2:00PM Water Cooler 5/6/15

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

TPP

Obama should really stop lying about how secret TPP is [Newsnet5].

[Rep. Tim Ryan:] “Right now you have to go into the same room that we get classified briefings in, that’s how secretive this whole process has been,” said Ryan who headlined a labor rally in Akron Tuesday against TPP.

The members enter the room alone, with no staff who can help break down the language in the deal. You can take notes, Ryan said, but they must be left behind.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “I sit on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, since 9/11 we’ve had a ton of classified briefings and that’s common procedure. You can take notes, but you got to leave them and to have that same thing happen for a trade agreement where our jobs are at stake, our communities are at stake, investment is at stake. It’s kind of mind-boggling.”

DeLong on unintended consequences [Ylgesias, Vox]. Yglesias quotes DeLong:

It turned out that the most important aspect of NAFTA was the Mexican financial liberalization that allowed Mexico’s rich to cheaply purchased political risk insurance from Wall Street by getting their money into New York.

And draws this conclusion:

[DeLong’s] bottom line from all of this is that “analyzing modern trade agreements as if they were primarily Ricardian deals is likely to lead one substantially astray” [Understatement of the century ZOMG!!!!!]. The deals encompass a much wider range of issues, and the biggest impacts can pop up in unexpected places. We know who gets a seat at the table in the TPP negotiations and who does not, but actually understanding its implications is very challenging.

We know what kind of deal this is, and it doesn’t take a seventy-five cent phrase like “Ricardian equivalence” to figure it out. Warren Buffet: “If you’ve been in the game 30 minutes and you don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy.” We don’t know the deal. Ergo, we’re the patsies. There’s probably some fancy name for this over there in the information arbitrage silo, as opposed to here in trade silo, but somebody smarter than me will have to supply that.

They write letters [WaPo]. Judith Resnik, Cruz Reynoso, Honorable H. Lee Sarokin, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Laurence H. Tribe:

It is particularly noteworthy that the three NAFTA countries are each in the top 11 most-challenged countries under the ISDS system. This high rate of challenge in our view has little to do with a rule of law deficit in the U.S. and Canada. Instead, it represents investors taking
advantage of easy access to a special legal right available only to them in an alternate legal system.

That’s a great argument, which I missed (April 30). I guess Tribe has given up on that Supreme Court seat at last. But and so a good letter!

TPP as grand strategy [Politico].

Carter knows his stuff on defense. But contrary to his claim, TPP is not likely to strengthen our manufacturing sector, increase jobs for American workers or raise the growth rate of the American economy.

Presumably, that’s why he and other administration spokespeople now justify the proposed agreement as a means to keep China from having a say in how business is done in Asia.

But the U.S. government’s insistence that TPP include the intellectual property terms demanded by Hollywood, Big Pharma and patent-trolling American lawyers clearly has more to do with appeasing domestic lobbies than with creating jobs by increasing exports.

Maybe Obama’s just running the same scam he ran to get ObamaCare passed: Cutting a deal with Big Pharma is enough to get the job done.

Former Reagan trade rep: It’s all about the children. And the grandchildren [The Hill]. If there are any, since one sane response to the economy our elites have created, today and tomorrow, is to remain child free.

Brown University Senior and HuffPo intern: “Sens. Sanders and Warren must understand policy can’t be made on the stump, and this deal is about more than just their own party prerogatives” [HuffPo]. Really? What’s wrong with running an election centered on policy?

“[T]he secretive TPP trade agreement is a rare trade deal because instead of just disadvantaging unskilled labor, whose jobs have mostly been shipped overseas resulting from past trade deals, TPP disadvantages an entire society regardless of socio-economic class” [Value Walk]. Ouch! Interesting to see the the approach the right takes, having finally gotten involved in this debate…

Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) opposes fast track [New Mexico Political Report]. Contact info.

Obama to stump for TPP at Nike in Oregon [Reuters]. Quote from the guy handling Nike’s PR, Peter LaMotte:

[LaMotte:] “While there will always be those who remember Nike for the child labor issues, the vast majority of the American public will associate them more with Air Jordans.”

Alrighty then.

2016

Sanders

WMUR Granite State Poll: Sanders support doubles to 13% post-announcement (Clinton: 51%, Warren: 20%) [CNN]. Of course, just because Vermont and New Hampshire are neighbors doens’t mean they like each other.

On banks: “If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist” [Reuters]. Boring banks that are small, that’s the ticket.

“Sanders is better positioned to exploit this resentment against the one percent that many pundits understand” [The Atlantic]. This Vermonter didn’t come from a Wall Street family…

The S.S. Clinton

Hillary’s immigration proposals “stunningly aggressive” [Vox]. And “poke the GOP hornet’s nest” [WaPo].

“Americans now view Mrs. Clinton more favorably and as a stronger leader than they did earlier in the year, despite weeks of scrutiny about her ethics” [Political Wire]. This is not hard to understand: The American people understand that there’s good money to be made throwing shit at the Clintons, and admire Clinton for standing up to it, regardless of the merit of the shit being thrown. As for me, I’m still waiting for the corruption leaderboard. Journimalism opportunity!

Chelsea: “My family is no stranger to scrutiny and neither is the foundation” [WaPo]. Neener neener.

Republican Clown Car

Huckabee scouting report [WaPo]. Lacks “proven appeal to voters beyond his core of evangelical supporters.”

Huckabee, to his credit, doesn’t want to cut Social Security [Bloomberg].

What Americans don’t want to see in a President (handy chart) [WaPo].

Stats Watch

ADP Employment Report, April 2015: “ADP correctly signaled a weak employment report for March and it’s signaling another weak report for April” [Bloomberg].

Productivity and Costs, First Quarter 2015: “The grinding halt that the economy came to the first quarter pulled nonfarm productivity down by 1.9 percent and inflated unit labor costs by 5.0 percent” [Bloomberg]. Wait, wait. I thought “the” economy was doing great? These people can turn on a dime!

Gallup U.S. Job Creation Index, April 2015: “More American workers have reported that their employers were hiring over the past year than in the six years prior, with the latest data from April representing a new high mark” [Bloomberg].

MBA Mortgage Applications, week of May 1, 2015: “The purchase applications index continues to offer the earliest signals of spring momentum in the housing sector” [Bloomberg]. Rates up.

Corruption

USPS Inspector General audits contract with CBRE, one of the largest and most politically wired real estate firms in the country, owned by Richard Blum,DiFi’s husband. Criminal investigation of kickbacks, “appraisal discrepancies,” “serial conflicts of interest” [East Bay Express]. Maybe some prominent Democrat — say, one who’s running for President — should address corruption in the state and local Democratic parties (I know, I know….), because there seems to be rather a lot of it about.

Even more important than yesterday’s Skelos indictment: Charles Dorego, bagman for uber-donor Leonard Litwin, has been singing to the Feds [Capital New York]. Pass the popcorn.

Black Injustice Tipping Point

“Emergent Ghettos: Black Neighborhoods in New York and Chicago, 1880-1940 [Logan, Zhang, Chuny Brown University, 2013]. Very interesting.

An important article on liberal Deblasio’s instant first appointment, Bill Bratton. When Obama says “community policing,” this is what he means [Harpers, “Beyond the Broken Window” (You can probably find an online version by seaching on the title)].

By the time Bratton left the department, in 2009, Los Angeles had quietly become the most spied-on city in America and a proving ground for corporations to test out new surveillance technologies. …

The hunt for new surveillance technologies is ongoing: a delegation of senior LAPD officials traveled last year to Israel, where they were shuttled by minibus on a tour of security and intelligence companies. (The depart – ment’s relationship to the country was first forged under Bratton, who made regular visits.) … [O]ne item of particular interest to the police was a drone that carries cameras with facial-recognition capabilities and can intercept wireless communications.

And now Bratton is back in New York! Say, I wonder if the NYPD offered the BPD any fraternal assistance during the recent evetns and, if so, what is was, and who coordinated it?

Surveillance planes (Cessna 182T, NG Research) spotted in the sky for days after West Baltimore events [WaPo]. On the twitter! “a previously secret, multi-day campaign of overhead surveillance by city and federal authorities.” Oddly, or not, the Federal authority is not named. And “NG Research” is located at Box Number 722, in Loudon County, VA. Smells like the Army of Northern Virginia, eh? And why am I suddenly reminded of tracking CIA torture flights?

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake calls for Justice investigation of BPD for “excessive force or discriminatory policing” [AP]. Justice could be running on Civil Rights-era brand fumes at this point. Both surveillance (see above) is huge and finance (finance; evictions) are huge parts of the problem (and any problem). Will Rawlings-Blake call for those to be investigated, too?

BPD officer charged with false arrest misdemeanor claims the arrest was clean, because Gray’s knife was spring-loaded [AP]. Probable cause aside, apparently state and city law differ. Watch spin on this; this has nothing to do with Gray’s killing, where the charges are felonies.

The money spent to arrest Freddie Gray would have sent him to college [City Paper].

And the truce between the Crips and the Bloods [City Paper]. Not that I’m cynical, but I would imagine BPD informers and agent provocateurs are doing all they can to blow this up.

Even well-intentioned online fundraisers can go awry; make sure that the money raised goes directly to those its meant to benefit [WaPo]. As Marx said: “Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo.”

U.K. election

What it would take for a second UK election [Buzzfeed]. Parliamentary trainwreck coming? UK readers?

UKIP suspends candidate after shooting threat [Asia One]. Looks like Axelrod isn’t the only American import….

Water

“[I]f dry conditions become the new normal, how much longer can — and should — California’s fields feed the country? And if they can no longer do so, what should the rest of the country do?” [Think Progress]. One thing we should do is grow as much food locally as we can, and that would include protecting local and non-industrial farms from global competition.

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

“Ancestry.com unit shared private DNA information with law enforcement officials” [Circa].

iPhone could be tool in genetic studies [Technology Review]. Typical elite focus on their precious genes….

Class Warfare

“[R]ight now Americans are inundated with a variety of liberal politics that try to turn what should be political reckonings against the truly powerful into an epidemic of guilt and complicity” [Jacobin].

Peter Thiel is a horrible human being [Re: The Auditors].

Thiel is, instead, the embodiment of a technocratic elitist and libertarian individualist with one goal: growth in wealth. He has no answers about what this wealth should be good for. He never talks about ethics. Mostly he talks to show off his sense of superiority and that of his “Pay-Pal mafia”. His assumption of superiority breeds a sense of entitlement to command and to live forever.

If only all the squillionaires would fly off to Mars and leave us alone!

News of the Wired

  • Taking notes on the counselling in “crisis pregnancy centers” [Los Angeles Times].
  • “I said I’d take you to Disneyland when you improved your personal brand.” [Medium].
  • Rocket scientists now designing more comfortable male gaze optimizing display devices high-heeled shoes [Bloomberg].
  • More bodies found in Thailand human trafficking camps [BBC].
  • Stand-up desks the new trend in office design? [N+1].
  • “If we look other way while US government gobbles up Texas, what kind of message does that send to other aggressors?” [@billmon].

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant (Alex):

river

We are not quite so far advanced, up here along the Penobscot.

I’d like yet more pictures of people’s gardens. They don’t have to be pretty! (And they don’t have to show your whole garden.)

If you enjoy Water Cooler, please consider tipping and click the hat. It’s the soil, seeds, Fedco Tree sale, and planting season!

Talk amongst yourselves!

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

48 comments

  1. John Candlish

    If you’re going to bury the spyplane lede the least you can do is not link to faa.gov. For fuck sakes!

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      I like to think that in the right context, most of the items are buried leads. And I link to (what passes for) original data wherever I can. If you don’t what to click on the FAA link, then for fuck’s sake search in DuckDuckGo and use a proxy.

      1. RWood

        Well, this isn’t quite adept, either: “I wonder if the NYPD offered the BPD any fraternal assistance during the recent events” — as fusion centers have been the top-down domestic coordination of our sacred homeland’s defense.
        Though, the connections implied to Bratton are welcome.
        That is, I vote “Soitenly!”

    1. frosty zoom

      17,353,498…

      i’ve found a real nifty link to a baltimore police dot gov page that outlines the dangers of lead and shooting ranges. it seems to me that the police might be going through 80s style lead poisoning in a vicious cycle of more shooting range equals more lead equals more shooting range… here’s a quote:

      Don’t collect fired brass in baseball caps.
      Many shooters use their baseball caps to collect spent brass, this contaminates the cap with lead particles, When the cap is placed back on the head, the lead is deposited into the hair and absorbed into the skin. Providing boxes for the brass prevents this practice.

      i’ve tried to put a link but it gets smooshed, so just do a webbsearch [please don’t honour google with their own verb] of the quote. the document says it was last revised in april of this year.

      (you’ll notice that almost all of the freddie green officers indicted suffer from some alopecia..)

    2. PQS

      Ugh. Don’t read the comments. Really.

      But the thesis is interesting and has been published elsewhere: that the effects of lead poisoning on the brain and congnition are lifelong.

    3. neo-realist

      If I’m not mistaken, I believe Gray’s mother was a heroin addict, who if under the influence while pregnant would have caused some damage as well. This kid was doomed from the womb. Better opportunities for the parents/grandparents without the institutional racism probably would have left him growing up somewhere else besides a lead poison chamber.

      1. jrs

        And then he spent his first few months in the hospital as well. Ugh. More likely to do emotional than cognitive damage but those two aren’t always so easily divided.

        1. neo-realist

          There have been studies shown that emotional trauma during childhood can have damaging effects on the brain. Can be impossible to divide in many cases.

    1. hunkerdown

      The urban bourgeoisie can barely hide their glee at the manufacturing of people they can easily dominate.

  2. Code Name D

    You should change “Sanders” tag line to “I Back Bennie” I just love that little bumper sticker.

  3. neo-realist

    On the Black Injustice Tipping Point, A 2010 dashcam video feature SPD officers making derogatory remarks about and joking on beating up blacks to two black youths arrested for fighting. One of the youth’s arrested alleged that one of the officers beat him off camera. In a later 2010 incident, that same officer on a dashcam video punched out a suspect who later on sued and won. “Progressive” city huh?

    http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/05/06/22172590/dashcam-footage-shows-officers-deriding-black-people-and-joking-about-beating-them-up

  4. PQS

    We know what kind of deal this is, and it doesn’t take a seventy-five cent phrase like “Ricardian equivalence” to figure it out.

    Of course not, the conservative nutjob Ross Perot nailed it perfectly the first time around:
    “That Giant Sucking Sound” of American Jobs heading to Mexico should NAFTA be ratified.

  5. Oregoncharles

    “The members enter the room alone, with no staff who can help break down the language in the deal. You can take notes, Ryan said, but they must be left behind.”

    Once again: all of this is un-constitutional. In fact, the Congressmembers telling us about it are, sadly, scamming us.

    Article I, Sect.6, para. 1: Members of Congress have absolute immunity for ANYTHING they say on the floor of Congress, and also immunity from arrest while Congress is in session or on the way to and fro. It simply isn’t true that they “aren’t allowed” to discuss the agreements; furthermore, since they can’t be arrested, they could simply take the text(s) from that room, then read it into the Congressional Record. End of secrecy. What are the “minders” going to do – scuffle with them? These guys (and a few gals) control their salaries!

    We all need to write to our members of Congress and demand that they grow a spine and just release the damn texts, as they perfectly well could. They’re colluding with the secrecy even as they complain about it – and lying to us in the process. Even the “good” ones.

    And frankly, it’s time the journalists who write about it come clean with us on this, too.

    1. Calgacus

      Yes. But I’m not sure that the members even know their own rights. And even less sure that they know there is one ex-Senator, still going strong at 84, Mike Gravel, who did not grovel before these malignant doctrines of “classification” and “national security”. And that the Supreme Court unanimously agreed on the Senator’s rights (while split on other, lesser issues).

      Note also that Gravel v. United States held that the privileges extended to Congressional aides – “…the privilege available to the aide is confined to those services that would be immune legislative conduct if performed by the Senator himself,”

  6. words

    what would all of us reading and posting here be doing right now if the system we are burdened under had not been set up by Shack Bullies, centuries ago? I actually tremendously enjoy many things labelled ‘work’ as long as I am not being being abused and impoverished by it.

    it’s really so horrifying, and many of us have known this from a very early age, that the forced need to “make money” (no matter how deadly a “product” or “ideology” that money might entail, or support ) to survive: sets up conditions where one is unable to tell the total truth (IN A TIMELY MANNER: BEFORE THE DAMAGE IS DONE), let alone any truth whatsoever, even when that is exactly what they may desire to do.

    I just reminded myself of the saying:

    The good die young

    and, of course, now I’m once again mulling that the good also took to heart (i.e.: heart as in vital and life sustaining organ) the well worn and still totally pertinent saying:

    walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before you judge them

    which leaves me with these three absolutely verified tried and true Human sayings:

    ignorance is bliss,

    don’t judge a book by its cover

    and, lastly:

    the ‘tender mercies’ of the wicked.

  7. EmilianoZ

    Re: secret TPP

    The congressfolks should organize: try to memorize one sentence each and then try to put one paragraph together. One paragraph a day keeps Obama away.

    1. Carla

      TPP reports from the field:

      We’re generating some interest in passing City Council resolutions in the Greater Cleveland area.

      On the other side of the country, in San Diego today, 40-50 people showed up at (so far un-committed Dem Congress Critter) Scott Peters’ office to offer testimony and deliver 200 hand-written letters from constituents opposing Fast Track and the TPP.

      For an excellent and succinct explanation of why and how Fast Track is unconstitutional that YOU can use when asking your city council for a resolution opposing Fast Track and the TPP, go here:
      https://www.citizen.org/documents/no-acceptable-fast-track.pdf

  8. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit

    Going to have to flag that AP play in regard to the knife. Disclaimer – I am not a Maryland attorney and this is not legal advice. However, while the AP article claims that, “A city ordinance says any knife with an automatic spring or other device to open and close the blade is illegal,” they do not quote the ordinance directly, nor do they make that claim accurately. The actual ordinance says:

    § 59-22. Switch-blade knives.
    (a) Possession or sale, etc., prohibited.
    It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, carry, or possess any knife with an automatic spring or other device for opening and/or closing the blade, commonly known as a switch-blade knife

    Emphasis added. As a minority of adjunct NC commenters who actually is a gun and knife person, I would point out that a) there are plenty of knives out there that have a spring that ASSIST with the opening of the blade, but are no means “automatic.” In fact “automatic” is generally applied only to the “push button/blade opens” style of knife, while the others are “assisted openers.” b) the ordinance contains the phrase “commonly known as a switch-blade knife.” which assisted openers most definitely are NOT (though they are admittedly in an interesting grey area such as Washington State). c) I question whether anyone has the skill to look at a pocket clip knife, clipped to the pocket, and determine that it’s an automatic/switchblade, given the plethora of knives out there that look identical.

    I’m not sure that the after-arrest search of a mis-identified knife that does not appear to meet the requirements of the city ordinance justifies a body-slamming arrest…..

    1. tejanojim

      But… who cares if the knife was illegal or not? Even if it’s a valid arrest, they still shouldn’t murder the guy in transit, yes? This is just more smoke and mirrors, even if true.

      1. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit

        As our host points out – it’s suddenly a talking point. One of those “after the fact” rationalizations that often gets swept under the carpet. Deliberately.

        ZOMFGWTFBBQ?????? A SWITCHBLADE!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH the evil little miscreant got what he deserved!!!

        And so on.

        Setting aside the whole “if they’re that bad, why is it okay to carry them (unconcealed) in Oregon?” issue.

        @optimader – that’s it exactly.

        Note the different Oregon statute: ORS 166.240 Carrying of concealed weapons.
        (1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, any person who carries concealed upon the person any knife having a blade that projects or swings into position by force of a spring or by centrifugal force,…

        Nothing about “and commonly known as a switchblade” in there. Arguably even assisted openers would be illegal, IF CONCEALED, since the blade does swing into position by force of a spring.

        Fun question though: What about a butterfly knife if someone uses two hands to open it, rather than centrifugal force? Certainly there are plenty of “regular” knives that can be opened with a flick of the wrist, but aren’t… :D

    2. optimader

      A common example of an “assisted opening knife” that is not a “switch blade”
      http://www.buckknives.com/about-knives/choosing-the-right-knife/
      Assisted-Opening
      With assisted-opening knives, the user initiates the blade opening, after which a mechanism completes the opening. Typically, the user presses on part of the blade, then once the blade has moved past a detent, the assisted-opening mechanism takes over and opens the blade the rest of the way. A safety lock prevents accidental blade opening-the user disengages it prior to blade opening, then re-engages after the blade is closed. Assisted-openers are typically one-hand open/ one-hand close.

      Note: Knife laws may apply (not to be confused with automatic or switchblade type knives).

  9. Mike

    & to your point does it justify a charge of unlawful arrest if it is that difficult to tell?
    The racism charges are seemingly going to go out the window since 3 black cops were arrested in this incident as well. So what’s left.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      I’m not sure which comment this comment is in answer to.

      Is your argument that Black people can’t be cogs in a system of white supremacy? That seems odd. See under Vichy, Quisling, etc.

  10. BEast

    The Atlantic article on lowered childbearing rates among millennials was confusing.

    in 2012, there were only 948 births per 1,000 women in their 20s, “by far the slowest pace of any generation of young women in U.S. history.” In 2007, the rate was 1,118 births per 1,000.

    That must be misstated; nine hundred forty-eight births per thousand woman would mean 94.8 of every 100 women in their 20s had a baby in 2012, (and that the average 20-something women had more than one baby in 2007).

    Furthermore, I’d think that delaying reproduction until marriage or improved economic circumstance would indicate millennial women were worrying, appropriately, about things like finances and birth control at least, (and possibly about resource depletion and climate change, other good reasons to remain child-free).

    As for depopulation, the author should read Alan Weisman’s 2014 book Countdown. Birth rates should decline, if we plan to peak at 9 billion and come down. (Just having 2.1 babies per couple would keep global population rising, due to the fact that the current reproductive-aged cohort is bigger than the cohorts that came before in most countries.)

    Economics can be — and should be — rejiggered to allow for steady-state prosperity. Societies can adapt to shrinking populations. The planet cannot adapt to 10 billion humans and climbing.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      Sure. Just to say, though, that the mindless “for the children” talking point, deployed often by Rahm (for example) needs considerable modification. They don’t give two sh*ts about children, one.*

      * To be fair, except possibly their own, out of dynastic considerations.

    2. subgenius

      Sorry….fail…

      People have grandkids and even great grandkids while still alive. You need people to have well under an average of 2 kids to keep a steady state population….less if you want a decrease.

      1. bob

        Nope, you fail. It’s very well established among people who study these things that an average of just over 2 is “steady state”, in a modern economy.

        Not all of those kids survive to adulthood, as one example.

        Long life doesn’t figure into it. Birthrate only. A person living longer doesn’t “add” any new people to the overall number.

      2. BEast

        I think you missed my point. I said that the 2.1 children people consider “replacement rate” (the .1 in developed countries is to account for the kids who don’t survive to reproduce) will actually cause population growth, due to demographic momentum.

    3. vidimi

      the numbers seem right. they suggest that, on average, women have one child in their twenties. some have zero, some have two…

    1. subgenius

      …and where, exactly, is the rocket scientist in all this? An astronaut and a hr person are not rocket scientists last time i checked…

  11. Jay M

    I think the classification is sucker, or patsy.
    The boot stomping you face is very well healed.

  12. Sam Kanu

    “…The money spent to arrest Freddie Gray would have sent him to college [City Paper]….”

    Those who say this should take some time to read Giorgio Agamben’s writings about “homo sacer” (sacred man). This is what underlies much of racism in this country. By constantly savaging a certain group, the powers that be exercise a form of control over those who are “in”. Thus the money spent on savaging Freddie Grey would never be spent on educating him in. In the worldview of those who control things, the money that innocents see as grossly wasted on on savagery is money well spent. Frightening and mind-blowing….

  13. Matt

    TPP

    Nike will be known in infamy as one of the corporate sponsors of TPP.

    Obama even has Oregon’s representative Blumenauer supporting TPP. Wondering how that came about.

Comments are closed.