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 Hard work and productivity are beautiful things. |
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The economics theory that drives some center-left thinking comes from John Maynard Keynes. His is called the "Keynesian Formula," which goes like this: C + I + G + X - M = Y(GDP) Decrypted, it translates as:Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Exports - Imports = Gross Domestic Product Under his theory, government spending counts as productivity. Keynesian Economics helped to spawn the notion of deficit spending.To give a bit more background to his thinking, he believed in the notion of "full employment," which asserts that an economy is at its best when everyone is working. Keynes' premise arose from the Depression era, and putting people to work would, he argued, spur income and economic activity, even if it took borrowing from the future to "create jobs" for the unemployed. Cute theory and kinda tidy, but it misses something rather important: borrowed money is never cheap. I can borrow money from the future, but at the cost of interest. Deficit spending is not a zero-sum game; it's a chase of creditor to debtor, and payback can be a bitch. (Micro-economically, ask anyone with big credit card debt. Macro-economically, ask our kids in 20 years - they'll tell you.) Further, it presupposes that the government will spend money in a way that is productively equivalent to spending and investment driven by the private sector. But not all money is equal. (I discussed this recently in another post.) Restated: an artist in his basement can chew up money all day long creating art, but if nobody wants it, the velocity of money around him decreases and it is therefore not productive money. On the other hand, a guy who cranks out art that people love and want will increase the velocity of money around him, and that money is greatly productive and self-sustaining. The free market would urge the guy with no demand for his art into a profession more productive. His lack of productivity would necessarily have to come to an end in order for him to survive. Government spending, which has nothing to do with market desire, could subsidize his lack of gainful productivity. The only talent he needs is to appeal to the right government patron, which severely handicaps any inclusion of government spending in a calculation of gross domestic product - especially since government workers aren't known for picking champions of the economy. Keynes was smoking the bong, for the two reasons I've stated: - Interest on deficit spending weakens any productivity that deficit spending might create. It's an economic sugar high, and the inevitable crash comes when the debt comes due.
- Government investment is notorious for propping up low quality enterprise long after the free market would have forced its closure.
Someday soon I'll write a post about how the notion of forcing "full employment" is ridiculous and ruins an economy.Leftists... |
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Talking with Chuck Grassley |
I sent what follows to my grassroots email distribution list earlier today: I just got off the phone with Sen. Chuck Grassley. We spoke for about 40 minutes.If I can share one thing with you that was most evident to me in the phone call, it was this: he wants to hear our opinion and represent us. After watching how he listened at the town halls he conducted on health care over the summer recess, I believe that's true. He doesn't support government intervention into health care. There was a noticeable difference in his choice of words after those town halls. You helped to bring that about by getting involved and voicing your opinion in no uncertain terms. The purpose of my call, which was scheduled by his staff, was to see if the senator was willing to more directly engage with those of us in the grassroots. After the discussion, I believe he is. My impression (not his wording) is that he is tired of his message getting screened and twisted by the Des Moines Register and CNN. He has more direct communication through his web site. He uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and such. He holds a monthly telephone town hall and of course is well-known for his visit to Iowa counties every year. Personally, I never knew about all of his efforts to more directly communicate with us. And prior to six months ago, I'd never really tried to tell him my opinion. I just took it for granted that he would represent "conservatism." As I told him, shame on me for not working to get engaged until this year. But I'm engaged now. Like you, I want to restore America to liberty and I'm interested in supporting politicians who will work with me in that effort. If I work to influence his vote, and he ignores me - a la Leonard Boswell - that's one thing. But if I don't reach out to him, then I'm not giving him the opportunity to represent me. We owe him our voiced opinion. He owes us representation. That's the deal. On his web site, he has a contact form. He said that this year's volume of communication is much, much higher than in years past. Even though he is backed up, he says that he still wants your input. There is a local contact in his organization that he provided me. I hope to have a meeting with that person in the next few weeks. In this way, the grassroots of Iowa might more directly communicate with the senator and increase our influence. Lastly, I told him that I am most concerned about curbs being placed on our liberty and federal increases in our nation's debt. I look forward to seeing how Senator Grassley will better promote and legislate on those issues. At least now he knows my opinion to help steer his decisions. Brett Have you reached out to your elected representatives to make sure that they are clear about where you stand? |
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There is only one area of life where you can wildly support a loser and be considered cool for it: sports. Being a sports fan gives you a pass to dress up and paint yourself and buy paraphernalia and get away with it - even if your team sucks eggs. People who continue to have Obama bumper stickers on their cars and who still get excited about all things Obama run the risk of having their cool card - should they have possessed one - revoked indefinitely. His O-lympic fail and the sheer incompetency of it at every level - from the "intelligence" that said it was a shoe-in to the horrible presentations given by Barry and Michelle - puts them in league with the worst teams in history. For a guy who seemingly had mojo to burn, he did just that with it. ObamaCare, Cap and Trade, the stimulus, the unemployment rate, Afghanistan, ACORN, Cash for Clunkers... Forget gold. Everything Obama touches turns to lead. You can root for a sports team that sucks. That kind of loyalty is admirable. You can't root for a politician who consistently turns in a performance this bad. That's not admirable; that's just foolish. And this week, he continues to press for the notorious "public option." Rookie. |
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I could talk about the killer Drudge headline, "The Ego Has Landed." But that says it all. 'Nuff said. My van is on its last legs, unfortunately. Still runs fine, but it'll need to be replaced. I browsed Ford's web site last night and talked to a guy at the dealership. Today, I see this: GM's sales are down 45% from last September (when sales were already bad enough to drive the company into bankruptcy). Chrysler is down 42%. Ford is only down 5%. Car buyers are clearly punishing the two bailout recipients brutally. No one in my family will ever buy a GM or Chrysler car. Tamara and I are planning to buy Fords as our next cars.Freedom - it's everything. |
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If you asked me my favorite part of being a dad, it's the opportunity to be so close to so many good people. With our eight kids, there's always drama of some sort. The great thing is that they all get along well and promote each other. In this big, blended family of ours, we have terrific and loving kids. It's important to stop and frame the moments that come by. No matter how busy, no matter how chaotic, the images will sweep by if you don't take a few seconds - because then the memories might just be gone. I was in a hotel with Tamara a few months back and I went in search of a Diet Coke, her beverage of choice (of course - she grew up in Georgia), and I ran across this picture in the hallway.  I wondered at the time if the girl in the photo ever saw this picture years later. Who are the girls in the background? Did she know them? Would she remember them a few decades down the road? Did her kids ever see the picture, and know their mom as a child in this way? It's one thing to capture the moments where we pose and smile pretty. It's another to capture us as we are, doing everyday activities, just being ourselves. Kids are great that way. They're less concerned about the outcome of the photo - which is why kid photos tend to be great. Adults? Hard to sometimes get them to drop their guard. We would do well to not only capture life around us, but also to let others capture life as it happens to us. Those memories are worth the reward of dropping our pretenses. |
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Will Ferrell, Eat Your Heart Out |
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Would You Pay Monthly to Protect Freedom? |
As you know, I support Dave Funk for congress. He's running against Leonard Boswell, who pays more attention to Nancy Pelosi than to those of us here in Iowa. What's it worth to fire Boswell? Whether you live in Iowa or not, you can reduce Nancy Pelosi's influence, and here's how: You can make a monthly contribution to Dave's campaign. If you don't like the direction our country is going, then sign up to make a recurring donation, at $10 or $20 or even $50 a month. All of us pay monthly for things like Netflix and cell phones... what would you pay monthly to protect your freedom? |
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   This is the map inside Nelsons, an ice cream store in Stillwater, Minnesota, with pins depicting "home" for its patrons. World travelers, they are. And the next picture is a 180° turn toward the sales counter.    |
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I mentioned the 247 demos that were done yesterday. Here's what took place: Larry and I went to a corporate office, and gave the demo to three folks, one of which was the decision-maker. One of the people had seen the demo before, a couple of months ago. 30 minutes into the demo, the three of them were extremely excited about the prospect of using it to manage their employees' volunteer engagement in the community. We agreed to tailor it to their process, which isn't a big stretch from the current iteration of the platform. They also need one chunk of development that isn't in the platform today. My guess: they'll agree to buy it, if we throw in the development they need. I'm willing to do that, if that's the direction the negotiation takes. A friend of mine, who helped arrange the contact with the company back in July, called me afterward. "How'd it go?"
"Great. Our solution is a perfect fit, and they can see that."
"Brett, that's awesome. Then you can sell to the other twenty."
"No, no, Malcolm. This is an enterprise solution."
"I know that. And there are over twenty enterprises." That's when I realized he was right. If this one goes, we have a very warm lead into over 20 other sales. Then, later in the evening, I get the call from Joe, who did the demo yesterday for the communications director of an Iowa politician. Long story short, there is a point in the demo - and it happens with everyone - where the light bulb goes on. Once they get it, the roles of the demo switch and the presenter becomes the audience and the audience becomes the presenter, as they gush on about the ways in which this could be used. At that point, you just sit there and smile and agree as all of those dots start connecting. It's pretty cool. Joe remarked about that: "And exactly as you said, when I got to the comparison, it clicked - I watched her get it and she just took off with it. Brett, this woman knows everyone in politics. She's done national campaigns. She knows corporations. Tomorrow, she's going to LA and the day after that she'll be in China, and then she's coming back to Iowa. Brett, this is HUGE!" So I get home and hear all of this. I had my own good meeting. It's tough not to get excited, but until the contract is signed or the money changes hands, cool demos mean nothing. Today is just another day... Sort of :) |
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