(no subject)

Does a Falling Money Stock Cause Economic Depression?

This article gives me pause. It runs counter to what I've been taught about the economic circumstances behind recession and depression... and yet, there is a certain stark simplicity to the argument.

If Federal Reserve Banks know how to steer the economy clear of severe recessions, why has the monetary "toolkit" failed completely in Japan over the last decade? Why is the same pattern repeating itself here in the US?

This article argues that unsecured loans, as they are paid back, have the effect of removing money from circulation (what economists call "M1"). Now, what I'd been taught was that banks turn around and invest. Of course, if the stock market falters, banks either lose that money -- it evaporates -- or they refrain from further investment.

When money stock is pumped into the economy, this has the effect of lowering the value of money across the board. This lowers the investment power of whatever money banks and investors have.

So when you add that all up, the current monetary policy of lowering interest rates and boosting M1 could be feeding the problem rather than fixing it.

I'd say the policymakers had better start paying closer attention to Japan if they want to see what the US economy will look like in ten years if we keep following our current path.

Edit: the article points out that the drop in money stock is more steep than it was during the early '30's. Unsecured consumer credit (in the form of credit cards) is not mentioned in the article -- but it leaps out in my mind as perhaps a primary culprit.

(no subject)

Buried way down near the bottom of the news reports:

India Approves Moon Mission

NEW DELHI, INDIA India will send a spacecraft to the moon by 2008, prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in his Independence Day address to the nation Aug. 15. The announcement has put an end to suspense over the fate of the roughly $100 million project of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) that was waiting for a formal sanction for over eight months.

The mission named Chandrayan-1 foresees placing a 525 kilogram satellite in a polar orbit 100 kilometers above the moon. The spacecraft will be launched by a modified version of Indias indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The lunar orbiter will be designed to operate for two years.

Also, this:

Defenses Down, Galactic Dust Storm Hits Solar System

Our solar system's natural defenses are down and a vigorous cosmic dust storm is blowing through, according to a new study. The forecast calls for a prolonged and increasing blizzard of small interstellar bits.

While no serious consequences are expected, the extra dust could slightly alter our night sky and might pose an increased risk to spacecraft, which are vulnerable to high-speed impacts from the tiny small particles.

No serious consequences, unless, of course, viruses are from outer space. (Great, Sophia! Another thing to keep us up nights. Flu from outer space. Thanks lots.)

(no subject)

Let's make this a trilogy of readings in modern liberal theology.

This excerpt is from Burton Mack's Who Wrote the New Testament?. Mack is an atheist, or agnostic, member of the Jesus Seminar, and his book makes for pretty dry reading. But some of the information he presents is, IMO, invaluable.

Most readers of the Gospel of Mark soon notice that there are two miracle stories about Jesus and the disciples crossing the sea, and two stories about Jesus feeding a crowd in the open. Why two? This question then triggers other questions about the miracles that take place around and about these major events (Mark 4:35-8:10). Why so many?

( Read more... )

...[T]he contours of a Jesus movement also begin to emerge. It was a movement that had developed quite a strong self-consciousness about itself as a group. The people were ethnically mixed, gathered for meals, had leaders who cared for the association and its needs, perhaps had some way of distributing food among themselves, and may have been in the process of ritualizing and symbolizing their common meals. Here was a Jesus movement that took a look at its members, noticed the social formation taking place, delighted in its novelty, realized how strange they must appear to others, wondered how to imagine themselves in comparison with other peoples, found the comparison with "Israel" fascinating, and had a great time trying out various scenarios before settling on the set of miracles that cast Jesus in the roles of a Moses and an Elijah. pp. 65-67

(no subject)

It's been a long time since I've made a personal update, hasn't it?

I'm just... not at liberty to discuss the main thing going on in my private life at the moment.

Things might resolve themselves in the next day or so, but until then, it doesn't feel right to mention what's going on.

I know that sounds ominous. It's not horrible, though.

(no subject)

Quoted by drac11

"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvellous, intoxicating. Therefore 'imaginative literature' is either boring or immoral (or a mixture of both). It only escapes from this alternative if in some way it passes over to the side of reality through the power of art - and only geniuses can do that."
- Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace