Beautiful things can always find a buyer.
Define beautiful. Define buyer.
Even in extremely stressful times things of beauty will be desired.
Same problems with the meaning of words.
The problem I am trying to address is 'making a living making things'.
A direct approach is make things in great variety and place them for sale.
Once I have a group of things that sell, there will be many that want a part
of the income.
There are many things that sell I have no interest in making.
There many things that sell it would be criminal to make.
There are many things that are made by others.
This is getting to be a selective filter.
My Microsoft system is in trouble again.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/on-the-unbearable-self-indulgence-of-centrist-economics/
On the Unbearable Self-Indulgence of Centrist Economics
Ed Kilgore
is deeply annoyed, as he should be, at the “No Labels” people
promulgating the notion that all we need to do to solve our problems is
transcend our petty partisanship. As he points out, even their diagnosis
of what our problems are — specifically, that budget uncertainty is
keeping our economy depressed — is something that, as it happens,
neither Democrats nor Republicans accept.
But Kilgore goes too easy on these guys. It’s not just that partisans of all stripes would disagree with their diagnosis; there is not a shred of evidence supporting their claims. Where is the evidence that fear of future deficits — as opposed to fear of political chaos over the debt ceiling and all that — is depressing business spending? Where, indeed, is the evidence that out there in the real world of economic decision-making, long-term deficits worry anyone at all? How do you reconcile claims that it’s all about the fiscal outlook with record-low borrowing costs?
The truth is that this is all a self-indulgent fantasy. Very Serious People love to pontificate about the budget, because it makes them sound, well, Very Serious; and so naturally they really like a doctrine which makes everything going wrong a byproduct of the political system’s failure to heed their Very Serious advice. But there is, as I said, no evidence to support that comforting belief, and in fact all the evidence points instead to a Keynesian story about inadequate demand.
What leads to this self-indulgence? In large part it is what Jon Chait calls the “repetitive drone of elite sentiment”, in which the usual suspects pat each other and themselves on the back, with never a skeptical question. Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson will not appear on a Sunday talk show and get asked why the fiscal crisis they keep predicting hasn’t materialized. David Walker won’t be asked why, if the great danger is that at some point in the future we may be forced to cut benefits, it’s so important that we commit now to … cutting future benefits.
In ordinary life, believing what makes you feel comfortable, never mind reality, is widely understood to be a failing. In the world of Very Serious pontification, the practice is so deeply embedded that people don’t even know that they’re doing it."
But Kilgore goes too easy on these guys. It’s not just that partisans of all stripes would disagree with their diagnosis; there is not a shred of evidence supporting their claims. Where is the evidence that fear of future deficits — as opposed to fear of political chaos over the debt ceiling and all that — is depressing business spending? Where, indeed, is the evidence that out there in the real world of economic decision-making, long-term deficits worry anyone at all? How do you reconcile claims that it’s all about the fiscal outlook with record-low borrowing costs?
The truth is that this is all a self-indulgent fantasy. Very Serious People love to pontificate about the budget, because it makes them sound, well, Very Serious; and so naturally they really like a doctrine which makes everything going wrong a byproduct of the political system’s failure to heed their Very Serious advice. But there is, as I said, no evidence to support that comforting belief, and in fact all the evidence points instead to a Keynesian story about inadequate demand.
What leads to this self-indulgence? In large part it is what Jon Chait calls the “repetitive drone of elite sentiment”, in which the usual suspects pat each other and themselves on the back, with never a skeptical question. Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson will not appear on a Sunday talk show and get asked why the fiscal crisis they keep predicting hasn’t materialized. David Walker won’t be asked why, if the great danger is that at some point in the future we may be forced to cut benefits, it’s so important that we commit now to … cutting future benefits.
In ordinary life, believing what makes you feel comfortable, never mind reality, is widely understood to be a failing. In the world of Very Serious pontification, the practice is so deeply embedded that people don’t even know that they’re doing it."
http://robertreich.org/post/40545259057
Why Obama’s Gamble on the Debt Ceiling Depends on the GOP Being More Sane Than It Is
Monday, January 14, 2013
"A week before his inaugural, President Obama says he won’t negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt limit.
At an unexpected news conference on Monday he said he won’t trade cuts in government spending in exchange for raising the borrowing limit.
“If the goal is to make sure that we are being responsible about our debt and our deficit - if that’s the conversation we’re having, I’m happy to have that conversation,” Obama said. “What I will not do is to have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people.”
Well and good. But what, exactly, is the President’s strategy when the debt ceiling has to be raised, if the GOP hasn’t relented?
He’s ruled out an end-run around the GOP.
The White House said over the weekend that the President won’t rely on the Fourteenth Amendment, which arguably gives him authority to raise the debt ceiling on his own.
And his Treasury Department has nixed the idea of issuing a $1 trillion platinum coin that could be deposited with the Fed, instantly creating more money to pay the nation’s bills.
In a pinch, the Treasury could issue IOUs to the nation’s creditors — guarantees they’ll be paid eventually. But there’s no indication that’s Obama’s game plan, either.
So it must be that he’s counting on public pressure — especially from the GOP’s patrons on Wall Street and big business — to force Republicans into submission.
That’s probably the reason for the unexpected news conference, coming at least a month before the nation is likely to have difficulty paying its bills.
The timing may be right. President is riding a wave of post-election popularity. Gallup shows him with a 56 percent approval rating, the highest in three years.
By contrast, Republicans are in the pits. John Boehner has a 21% approval and 60% disapproval. And Mitch McConnell’s approval is at 24%. Not even GOP voters seem to like Republican lawmakers in Washington, with 25% approving and 61% disapproving.
And Americans remember the summer of 2011 when the GOP held hostage the debt ceiling, bringing the nation close to a default and resulting in a credit-rating downgrade and financial turmoil that slowed the recovery. The haggling hurt the GOP more than it did Democrats or the President.
But Obama’s strategy depends on there being enough sane voices left in the GOP to influence others. That’s far from clear.
Just moments after the President’s Tuesday news conference, McConnell called on the President to get “serious about spending,” adding that “the debt limit is the perfect time for it.” And Boehner said “the American people do not support raising the debt ceiling without reducing government spending at the same time.”
The 2012 election has shaken the GOP, as have the post-fiscal cliff polls. Yet, as I’ve noted before, the Republican Party may not care what a majority of Americans thinks. The survival of most Republican members of Congress depends on primary victories, not general elections — and their likely primary competitors are more to the right than they are"
Sooner is better. As soon as you can is best.
I have had to rebuild XP.
Microsoft has shut down the old Explorer. I am running FireFox and AVG.
My risk seems to be low. We shall see.
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