Brooks Needs Debord

David Brooks is writing about the capital S Spectacle but is only concerned with the most vulgar sense of the term, spectacle as diversion or entertainment. In Debord's analysis (developed with the Situationists), “By means of the Spectacle the ruling order discourses endlessly upon itself in an uninterrupted monologue of self-praise.” This is what Brooks gets paid handsomely to do, discourse endlessly. He is incapable of seeing himself performing a role in the totality which is the Spectacle, Capital's all-consuming cultural expression. Carried out by every institution, but especially media. To see the Society of the Spectacle you would have to find a critical space of remove, something htose like Brooks find impossible.

Creeping Doubts

From Monday's NYTimes economic reporter Patricia Cohen: "The economic conventions that policymakers had relied on since the Berlin Wall fell more than 30 years ago — the unfailing superiority of open markets, liberalized trade and maximum efficiency — look to be running off the rails... increasing bouts of extreme weather that destroyed crops, forced migrations and halted power plants has illustrated that the market’s invisible hand was not protecting the planet." This from Today's Times on Repubican shifting attitudes on laissez faire: “We really like capitalism, but we recognize it’s not working right now,” said Oren Cass, a former aide to Mitt Romney and the executive director of American Compass, a think tank that published the manifesto. What's not to like? Minor glitch here oe there, you don't want to throw out the baby. But then the question must be asked: what is to be done? Unfailingly, the answer is reform. A bit of charitable redistribution perhaps. Maybe a carbon tax. What if business started treating their employess with more respect? A tweak here and there and we should be able to produce a somewhat kinder, gentler capitalism, right? And who might we call for new ideas? Why,Economists.Grad schools crank them out by the train load. Surely they can figure out how to get all those markets; labor, finance, commodities, currency, housing, etc...all "working" smoothly again. Surely they can apply all that training. Surely. I mean, c'mon. A week later, this in the Times about the brilliance of some hot-shot financier: “The capitalist system does not work if you don’t price the externalities,” Litterman said. Hence a government-set price for carbon emissions. Hence...

Limited Trout

I spent thirty years working as a trout fishing guide on the Big Hole river of S.Western Montana, a famous "blue ribbon" fishery, at least when I started. But throughout my whole career I observed a down-hill slide in the habitat. Basically, the basin is over-appropriated and irrigators suck the river dry every summer so they can grow hay. And because of the changing climate, snow pack, if there is any, doesn't last as long as it used to so the water heats up. Then you've got all the anglers, yanking out fish and taking their pictures to show on Facebook. All of us guides saw the trend, but fisheries managers didn't want to upset the "Ag Community", meaning the powerful ranchers who always ran things. Plus the fact western water law is all about livestock and crop production, with ecosystems left unprotected. Big Enviro non-profits like Trout Unlimited could step in, for instance, demanding the Endangered Species Act apply to the grayling but they are just as afraid of the cow people. Plus their donor base includes Big Money boys uninterested in government intervention. So now the trout population is crashing so all those big crowds that used to fish there will start heading to the last, best rivers and trash those as well. The law of diminishing returns. But at least the cows will have plenty of hay.

Dangerous World

The one budget item that is sacrosanct, the so-called "defense" budget, is also the one that is the most obscenely bloated.Some Senators demanded that it be increased because China. The inscrutable Communists will always arouse that xenophobic passion, garner campaign donations, recruit young Marines. You know you live in a dangerous world when a whole race of people doesn't even want to be as free as us Americans. Biden was happy with the compromise, channeling the Stones: "You can't always get what you want, but you get what you need." He is barely alive, reading the teleprompter like a junkie who has been up for days.The old bipartisanship campaigner, working together to get things done. But what brinkmanship! Texas Chip demanding no true Republicans should sign on. Radical leftist independents like Bernie voting no. Who could have possibly predicted the outcome? On to the Next Big Thing, Trump's indictment. Proud Boys, get ready!

Price, Cost , Harm

From the NYT: The change would affect the metric that the federal government uses to calculate the harm caused by one ton of planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution. In the Obama administration, White House economists calculated that number at roughly $50 a ton. In the Trump administration, they lowered it to less than $5 a ton. Applying Mr. Revesz’s formula shoots up the cost to nearly $200 a ton. This so-called "metric" of the social cost of carbon is so volatile as to be meaningless. We are told The Market can solve our problems if we just let it find "equalibrium", do the cost- benefit analysis and come up with a perfect price. But in reality the calculation is political. Capitalist economic theory fails miserably, which is why we face climate catastrophe. Here is another snippet from the Times, trying to explain "discounted" pricing of regulations: In 2003, government economists estimated the impact of regulation on future generations by considering the average interest rate on government bonds over the prior 30 years. Totally insane. They would do better to look at the recent article that said insurers were going bankrupt and refusing to issue new policies. Or the article that said Phoenix will no longer issue building permits because they have run out of groundwater. It has nothing to do with what The Market Will Bare. It is what the earth system will bare. We know but act as if we don't.