Category Archives: Commentary

Too Much Money

Posted on by

US_productivity_and_real_wagesI’m afraid our country has too much money – or, at least, too much money in the wrong places.

America had a wonderful run after World War II when the middle class blossomed, but over the past thirty years or so there has been a gradual redistribution of wealth upwards.

Over the decades, the wealthy and powerful have tweaked the tax code and financial regulations to make it easier for them to make and keep money. When rising workforce productivity does not lead to rising wages, something seems unfair.

This trend has been documented in many places, for example:

“Unequal wealth distribution is hardly a new or uniquely American problem. In fact, it’s been prevalent throughout society since humans first built civilizations: A small minority of aristocrats has always wielded the most power throughout history.

“The [top] 1 percent [executives, doctors, lawyers and politicians, among other professions] are worth about 70 times the worth of the lower classes.

“It’s historically common for a powerful minority to control a majority of finances, but Americans haven’t seen a disparity this wide since before the Great Depression — and it keeps growing.” forbes.com

Ideally, the wealth at the top would be used to capitalize increased production and an expanding economy, but America today doesn’t need more production. Wealthy people, quite reasonably, want to invest money in a safe place that earns a decent return, which fueled the 2008 recession debacle – the financial industry decided to meet the demand through fraud.

Are we in the same place again?

I fear we will see increases in corporate corruption and more frequent bubbles. If more of this wealth (and the income that precedes it) belonged to the middle and lower classes, they would spend it on products and services which would grow the economy. That would be good for everyone, but I doubt many wealthy Americans (despite Warren Buffet) see their own enlightened self-interest here.

By the way – it may not be just the wealthy driving the problem. If Wall Street can count on a certain amount of money flowing into the stock market through 401k’s every month, but that money is not needed to increase production, will it just feed corruption and bubbles? More money to Wall Street could have negative consequences. This leads me to deep skepticism about, for example, privatizing Social Security Insurance.

The obvious solution many liberals jump to is to tax the wealthy and use that money for services to the rest of the country – to build roads and bridges perhaps, or provide direct subsidies. It would be better, in my opinion, to reverse the many tweaks to our economy that have lead to this imbalance, but that would involve a huge amount of work. With such polarization in our legislatures today, the problem is overwhelming. But returning the middle and lowers classes’ wealth seems imperative to our future.

When Pretty Good Isn’t Good Enough

Posted on by
Stop_Digging_^_-_geograph.org.uk_-_195319

An excavator that is in a hole and has stopped digging. Chris Wimbush

Recently I attended a talk at Western New Mexico University given by Jeff Bingaman, the former Democratic Senator from New Mexico. He spoke in front of a friendly home-town crowd on energy and environmental policies in the US Congress. Once viewed as independent, they increasingly overlap due to the challenges of climate change.

Bingaman gave predictions from various sources – including ExxonMobile – that really struck me. For a time frame of 2000 through 2040, worldwide:

  • Population will increase from six billion to nine billion – up by 50%.
  • Energy demand will double – up by 100%
  • CO2 emissions will only go up by 60%, mostly in the Asian Pacific countries while staying flat in the western world. (He didn’t touch on other causes of global warming such as methane releases and land use.)
  • Global GDP, Gross Domestic Product, or the total market value of goods and services produced worldwide in constant dollars, will triple – up by 200%.

To put those numbers in an admittedly limited analogy, if I hired 50% more workers and paid 60% more in supply costs (I’m assuming the CO2 is a measure of efficiency), but got 200% more income, I’d be happy. But even these fine numbers are accompanied by warnings that, while future impacts will vary from region to region around the globe, the effects of global warming include a rise in sea levels, a change in the amount and pattern of precipitation, and probably expansion of subtropical deserts. [Wikipedia Global Warming] Continue reading →

Oil Spills from Man and Nature

Posted on by

Several news agencies published articles on the fifth anniversary of Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion describes the disaster. According to the Associated Press eleven workers were killed and from 100 to 172 million gallons of oil were spilled into the gulf during the three months it took to cap the well. The lower estimate is from British Petroleum (BP). Today the “Gulf of Mexico looks clean, green, and whole again, teeming with life—a testament to the teeming resilience of nature.” There are, however, problems that remain. There continues to be oil on the seafloor, dolphin deaths have tripled, nests of endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles have plummeted, deep sea coral have suffered, etc. Many probably thought the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill couldn’t be topped, but Deepwater Horizon more than eclipsed that 10 million gallon spill.

If there is any good news about oil spills, it might be that nature has been dealing with cleanup of oil in the oceans for eons. One study has estimated that between 80 and 800 million gallons of oil has seeped out of the ocean floor off Santa Barbara, California at the rate of 20 to 25 tons of oil each day. I know there are seeps in the Gulf. We learned on a family vacation to Texas that you didn’t walk barefoot on our beach. You wore cheap beach shoes and tossed the tar-coated shoes when you were finished your vacation.

I’m not trying to minimize the effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. That spill released waves of oil into the Gulf, and the sea life, birds, and wildlife paid a high price. However, nature has been dealing with “cleanup” of oil spills long before we began to get involved. Some of it evaporates, some of it is dissolved, but microbes have the greatest effect. Researchers studying the spill (and science has received a tremendous infusion of money for studies) found that most of the oil was degraded by microbes. It appears that they “stopped eating, leaving a small fraction of compounds in the sediments.” A marine chemist said that research is now focused on why the microbes left a small fraction of the compounds in the sediment.

Hopefully our oil exploration is safer because of what Deepwater Horizon taught us, and maybe our researchers will learn how to encourage microbes that love to feed on spilled oil.

Chinese Militarization of the South China Sea

Posted on by

The Obama administration has been mostly silent on the Chinese efforts to build infrastructure and armaments in disputed territory. One article says the Chinese are building a “Great War of Sand” on reefs using dredges and bulldozers in areas where six Asian nations have territorial claims. Some of the new islands have helipads and anti-aircraft towers. One island that was once called “Fiery Cross Reef” can accommodate an airstrip.

The latest construction is the expansion of two islands Vietnam says it owns.  Satellite images show seven new “islets” in the South China Sea. The Philippines and Vietnam have both accused China of breaking a nonbinding code of conduct agreeing “…to refrain from provocative actions in the disputed region.” Chinese officials responded by saying that the islands “…are an inherent part of China,” and that they would be used for “…military defense and for a range of civilian purposes.”

I wonder whether President Obama discussed this with the Chinese during his recent visit. We do know that global warming was an important part of his agenda. He promised that the U.S. would cut emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The Chinese responded with vague promises to use “…best efforts to peak emissions while boosting green energy use by 2030.” I can’t imagine what the Chinese said about Mr. Obama’s negotiating skills after he departed their country.

Nobody’s Perfect

Posted on by

Abraham Lincoln is the American president I admire the most. He led America through our Civil War, the bloodiest war in out history. Throughout, he showed remarkable sympathy for his opponents and tremendous political agility, while enduring personal tragedies and mental illnesses that would incapacitate most people. He seemed to maintain a sense of humor and, despite the difference in 19th century speaking styles, his words resonant today. He stood at a pivotal point in American history – before Lincoln, we said “the United States are'” but after Lincoln we say “the United States is.”

But the Great Man wasn’t above a little corruption. Continue reading →

Nuclear Waste Leak Caused by a Typo

Posted on by

man-using-computer-mdThe title is a simplification. A drum of nuclear waste did leak after organic material was mixed with acidic waste because of a typo in a procedure. However, the fiasco began with pressure to meet a deadline related to renewal of a multi-billion dollar contract.

Los Alamos Laboratory was well on its way to meeting a mid-2014 deadline to ship radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico when workers came across a batch of waste that was “extraordinarily acidic” (pH 0) and therefore unsafe to ship. Guidelines called for a rigid set of reviews to determine how to properly treat the waste before proceeding. That time-consuming process apparently jeopardized the deadline. Instead, neutralizer and kitty litter were added, and the drum was shipped to WIPP. The documents accompanying the drum made no mention of the original acidity, neutralizer, or type of kitty litter.

The campaign to clear waste from Los Alamos was more than 90 percent complete when the contents of the drum reacted and the drum’s lid breached in the underground WIPP disposal area. The exothermic reaction of the contents threatened dozens of nearby drums. One source says 21 workers “…were contaminated with what federal officials have described as low levels of radiation.” A statement from LANL “…said scientific testing has eliminated the explosive nature of the waste as the cause of the radiation leak.”

As a retired worker from Rocky Flats’ plutonium area, at this point I was thoroughly puzzled.  Continue reading →