Comments on "Jimmy Carter" by Julian E. Zelizer
This book is a brief, but concise, account of the life and political career of Jimmy Carter, who rose quickly to the American presidency to some extent because of the disillusionment of American voters with the Washington establishment and political system. However, in spite of very high public support and expectations and initial public relations successes, it seems that the Carter administration was overwhelmed by an exceptional number of domestic and foreign problems and crises, few of which it dealt with very successfully in the last 2 years of President Carter's one term.
At 56 years of age, Jimmy Carter became one of the youngest of American ex-presidents. In the 30 years since that time he has participated very productively and helpfully, although sometimes controversially, in solving many of the world's problems and events.
It is especially stimulating to read about those times and events of the Carter presidency and to think about them again.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Experimental Blog #41
Comments on the books "The Greater Good" - How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism by Claire Gaudiani and "After the Fall - Saving Capitalism from Wall Street - and Washington" by Nicole Gelinas
The first book, written "before the fall" in 2003, is all about the history and necessity of the philanthropy of the wealthier Americans, and especially the most wealthy of them. This very American practice of giving to, endowing, and founding of hospitals, libraries, museums of many kinds, housing projects, universities, colleges and other schools of all kinds, advocacy organizations of any kind, and whatever else people thought of makes America what it is, and provides an example to the rest of the world.
Private funding seems to have almost always led the way in everything in America except for purely government functions, such as the military and prisons.
The whole history and ongoing process of American philanthropy, and that it must be continued, might be described as "Voluntary American Socialism."
"After the Fall" by Nicole Gelinas was written in 2009, and is all about the"meltdown" of the world's financial markets in 2008. The details and technical vocabulary are very difficult for an outsider to understand.
However, it seems possible that the government regulation of American industry and finance, that was largely constructed by the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt, effectively lasted about 50 years, but became irrelevant and ineffective during and soon after the presidency of Ronald Reagan, actually a few years before the downfall of all the Marxist-Socialist governments in Europe.
Near the end of the Reagan presidency the American government began a policy of "propping up", or saving failing American corporations, banks, and other financial institutions that were considered "too big to fail." This policy was continued by all succeeding administrations.
Meanwhile, Wall Street financial firms began "securitizing" and "tranching", that is classifying securities in order of risk and expected return, all kinds of debt and credit in as many ways as possible.
Among other things, all this "propping up" of banks and other financial firms that were considered "too big to fail," and "securitizing and tranching", and who knows what else led to the illusion of the absence of risk and the certainty of profits. Some financial executives took huge bonuses based on profits that had not yet been made, since they would save or make so much money for their companies, including firms that were receiving billions of dollars to "prop them up" from the federal government.
The author says that even Nobel laureates in mathematics were working for some of these firms, and were providing the complicated equations.
"Financial Armageddon" arrived in 2008, and so did one "panicky bailout" after another for financial firms considered "too big to fail". Nicole Gelinas writes that all of these "bailouts" are unpopular with the public, and that the public will eventually have its way.
The first book, written "before the fall" in 2003, is all about the history and necessity of the philanthropy of the wealthier Americans, and especially the most wealthy of them. This very American practice of giving to, endowing, and founding of hospitals, libraries, museums of many kinds, housing projects, universities, colleges and other schools of all kinds, advocacy organizations of any kind, and whatever else people thought of makes America what it is, and provides an example to the rest of the world.
Private funding seems to have almost always led the way in everything in America except for purely government functions, such as the military and prisons.
The whole history and ongoing process of American philanthropy, and that it must be continued, might be described as "Voluntary American Socialism."
"After the Fall" by Nicole Gelinas was written in 2009, and is all about the"meltdown" of the world's financial markets in 2008. The details and technical vocabulary are very difficult for an outsider to understand.
However, it seems possible that the government regulation of American industry and finance, that was largely constructed by the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt, effectively lasted about 50 years, but became irrelevant and ineffective during and soon after the presidency of Ronald Reagan, actually a few years before the downfall of all the Marxist-Socialist governments in Europe.
Near the end of the Reagan presidency the American government began a policy of "propping up", or saving failing American corporations, banks, and other financial institutions that were considered "too big to fail." This policy was continued by all succeeding administrations.
Meanwhile, Wall Street financial firms began "securitizing" and "tranching", that is classifying securities in order of risk and expected return, all kinds of debt and credit in as many ways as possible.
Among other things, all this "propping up" of banks and other financial firms that were considered "too big to fail," and "securitizing and tranching", and who knows what else led to the illusion of the absence of risk and the certainty of profits. Some financial executives took huge bonuses based on profits that had not yet been made, since they would save or make so much money for their companies, including firms that were receiving billions of dollars to "prop them up" from the federal government.
The author says that even Nobel laureates in mathematics were working for some of these firms, and were providing the complicated equations.
"Financial Armageddon" arrived in 2008, and so did one "panicky bailout" after another for financial firms considered "too big to fail". Nicole Gelinas writes that all of these "bailouts" are unpopular with the public, and that the public will eventually have its way.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Experimental Blog #40
Comments on "Cro-Magnon - How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans" by Brian Fagan
This very prolific anthropologist and author, he has written 23 other books besides this one, provides documentation that the scientific revoultion of the late 20th and early 21st centuries also occurred in paleoanthropology.
The author's thorough acquaintance with and careful explanations of the new revolution producing sciences of paleoclimatology and molecular biology together with his gifted persuasive imagination create descriptions of something like the real histories of Neanderthal people, who were human, but not surviving today or anatomically modern, and Cro-Magnon people, modern and very much surviving.
These excellent, vivid and persuasive descriptions, along with those of even earlier people, cover tens and hundreds of thousands of years.
This very prolific anthropologist and author, he has written 23 other books besides this one, provides documentation that the scientific revoultion of the late 20th and early 21st centuries also occurred in paleoanthropology.
The author's thorough acquaintance with and careful explanations of the new revolution producing sciences of paleoclimatology and molecular biology together with his gifted persuasive imagination create descriptions of something like the real histories of Neanderthal people, who were human, but not surviving today or anatomically modern, and Cro-Magnon people, modern and very much surviving.
These excellent, vivid and persuasive descriptions, along with those of even earlier people, cover tens and hundreds of thousands of years.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Experimental Blog #39
Comments on "Pandora's Seed" - The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization by Spencer Wells
The author of this book, Spencer Wells, seems to be a very accomplished American anthropologist and geneticist who also writes very informatively and persuasively. His book is full of stimulating information in paleohistory, genetics, and quite a few other subjects.
For instance, scientists can now find out that about 10,000 years ago, or about 350 generations, the human population began to dramatically increase and undergo an enormous genetic differentiation in hundreds of places on our chromosomes. The author writes that these changes occurred in conjunction with the developement of agriculture, that is, the domestication of land animals and plants.
The author also describes how until about 10,000 years ago, people died most often from "trauma", that is, injuries from hunting or other accidents. However, by about 7,000 years ago, most people died from infectious diseases, acquired from their domesticated animals and from each other in their large permanent settlements. Today, for the first time in human history, most people in the world are now dying from chronic non-infectious diseases of "genetic maladaptation" in origin. Even mental illness is predicted to become the second most common cause of death, after heart disease, by 2020.
And the author goes on to many other contempoary subjects and problems.
The author of this book, Spencer Wells, seems to be a very accomplished American anthropologist and geneticist who also writes very informatively and persuasively. His book is full of stimulating information in paleohistory, genetics, and quite a few other subjects.
For instance, scientists can now find out that about 10,000 years ago, or about 350 generations, the human population began to dramatically increase and undergo an enormous genetic differentiation in hundreds of places on our chromosomes. The author writes that these changes occurred in conjunction with the developement of agriculture, that is, the domestication of land animals and plants.
The author also describes how until about 10,000 years ago, people died most often from "trauma", that is, injuries from hunting or other accidents. However, by about 7,000 years ago, most people died from infectious diseases, acquired from their domesticated animals and from each other in their large permanent settlements. Today, for the first time in human history, most people in the world are now dying from chronic non-infectious diseases of "genetic maladaptation" in origin. Even mental illness is predicted to become the second most common cause of death, after heart disease, by 2020.
And the author goes on to many other contempoary subjects and problems.
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