Weekly Digest – July 28, 2013

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Violence Prevention

Detroit

“Despite the fact that the distorted American debate claims that everybody wins, in fact, globalization creates winners and losers.  That’s not at all an endorsement of protectionism.  It’s saying that policy makers have to work hard, much harder than ours have, to create an environment where citizens benefit from expanded global trade not just as consumers seeking lower prices but as workers needing rising wages.”

“But apart from voting in elections, the 700,000 remaining residents of the Motor City are no more responsible for Detroit’s problems than… “

Government Surveillance

Energy and Environment

“There’s growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals.” … Labels on pesticides warn farmers not to spray when pollinating bees are in the vicinity but such precautions have not applied to fungicides.”

Economics

“By the time I wrote about [Mr. Blattman in August 2009], he’d sent out 600 résumés and had just three interviews – two by phone. It was not until March 2010, 26 months after being let go, that he finally got a job (at $75,000 a year, half his former salary) working for Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser. “I did well by focusing on people in my position who needed to preserve what was left of their savings,” he said in an interview last week. “I’d been in their shoes.”  What Mr. Blattman went through during the economic collapse was more extreme than the typical boomer who lost a job, but not that much more.”

“I haven’t commented so far on the president’s economic speech, except to mock the journalists demanding “new ideas” for a very old-fashioned economic crisis.”

Politics

“With Republicans divided over whether to stage a debt ceiling and government shutdown crisis aimed at winning the defunding of Obamacare, Marco Rubio just gave an interview on the Andrea Tantaros show in which he effectively conceded that the GOP position is politically untenable.”

Misc

“At the turn of the last century, America was as riddled with scam artists as China is today. Snake oil salesmen — literally — abounded. Food safety was a huge issue. In 1906, however, Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle,” his exposé-novel about the meatpacking industry. That book, pointed out Stanley Lubman, a longtime expert in Chinese law, in a recent blog post in The Wall Street Journal, is what propelled Theodore Roosevelt to propose the Food and Drug Administration. Which, in turn, reformed meat-processing — among many other things — and gave consumers confidence in the food they ate and the products they bought. That’s what China needs now. Infant formula just scratches the surface.”

My $0.02 on Detroit:  As much as I support Bernstein’s and Rattner’s calls to invest in Detroit, Rattner’s (ironic?) statement about Detroit’s citizen’s electing their own representatives can’t be ignored.  By and large people get the government they deserve.  Coleman Young was no prize.  Kilpatrick was an awful mayor.  Archer seemed like a decent guy but my understanding is that he got run out.  (I have a vague recollection of Dave Bing as a basketball player but know nothing about him as mayor.)  My sense is that in order for good things to take hold in Detroit the political culture needs to improve.  The citizens need to lead on that front.  Yes, the city has gotten the shaft many times over the years but I don’t get the impression that voters have done a great deal to help their own cause.  (Maybe Bing is indicative of a change for the good.  I haven’t been paying close enough attention to know.)  Anyone out there know if Detroit politics have improved in recent years?