The American Mind

It’s rare for Washington, DC to get one big snowstorm during a winter, but we’re currently at the beginning of a second big storm. The area’s population of emigrants from all over the country combined with the semi-Southern natives means 90% of people living here can’t deal with a few inches of snow let along 12-20+.

The picture above is a prime example. Even if you wanted to be a good neighbor and make sure your sidewalk was not snow-covered and slippery, stores aren’t prepared to get you the equipment you need. When stores do have shovels they’re the kind that won’t get the job done.

People living in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Michigan, and Iowa are laughing. Not with us but at us, and for good reason.

UPDATE: I’ll give the locals a little slack with this storm since the National Weather Service thinks there’s a good shot it could produce as much snow as the 1922 “Knickerbocker Storm.”

The Hayek vs. Keyes rap battle hit the interwebs yesterday.

If it wasn’t for Russ Roberts being behind the project I would have asked myself, “Why? Why?” Roberts has written a few novels where economics plays a role, yet they contain interesting characters that make the stories enjoyable in themselves.

Roberts is also a solid economist so I wasn’t surprised I didn’t see anything inaccurate in the economics concepts expressed in the rap lyrics.

The premise of the video stems from the big debate during the first years of the Great Depression pitting Maynard Keynes against Friedrich Hayek. What causes economic booms and busts? What should government do (if anything) about them?

Keynes saw “animal spirits” and the “paradox of thrift” driving business cycles. He then took the (then) revolutionary step of calling for large government interventions. Keynes gave the intellectual backing for Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Hayek took a different view that was based on artificial interest rates causing businesses to invest in the production of goods and services where there really wasn’t a true demand. This lead to imbalances that had to be readjusted through falling asset prices and unemployment.

Keynes’ theories soon became the dominant view of the new macroeconomics. Much of orthodox economics studied in universities and employed in policy-making are rooted in Keynesism.

While Hayek didn’t become an influence in universities across the globe he ended up becoming known for writing the polemic The Road to Serfdom and inspired conservative and libertarian thinkers and politicians for decades. Hayek also won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974.

I did find a tidbit at the end of the video that got me curious as someone who has read a lot of Hayek. This quote is delivered:

“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

It’s from Hayek’s The Fatal Conceit, his final book, published in 1988. That’s decades after the Keynes-Hayek debates. During those years Hayek moved away from technical economics to studying society generally, the philosophy of science, to even dipping into psychology. I wonder how much of the early Hayek devoted to studying prices and the capital structure would agree with that quote from his final book?

I haven’t been able to find a good summary of the Hayek-Keynes debate that a layman can easily grasp. If you have some familiarity with micro- and macroeconomics then Sudha Shenoy’s essay could be helpful. For a debate over government intervention in the economy Roberts and Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky appeared on PBS NewsHour. And do yourself a favor and read Hayek’s “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” It’s the most important economics text of the 20th Century and will change forever how you look at economics.

A Twitter chat tonight with @LizMair, @ToddThurman, @CalebHowe, and others involved the supposed greatness of Nirvana. There’s no doubt they altered popular music for the better when Nevermind was unleased in 1991. But they’re also the most overrated band in modern times. Critics and supposed smart people too often speak of Nirvana in the same breath as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. And it’s all pretty much based on Nevermind–or to be more exact “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

My biggest problems with Nevermind is the energy level isn’t consistent. You get a blistering sonic blast with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” only for tempo and electricity to drop with “In Bloom” and “Come as You Are.” It stays that way until the punk explosion of “Territorial Pissings” and continues on “Drain You.”

I came upon Nevermind after listening to heavy metal: Metalica; Def Leppard; Skid Row; King’s X. The music was about big guitars, heavy riffs, and pounding drums. So when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” dropped on MTV I was excited. While I enjoy listening to all of Nevermind you get a sense of a bait-and-switch. Like I mentioned above the power returns later in the album, but such inconsistency doesn’t make for a “legendary” album.

Nevermind would be a stronger album if it were almost cut in half. I’d keep “Smells,” “Breed,” “Polly” (for its quirkiness), “Territorial Pissings,” “Drain You,” “Stay Away,” and “On a Plain.” It would become a tighter album with consistent punch.

[picture via WigglyMan]

At yesterday’s Green Bay Packers-Arizona Cardinals game Fox showed one of the best signs I’ve seen in some time at a football game:

3/4 of the earth is covered by water, the rest is covered by Charles Woodson.

Woodson’s MVP-caliber season justifies that statement.

Yes, Pittsburgh Steelers fans have been saying something similar about Troy Polamalu, but he’s suffering from the Madden Curse this season.

[Picture via Packers.com.]

Merry Christmas!

I’m in agreement with Barry Ritholz. Gift cards aren’t a good Christmas gift. I admit when I’ve been desperate I’ve resorted to them. But as Ritholz writes it shows “you couldn’t be bothered actually picking out a present.”

He offers some suggestions that giving your everyday, average gift card. A gift card does make sense when you’re giving an experience. You can’t package a skydiving package or a dinner at a very good restaurant. So a gift card seems appropriate.

“Yes Virginia, Gift Cards Do Suck . . .” [via Marginal Revoluion]

The snow stopped falling in the Washington, DC area. Now, it’s about digging out. I’m stuck watching Senate proceedings on C-SPAN2 because the Metro is still only running underground trains, and there’s no bus service to my part of Northern Virginia. I have no way of getting into work. When the National Weather Service reports snowfall totals likes this you can understand: 20.5″ in Vienna; 19″ in Alexandria; 20.5″ in Arlington; 16″ in DC. This storm impressed this Wisconsin native.

I posted some pictures of the storm on Facebook. Take a look.

Historian Paul Johnson took on the challenge of a brief biography of Winston Churchill. He talked about it with the Wall Street Journal:

He gives credit to his success as a historian to his simultaneous and successful career in journalism. “You learn all sorts of tools as a journalist that come in extremely useful when you’re writing history,” he tells me as we sit in the drawing room of the West London house he shares with his wife, Marigold, “and one is the ability to condense quite complicated events into a few short sentences without being either inaccurate or boring. And of course a lot of the best historians were also journalists.” He cites Thomas Babington Macaulay, the French historians François Guizot and Adolphe Thiers, and Churchill himself, “a very good journalist and in his own way a superb historian. . . . One of the things I hope this little book will do is persuade people to read Churchill’s own books. ‘My Early Life’ is one of the best volumes of autobiography ever written—it’s an enchanting book, full of fun and humor.”

“Winston Churchill, Distilled”

May 13, 2003: I met Iris Change, author of The Rape of Nanking. A few years later she committed suicide:

I asked her how the reasearch for her latest book differed from Rape. She told me that the research and writing about Nanking made her physicially ill, and she had to recuperate after finishing the book. If a writing project made me sick, that would be a sign to stop, but she perservered.

June 28, 2003: Two days after my cousin died in a car accident.

July 30, 2003: The ten worst songs ever.

July 3, 2003: I started calling Howard Dean, M.D., “Howard the Duck” because he is “all wet when he thinks he can get away with supporting troops in Liberia but not in Iraq.”

January 30, 2003: Displaying my frustration in moving from a Blogger.com-power weblog to Movable Type:

Now, I have this really nice design all ready and waiting (thanks, Joni). You’d love it, and I’d love to show you. All that’s left is to import my old posts. Based on the manual, it appears to be a simple thing to do–WRONG! After following the instructions to the letter (including using the MT import template laid out in glorious code), you’d think all the old entries would be installed into MT nicely–WRONG! I had two years of posts, but each of them contained nothing. That took up two days of screaming at MT through my monitor. Thanks to Joni (again), I have an import file I can use. What she did, I have no idea.

The “Power Editing” feature is powerless. There’s no way I can find to quickly select 1800+ entries and switch them to “publish” status. Clicking a little check box 1800 times is not something I’m going to do.

And heaven forbid MT provide an error message so I know something went wrong when I tried to import a 1.2 mb file.

March 30, 2003: A post and pictures of one of the original “portable” computers.

February 18, 2005: Before Al Franken was a U.S. Senator he was at CPAC.

I’m going through 10 years of TAM archives:

September 11, 2001:

Evil’s shadow fell upon the United States today. Even now, a cloud of death covers the ruins of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The survivors from the WTC looked like ghosts. Their skin and clothes were covered with grey-white ash. Their mouths gaped open gasping for air. They were moaning spirits with very disturbed souls.

…

Strong, decisive action is required to maintain the integrity and security of the United States. What happened today was an act of war and must be treated as such. Any action less than a declaration of war by the Congress will be a dissapointment. Of course, there needs to be a thorough investigation to determine who the bastards are who orchestrated these acts. If it does end up being Osama Bin Laden, he should be hunted down and destroyed along with every vestige of his organization. In war there is no place for trials. The United States is at war and must leave every possible military option available. Nations that have helped harbor the terrorists also must pay the price for their uncivilized deeds.

December 12, 2001: My first Krispy Kreme experience:

On a lighter, and sweeter note, yesterday, my doughnut cravings were fulfilled when the first Krispy Kreme store in Milwaukee opened. I arrived at 11:30 and waited eagerly for 30 minutes to pick up my two dozen golden glazed goodies to take to work.

These round bits of heaven were everything I expected and more. The hot ones I ate just melted in my mouth and the sugar glaze coated my tounge. Behind me in line were a couple who were in a five-year Krispy Kreme drought and drove 90 minutes just to get 5 dozen. She told me to buy one dozen more than I was planning because I would eat 12 as soon as I got into the car. I can understand the reaction after my first bite. These things are so heavenly and addictive. I have now dubbed them the “crack cocaine of junk food.”

February 21, 2002: On the ethics of war:

Rumsfeld shouldn’t be afraid to lie and deceive to achieve American war aims. War is ugly and messy. This war on terrorism is especially so because of the shadowy nature of the enemy. This war won’t be a set of simple acts of aggression. This will entail hiring nasty people to root out even nastier people. People will mislead; they will be tortured for information. Deals will be made with evil people for the sole purpose of victory. The U.S. was allies with the Soviet Union in World War II. Hitler was the more pressing enemy then. Does anyone regret joining Stalin?

June 26, 2002: For further evidence I would make a lousy NBA general manager here’s what I wrote about Yao Ming:

He’s a 7′5″ giant that can’t jump. At least that’s what I saw from film of his pre-draft workout. He dribbled a little and shot a little but didn’t show any moves. Sure, you don’t need to jump much when your 7′5″, but that can also be said of draft bust Shawn Bradley. Can you see Yao making any moves to get past Shaq? Instead, he’d get bowled over by the Lakers’ center.

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

The traditional gift for a 10th wedding anniversary is aluminum. This little weblog is now 10 years old. That explains the aluminum can wall picture above.

I’m not sure how to begin this post, so I asked for help on Twitter. I wasn’t let down:

@haystack: “Still crazy after all these years” ???

@Xavier: “it was a dark and stormy night?”

@PhilGerb: “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times…Now is the summer of our discontent…if a blog falls in the woods…”

@stackiii: “Here we are…10 years later…and I still refer to this forum as a ‘weblog’…”

Yes, I still stick to the word “weblog” over “blog.” “Blog” is an ugly-sounding word. When I think of “blog” I think of barbarians coming home after raping and pillaging and settling down by the fire to tell stories over a big mug of “blog.” Many years ago, I talked with Eugene Volokh about the aesthetics of the word “blog.” He told me he liked the word because it sounded messy.

Well, he’s right about that. Weblogs are a wonderfully messy communication medium that has given many a way to express themselves, rant, rave, and inform. Weblogs have helped crank up the news cycle and made our personal info gluts worse. At the same time, they feed our insatiable need to know something–anything! The power of personal publishing unleashed vast amounts of creativity and knowledge. The last 10 years have been a wild, crazy ride. I can safely say my weblog changed my life.

In 1999, there wasn’t much of a “blogosphere.” In fact, neither that term nor “blog” had been invented yet. As early as then there were hundreds of weblogs collecting links to interesting websites and offering short bits of commentary. Did you ever hear of Robot Wisdom or Dave Winer’s Scripting News? With some exceptions these first generation weblogs were all about technology. (The more introspective and longer essays were more likely to be found on Live Journal which started in early-1999.)

I was reading these weblogs to satisfy my tech geek knowledge addiction. At some point in late-1999 I figured I could take the same format that these link curators were using to cover technology and the internet but do it for subjects I liked: politics; books; sports; and music. The initial theory for my weblog was I would use it to keep up on events, write a bit about them, then turn those embryonic ideas into longer op-eds I might be able to sell as a freelance writer. I got a few pieces into other online magazines, but that’s about it. What I failed to realize was the weblog itself soaked up so much of my creative energy.

When I wasn’t searching the web for stories to write about, I was working on maintaining the weblog itself. The first version of The American Mind (TAM) lived on Angelfire.com and wasn’t powered by any weblogging software. My publishing process was hand coding HTML into a text file and uploading it to Angelfire’s servers. There weren’t any comments and no permalinks. When a new month started I renamed the old month’s HTML file, put it into an archives folder, and created a link to it on TAM’s front page. Needless to say, I was very happy when I finally bought a domain name, some space on a web server, and started using Blogger–before it was eaten up by Google.

TAM eventually became powered by Movable Type and had its best-looking design in all its iterations. Now, TAM has WordPress under the hood while it’s visuals have seen better days.

Throughout the day I hope to post a few “best of” moments from TAM’s 10 years. If you want, dig through the archives in the sidebar and let the rest of us know what you find.

[image via The U.S. National Archives]

If you’re a regular Facebook user when you logged in today you probably got a request to update your privacy settings. Facebook wants their users to make more of their content and activities public to the internet. Facebook’s new default as public doesn’t bother me. I’ve been on the World Wide Web since the beginning and always assumed that anything I uploaded could be connected to me. My default behavioral pattern has been to be cautious. With the many incidents of people losing jobs or getting into trouble for posting embarrassing pictures on Facebook, I assumed most users thought the same. Then I read this post on ReadWriteWeb about Facebook’s new default:

[T]his move cuts against the fundamental proposition of Facebook: that your status updates are only visible to those you opt-in to exposing them to….

I’m part of that generation of Facebook users who joined after it was opened to non-college students. My expectations going in were different than people who joined before me when privacy settings were even more strict and the site was simply about keeping up with your college friends. I can imagine many are feeling betrayed by Facebook. If you’re one of those review your privacy settings to make sure you share as much (or as little) as you want.

I don’t think this affects Facebook’s growth. People will still want to sign up because their friends are using it and it’s a place where you can connect to millions of people. Critical mass is in effect. What will change are new users’ privacy expectations.

[via Techmeme]