Monetary/Fiscal System

* I wonder occasionally about the natural history of money.
* Do all dollars come from the Federal Reserve as loans to big banks? Why?
* Can government create money? Why?
* By what mechanisms do dollars loaned by the Fed cease being owed back to the Fed, hence available for us to keep? What fraction of the money supply is owed to Fed and what are other fractions?
* Is there a relation between people's savings and government debt?
* Are savings in the money supply?
* What do profits do to the money supply?
* What are the roles of money supply and commodity scarcity in inflation?
* Compare the efficiency of supply-side and demand-side economic controls.
* What would be the harm of redistributing wealth from the top of the pyramid to the bottom? Consider effects on resource consumption, trade balance, immigration.

My Dick Cheney Ramblings

* Recently Dick Cheney has been interviewed by serious hosts, saying about the same thing each time--essentially that Barack Obama is responsible for declining American influence abroad, rising Muslim-Brotherhood power, Iran's progress toward acquiring a nuclear weapon, inadequate economic recovery, perils of Israel, weakening of our military, deaths of our representatives in Benghazi, lying about it, exploding government debt--this from the architect and guiding hand of the administration that took the nation from unprecedented prosperity with budget surpluses to economic collapse with gratuitous budget deficits, that made no effort to thwart the 9/11 attacks despite warnings, that failed to destroy al-Qaida and much of the Taliban when the opportunity presented itself, that led us into a costly criminal war in Iraq.
* There isn't the slightest evidence that the Cheney administration would have led the world and guided our economy for the past 4 years better than did the Obama administration. The Republican counter-intuitive supply-side economic theory turned out to be wrong after all. Unfortunately this theory still dominates the economic conversation 4 years after the Cheney administration and 3 decades after Reagan embraced it. That's why Obama did not steer our monetary and fiscal policies further from the right and sooner.
* Cheney presents no convincing alternative to our light touch in the Arab-spring revolutions, though he implies that a more robust projection of our power could have influenced outcomes for the better (for whom?). In my opinion, we (Hillary Clinton) said too much in favor of the rebels, who may become our enemies, and too much against former leaders with whom we had previously been reconciled. Hosni Mubarak's government was more gentle and restrained than we would likely have been under comparable circumstances, and they shouldn't have been vilified or prosecuted as criminals. Some casualties are normal and expected in a mob uprising. We should have incentivized and facilitated the peaceful relinquishment of power and comfortable retirement of leaders after an honest election in those hot spots.
* It seems possible that mob uprisings may become the new norm in countries where expectations greatly exceed economic opportunities, perhaps soon most countries, now that social media and smart phones are ubiquitous. Some day we may discover a social/economic/governance system that better satisfies populations, but that will face many headwinds--deep flawed economic theories, tribalism, beneficiaries of status quo in a wealth/power vortex.

Vivat Veritas

* In earlier essays, I've contemplated the social and economic benefits of elevated truth/lies ratios.
* For example: Lies and conventional wisdom
* and Rupert Murdoch punishment
* and perhaps Reaganistic economist deceives
* I wished for some way to oppose the deception-industrial complex. Well others have been laboring in this vineyard. They have produced a real-time fact checker. I'd love to see it deployed as imagined in my earlier essays referenced above.

Steve Gill's Legacy

* Although Steve Gill hosted a talk-radio show for about 15 years and was a leader of the anti-Tennessee-income-tax protest early in that tenure, I first heard his voice about four years ago, after Obama's election victory. I was shocked that someone could despise our new president so viciously before any new policy had been enacted. As I recall, he characterized Obama as vile and despicable or vile and contemptible. That pretty well snuffed my inaugural buzz, my dream of national reconciliation.
* Since then, I've tuned in to Gill's radio show two or three times per month, because he awakened my curiosity about the role of tribalism (hate, contempt, self-righteousness, etc) in a society. Clearly there is an appetite for it. Is there a need for it? Unconstrained it can lead to retribution or genocide.
* Gill lays all economic ills at Obama's feet, though they antedated Obama's administration. For example, Reagan's tax and spending programs increased government debt 300%; Obama's will increase it about 80%. Reagan granted amnesty to all undocumented aliens; Obama is contemplating comprehensive immigration reform. Gill occasionally used dialect to belittle black people, providing succor for white supremacists.
* Gill is brilliant at recalling names and events for his narratives, which are laced with sarcasm, irony and exaggeration to the point of dishonesty. I don't understand why someone as talented, intelligent and fortunate as Steve Gill would grovel in gratuitous hate. He has spent the last 1/4 of his life persuading successful people to resent unsuccessful people. Is that a legacy to be proud of?

Photons

* And while we are at it, what about the photon.
* It is an element of electromagnetic energy which may be light and which in any case travels at the speed of light.
* How does it get made, what are its dimensions in transit, how does it get absorbed, how do its properties in transit relate to its energy content?
* Why doesn't it spread out in transit? Is it possible that no electromagnetic wave traveling in space spreads out except as its elements origially started out in different directions?
* Does the Hall Photon Theory agree with all observations? Is this discussed?

Shape of the Cosmos

* Judging from popular media, astronomers are developing tools for observing matter and energy near the edge of the universe. Based on that talk, I contemplated special properties of fields and trajectories at the edge of the universe, eg violations of inverse-square rules and bent photon paths. Attempting to discuss these matters with physics experts, I was shut down before getting started. They say that the universe has no edge. It is bent and joined in a fourth dimension, such that no path leads out. This was explained by analogies.
* A straight string has ends which an ant could come to and jump from, but a looped string has no end for such escape. A flat plane has edges which an animal could come to and jump from, but that plane bent into a sphere and fused has no edge for such escape.
* Analogously, if the universe began by expanding into pre-existing cartesian space, then it would have an outer extreme limit beyond which photons and accelerated particles could escape. But (they say) the universe expanded into its own self-generated or self-contained space which is curved/bent on itself such that all trajectories are within its confines. The idea of space outside the universe or existing before the big bang is meaningless. Perhaps time before the bang or outside the material universe is meaningless. This is my attempt to convey the idea they imparted to me.
* With this theory in its simplest form as an axiom, we can postulate some implications:
1. No point in the universe is demonstrably not at the center of the universe. Every point is effectively as much at the center as any other point.
2. If light were fast enough or the universe small enough, the most distant thing that an observer could see would be itself. If our solar system is the point in question, one need not make this conditional on unrealistic light speed or unrealistic universe size, for photons have been leaving our solar system since early in the the universe's history.
3. Accordingly, the observer would see itself smeared over its sight horizon as the inside surface of a sphere enclosing the whole universe.
4. The most distant object an observer could possibly witness is itself.
5. If an observer leaves a larger body and travels in a straight line in any direction, it will be traveling both away from and toward that larger body, and that larger body would appear to be getting smaller (less wide than the sight horizon) rather than bigger as the observer gets closer, up to a point. That is to say, the angle subtended by the body's diameter in the observer's view will get smaller, until a critical distance is reached where getting closer widens the image.
* These corollaries seem paradoxical--hard to swallow. Therefore, I ask: What is the compelling reason to accept this bent/curved-universe theory? Why not imagine a big bang in a pre-existing cartesian-space-time coordinate system.

Nonprofits & PayPal

* I call on anyone associated with a worthy nonprofit to encourage provision of the convenience that I now insist on.
* Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I attempt to support almost 60 nonprofits, those working to preserve and enhance aspects of civilization that I care about. In earlier years, I could do it with checks in envelopes. Now, I need the convenience of email and PayPal. Many of my target nonprofits don't provide this convenience, so they don't get my contribution. Instead, they get the note below sent to their CONTACT addresses.
* My Donation-Policy Note:
* In my senility (cataracts, arthritis), I no longer write checks to nonprofits, and I don't use a credit card on line.
* I respond to emails from organizations devoted to family planning and population restraint, provided they don't solicit via regular mail and provided their email solicitations have PayPal buttons. With these same provisions, consideration is also given to organizations that support local culture, help the needy, extend justice or those to which I have an obligation.
* In summary, I use only PayPal to contribute.
* Please, send no solicitations lacking a PayPal button.
* Please, no post-office mailings.
* I try to support more than 50 nonprofits, so I don't have time for paper or for typing my data.
* This year I supported about 23 nonprofits. The following are those that I attempted to support and would have supported if they had the PayPal button: American Indian College Fund, CEDPA, Common Cause, Cumberland River Compact, Davidson College, Engender Health, Fisk University, Friends of Radnor Lake, Friends of UNFPA, Friends of Warner Parks, Girls Inc, Guide Dog Foundation, Heard Library, International Bluegrass Music Museum, Legal Momentum, NARAL, NOW, Nashville Humane Assoc, Nashville Public Television, Nashville Opera, Nashville Rescue Mission, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Zoo, National Women's Law Center, PCI-Media Impact, Pathfinder International, Peabody College, Planned Parenthood, Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, Population Action International, Population Connection, The Population Council, The Population Institute, Room in the Inn, Second Harvest Food Bank, The Seeing Eye, Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, United Way, Vanderbilt University, W.O. Smith Music School