I am often annoyed at the thought that in two decades no one will be able to deny global warming. All the oil companies will be fully diversified in renewable energy and we will finally be doing something about the problem. Better late than never. That doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is that all of the people who have made a living by claiming that global warming is a myth will just say, “Oops!” And that will be the end of it. If George Will is still alive, no one will think the less of him because of his cynical and relentless misinformation campaign. But at least we will move forward. The same cannot be said for many other things.
One of those things is the economy. Keynes famously said, “In the long run, we are all dead.” This was in response to economists who claimed that we didn’t need to worry about recessions because in the long run it would all work itself out. But there is a more pernicious aspect to this. It is absolutely true that if the government does nothing, a recession will eventually work itself out. In fact, if a government does everything it can to make things worse, a recession will still eventually work itself out. And in the end, the people in the government who made everything worse can say, “See! We were right!”
Dean Baker wrote a very brief article this morning with one of the best headlines I’ve ever seen, Doctors Report Assault Victim Feeling Better, Attribute Improvement to Vicious Beating. The article is in reference to a Financial Times report, Berlin and Brussels Credit Fiscal Discipline and Reform for Eurozone Recovery. So after years of the Eurozone harming its own economy, that economy is slowly on the mend. Where is the champagne?
And note that the news is not that great. In the second quarter of this year, the Eurozone grew by 1.2%—mostly on the backs of stronger growth in Germany and France. Regardless 1.2% is hardly a great growth rate. For example, the United States has been seeing a better growth rate and no one around here is cheering. What’s more, many people in Germany are cautioning that the future does not look so great as exports are slowing down.
I found one bit of news from the article very telling: “[Federation of German Industry chief executive Markus Kerber] said the greatest concern of the business lobby was the low level of investment in the German economy, with the share of investment in GDP falling from 20 per cent in 1999 to just 17 per cent in 2012.” The reason for all the government cut backs and raising of taxes is supposed to be to give the business community the “confidence” to invest. Clearly, the economy is recovering in other ways, despite not because of government policies.
So merrily we roll along. And in a few years (Hopefully!) when things are better, people will forget the suffering, and just remember that things are now better. Thus: the austerity policies must have created the good economy. But it certainly doesn’t help to have reporting like that from the Financial Times. That article does not make a single mention of the fact that the recovery might be occurring despite the policies. So it is just more myth making.
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The great French landscape painter 
I think I may understand why Karl Rove sounds like the voice of reason in the Republican Party these days. Unlike most of the Republicans in Congress, he’s practical. To him, it is very simple: blocking everything that Obama proposes does not lead to Republican policy. Nor is it the case that just standing around blocking all policy will lead to a Republican White House and Congress. In fact, on Monday, the Washington Examiner published, 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Eric Holder has decided that in the fifth year of our cocaine sniffing, cannabis smoking president’s term that he ought to make a policy decision to do less harm to people who are, if anything, victims of our current system. If you haven’t heard, he’s calling for federal prosecutors to not put drug quantities on indictments. This will circumvent the automatic mandatory minimum sentences, which Congress, through years of trying to prove what big dicked tough on crime guys they are, have pushed to levels that make the Salem Witch Trials seem reasonable. So now judges will have discretion. But will they really?
I have a question for my colleagues in Canada, “Why do you care about the United States?” I understand that it is kind of hard to avoid the United States. For one thing, as a country, we are kind of like evangelical Christians: we get into everyone else’s business. But still, if I lived in Canada, I would be gleeful to not have to think about my southern neighbor. That is assuming that the United States didn’t go all 
The great Sweedish physicist and one of the founders of the study of spectroscopy 
Paul Krugman has been wondering what percentage of Americans know that the deficit has been falling fast since 2009. It reminds me of a conversation I had with my father and his girlfriend about five years ago. We were talking about the government and one them said that the federal government would never balance its budget. I noted that it was possible, after all, Clinton had done it. They were stunned. It wasn’t so much that they didn’t believe me (although they didn’t); it was that they had never heard such a thing in their lives.
Another article that I’ve been waiting to write about is Apple’s theft from their employees. It amazes me that Apple has such a good reputation among young, liberal minded people. They are, in fact, a horror of a company. After all, Walmart may treat its employees poorly, but at least they hire a lot of them. Apple has a small core of employees that its treats about as well as any high tech firm. Then there is most of its American workforce (
The great violinist and composer 