Sojka's Call

This blog brings up many economic and political issues that are easy to construe as evil. And, figuring out what we can do in the face of seemingly insurmountable oppression and power that negatively affects our lives is why many of us continue to wrestle with understanding what is going on in the government and economy. What if the answer to these problems was already answered hundreds of years ago? How could anyone know what we would be dealing with now? The Chinese civilization is possibly the oldest surviving civilization on earth. They have been dealing with the issues of oppression by a ruling elite for a long time. So, while the specifics may be different now, the issue is the same. In an article posted on IMOS , a modern-day recluse summarizes the philosophical differences of Confucianism and Taoism. I like his analogy of viewing the two as the yin and yang of historical China. The genius of historical China rests in the oscillation between Confucian and Taoism, betw...

A stupid analogy because I cannot think of a better one right now is that when you first heat butter it is milky looking and then starts to bubble and until the bubbling stops you cannot see the bottom of the pan. This morning I saw the bottom of a couple pans. The first one was thanks to a post over on Naked Capitalism where Yves Smith writes about one of the Right's favorite boobs and the left's Economic policy leader, Paul Krugman. The really interesting part of this post was the distinction between fiscal and monetary policy . Basically, Krugman and Summers argue in a NY Times article , for a couple things: First that since it is impossible to balance government spending we must inflate our way out of the budgetary mess we are in, and; Second, since there is no Real economic growth at this time, it makes sense to create economic bubbles. You should read the NY Times article Secular Stagnation, Coalmines, Bubbles, and Larry Summers so you know I did not make this up. B...

This past weekend while bicycle riding along in what most people would call a very aggressive paceline at around 28 mph two guys right in front of me got tangled up and crashed. It looked like one of those peloton crashes you would see in a pro bicycle race when bikes go flying into the air, people are sliding across the road, and then there is the sickening silence of someone not moving. And, as soon as people know that everyone is going to live the blame game starts. Why? We had just left a regroup point at a local gas station, market and bathroom. There were three tandems and a group of about six riders on regular bikes who were pushing the pace. First everything is nice at around 21 mph and people are relaxed. Then it gets a bit more serous at 23 mph. The third tandem in line threw a chain and had to stop. That turned out to be the precursor of the crash - or was it really? A gap opened up and the group behind the third tandem now had about 50 yards to close. The front six bike...