August 25, 2008
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MUDGE’s Musings
Confession: Yr (justifiably) humble svt has been watching these past couple of months of virulent right wing zingers aimed at Barack Obama, that are apparently drawing blood among responders to polls, with more than a little tinge of déjà vu.
The rabid Rovian mudflood machine buried John Kerry last time around, using his war record, and his wealthy wife, as its prime weapons. Now, enough true believers are buying Jerome Corsi’s latest fantasy smearfest to make it a best seller. Uh oh.
However, Obama is facing a war hero with a wife so wealthy that he can’t keep track of how many homes they own. Do the Democrats have the bare knuckled instincts to strike back against McCain’s rabid Rovians? Frank Rich of NYTimes is urging that the time for polite cheek turning is long past.
Last Call for Change We Can Believe In
Op-Ed Columnist | By FRANK RICH | Published: August 23, 2008
AS the real campaign at last begins in Denver this week, this much is certain: It’s time for Barack Obama to dispatch “Change We Can Believe In” to a dignified death.
This isn’t because — OMG! — Obama’s narrow three- to four-percentage-point lead of recent weeks dropped to a statistically indistinguishable one- to three-point margin during his week of vacation. It’s because zero hour is here. As the presidential race finally gains the country’s full attention, the strategy that vanquished Hillary Clinton must be rebooted to take out John McCain.
“Change We Can Believe In” was brilliantly calculated for a Democratic familial brawl where every candidate was promising nearly identical change from George Bush. It branded Obama as the sole contender with the un-Beltway biography, credibility and political talent to link the promise of change to the nation’s onrushing generational turnover in all its cultural (and, yes, racial) manifestations. McCain should be a far easier mark than Clinton if Obama retools his act.
Obama’s message of change needs an update, Rich says, and he makes a strong case.
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2 Comments | 
China, Economy, Iraq occupation, McCain, Obama, Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: China, Corsi, Economy, Frank Rich, John Kerry, McCain, Obama, Politics | 
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Posted by mudge
August 16, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
© Kandasamy M | Dreamstime.com
So, back into the archives once again during an exceptionally action-packed weekend, but hey, recycling is IN, right? We’re all about doing the right thing here at Left-Handed Complement, and in that spirit we’re recycling some of yr (justifiably) humble svt‘s favorite electrons.
I hereby stop apologizing for observing the prime directive of blogging: Thou Shalt Blog Daily!
And, I’m guessing that most of you weren’t here nine months ago. As one of my favorite paper publications used to say as they flogged unsold back issues: “If you haven’t read it yet, it’s new for you!”
![lhc76019043_thumb24_thumb2_thumb2_th[3]](https://mudge.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/lhc76019043-thumb24-thumb2-thumb2-th3-thumb.jpg?w=398&h=102)
Blast from the Past!
A post we really, really loved to write, and read, and re-read…
From last fall, and always in season, originally posted October 28, 2007, and titled “mm178: More Conventional Wis-dumb.”
MUDGE’S Musings
It has long been an article of faith in the press that U.S. education is failing to deliver adequate numbers of competent engineers and scientists.
We’ve all seen the reports that show U.S. students in all grade levels far behind many other countries in test results.
So, imagine the surprise that MUDGE felt when encountering this column in Business Week, one of his regular reads (for over 30 years!).
Forget the conventional wisdom. U.S. schools are turning out more capable science and engineering grads than the job market can support
by Vivek Wadhwa
Political leaders, tech executives, and academics often claim that the U.S. is falling behind in math and science education. They cite poor test results, declining international rankings, and decreasing enrollment in the hard sciences. They urge us to improve our education system and to graduate more engineers and scientists to keep pace with countries such as India and China.
Yet a new report by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, tells a different story. The report disproves many confident pronouncements about the alleged weaknesses and failures of the U.S. education system. This data will certainly be examined by both sides in the debate over highly skilled workers and immigration (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07). The argument by Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), and others is that there are not enough tech workers in the U.S.
What we believe is not, as it happens, supported by the facts.
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Leave a Comment » | China, Education, India | Tagged: big lie, China, conventional wis-dumb, conventional wisdom, Education, engineering, India, Mainstream media, The 'Sphere, U.S. education failure, Vivek Wadhwa | Permalink
Posted by mudge
August 8, 2008
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MUDGE’s Musings
Long ago, yr (justifiably) humble svt was quite the sports fan. Some of this was genetic; my long-deceased father was a baseball fan, first and foremost; during his prime he was pleased to have season’s tickets for both Chicago ball clubs.
His oldest son is more of a fair weather fan. And the weather thus far this season has been quite fair, thank you very much, on both the North and South sides of town, although all such observations are via television or Internet; stadium tickets, parking, refreshments are luxury goods.
Professional and college football I find more compelling; even though I never have been at all athletic, the large size of football players fits my self image better, I think. Those seasons are just about to begin; it’s been a long several months football-free drought. But, interest is vicarious; the past two seasons, courtesy of my Naval Academy children, I have actually attended a couple of live college games, but it’s been 30 years or more since I’ve attended a professional contest.
For many years, I was a happy subscriber to Sports Illustrated, and a voracious consumer of televised sports of all kinds, although until the past few years penury deprived me of many years of ESPN.
And, every four years, and lately, since the Winter and Summer games have been split, every two years, I was a consumer of televised Olympics.
A fellow denizen of BlogExplosion.com, michiganrafter, much more into things athletic (and commercial) than am I, had a listing the other day of the Top Ten Olympic Moments, and I could recall and concur with all of his choices.
That was then. It’s no accident, I think, that most of his top 10 occurred at least 20, and some more than 30, years ago.
Sport has changed.
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6 Comments | Business, China, Democracy, Geopolitics, Global trade, Politics, Sports | Tagged: baseball, China, ESPN, football, Great Firewall of China, Meltwater.Torrents.Meanderings.Delta, michiganrafter.blogspot.com, NFL, Olympic Games, Olympics, Sports, Sports Illustrated, Tibet repression | Permalink
Posted by mudge
August 6, 2008
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MUDGE’s Musings
Went after everyone’s favorite hateful big business, Wal-Mart, a couple of posts ago, as we explored their ham-fisted attempts at influencing presidential election politics.
Slate’s Daniel Gross, whom after all gets paid to write these things, did a nice job exploring the issue (but yr [justifiably] humble svt was there with typically cogent commentary the previous evening, thank you very much; my son sent me the Journal story well after I had harvested it into WindowsLiveWriter, in preparation for the post. Just setting the record straight! 
).
Lately, we’ve become intrigued as we learn that the mechanism that allows Wal-Mart to be Wal-Mart…
After all, these are the guys who have rolled back prices so relentlessly that they’ve rolled up entire industries and sent the jobs and our treasure to China, at the expense of zillions of decent paying blue collar jobs in the U.S.
… globalism, is under ferocious attack.
Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization
By LARRY ROHTER | Published: August 3, 2008
…. Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages. Rising concern about global warming, the reaction against lost jobs in rich countries, worries about food safety and security, and the collapse of world trade talks in Geneva last week also signal that political and environmental concerns may make the calculus of globalization far more complex.
“If we think about the Wal-Mart model, it is incredibly fuel-intensive at every stage, and at every one of those stages we are now seeing an inflation of the costs for boats, trucks, cars,” said Naomi Klein, the author of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.”
All of that consumer stuff that packs the shelves of Wal-Mart, and, to be fair, its competition, and all of the so-called big box stores: the toys, the apparel, the electronics and decorative accent pieces for your great room; all that stuff got to Wal-Mart in 40-foot shipping containers.
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1 Comment | Business, China, Global trade, Globalization, Transportation | Tagged: big box stores, container ships, Daniel Gross, globalism, high fuel costs, Slate.com, Wal-Mart | Permalink
Posted by mudge
August 3, 2008
© John Leaver | Dreamstime.com
MUDGE’s Musings
Used to be, if you were annoyed by the antics of big business, you’d pick on General Motors, world’s biggest, most arrogant, automobile manufacturer.
Difficult to be anything but sorry for GM these days, as they Hummer their way into business oblivion.
No, these days if you want to vent your spleen regarding unpleasant aspects of big business, Wal-Mart is your most appropriate target.
After all, these are the guys who have rolled back prices so relentlessly that they’ve rolled up entire industries and sent the jobs and our treasure to China, at the expense of zillions of decent paying blue collar jobs in the U.S.
And, as an employer, they are infamous for poor pay, are niggardly with benefits, and have fought an equally relentless battle against unionization, lest their workers have any real means of changing their working conditions.
Those friendly greeters? Just minimum wage retirees who are really posted at the door not to smile weakly at you, but rather to make sure that shoplifters exiting the store are caught.
Just to be certain that their own underpaid and cowed staff stays that way, they have begun a campaign, documented by the Wall Street Journal, no less, to warn their managers and supervisors that a prospective Democratic presidential administration endangers Wal-Mart’s non-union status.
Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win
By ANN ZIMMERMAN and KRIS MAHER | August 1, 2008; Page A1
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they’ll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies — including Wal-Mart.
In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.
According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise.
Wal-Mart is far from the only employer that opposes the Employee Free Choice Act (co-sponsored, by the way, by a certain junior senator from Illinois), but as the largest private employer in the U.S. they certainly have the most to lose, and that largest body of private employees in the U.S. has the most to gain.
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3 Comments | Business, China, Government, Politics | Tagged: Costco, Employee Free Choice Act, Federal election law, Obama, Politics, Sam's Club, Target, unions, Wal-Mart | Permalink
Posted by mudge
June 7, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
We embark this weekend on a business trip to a conference in Boston. As conferences usually take up a great deal of uptime, without the downtime associated with a normal schedule, we will probably cover many of our daily blogging deadlines with Blasts from the Past!
The conference itself, designed to illuminate the social networking phenomena in the context of business and corporate conduct, may provide the opportunity to blog, as blogging in the corporate environment is one of its key topics. So we may be able to mix business interests and responsibilities with our avocation in this space. Should be interesting!
There’s most read, and then there’s favorite. This is a post which yr (justifiably) humble svt is, regrettably, but not regretfully, not at all humble about.
Blast from the Past!
A post we really, really loved to write, and read, and re-read…
From last summer, originally posted September 10, 2007 and originally titled “China – Two interesting aspects”.
MUDGE’S Musings
China is always in the news. Two stories from the past few days illuminate why in some interesting ways.
First, from the LA Times, a look at how we have become victim’s of our unlimited appetite for everyday low prices.
Analysts expect prices in the U.S. to creep up as safety standards are reevaluated. Buyers and retailers may share the impact.
By Don Lee and Abigail Goldman
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 9, 2007
SHANGHAI — Get ready for a new Chinese export: higher prices.
For years, American consumers have enjoyed falling prices for goods made in China thanks to relentless cost cutting by retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target.
But the spate of product recalls in recent months — Mattel announced another last week — has exposed deep fault lines in Chinese manufacturing. Manufacturers and analysts say some of the quality breakdowns are a result of financially strapped factories substituting materials or taking other shortcuts to cover higher operating costs.
Now, retailers that had largely dismissed Chinese suppliers’ complaints about the soaring cost of wages, energy and raw materials are preparing to pay manufacturers more to ensure better quality. By doing so, they hope to prevent recalls that hurt their bottom lines and reputations. But those added costs — on a host of items that include toys and frozen fish — mean either lower profits for retailers or higher prices for consumers.
“For American consumers, this big China sale over the last 20 years is over,” said Andy Xie, former Asia economist for Morgan Stanley, who works independently in Shanghai. “China’s cost is going up. They need to get used to it.”
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Leave a Comment » | Business, China, Economy, Geopolitics, Global trade, History | Tagged: Business, China, Costco, Economy, exports, Global trade, global warming, History, Japan, junk, landfills, lead paint, low prices, Pearl Harbor, safety inspections, scrap iron, scrap paper, scrap steel, Target, toys, Toys R Us, trade deficit, trash, tree huggers, Vietnam, wage increases, Wal-Mart | Permalink
Posted by mudge
May 30, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Oil prices. A very hot, very sticky, very crude topic. We’ll look at four versions of reality.
MUDGE‘s reality: $4.259/gallon at his neighborhood Shell.
From the mosaic, we can hope that some kind of truth emerges.
No question that we are living in interesting times.
Oil spill no. 1. How high is up?
$200 a barrel petroleum. If you think your world is changing around you, buckle up.
![theamerican[4]](https://mudge.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/theamerican4.jpg?w=396&h=92)
Will Oil Really Hit $200 a Barrel?
Rudi Dornbusch, the renowned economist, once said that he did not understand how Mexico’s central bank board members could make the same mistakes time after time. Looking at the ongoing frenzy in the global oil market, one appreciates what Dornbusch meant. Once again, many market participants appear to believe that oil prices can only go up. It seems that the painful lessons of the 2001 dot-com bust have been forgotten, as have the lessons of the much more recent U.S. housing crash.
In their state of forgetfulness, many pension funds and insurance companies have built up very large open positions in the oil futures market. These positions are now estimated to total over $200 billion, roughly the equivalent of a full year of Chinese oil demand. They have contributed to the recent spectacular run-up in oil prices.
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Leave a Comment » | China, Economic depression, Economy, India, Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: "May you live in interesting times", $200/barrel, Casablanca, China, criminomics, economics, high prices, India, Obama, oil, Pacer, petroleum, Prius, Recession, Tata Motors, Thomas Friedman, Vietnam | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 22, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Shooting a missile at a satellite is rocket science. And, apparently, a year late, we’ve figured it out.
Spy Satellite’s Downing Shows a New U.S. Weapon Capability
By Marc Kaufman and Josh White | Washington Post Staff Writers | Friday, February 22, 2008; Page A03
The unprecedented downing of an errant spy satellite by a Navy missile makes it clear that the Pentagon has a new weapon in its arsenal — an anti-satellite missile adapted from the nation’s missile defense program.
While the dramatic intercept took place well below the altitude where most satellites orbit, defense and space experts said Wednesday night’s first-shot success strongly suggests that the military has the technology and know-how to knock out satellites at much higher orbits.
When the plans were announced a week or so ago, we were bemused.
The physics required have got to be astounding. See, the satellite is in a deteriorating orbit, so it might not be acting totally predictably.
The missile was built, of course, by the lowest bidder.
And they launched it from a missile cruiser sailing in the Pacific, which any mariner will tell you is totally falsely named.
I’m thinking the challenge was tantamount to shooting an arrow at a duck in flight several miles away, from the back of a rodeo bull.
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3 Comments | China, Geopolitics, India, Navy, Politics, Science, Technology | Tagged: China, fallout shelters, GPS, India, Iran, Israel, militarization of space, missile, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, shot down satellite, Tang, U.S. Navy | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 19, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Quirky things going on out there, folks. None seem expansive enough to go all expansive on you, so we’re going to have another episode of SASB:
©
Gassing…
A couple of scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have, they claim, found a way to turn airborne carbon dioxide back into gasoline.
Scientists Would Turn Greenhouse Gas Into Gasoline
By KENNETH CHANG | Published: February 19, 2008
The scientists, F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic Jr., are proposing a concept, which they have patriotically named Green Freedom, for removing carbon dioxide from the air and turning it back into gasoline.
The idea is simple. Air would be blown over a liquid solution of potassium carbonate, which would absorb the carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide would then be extracted and subjected to chemical reactions that would turn it into fuel: methanol, gasoline or jet fuel.
This process could transform carbon dioxide from an unwanted, climate-changing pollutant into a vast resource for renewable fuels. The closed cycle — equal amounts of carbon dioxide emitted and removed — would mean that cars, trucks and airplanes using the synthetic fuels would no longer be contributing to global warming.
Of course, there’s a hitch, there’s always a hitch.
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1 Comment | China, Navy, Politics, Presidential election, Science, Technology | Tagged: carbon dioxide, China, environmentalists, global warming, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Michael Bloomberg, nuclear energy, Presidential election, satellite, Short Attention Span Blogging©, Star Wars anti-missile system, U.S. Navy | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 16, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Always useful, and often picking up on trends little noticed elsewhere, The Economist, best magazine on the planet, is at its typical best describing China’s massive infrastructure boom.
China’s infrastructure splurge
Rushing on by road, rail and air
Feb 14th 2008 | BEIJING | From The Economist print edition
China’s race to build roads, railways and airports speeds ahead. Democracy, says an official, would sacrifice efficiency
“IT’S like approaching the Forbidden City, it’s absolutely incredible.” The adjective is one that Mouzhan Majidi, chief executive of Foster + Partners, liberally attaches to Beijing’s new airport terminal, designed by his British firm. The world’s largest, designed in the gently sinuous form of a Chinese dragon, it was planned and built in four years by an army of 50,000 workers. “The columns on the outside are red and you see them marching for miles and miles,” says Mr Majidi.
A little hyperbole is understandable. The terminal is 3km (1.8 miles) long. The floor space is 17% bigger than all the terminals at London’s Heathrow combined (including about-to-open Terminal Five). Chinese officials like the Forbidden City analogy. Just as the towering vermilion walls and golden roofs of the imperial palace inspire visitors with awe, China wants its golden-roofed terminal to impress those arriving for the Olympic games in August. Part of a $3.8 billion expansion, which included the opening of a third runway in October, it is due to open on February 29th, weeks ahead of schedule.
The numbers are mind-bending. Beijing’s airport is now the ninth busiest in the world. The longest sea-crossing bridge: 36km (22+ miles), six-lanes, between Shanghai and Ningbo (anyone else never hear before of Ningbo, much less that it’s important enough to build the longest bridge in the world to get there?).
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3 Comments | Business, China, Environment, Global trade, Transportation | Tagged: air travel, airports, Beijing, Best Buy, bullet train, China, highways, infrastructure, Ningbo, ocean crossing bridges, rail lines, rail travel, Shanghai, Target, Wal-Mart | Permalink
Posted by mudge
![lhc76019043_thumb24_thumb2_thumb2_th[3]](https://mudge.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/lhc76019043-thumb24-thumb2-thumb2-th3.jpg)
Left-handed Complement 