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My theological mentor from my undergrad days, Greg Boyd, has been given prominence in an article in the NYTIMES.  This article is getting some attention in the blogosphere bigwigs like Andrew Sullivan.  It describes the effects of his “Cross and the Sword” sermon series and his book, “The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church” that is based on that series. 

I’ve written about Greg Boyd in the past…  I’d like to join others in applauding him for taking a public stand on these controversial issues.  I’d also like to suggest that I think he comes across as a bit reactive, rather than proactive.   I hope to hear him respond to my ideal-type party premise that an active involvement in politics can be glorifying to God if done in an ethical manner that is not dogmatic and seeks to widen the range of interests that can be served by the government?  The underlying issue for me is that it’s not enough to prophetically state that our political priorities as Christians in the US are out of balance, one also needs to, as part of the ministry of reconciliation, help reframe the key issues to promote compromise and to prevent them from continuing as wedge issues that mainly sow acrimony.

Perhaps, Greg will choose to listen to his former student on this issue of passionate concern for me…

dlw

The House of Reps has passed a min wage hike from $5.15 to $7.25, that was conveniently coupled with an estate tax-cut of 310 billion.  I got an email from Sojourners encouraging me to call my congressman about the bill.  Read more

I decided to buy a used copy of Noam Chomsky’s book, “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance“.  I liked what A Reader wrote at Amazon.com.

I have read a fair amount of modern history, and was only vaguely aware (like most Americans) of the many of Chomsky’s facts and assertions. Some were so startling that I felt I needed to verify. After researching four and finding them unassailable, I stopped trying to fault the facts. The indictment of US foreign policy that Chomsky devolves from these facts is at such variance with our view of ourselves that one is inclined to look for an explanation. If the facts are not false, then perhaps the interpretation is the problem, so I examined the logic by re-reading the book with careful attention to the relationship between facts and conclusion. There are weaknesses in some places where an argument depends on “respected commentator” or some other unsupported assertion. However, even if one throws out all of the marginal cases, he is still left with a great deal for which to account–a paradigm changer for the honest and open minded, and something to be reviled and suppressed for those determined to believe that Americans are the good guys who go around the world altruistically stamping out evil.

Chomsky stops short of a monolithic conspiracy theory, but the pattern of behavior of the US over the last 60 years that is painted by this book is remarkably consistent and disturbing.

As someone who has lived abroad for two years and interacted heavily with internationals for the five years beforehand, I find myself far more open and willing to listen to books like this than I would have before.  My friend George Patterson paraphrased Chomsky in saying that, “if we do not [do] something fairly soon about the frightening trend towards violence like wars; increasing destruction of the environment; ethnic, religious, racial, and linguistic conflicts; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, mounting militarization; globalization such as the spread of neo-colonialism and imperialism, and so forth, humankind/homo sapiens is faced with frightening possibility of extinction, including the destruction of our precious planet.”

My sister gave birth this past Tuesday, to a little girl, Cayla.  I myself don’t think I could have children until some serious changes in our world are in place…  Of course, changes are taking place one way or the other, the issue is what sorts of changes.  This reminds me so much of the words of my Ukrainian pastor friend, “May you not live in a time of Change.” 

dlw

Lang, who has now started his own blog titled “Saving Social Security, Medicare and Capitalism”, posted again some wise comments about how to save Social Security along with some interesting history of how the insurance industry have subverted the implementation and spread of ideas/practices that would overturn their bread ‘n butter.  Read more

Steve Andresen and I have had some good apologetic exchanges at this blog.  He wrote a very thoughtful reply to a post of mine a while back and I thought I’d repost it here and reply. Read more

I’ve been blogging here(this is cross-posted from at TPMCafe) a bit about my idea to have the US Gov’t start up a public mutual fund, US Mutual. This idea is not completely new with me. Here is an article that describes how a similar idea was considered during the Clinton Admin. The bottom line is that

The projected annual rate of return on U.S Treasury securities held in the Social Security trust funds is 2.7 percent, after inflation. In contrast, stocks generated an annual return of about 7 percent above the inflation rate from 1900 to 1995. If past serves as prologue and stocks continue to significantly outperform Treasuries in the future, diversification would bolster the trust funds.

Now my idea has some significant differences from the above idea. Differences that address some legitimate concerns about the politicization of the fund and the use of its market power. Read more

I’ve had a small change in my idea on how we could both save Social Security and reduce the volatility of the NYSE with a public mutual fund, US Mutual.  Read more

I got some email from Philippines that have clarified the situation there.  I had written Gary Satre, a USAmerican reporter who lives in the Philippines, with some questions. Read more

Frank Dean recently commented on how radically different the behavior of US Mutual would be from current investment behavior.  Usually, the volume of short interests, or those who sell short a stock, is only 1% of the volume of buy interests.  He fears that my ”strategy will be impossible for a large player to implement without causing substantial price movements, which will destroy returns.”  But what’s key here is that it would only reduce the returns for the most volatile and underperforming stocks in the NYSE and it would increase the returns for the most stable performers. 

I asked a fellow economist who specializes in Macroeconomics what would be the impact of a 20% reduction in the volatility of the NYSE.

Off the top of my head, a reduction in the volatility of the stock market would lead to more savings by households (assuming they are risk-averse). This would drive down expected returns somewhat, mitigating the incentive to save slightly, but the increased capital stock would spur growth, perhaps quite significantly.

The price of government debt would rise (since demand for bonds would fall due to the decreased risk of stocks), and so the equity premium would reduce.

 

So I guess the only thing to fear is fear itself?  Well…maybe not, but more sophisticated modelling of the theoretical impact of  a US Mutual on the US Economy are definitely in order.

dlw

Kudos to Solly from across the pond for the link to…  

A Message from John Cleese to the citizens of the United States of America:
In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (excepting Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new prime minister, Tony Blair, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Pretty funny when you read the conditions…

dlw

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