it is not freedom of speech that is paramount, it is the ability to find and seek the facts. It's getting harder to sift through the din to learn anything, except today's Talking Points of one side or another.
For starters, according to financial experts who get more time on the air than what TV wants as a "sound bite," it never was about the debt ceiling for those who know what they're talking about when working the numbers. It's about the dollar's reputation when compared to all the alternatives.
Paul Salmon, the economics reporter for Public Media, interviews people from Right to Left, including former financial advisers for both Republican and Democrat administrations. He also gets into the hectic world of financiers, who told him the other day that in essence, the news coverage of the financial crisis misses the point, because it covers it from a political consequences point of view, reporting opinions instead of the facts at hand.
Reporters talk to politicians on the Right and the Left, get quotes from a housewife in the grocery store, the retired guys getting cheap coffee at McDonald's, and others who really, forgive me, do not have a clue as to how to fill out a tax form, let alone a federal budget.
The folks in the back rooms know that those opinions matter, but not always in a good way.
World money markets traditionally trusted the political moderation of our decision-makers. Grownups with some experience in both business and governance, and only the occasional radical reformer. But now we have absolutists affecting the decision-makers; rookies in leading roles who do not understand the impact of cutting spending and not raising revenues.
Wiser heads -- those focused on economics, not ideology -- point out that these economic conditions are not as cut and dried as the normal standards weighed by rating agencies. They say you do not cut spending when what is needed is more cash in the marketplace.
What the market wants to see is not a reduction in the deficit; they want to see buyers coming in to spend money. When the buyers are spending, sellers will hire more people to serve the customers, and to make the products the customers want.
We love to nod sagely at grandpa's sage advice to put your money in a sock, don't borrow anything, and if you have a debt, pay it off immediately if not sooner.
Somewhere between carrying more debt than we can repay and not having any debt at all is that happy medium where we have confidence that we can pay off the credit that we use today.
I know the Pandora's box of instant polls and using electronic media has been opened, and will never be closed. But we'd all be better off if we turned off the talk shows, ignored the polls, listened less to the rants and read more about the solutions to complex issues.
Unlike so many of my colleagues in the media, I believe it is not freedom of speech that is paramount, it is the ability to find and seek the facts. It's getting harder to sift through the din to learn anything, except today's Talking Points of one side or another.
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