Musings Report #14 4-2-16 We Rescue Each Other
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We Rescue Each Other
This inspirational video He Rescued A Dog, Then The Dog Rescued Him (6:25) was specifically intended to promote animal adoption--a self-evidently worthy cause.
But the story illustrates a much larger point: we rescue each other, not just in terms of human-pet/animal bonds, but in a great many relationships between humans, animals and Nature. (The program calls this mutual rescue.)
The Penguin Who Swims 5,000 Miles To See His Human Pal Every Year (1:55) reflects a variation on this theme, as the benefit to the human is less direct and measurable than weight loss and improved health, but nonetheless very real.
There are many stories of apparently selfless animals and humans caring for individuals of other species (or of the same species but no blood relation). The rescue may appear to be one-way, but as Adam Smith (yes, that Adam Smith--the ground-breaking English economist) pointed out in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), the benefits of aiding others or a community are ingrained in human nature: we are not entirely rationalist selfish beings, even though this is the model that underpins virtually all modern economic theory: we maximize our own gain, period.
For Smith, mutual benefit was the key dynamic of the Invisible Hand that guided the market--not 100% selfish gain.
The desire to connect with others, to aid those in need, and to gain something essential within ourselves by helping others, is sorely overlooked in a world riven by seemingly inexhaustible conflict and exploitation.
I wonder if "we rescue each other" isn't the foundation of many successful marriages, business partnerships and humans-preserving-Nature-for-no-personal-gain stories.
Perhaps we recoil from this idea because the modernist ideal is a self-contained "heroic" personality who never needs rescuing. Perhaps the reality is that we need to rescue and be rescued.
Summary of the Blog This Past Week
Welcome to Frugal Airline 4/1/16 (April Fools)
Higher Education Is Morally and Financially Bankrupt 3/31/16
How Many Tech Startups Are Empty Shells? 3/30/16
Why the Corporate Media Hates Sanders (and has a Love/Hate Thing with Trump) 3/29/16
Another Reason Corporate Profits Will Plummet: The Managerial/ Professional Class Is Burning Out 3/28/16
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
First BBQ of the year: big salad and grilled pork/beef, homemade brownies and peach pie for dessert. Eight people enjoyed the feast (and two kids who favored the brownies).
Market Musings: Manic Markets
What can we make of the manic crashes and rallies of the past eight months? One thing we know is central banks coordinate their public announcements and private buying of assets to reverse any panic declines:
How Two Janet Yellen Phone Calls Saved The World.
We also note a classic rounded top in the SPX that characterizes multi-year tops. Now that the SPX has rebounded to 2070, it has entered the key resistance area of this rounded top. Will it reverse here or blast higher to 2140?
Obviously, the answer depends on central bank actions and dovish announcements. But technically, we see the stochastics have reached overbought levels where recent rallies have reversed, and the manic upthrust of MACD is still below the neutral line, which tends to delineate rallies that reverse and those that lift higher in a bullish trend.
Any extension of this upthrust will negate the rounded top, but if it fails within a few weeks, it will not negate the idea that the stock market is in a drawn-out topping process similar to 2007-08.
From Left Field
Why Learning To Code Won't Save Your Job -- lots of coding is being automated, or reduced to drag-and-drop modules....
Temps and contractors accounted for all US job growth since 2005 -- no surprise here--labor flexibility is the future, whether we like it or not....
The Only Woman to Win the Nobel Prize in Economics Also Debunked Mainstream Economics: The truth about the tragedy of the commons
Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies: When maximizing profits isn’t the only goal, companies can actually work better.
The Death of Oil Demand has been Greatly Exaggerated -- but the recession hasn't really started, so beware....
Why we have a wage inequality problem -- energy and interest matter....
The Declining Taste of the Super-Rich -- declining support for the arts...
In Pod-Based Community Living, Rent Is Cheap, But Sex Is Banned -- must have strict rules in the Hive...
Mental illness mostly caused by life events not genetics, argue psychologists: Mental illnesses, like depression, are largely triggered by life events not genetics, and more funding should be allocated to find their true cause
Against Poverty Porn: Why Our Approach To Foreign Aid Is Outdated, Paternalistic And Misguided -- amen....
Why we should fear a cashless world: Poor people and small businesses rely on cash. A contactless system will likely entrench poverty and pave the way for terrifying levels of surveillance
Why Germany Is So Much Better at Training Its Workers: America rarely uses an apprenticeship model to teach young people a trade. -- like I've been saying for years...
Women in China are using sheets of paper to show how skinny they are -- not the 11-inch direction, the 8-inch direction -- another wacky web fad....
"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations." Steve Jobs
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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