Has the Enlightenment worn out its welcome? Political science and economics are two fields that stubbornly hold on to the mistake of “Newtonizing” the study of human behavior.
Donald Trump is proving that politics in no way resembles the “spectrum” introduced by “Opticks” and endorsed by Voltaire. Meanwhile, the task of bridging between economic theory and reality is so hopeless that Prize Winner Krugman explicitly invokes “ad hoc” mysticism and the critique is of his result, not his wand waving method.
Libertarians fighting for High Church Liberalism find a public shrugging about NSA snooping and worry that “freedom” turns out to favor the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. Curly-haired Paul has backed away from “let them die” Dad, but he’s still on the verge of the kiddie table, despite a fawning press.
Speaking of the press, it turns out that the Enlightenment inspired ethic of objective news is worthless and quickly fading in the face of competition from connected millenials with camera phones and a point of view.
Good riddance to a world made rational by mechanics and rainbows. Welcome to the evolving ecosystem of real life.
“Derivation of U.S. net wealth table: A new table on the derivation of U.S. net wealth (table B.1) has been added to the summary section of the “Financial Accounts.” The calculation of U.S. net wealth includes the value of nonfinancial assets (real estate, equipment, intellectual property products, consumer durables, and inventories) held by households and nonprofit organizations and noncorporate businesses. For the federal government and state and local governments sectors, only structures, equipment, and intellectual property products are included; values for land and nonproduced nonfinancial assets are not available. The measure of U.S. net wealth also includes the market value of domestic nonfinancial and financial corporations, and is adjusted to reflect net U.S. financial claims on the rest of the world. This definition of U.S. net wealth differs from the sum of the net worth of sectors shown in the Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts (IMA). A forthcoming FEDS Note will provide additional information.”
For 2015 , they show totals ( in billions$ ) of 79202.7 and 79690.3 for Q1 and Q2 , respectively. This is a little different from the result I get on FRED by adding HH net worth to federal and state gov’t net worth , where I get a value of 80,835.5 for Q1. I haven’t yet tried to sort out where the discrepancy arises :
Re the press. The objective press was an innovation of the 20th century, before then newspapers were explicitly partisan and some where even owned by political parties. It was as the barriers to entry in the newspaper business increases as steam presses replaced the old manual presses and increased the capital needed to start a paper, and the need to sell ads to pay for the presses and distribution network, that drove the change to non partisan press. (See Hearst papers in the 1890s). As an advertiser you did not want your ad to imply support of a partisan position, (driving customers on the other side away). Then the TV news came along with an absolute barrier to entry and because of this the requirement to be “fair”. (There were only 3 stations in many markets, and 3 networks no more room existed).
Since the 1960s the barriers to entry in Journalism have greatly lowered and as a result the partisan media has returned. So partisan media is a back to the future event, implying low barriers to entry implies a partisan media.
Earth’s Record Streak of Record Heat
Keeps on Sizzling
NYT – AP – Sep 17
WASHINGTON — Earth’s record-breaking heat is sounding an awful lot like a broken record.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday that August, this past summer and the first eight months of 2015 all smashed global records for heat.
That’s the fifth straight record hot season in a row and the fourth consecutive record hot month. Meteorologists say 2015 is a near certainty to eclipse 2014 as the hottest year on record. This year, six of the eight months have been record breaking, with only April and January failing to set new records.
Since 2000, Earth has broken monthly heat records 30 times and seasonal heat records 11 times. The last time a monthly cold record was broken was in 1916. Records go back to 1880.
“For scientists, these are just a few more data points in an increasingly long list of broken records (that) is due to warming temperatures,” Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe said in an email. “As individuals, though, this is yet another reminder of the impact our unprecedented and inadvertent experiment — an experiment that began with the Industrial Revolution — is having on our planet today.” …
I guess now it is time to stop talking about the pause that never existed and concentrate on the inability of the human race to work together to save the human civilization.
” Since 2000, Earth has broken monthly heat records 30 times and seasonal heat records 11 times. The last time a monthly cold record was broken was in 1916. Records go back to 1880. ”
That’s killer. The odds of that being due to chance must be a squintillion to one.
To which the deniers’ response would be : ” So , it sounds like there’s still a chance I’m right. “
Has the Enlightenment worn out its welcome? Political science and economics are two fields that stubbornly hold on to the mistake of “Newtonizing” the study of human behavior.
Donald Trump is proving that politics in no way resembles the “spectrum” introduced by “Opticks” and endorsed by Voltaire. Meanwhile, the task of bridging between economic theory and reality is so hopeless that Prize Winner Krugman explicitly invokes “ad hoc” mysticism and the critique is of his result, not his wand waving method.
Libertarians fighting for High Church Liberalism find a public shrugging about NSA snooping and worry that “freedom” turns out to favor the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. Curly-haired Paul has backed away from “let them die” Dad, but he’s still on the verge of the kiddie table, despite a fawning press.
Speaking of the press, it turns out that the Enlightenment inspired ethic of objective news is worthless and quickly fading in the face of competition from connected millenials with camera phones and a point of view.
Good riddance to a world made rational by mechanics and rainbows. Welcome to the evolving ecosystem of real life.
The latest Z1 release has a neat new summary table : B1 Derivation of U.S. Net Wealth , described here ( line 7 ) :
http://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/fof/fofhighlight.aspx
“Derivation of U.S. net wealth table: A new table on the derivation of U.S. net wealth (table B.1) has been added to the summary section of the “Financial Accounts.” The calculation of U.S. net wealth includes the value of nonfinancial assets (real estate, equipment, intellectual property products, consumer durables, and inventories) held by households and nonprofit organizations and noncorporate businesses. For the federal government and state and local governments sectors, only structures, equipment, and intellectual property products are included; values for land and nonproduced nonfinancial assets are not available. The measure of U.S. net wealth also includes the market value of domestic nonfinancial and financial corporations, and is adjusted to reflect net U.S. financial claims on the rest of the world. This definition of U.S. net wealth differs from the sum of the net worth of sectors shown in the Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts (IMA). A forthcoming FEDS Note will provide additional information.”
For 2015 , they show totals ( in billions$ ) of 79202.7 and 79690.3 for Q1 and Q2 , respectively. This is a little different from the result I get on FRED by adding HH net worth to federal and state gov’t net worth , where I get a value of 80,835.5 for Q1. I haven’t yet tried to sort out where the discrepancy arises :
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=1SBP
Re the press. The objective press was an innovation of the 20th century, before then newspapers were explicitly partisan and some where even owned by political parties. It was as the barriers to entry in the newspaper business increases as steam presses replaced the old manual presses and increased the capital needed to start a paper, and the need to sell ads to pay for the presses and distribution network, that drove the change to non partisan press. (See Hearst papers in the 1890s). As an advertiser you did not want your ad to imply support of a partisan position, (driving customers on the other side away). Then the TV news came along with an absolute barrier to entry and because of this the requirement to be “fair”. (There were only 3 stations in many markets, and 3 networks no more room existed).
Since the 1960s the barriers to entry in Journalism have greatly lowered and as a result the partisan media has returned. So partisan media is a back to the future event, implying low barriers to entry implies a partisan media.
Earth’s Record Streak of Record Heat
Keeps on Sizzling
NYT – AP – Sep 17
WASHINGTON — Earth’s record-breaking heat is sounding an awful lot like a broken record.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday that August, this past summer and the first eight months of 2015 all smashed global records for heat.
That’s the fifth straight record hot season in a row and the fourth consecutive record hot month. Meteorologists say 2015 is a near certainty to eclipse 2014 as the hottest year on record. This year, six of the eight months have been record breaking, with only April and January failing to set new records.
Since 2000, Earth has broken monthly heat records 30 times and seasonal heat records 11 times. The last time a monthly cold record was broken was in 1916. Records go back to 1880.
“For scientists, these are just a few more data points in an increasingly long list of broken records (that) is due to warming temperatures,” Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe said in an email. “As individuals, though, this is yet another reminder of the impact our unprecedented and inadvertent experiment — an experiment that began with the Industrial Revolution — is having on our planet today.” …
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/09/17/science/ap-us-sci-record-heat.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
I guess now it is time to stop talking about the pause that never existed and concentrate on the inability of the human race to work together to save the human civilization.
” Since 2000, Earth has broken monthly heat records 30 times and seasonal heat records 11 times. The last time a monthly cold record was broken was in 1916. Records go back to 1880. ”
That’s killer. The odds of that being due to chance must be a squintillion to one.
To which the deniers’ response would be : ” So , it sounds like there’s still a chance I’m right. “
The right fears a lot.
Right wing fear of Muslims, while they worship burning their oil which pays for ISIS.
Right wing calls Iran (Shiite) a world terrorist while the real terrorists (Sunni) terrorists are US clients, Saudi royals, and their defenders.
The right wing fears a brown US.
The SUV driving face of white supremacy is the US’ right wing.
Just smiling.