You can't buy cool.

In San Francisco we  have a neighborhood called the Mission that was once an  Irish neighborhood, then Hispanic neighborhood. The Mission District had a cool gritty edge to it. Financially well off 20 somethings could feel  this coolness, and decided to move into the neighborhood en masse. Now the neighborhood is quickly filling up with privileged college educated young people, and has become an unappealing brew of snobbery and entitlement.  The irony is in the process of  trying to buy the cool vibe of the neighborhood they have killed what made the neighborhood appealing.

Gusts of Wind:Fiction

The climate was changing, big gusts of wind and droughts were common place.   

Oil , natural gas and coal were still being used in large amounts.

The Nation States and Corporations were still fighting for control of resources like water and oil. 

Fighting for  control of the energy corridors where energy was transported over to various destinations.

The winners and losers where often decided by the source, path and destination that these energy corridors took.

All the while the  hominids where still roaming the planet looking for protein,  mates and love while the world around them shook.

Robert Reich completly misses the big picture on his article about Detroit.

I like Robert Reich but he is often very partisan  which clouds his vision. In his recent article he goes to  a tired old story line around race and people running away from the poor for describing Detroit's problems.
Trade policy, NAFTA, and most favored nation trading status with China are two of the major pillars of why Detroit and Industrial America has been devastated plain and simple. These trade policies have thrust the working class of America into global competition with emerging economies. If the United States did not lower it's tariff's the American working people would be in much better shape today.

http://robertreich.org/post/55976062830

Paddling like crazy...

Just  to keep nose above water, Economically speaking that is..

CCSF UNDER ATTACK.

CCSF=Community College of San Francisco.

CCSF serves about 90,000 students annually is under attack by some powerful forces that are threatening to shut it down.

I suspect what is really going on is these forces are forces of Privatization that will gut the College but not kill it. In the end the  average working class student will have to pay more money for classes and get less educational product for their money.

The way of the world..

WORDS::

GLOBALIZATION

NATION STATE

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION

NEO-LIBERAL

Aristotle and Chrematistics

In a nutshell, if you just make money by gaming the system or printing money with out adding instrinsic value to the economy your gonna have economic problems.

Aristotle established the fundamental difference between economics and chrematistics. The accumulation of money itself is an unnatural activity that dehumanizes those who practice it. Like Plato, he condemns the accumulation of wealth. Trade exchanges money for goods and usury creates money from money. The merchant does not produce anything: both are reprehensible from the standpoint of philosophical ethics.
   
According to Aristotle, the "necessary" chrematistic economy is licit if the sale of goods is made directly between the producer and buyer at the right price; it does not generate a value-added product. By contrast, it is illicit if the producer purchases for resale to consumers for a higher price, generating added value. The money must be only a medium of exchange and measure of value.  From Wikipedia