08:41 – Costco run and dinner yesterday with Mary and Paul. Barbara did very well.
If you don’t like to be frightened, turn away now.
This graphic, from this article, makes clear that sovereign debt, scary as it is, is only a part, often a small part, of the total indebtedness of the world’s major economies.
Roy Harvey sent me a link to this article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, whose work I’ve been reading for years. Although Evans-Pritchard buys into Keynesian arguments a bit too much for my taste, in general he’s one of the few MSM writers who actually gets it. He’s a journalist of the old school, and there aren’t many of them left.
In this article, Evans-Pritchard makes the same argument that I’ve been making for some time now, that the US, although hurting, is set to come roaring back more dominant economically than ever. As he concludes, “The 21st Century may be American after all, just like the last.” Indeed.
09:24 – Oh, yeah. I should have mentioned that these numbers are only for formal contractual indebtedness. What they don’t include is unfunded pension and health-care liabilities, which are often much larger than formal indebtedness. Greece, for example, is usually reported to have sovereign indebtedness totaling 160% of GDP. That’s true as far as it goes, but once one adds in personal and business debt and unfunded pension/health-care liabilities, it’s more like 1600% of GDP. The major economies aren’t quite that bad, but unfunded liabilities at the federal and state levels as well as corporate unfunded liabilities still make formal indebtedness pale.
Chuck, this USB thingamabob sounds like it is about the same thing as what you got from Poland, but at least it is probably in English.
My impression of Pritchard over the years is that he’s a sensational muckracker. Always wondered if he’s related to the “anthropologist”.
Yeah, Ambrose is his son. Evans-Pritchard really pissed off the US government and in particular the Clintons when he was the Telegraph’s bureau chief in DC during the Clinton administration. It’s a wonder that Hilary didn’t have him killed.
Roy, I am not seeing a link in your post. Would really like to have it.
“In this article, Evans-Pritchard makes the same argument that I’ve been making for some time now, that the US, although hurting, is set to come roaring back more dominant economically than ever. As he concludes, “The 21st Century may be American after all, just like the last.” Indeed.”
The US has to make fundamental political and economic changes for this to happen. The experience of the last forty or so years indicates that this isn’t likely. I wish it was different, but I think things in Canada, the US and Australia will get worse rather than better.
Of course things in Australia, Canada, and the US will get worse. I’ve said that repeatedly. But, as I said, I was speaking on a relative basis. Things will be bad here, but much, much worse elsewhere. That’s what happens when the world’s governments as a group go on a years-long borrowing and spending binge of unimaginable scale.
Sorry about that, Chuck.
http://www.smarthome.com/15250/THUM-USB-Temperature-Humidity-Sensor/p.aspx
The manufacturer’s site has a lot more information.
http://www.practicaldesign.com/THUM/thum.html
Chcuk, in case you didn’t dig through the article Brad posted, here’s a link to another data logger:
http://weathershop.com/usb2lcd+.htm
So what did Evans-Pritchard dig up during the Clinton era? Muck on the guy who committed suicide?
I took a course in Antropology at a community college way back in the day, and it was my first and last exposure to the post-modern crap. I can’t remember whether it was Evans-Pritchard or Levi-Strauss who made me want to spew my cookies.
I see North America and Australia and New Zealand enduring a period, at best, much like Britain went through right after WWII. But probably worse, as in Germany between the world wars, or maybe just getting knocked all the way back to the year 1900 or so.
We also face probable radically increased polarization between our crowd and the mob that thinks money grows on trees and the world owes them a handsome living and we can run Empire forever on the neo-Marxist model. And that Our Nanny the Almighty State needs to be intimately involved in a controlling fashion with every aspect of our lives, from womb to tomb. Then, Balkanization, and another civil war, which, by the way, our group will win, eventually, but it will be pretty nasty and there is also the possibility of mass die-offs, particularly in urban and suburban areas.
I hope for the best but expect pretty nearly the worst, and most likely won’t be around to see it completely unraveled.
Cheers, from brisk, windy, dark and overcast autumnal northern Vermont!
Thanks for all those references Roy and Jim. I did dig through Brad’s post. I am looking for one that will read real time, while logging and plugged in at the same time. The one in Brad’s post appears only to log — while disconnected from the computer, — once it is set up, then download data later, when connected back to the computer. The probe also has to be away from the USB plug, so it can measure the room temp, without being affected by the heat from the computer.
We just want to try something completely different than what we have now, as the current one craps out periodically and requires someone to travel all the way to the transmitter shack to unplug and replug it back in. Very inconvenient.
The probe also has to be away from the USB plug, so it can measure the room temp, without being affected by the heat from the computer.
There are USB extension cables that can accomplish that.
People have always thought that money grows on trees, must be all that fiat currency that actually grows on trees. Anyway, back in the old days, say OFD’s 1900, they were invited to go and pick from the tree. I don’t think I need to go through the list of immigrants that came here flat broke and ended up rich beyond measure. Most people learned that there wasn’t any old money tree, and you just had to work hard, like those immigrants did. A lesson that needs to be taught in our country(s).
Chuck, I posted a reply which was probably eaten because it had too many links.
In summary, look for a powered USB hub and a computer-controlled power strip. You can have the computer turn off power to the hub. Maybe that will reset your USB thermometer.
Ah–thanks, Steve. What a brilliant idea!
Hey, that is smart!