Archive for September, 2008
Posted on September 30, 2008 - by deCadmus
A Schism at the Church of Wall Street
I’m not an economist. And, despite all evidence to the contrary – my mailbox stuffed with offers of shiny new credit cards and cutthroat rates for refinancing my home, the glossy ads in the newspaper begging me to buy a shiny HDTV today and wait two years to pay for it – I’m not a financial Luddite, either. I can take it as an article of faith that, just because I see offers for credit every day doesn’t mean that there isn’t a global credit crunch, or that our financial system isn’t near meltdown. After all, who am I supposed to believe… Wall Street, or my lying eyes?
Wall Street has become, by most measures, a religion, so taking high finance as an act of faith seems appropriate, if a bit absurd. At the Church of Wall Street, worshipers embrace the doctrine that any stock – any asset — is worth precisely as much, or as little as the collective belief of the faithful, despite empirical evidence to the contrary. This willing suspension of disbelief has served the faithful well. It’s allowed them to create trillions of dollars of wealth, not out of thin air — not even out of water, or loaves — but out of debt. By golly, that’s a miracle, it is.
Now the high priests of Wall Street – Paulson and Bernanke, Greenspan and Gramm – have failed their faithful. The gods of finance are angry and demand a sacrifice – of $700 billion. No sacrifice? Financial Apocalypse!
I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying what they’re selling.
Of course good banks are holding onto their money and refusing credit to bad borrowers — especially when those borrowers are other banks who didn’t just swallow the poison pill of sub-prime loans — they gobbled them up like there was no tomorrow. And guess what? For them, there isn’t. Let them go bankrupt, and good banks — those with real assets — will buy whatever’s worth having at the fire sale. That’s how markets work, right?
Me, I’m going to go enjoy the autumn leaves. If you see the horsemen, send me an email.
Postscript: True to my word, I *did* go out and see some lovely foliage. Flickr photos have been updated, and you can catch the Autumn 2008 slideshow here.
Posted on September 28, 2008 - by deCadmus
September 28, 2008
Posted on September 28, 2008 - by deCadmus
Solsticity
If Autumn weren’t so lovely, we’d complain bitterly about her theft of Summer’s golden days.
Her touch is, however, so subtle… and besides, she brings such an endearing dowry — jewel-ripe, gold and ruby apples; crimson sugar maples, drunk on their own sweet sap; the pungent fragrance of woodsmoke and smoldering leaves — it’s easy to forgive Winter’s blushing, youthful bride her trespass.
Which is all a florid way to note that I’ve started posting my Autumn 2008 photos on Flickr.
Posted on September 27, 2008 - by deCadmus
Passages: Paul Newman, 1925-2008
Film legend, race-car driver, popcorn impresario. Activist, philanthropist, and all around lucky guy.
Paul Newman died Friday.
I mention this because — as much as I’m a fan of his work on screen — I’m downright grateful that he leant his name and likeness to his daughter’s brand, Newman’s Own Organics, and in the process brought his bazillion-lumen star power to Fair Trade and Organic coffee. He made corporate philanthropy cool.
Thanks, Paul. For everything.
Posted on September 27, 2008 - by deCadmus
I’m Not Looking at You
So… one debate down and right now — right this very moment — hundreds of thousands of folk are furiously typing millions of words on why their guy won. Me, I’d just like to make a single observation of one thing that struck me as extremely telling.
Throughout the debate, John McCain went to extraordinary measures to *not* look at Barack Obama. I suspect this was a self-prescribed anger-management tactic… I think McCain has no love for Obama at all.
At the same time, however — and I suspect that maybe only improv actors and primatologists would recognize this — in so doing McCain gave away *all* of his status to Obama. By not meeting Obama’s gaze he elevated Obama above himself… which isn’t really what you’re going after when you’re trying to sell yourself as the uber Commander in Chief.
I think that — maybe more than anything that was actually said this evening — is going to show up in post-debate polling.
Posted on September 24, 2008 - by deCadmus
In Response to Reader Emails
Top five answers to your recent questions.
1) Yes, I am aware that it’s been too long since my last post. August 14th? Okay, so I wasn’t aware that it had been *that* long. Shame on me.
2) Yes, I’m well, thanks for asking. Doin’ fine. Better then usual, matter of fact.
3) No, I’ve just been busy. Really. Okay, so some of that “been busy” can be chalked up to taking long rides on mountain roads. Yes, that *is* a valuable use of my time.
4) As it happens, I’ve been working rather furiously behind the scenes on a significant upgrade to Bloggle that will very probably force me to write more.
5) Probably this weekend. Really.
Hello.
Bloggle is the online playground of Doug Cadmus, a usability guy, writer, photographer and sometime dramatist who moved to Vermont for the coffee. When not writing, reading or walking his old, blind golden retriever, he roasts coffee in his garage and is the Web Guy for Green Mountain Coffee in Waterbury, VT.Flickr Photos
