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Summing it Up

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Much has been happening lately, but the news is hard to digest.  For now, I’d rather stay with the economic news and summarize what I think is going on.  This post is largely a repeat from last year, but it makes a jumping-off point.  I think that the context of the news is extremely important because without it all we have is a senseless jumble of events and not a coherent understanding.

If we can’t grab what is happening around us and make it our own, how can we call ourselves a free and democratic society?  Barataria does what it can to offer a different way of looking at what is happening and relate it in story form, free of unexplained jargon.  Hopefully, this will help to make a more real and useful politics.

After a few months of big events and heavy articles, it’s time to summarize the Baratarian view on the big economic picture in one polemic and invite your comments.

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Summertime Party! (For Now)

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The US government ran a surplus in June!  Stocks are at all-time highs!  The party is starting in a big way in the normally lazy daze of summer.  Are you ready to join it?

Not so fast.  Barataria has been a source for positive economic news for at least a year now, but it’s always been tempered with caution.  Things are turning around, yes, but the headlines hide the work that still needs to be done to make this into something much bigger.   It’s up to all of us, really, to find a way to make it happen.

But we do have a party, at least as long as Ben Bernanke is buying.  He’s a fun guy, really.

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Economy Still Ahead at the Half

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It’s halftime!  2013 is half over, and data for another quarter is in.  It’s time to check in on Barataria’s predictions for the year and see how things are going.

The mainstream press has already latched onto the story of a recovery that is slow but gaining strength, so this is hardly news anymore.  But exactly how and why it is strong remains important in many ways.  This is a restructuring more than a traditional recovery after a recession, so it takes a lot of time.  The foundation has to be laid before the new economy can be framed on top of it.  That foundation came through in 2012, but progress has to continue in key areas to make it possible for the jump to a new boomtime around 2017 or so.

Break out the expensive commercials and grill the burgers, we have a game!

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Major Media Fails

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When Asiana 214 crashed on landing in San Francisco, I knew who to ask about it.  My son George, who is 13, hadn’t heard the news yet when I picked him up for Saturday night “Dad Time” a few hours after the incident because he doesn’t pay attention to the news.  But he did just come back from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Air Academy and is very into flying.  Shortly after he heard what happened, he speculated that the pilot screwed up but went on the ‘net to find out.

Within about 20 minutes he had scoured the aviation chat boards and found links to primary sources that told the story very well.  Asiana 214 came in so slow that it was in danger of stalling, which is when it no longer has enough lift to avoid dropping out of the sky.  The pilot apparently realized this too late, but did call in “214 Abort!” just before the crash (1:54 on the audio).  The airport started diverting planes and 30 seconds later called for emergency vehicles when the plane had twisted to a stop.

But neither of these key points were on CNN or other major news outlets, and didn’t show up for a day.  Why does this matter?  It’s not that George is smart (he is), but the failure to report key information in hours of time filled point to what is wrong with the major news media’s model for 24 hour constant reporting.

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Busted Weather

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It was a glorious Independence Day in Minnesota.  A high of 84F and a decent breeze to take the edge off the sun made the perfect backdrop to pick up the aroma of grilling meat.  It’s all any of us could ever hope for.  But it was in blinding contrast to the soggy wet June that made a mud puddle out of huge swatches of southern Minnesota and brought nasty storms that at one point had over a million people without power.  What is up with this weather?

The same strange patterns that brought us a drought last year have been equally unkind in the opposite way this year, meaning we are in a kind of long-term trend towards more extreme weather in every and all direction.  Exactly why is unclear, but we can expect this to continue.  At least when everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything we can call it a reasonable response, yes?

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