naked capitalism

John Rosevear says:

Yves, I can’t say I’ve done any sort of formal survey, but… here in the Boston suburbs at least, milk and (to a lesser extent) meat are definitely less expensive than they were three months ago, and produce prices don’t seem to have risen outside of seasonal ranges (that is, the tomatoes etc. are always more expensive and less tasty in December than in September in this part of the world. Surely it is the same in NYC.) Is it possible that the prepared-food price increases you’re seeing are a matter of passing along higher costs from earlier this year? What kinds of products are you seeing these rises on — I’d love to try to figure out if those are national trends.

eh says:

Black hole confirmed in Milky Way

So that’s where all the money went.

Richard Kline says:

I buy very few prepared foods, and shop in comparatively high cost stores specializing in produce, bulk, and specialty fresh meats. My costs are high to begin with: it’s where I spend my nickel. Costs _jumped_ this Fall. Yes, cost increases were delayed through the Summer when commodities were parabolic, but real costs had to come through in the end.

Anonymous says:

Nothing deters me from my Botox treatments.

How freaking oblivious are these people? It’s like they WANT there to be some sort of class revolt. Hell, I make six figures (for now, at least) and I’d be happy to pick up a pitchfork and torch and join in.

Peripheral Visionary says:

The move away from domestic servants is a welcome one in my view. The increased use of domestic service led to a disturbing return to class distinctions, further deepening the distinctions between the aspiring affluent–mostly white Americans–and domestic servants–mostly Hispanic immigrants.

The loss in both asset appreciation and high-income jobs (specifically in real estate and finance) will reduce the numbers of jobs available to immigrants, but at the same time will, ironically, put both the formerly affluent and the immigrants in the same pool of job seekers. I do not celebrate the loss of prosperity, but a return of a more egalitarian society is welcome.

Kevin Smith says:

re: Nothing deters me from my BOTOX treatments.

I have lots of patients who report feeling better after BOTOX, and who make a point of coming in when something bad is happening (mom is dying, dog has to be put down, etc). Now there is an increasing body of scientific evidence that BOTOX treatment really does make people feel better.

Botulinum toxin and the facial feedback hypothesis:
Can looking better make you feel happier?
Murad Alam, MD,a Karen C. Barrett, PhD,b Robert M. Hodapp, PhD,c and Kenneth A. Arndt, MDd,e,f,g
Chicago, Illinois; Fort Collins, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Boston and Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts;
New Haven, Connecticut; and Hanover, New Hampshire
The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that muscular manipulations which result in more positive facial
expressions may lead to more positive emotional states in affected individuals. In this essay, we
hypothesize that the injection of botulinum toxin for upper face dynamic creases might induce positive
emotional states by reducing the ability to frown and create other negative facial expressions. The use of
botulinum toxin to pharmacologically alter upper face muscular expressiveness may curtail the appearance
of negative emotions, most notably anger, but also fear and sadness. This occurs via the relaxation of the
corrugator supercilii and the procerus, which are responsible for brow furrowing, and to a lesser extent,
because of the relaxation of the frontalis. Concurrently, botulinum toxin may dampen some positive
expressions like the true smile, which requires activity of the orbicularis oculi, a muscle also relaxed after
toxin injections. On balance, the evidence suggests that botulinum toxin injections for upper face dynamic
creases may reduce negative facial expressions more than they reduce positive facial expressions. Based on
the facial feedback hypothesis, this net change in facial expression may potentially have the secondary
effect of reducing the internal experience of negative emotions, thus making patients feel less angry, sad,
and fearful. ( J Am Acad Dermatol 2008;58:1061-72.)

It is unfortunate to juxtapose the layoff of a $50,000 a year nanny on a $2,000 a year program of BOTOX treatment.

Try BOTOX — you’ll probably like it!

gloomboom.com says:

It’s getting real bad out there and someday these Ivy Leaguers will wise up and get a little humility. If not, they will get some humiliation!

Tortoise says:

Re: “Inflation Concerns Remain High in Latest WSJ/NBC Poll”

For a good reason. Commodity prices have gone down and technology items continue their downward trend.
But, let us look where we really spend our money. If you have a kid in college, you know that the cost is going up about 4% a year (and now colleges announce big increases in tuition and fees to compensate for losses in endowment and state support). Health care continues getting even more expensive. I went to my usual dentist last week and realized that he had raised his prices quite dramatically (I guess he needs to recoup his losses at the stock market. But he is a great doctor and a good guy, so I just paid up.) Housing is not getting cheaper for the average family unless they downsize or refinance an existing mortgage at a lower rate. Services, like barbers or plumbers or electricians, are NOT becoming cheaper.

So, I find all this talk about deflation rather premature. It may happen in the future but it certainly is not in consumer prices yet.

Anonymous says:

no sometimes kids need to learn how to think and analyze

only law school is (or at least should be) dedicated to develop thinking — taking a problem, applying potential solutions, seeing how each plays out, articulating why something works or it doesn’t, following the decision tree as played out far enough under all imaginable scenarios to see repercussions of any given action

more law professors cultivate this in students than teachers in other disciplines and law school classwork should be making students practice this over and over again until it becomes part of the student’s nature

it also helps to have student’ intellectual curiosity rewarded but sadly, those students are generally shafted as professors of most disciplines, having none themselves, are incapable of doing so

Anonymous says:

Hedges’ rant is weirdly apolitical: he blames elite schools for our politics. I think he’s got it wrong. Blame our politics!

A reality check: universities, elite and not, are largely Democratic. We’ve had Republican governance for decades. It matters: look at the stats on inequality, economic growth, tax burden, etc.

It’s laughable to blame our elites for what has happened to our government. Bush made a point of appointing folks who were poorly trained (e.g. from Christianist universities and law schools) political hacks.

If we’re to recover from that disaster, we have to hope that the fact that Obama is (for example) appointing a Nobel prize winning physicist to be energy sec will make a difference. At least give competence a chance.

As for the perversion of our economic elites with free-market deregulation garbage, there is a simple explanation: greed. Which took over because the conservative political climate removed the regulatory barriers to speculation and cronyism.

Anonymous says:

I’ve been fortunate to attend MIT and Yale. I found no conformism at MIT and not much at Yale either.

On the other hand I was studying mathematical and scientific subjects.

I can believe there might be conformity pressure in non-mathematical fields, which I have often thought are breeding grounds for political agendas. And I fear that could happen at schools of high or low rankings. The problem may not be the university but what we classify as an academic field of study, the professional standards therein, and what sorts of training we deem suitable for our public and private leadership.

Richard says:

1) Re the botox lady: 9 out of 10, she voted for Obama.

2) Re Hedges: Buckley said 20 years ago, he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than the faculty of Harvard.

Re LJR: He trashes liberal education (which actually was pretty good when I got mine at a regional private college in the 60s, but before The Sixties wrecked). His clincher: King Crimson? An Aristotle for our age.

Anonymous says:

If we get started beating on the American Akademy, I fear we will never stop. Careerism is an expensive (for all of us) disease.
On the side of economics, here are two links that may be of interest:
http://www.paecon.net/
(started by the French)

and this written by a Prof. of mine @ UC San Diego:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7181.html
about careerism amongst (gasp) economists.
Appreciate you folks!

Peripheral Visionary says:

Anonymous: “Were it not for availability of household help/child care, for many professional women, careers would be impossible dreams.”

The professional woman may be able to realize her dreams, but only at the cost of the working-class woman’s dreams who steps in to take her place as caregiver. That’s a net zero gain for women, and another indication of the creep of class distinction, where the professional woman’s aspirations are more important than the working-class woman’s aspirations.

” . . . but men are stupid.”

This is level of analysis they’re teaching in law schools these days? Only reinforcing my opinion that lawyers are severely overpaid.

curlydan says:

I read the Hedges article and was unimpressed.

Mostly, he seems to fall into the trap that the Ivies already are in–thinking too much about themselves. So the Ivy author spends more time talking about himself and his classmates.

I’ve seen graduates of the elite schools in elite positions, regular white collar positions, and back down to blue collar positions like driving a cab.

At every company I’ve worked for, I’ve never had an Ivy League CEO, so they’re not running the world. A lot of elite university grads are doing great things, some are doing stupid things, and others are just commenting on blogs while at work or while taking care of their kids.

Mostly what I see is that the Ivy degree is a good way to open the door, but it’s up to the ability of the person to step through the door if they want to get somewhere.

In fact, a study revealed that kids with similar test scores entering college had very similar incomes years later, regardless of the school they went to. Talent reveals itself in the long-run.

Anonymous says:

Post Script re Anonymous:

No, not just some ex-client.
Legal system is about power and money vs. people without a care to the consequences in people’s lives. Have seen it over and over again and for years.

Attorneys deal in circular reasoning, in a British court style, with ridiculous processes continued for profit making.

Attorneys have been hemorrhaging this economy.

Will spare the time re elaborating further.

independent