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All about the standing-upright chimps that really love to talk about themselves.

Happiness is Coming!

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For the first time in years the people have a chance to vote.  It’s a straight up or down vote – do you want to continue the brutal regime or do something different that isn’t all that well defined?  If that sounds like an impossible situation, it’s what was facing Chile in the referendum on Augusto Pinochet on 5 October 1988.  Many wanted to boycott the whole deal as a sham, a fake that was sure to be rigged.  Some wanted to use it as an opportunity to document the murders of 3,197 political opponents or the torture of more than 29,000.

But some wanted to win.  And how they did it was with a positive message and an upbeat anthem that convinced the nation that “Happiness is coming!” (Chile, la alegría ya viene!) If it seems unlikely, it’s brilliantly retold in the movie “No,” nominated for an Oscar.  You must see this movie – but more to the point, we all need to understand the message.  Democracy and an open society flourishes when people can see their future together – hope, pride, and happiness.

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The Managed Depression – Update

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I recently wrote this piece for submission to a mainstream media outlet, but it was rejected.  I’d like to present it here.

Economic health, like personal health, starts with honesty.  When something is wrong a good diagnosis is the first step towards the proper cure and a strong recovery.  Our economy is been deep in what is commonly called a “Great Recession”. That strange term is a substitute for the dreaded word that most of us know is the true condition – a depression.

That “D-word” may be feared, but it should not be.  It simply points to different and more unusual treatment than we are used to.  History will eventually come to know our present economy as what I call a “Managed Depression” – unusual among similar stages in the business cycle in that this one has been carefully managed.

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St Patrick’s Day

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This piece is a repeat from three years ago – I don’t have anything to add.  The re-run gives me more time to enjoy the day.  Sláinte!

Good people go to Heaven, but the Celts went everywhere. There isn’t a corner of the globe where you can’t find us if you look hard enough. Nations as far flung as Canada and Australia are largely Celtic in origin, and the majority of those Celts came from Ireland.

Our people have wandered the earth like almost no other, and for one day we all return home with the help of a hyphen. Many of us become Irish-Americans or Irish-Canadians on Saint Patrick’s day when any other day American or Canadian would be enough. We drink up well in pubs, cheer on the bagpipers, and think back to what our ancestors must have gone through to get us where we are.

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Inequality Becomes Intolerable

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How bad has wealth inequality become in the US?  Thanks to a video that is becoming viral, a new discussion about inequality has fired up – sadly, just after our election cycle.  It takes off from work done 6 months ago by Dan Ariely and Mike Norton, first reported humbly in a simple blog.  But thanks to new graphics and explanation it’s lighting up the ‘net in a way not seen before.

As discussed previously, income and wealth inequality is the best indicator of a future slowdown in economic growth around the world.  More attention to this problem is certainly a good thing.  But the context of how this comes to be and what can be done about it remains elusive.  Let’s take a long view and see where the problem came from – and what can be done about it as we work to set up the next period of expansion that comes after the Managed Depression we are in now.

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Hugo Chávez

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The United States’ biggest bogeyman dictator remaining, Hugo Chávez, has died of cancer at age 58.  His status as our most feared repressive ruler says something about the state of the world today because by any reasonable accounts he was neither all that repressive nor that big of a challenge to the US.  Even the amount he was feared was greatly exaggerated as a badge of honor by this man of the people.  Yet his passing is extremely important in that it probably marks a new phase in the continuing progress of Latin America.

Why did we fear Chávez, if we did at all?  What will come next?  Most of it has been show so far, but in typical South American fashion it was a pretty good show.  This one may have some lasting and even positive effects.

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