Just as the French last week the Greeks are striking, and definitely not for the first time. The reasons of course are mostly the same as before, in this case the proposed austerity measures of the government, a draft law that would raise the retirement age, reduce monthly payments to pensioners, and facilitate layoffs. Louisa [...]
Archive for June 2010
Reflections on Striking Workers
June 29, 2010Two Weeds Grown in Progressive Soil
June 27, 2010Arnold Kling on his blog Econ Log writes: “There seems to be more awareness now of what I call the two weeds that have grown in Progressive soil: entitlement spending; and compensation of unionized public sector workers. Greece seems to be an object lesson in what can happen if these weeds are left untrimmed for [...]
To see the adult in the child…
June 26, 2010Here I give you a few bits of wisdom concerning child rearing from a Saturday Essay, The Breeders’ Cup, in the Wall Street Journal of June 19th. “If you enjoy reading with your children, wonderful. But if you skip the nightly book, you’re not stunting their intelligence, ruining their chances for college or dooming them [...]
General McChrystal and the Anosognosic’s Dilemma
June 25, 2010One has trouble, I have trouble understanding General McChrystal’s agreeing to be interviewed by the reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine. Why? Because the General is our President’s man in charge of the war in Afghanistan, now in its ninth year and without an end in sight. And the President’s man doesn’t do Rolling Stone interviews. [...]
The Dunning-Kruger Effect
June 25, 2010Why did I never hear about this before now? What is it? According to Wickipedia “The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which “people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.” “Metacognitive,” that’s knowing about knowing. People are not aware, all people, [...]
Over Hamburgers at Ray’s
June 25, 2010Last week BP’s embattled chief executive, Tony Hayward, was criticized for attending a yacht race (while, of course, his oil continued to gush into the Gulf waters). This week, in the picture below, we see President Obama at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va. enjoying a hamburger and fries with President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia. [...]
La Douce France
June 24, 2010The French are again on strike. Here they are, in Marseilles, protesting, that which, along with cheese and wine production, they do as well or better than anyone else. And why are they striking? In order to bring down spiraling budget deficits Sarkozy has proposed raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. The Unions [...]
Email to a Friend
June 22, 2010H… Did you happen to read a Times “opinionator” piece by Errol Morris, “It Was All Started By A Mouse,” in January of this year. Now he has just begun a new Times series called: “The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is.” Interesting. I thought of you, and what you [...]
Job Creation
June 20, 2010Economists, politicians, President Obama, my next door neighbor, people of all stripes talk about job creation, and how important this is. And it’s true. It is important, especially when nationwide unemployment is at a generational high and people without a job, or without steady employment are losing first their savings and then their homes. Also, [...]
Schooling is not education
June 11, 2010To no small degree what’s wrong with “education” in this country is that too many of those who should know better go on expounding on the nature and value of the liberal arts as if clarification and greater understanding of that would stem if not reverse the failure, or at least widely held perception of [...]
