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Yearly Archives: 2015

The Glass-Steagall Battle

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It’s the debate of the moment in the Democratic Party today. The Glass-Steagall Act which separated commercial and investment banking went from being something no one was against from 1933-1999, then something no one was for circa 1999-2014, and now is finally part of a vigorous debate. On the one side is the “Break up the big banks!” call from the Sanders wing and on the other is the much smaller “Yes, but it’s way more complicated than that!” voice of the establishment, usually Hillary Clinton.

It was the hottest topic at the last Democratic Debate on 13 October and it continues today. Your stand on it probably identifies who you back for president as well as your status in the Democratic Party. But is it worth all the hoopla?

Call me a pale male establishment type, but this is not a good argument.

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Econ for Everyone!

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To keep it 100, economics is boring. But it’s also a study of the way those with money spend it, accumulate it, and keep it. It’s all about how we keep on keepin’ on as well as how some of us gain incredible power.

In the intro to his book “Rules for Radicals”, Saul Alinsky state that where Machiavelli’s “The Prince” was a book on how the powerful can gain more and keep it, his book is for those without power to obtain it. The bottom line is that without understanding the mechanisms of power you have no chance of doing more than throwing a wrench into the works and hoping it hits a weak point.

Barataria is focusing itself on the same principle applied to the mother’s milk of power, economics. The premise is that economics should never be just for those who want to preserve the establishment but for those who want to take it on. And rather than simply write a book we’ll start with a party.

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Holiday Shopping 2015

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Like the stores that put out Christmas decorations before Halloween, it’s become a Barataria tradition to put up holiday sales projections in mid-October. Don’t blame us, that’s when they come out as retailers gear up for the mid-November rush.

Last year just over $600B in sales went out the doors at retail establishments, about 19% of their total for the year. $90B of that was online. 2014 was a big turning point, marking the biggest selling season since 2009. Will 2015 come in even bigger?

Retailers are counting on it, and that’s the prediction. A big holiday shopping season to launch us into a happier 2016.

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First Democratic Debate

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By the time you read this the first Democratic debate has probably already happened. I hope you enjoyed it!

There is a tradition here at Barataria of predicting the news before it happens, which is to say at least outlining what is likely to happen within reasonable boundaries. It’s more like a weather forecast than a news forecast. So let’s take a stab and see what we can reasonably expect from the debate itself and the news going forward.

Mostly sunny with a high in the 70s. No, it’s more complicated than that …

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Never Ending Conflict

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The torment continues in Syria, if anything accelerating. The conflict appears to be burning through the remaining areas of the nation creating another refugee crisis on top of the one that has already swamped neighboring nations Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Europeans are now forced to deal with it.

Into this a new combatant, Russia, has started bombing. The conflict has only intensified as a result. Where will this go?

The short answer is that there is apparently no end in sight simply because the nature of the conflict has an ability to morph as more and more of those involved have an interest in creating chaos. Syria is devolving into the kind of scorched battleground reminiscent of the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648, which is in itself an example of history not quite learned.

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