john s. gordon

The Credit Crisis Exposes a Dysfunctional Global Economic Model

confused & clueless - george dubya administration - is an understatement.

infrastructure in u.s.a is a mess - has been falling apart since 1981 - thank you mr. reagan.
> jack

Alternative Energy Storage Is an Investment Tsunami

futuregen (mattoon IL) was intended to make hydrogen but the project was killed by the emperor george dubya administration.
> jack

How Wall Street Has Failed the Individual Investor

wall street couldn't care less about the individual investor.
> jack

Saab May Be GM's Best Hope for the Future

the best saab was the 9000 with 3-litre v6 engine. co-development with lancia & alfa romeo made this engine possible. unfortunately they couldn't sell enough of them ....
> jack

Book Review: The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997

korea - in 1953 the chinese army was bogged down on the penunsula with a typhus epidemic. d.d.eisenhower quietly let it be known that if they didn't come to the conference table he would drop a nuke on them. they came, & we still have a conference tabel.
> jack

Book Review: The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997

britain's industrial base became overshadowed by germany's after 1871, and was allowed to wither after 1920.

the country with the most modern & efficient industrial base will be top dog. will it be china?

rudyard kipling in 1898 foresaw the waning on england's dominance and wrote about it. did anyone listen?

france lost an empire in north america, then lost an empire in india, and later lost an empire in africa. now they are overrun by algerian economic refugees.

today the u.s.a is undermined by the economic illiteracy of the reagan & 'bush 43' administrations.
> jack

Saab May Be GM's Best Hope for the Future

pontiac peaked (interest-wise) in 1978 before john delorean left. having imagination he was a misfit @ GM.
> jack

eBay's Donahoe Has Crow for Thanksgiving

'best match' is indeed an abomination. get rid of it.
> jack

Service-Based Economy Is Progress? Show Me the Money

keynes advocated government spending on public works at times of high unemployment and good availability of raw materials. (sounds like FDR.) i'm not so sure he advocated adopting the leninist/stalinist model. after all stalin/khrushchev did murder about 20 x 10 exp6 ukrainians because they objected to his forced collectivization.

hitler had an unemployment problem in germany. he put able-bodied men to work building autobahnen.

deficit spending on infrastructure in july-august 2008 @ the height of the steel/cement speculative commodities bubble would have been unwise. 4 months later it seems very wise to put americans back to work any which way you can.

unions exist to correct management abuses. united parcel service has a union (teamsters) but they still have management abuses (when the shop steward doesn't do his job & lets them get away w/it).
> jack

Wind Power: What We Can Learn from Denmark

denmark's geography & prevailing weather conditions are unique, favoring wind electric power. netherlands used windmills for hundreds of yrs for the same reason. in denmark the wind-power generation is close to load centers, facilitating xmission.

Service-Based Economy Is Progress? Show Me the Money

drevno - my sugar laden snacks are made in mexico, at least that's what it says on the label.
> jack

The Awfulness of U.S. Healthcare

a lot of procedures/diagnostics are done in the category of defensive medicine, i.e. the hospital or practitioner doesn't want to be sued later. this plus fragmented billing (4 separate bills for one hospital visit) really drives up costs w/o any benefit to the patient.
> jack

Has Hank Paulson Been a Good Treasury Secretary?

armistead - right on.
> jack

The Difference Between Rubin and Paulson

au point. thank you.
> jack

First Compare Today to the Early 1980s

the 'supply side' devotees gave us the recession of 1981-82. consumers stopped buying because they knew that under reagan they would lose their jobs. supply-side theory is irrelevant when demand is lacking. today you will see the same supply-side devotees flacking their favorite mantra, equally irrelevantly.
> jack