Probably the best overview of the publishing business as it is, and if you read between teh liines you can see countless opportunities to make money if you love books and publishing. Note one key line: Authors are now expected to promote their books. Bingo.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Alternatives
Actor Ryan O'Neal and son Redmond were arrested on drug possession charges this morning, Daughter Tatum claims her arrest saved her life. It may not be the case when you view the website, but a NYTimes writer has a new book suggesting if we have a green revolution, it will save the USA economy. As if Biofuels and other "green" initiatives have not already done tremendous harm.
The O'Neals have plenty of money, but apparently there is no known cure for what ails them, so they self-medicate. Bastiat pointed out long ago in economics, it is not so much what you see as what you do not see. We do not see a cure for what ails the O'Neals and many others.
We do see wars, malinvestment in housing and misallocation in airline capacity and many other problems, results of socialist policy failures, plaguing our country.
In spite of the fact that all that ails us now was predicted by marginalized thinkers, but quite accessible (so there really no right to complain)... those in charge profess to be baffled.
Mish Shedlock recommends taking down the malefactor entities like the Fed, etc... which is a start, but we would see some improvement if there was, as some pundits argue we need, and engine of economic improvement. There is one available, it is called deregulation.
Deregulation is being given a bad name with people claiming deregulation caused the mortgage mess. No, there is hardly a market imaginable that was not more heavily regulated and subsidized than housing and mortgages. Most of the mortgages that are in trouble were violations of federal rules that carried a million dollar fine and a ten year prison sentence. the law was not enforced once in the last ten years.
True deregulation is when there are no restrictions or subsidies. Right now medicine in USA is getting more costly and less accessible. Whole swaths of care go unaddressed, becuase money for research and cures is misallocated into McMansions and war. At the same time, medical tourism is picking up.
What good does it do to have govt health care if the govt decides what is health care? And once they decide that, it all gets to rationing.
An alternative is to deregulate something, say medicine. Only 17% of our economy, but with freedom it would develop as an engine of innovation and growth, and our relative freedom would attract time, talent treasure from marginally less free endeavors. We'd be the envy of the world, again. Of course, we could do this to the whole economy, but people are too afraid of freedom. So go slow, something small. And in time no doubt, people who suffer now will find freedom from their ailments.
AIG & China
AIG was founded in China, but of course Communists do not need insurance, so out they went as communism came in. In 1980 as China was liberalizing under Deng Xiaoping a young women from New Jersey opened and insurance company in China.
China was growing, and workers in a workers state could not be accountable for modern, leveraged complex financial deals like insurance. Her company grew fast, and New York based insurance business bought her out. China then was no big deal, but among China traders her accomplishment was astonishing. The company that bought her out was called.. AIG.
As China outsourcing, Japan and the rest of the world economy superheated due to socialist government policies of the USA, AIG was a lifeblood of underwriting risk, a kind of heart to the circulatory system of it all. I hear they have a trillion in assets. What we are experiencing is essentially a socialist policy failure. The US Government allegiance to socialism will not change, and certainly the people who predicted this will not be heard, so the taxpayers, as is the case in socialism, will lose out.
AIG has a history of crooked operations, and regulators rapped its knuckles once in a while, but failed in their job.
Now that the other Olympics, the ParaOlympics are over in Beijing, China is no longer supporting the USA economy. AIG assets held by the insurance companies subsidiaries... we'll see what happens... heads China wins, tails USA loses... so far the socialist policy makers in USA emptied out pensions (rotated in junk, rotated out the good stuff and sold it overseas...) ... now the insurance funds will be empty, so no one cn collect on those either. The dems and republicans are settling the conditions of surrender, and we taxpayers will pay whatever the chinese, etc, demand. Or, we go to war to change the subject.
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