WSJ Does It Again

Why am I attacking the WSJ?
Simple.
I'm disappointed. But on a deeper level - I'm bothered by their very UNbusiness-like assumptions.

Recently - I've noticed that more and more articles have a socialist bent. The headlines, sub heads and story content are often written in such a way as to ASSUME (and we all remember the old line about assuming - right? You know: When you assume, you make and Ass out of U and Me.) that
a. Government is inherently good, even sacred.
b. Business is evil
c. People and governments DESERVE to share in the profits of business...

Let's take the first and show a very recent and disturbing example. Then let me offer the WSJ a rewrite. (This is what I'd write if I were the dude writing this article.)

Here goes: The headline from a recent story:
Tax Revolt in a Boom Town
Some Refineries Challenge Property Valuations, Threatening Municipal Revenue

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303717304577280050073230784.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Booo Hoooo. If someone protests and challenges tax laws and rates, that will likely take money away from government. In this case that is city government.

GOOOD!

But notice the assumption of the headline that government being deprived of money is something to be avoided. Almost as if government and its well being has become sacred.

Something TOO many of us have begun taking unquestioningly. And protect -faithfully- with our very lives if necessary?

Hmmmm. Because the way I see it...
The less money government has, the less it can waste. The less it can use that money to build apparatuses that intrude on the lives of its citizens, forcing them to need apply for permission for the simplest action.

The less money overreaching government has, the fewer means it has to make everything a crime, then sell a pass for a price..
The less money it has, the less it can enrich itself at every turn while slowly enslaving its people....

Here's the way I would rewrite the headline:

Rewrite #1: Mild Rewrite

Tax Revolt in a Boom Town
Some Refineries Challenge Property Valuations, Forcing Municipality To Be Cut Waste

Or how about this version? It's a little more to the point...

Rewrite #2:
Companies Fight Back Against Grasping City Government
Move Forces Further Downsizing in Bloated, Intrusive Government Agencies Resulting In Improved Essential Services

It's always sad to see a great news outlet become the mouthpiece of a new socialist agenda which demonizes the very businesses which provide the fuel and brains which drive prosperity. But alas - the best we can do is recognise what's happening and at least read with a critical eye.

Just because the WSJ has lost its ability to think doesn't me we need to...

Opinions are like Assholes

One of the opinion articles in the WSJ today perfectly illustrates why the ruling class of so-called experts is despised by the masses.

Aid North Korea's Victims
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204612504576610551421032670.html?mod=WSJAsia_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Third

The article advocates the US set up a refugee program in Beijing to help escaping North Koreans reach freedom and thereby hasten the collapse of the Hermit Kingdom.

I agree. NGOs should help escaping North Koreans as they pass through China. And yes - if vast numbers were to begin escaping - it would weaken the regime.

BUT and here's the point this idiot has not considered: If such a policy were openly publicised, and it DID have the intended effect...

What would such a madman do if he felt his grip on power slipping away? (Not to mention relations with China - if the US embassy in Beijing were a known asylum and transit point for North Koreans to the US)

It could very well lead to a full-scale invasion by the North. An invasion that could likely set off a regional war involving the Six Parties (US. China, Russia, Japan, North & South Korea) at the very least. 

I think anybody proposing a strategy that would threaten the North Korean dictator better sit silently and patiently consider the kind of maniac they're dealing with and prepare for the consequences.

There are only a few ways to bring him down -- and none of them is very palatable. From most aggressive to least:
1. An all out invasion by the US, Korea and Japan.
2. A CIA-coup like the one in Tehran in 1953.  Or
3. ---and this seems to be the path North Korea's neighbors have chosen--- let conditions get so bad inside North Korea that A. the the people finally rise up and overthrow their dictator or B. the system finally collapses under its own weight when it can no longer even feed the army.

Is such a strategy a terrible thing to do? Yes. Absolutely, but the consequences of being more aggressive might mean a war that could consume Asia, set it back a generation and end life for 100,000,000 people or more!

So much for the opinions of so-called "experts"....

The Euro On One Leg And Losing Its Balance

Germans Reconsider Ties to Europe

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576598643746175236.html?mod=WSJ_hp_us_mostpop_read

The article has chilling implications.

How long till the return of the Mark, the Franc, Lira, Peso, Guilder (Netherlands), Markka (Finland), Krone (Denmark), Drachma etc...?

And just how will the exit take place?


Because the writing is definitely on the proverbial wall: The Germans  -- the bulwarks and principal backers (read financiers) of the Euro -- are wavering in their resolve.


Sentiment, or the mood of the markets, is something wise investors watch. Now - it may be time to watch the mood of Germany toward the Euro because when pessimism about the Euro becomes widespread - the end of the Euro is insight.

And when the leaders of Europe begin vehemently denying a return to national currencies - it is imminent. DUCK. Run for cover. Cut any exposure to Europe and prepare for the real Financial Tsunami to hit.

EUROPE --- Repeating History: More World Wars?

Criticism of America is popular, ubiquitous and most-often well-deserved. And because it is the central actor on the world stage, it is also the easiest target.

But what of Europe? Remember - those people who consider themselves the paragons of a higher humanity, greater sense of justice and who seem to make the world's luxury goods eat equally well....

Are also the Idiots who've plunged the world into - not one - but TWO world wars. And as the threat of a disorderly breakup of the Euro (which is a question of When - not If) grows greater by the day ---- it may well be Full-Of-Itself Europe that AGAIN plunges the world into chaos.

Below is a quote from an article in the WSJ that accurately illustrates the risks to Europe --- A sort of Damned if it does and damned if it doesn't scenario in regard to Greece's bankruptcy:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576593122004251398.html


"The cost to Greece of exiting the euro could be up to 20% of GDP, according to Credit Suisse estimates. But once the taboo of euro exit is broken, other fiscally troubled countries will be at risk of similarly catastrophic bank runs, raising the specter of a disorderly euro break-up. That could trigger losses of up to €300 billion in core euro-zone banks and €630 billion among peripheral countries' banks, Credit Suisse estimates."

And if that happens, the vaunted Europe will likely sink back into a second Dark Age. At least in such a state of barbarity, they are less likely to be a menace to the world again anytime soon.

Twilight of America: Waiting in a vacuum...

Most people would consider this fantasy, but America is already no longer the great superpower. The signs are everywhere. Daily. Problem is, because most people cannot conceive of such a world, it is not even within the realm of possibility in most minds.

Like an "OFF LIMITS" sign hangs inside the brain.

But, push the sign aside, embrace the possibility and the signs are EVERYwhere.

Just today, there are two articles in WSJ. Most people probably read and pass on thinking "Oh, that was interesting/sad/great...." Whatever the individual sentiment. But failing to see the connection.

Hong Kong is planning for the DEpegging of its dollar to the US.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576574640464933236.html?mod=WSJAsia_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Then there is an article about America's aging military hardware.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904103404576561053811426640.html

Two paragraphs really tell the story in a nutshell:

"The Aegis guided-missile cruiser, a warship designed to counter the threat of Soviet warplanes armed with antiship missiles, entered service in 1983. Today, the bridges of older Aegis ships are reminiscent of the video arcades of the 1980s: monochromatic consoles with push-button controls. "The systems that we are replacing are Commodore 64 technology," says Navy Capt. Brian Eckerle, invoking the primitive home computer to describe ongoing efforts to modernize Cold War-era ships.

One Air Force pilot describes the navigation systems in his unit's C-130 cargo planes, which entered service nearly three decades ago, as "antiquated." A navigator in his unit, he says, bought an off-the-shelf Global Positioning System device that can better provide weather information and the latest civil aviation notices, and even check the accuracy of the government-issued navigation system."

When commercicaly available technology is superior to the elite military goods  - you know the powers that be are asleep. The important takeaway is to note the inflection point has probably already passed. America is probably already no longer in control of the seas in Asia.

And...

The US dollar is already no longer the world reserve currency. IN FACT. Yet, the world continues in its fantasy that it is. Why? - because most of us have never known a world any different. We simply have trouble imagining it is even possible or fear what it might mean.

Even those who hate America - like an opposition party in parliament - are often at a loss when faced with the possibility of ruling.

So the world sits and waits for a new world leader or leaders, or whatever system will emerge. Meanwhile - it is just easier to pretend nothing has changed.

Business-Enviro Trend To Watch

The Wall Street Journal has what seems to be just another article about Foreign Direct Investment by an internet company - Google. But it is much more profound than that. Welcome to the Enviro-Business Model.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576560551005570810.html

Companies all over the world have been shaving and sawing off costs everywhere they can for a long time.
Old News. People call these frictions. Or basically anything that inhibits or slows down, any barrier to business.

Whether that means more time, more money, more materials, more info processing, higher labor costs, operational costs.... Everything is on the chopping block.

And this article points to the next trend: Enviro-Restructuring. That is, businesses looking for ways to make their business more harmonious with nature so as to save money with the ultimate aim of becoming more competitive.

In Google's case, they've come to the not-hard-to-understand conclusion that their data centers eat up an enormous amounts of energy. Energy that impacts their expenses and competitive position vis-a-vis rivals.

Solution? Locate the data centers somewhere cold. Where the ambient temperature helps cool the servers.

When you think about it, it's so perfectly logical one almost wonders why it hasn't been done already. Why? Because in the West, since the Industrial Revolution and the advent of Germ Theory and vaccines, we have tended to ignore nature.

There has been a lot of arrogance. A real attempt to defy and live beyond the laws of nature. What has followed in its path is a destruction and degradation of the planet. And of course, the reaction to that - Environmental Extremism.  

But I see a reversal. A tacit, quiet admission. Tentative. But unmistakable. Business is realising that while it has never been cost effective - now the competitive pressures are laying bare costs that were formerly hidden or ignored.

Internet companies are truly on the leading edge of so MANY trends that are reshaping our world, but look to see more and more companies around the world following Google's lead.

First it will be internet and other technology companies. But within a year or two it should start to broaden to other industries.

Here's the takeaway: Is your company ready when this wave hits? Or will you be left behind?
Watch the wave...

Conventional Thinkers ALWAYS Get It Wrong In Times Of Change

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/2011816104945411574.html


Nouriel Roubini is Chairman of Roubini Global Economics, Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University, and co-author of the book Crisis Economics.

WOW!
You'd think a big wig like that should know something. But don't be fooled. He doesn't know what he's talking about because...

He is a conventional thinker in times of extraordinarily breathtaking change. Not a recipe for accurate, actionable thinking.

He is feeding us prescriptions from the past. Like a Hollywood writer who's long since run out of material, he just keeps writing the same story with changed names.

He misdiagnosis the problem as Capitalism. No. Capitalism is fine. Alive and well. It is Government which can no longer meet the needs of a changing world. A world that is becoming one big market. It is government that is standing in the way of progress on nearly every front.

It is government which steals vast amounts of our money at gun-point and then squanders it on the most unbelievably inane and ghastly projects. It is government which has bankrupted itself with greed and the most grotesque mismanagement of resources possible.

So gross in fact, many times the return on capital by government is not even 1 - 1, but negative.

And we will not have a 1930's style depression. No. This will be a long soft, recession, more reminiscent of the 1970s. The West or center of the empire is now beginning its own lost decade like Japan. Only without the benefit of huge piles of savings.

He is right. Many people in the middle class ARE losing ground. But that is because they've been overpaid in protected markets. Markets which governments can no longer protect as they become deeper and more integrated. More integrated as they become ever more exposed to global competition. That is why the Middle class are losing ground.

And Roubini's MIS-diagnosis, and MAL-prescription that we return to policies and ways of thinking from the past are a good example of why the old adage "Ivory-tower idiot" is still so apt.