During a senate debate on the Panama Canal Treaty in 1978, United States Senator S. I. Hayakawa of California argued, "We should keep the Panama Canal. After all, we stole it fair and square."
One argument opponents of the treaty used was the claim that Panama would never be able to manage the canal effectively.
That was then. Now, under the auspices of Panama, a massive project to triple the cargo capacity of the original canal is halfway completed. It is scheduled to open in 2015.
The project is truly international. "The 16 lock gates," The Washington Post reports, "some weighing 4,000 tons, were designed by the Dutch
and built by Italians. Beginning next month, they will be lifted onto a
barge by Belgians and shipped by South Koreans to Panama in a project
managed by the French."
The United States is almost nowhere to be seen. Which doesn't mean we will be unaffected. Ports on the US East Coast, including New York City, Baltimore, Norfolk and possibly Savannah and Miami are being modernized to handle the larger ship sizes allowed by the expansion.
The modernization may even improve mobility of the U.S. Navy. Since completion of the USS Essex class of aircraft carriers at the end of WWII, aircraft carriers have been too wide to transit the canal. This will no longer be a problem after adding new channels 180 feet wide.
The expanded canal is expected to open in April 2015, The original canal opened in 1914, a bit more than a century earlier.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Ways To Learn
"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by
reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee
on the electric fence for themselves."
Will Rogers
I put the climate change deniers in the third category. And also the sea level rise deniers.
Will Rogers
I put the climate change deniers in the third category. And also the sea level rise deniers.
Scratch The Platinum Coin Idea
“Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that
the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum
coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit,” a spokesman for the US Treasury said today.
No detailed explanation was provided.
Economist Tim Duy explains, in essence, that the reason is not that the scheme wouldn't work - the reason not to do it is that it would.
Duy explains: "Bottom Line: The platinum coin idea was ultimately doomed to failure because neither the Federal Reserve nor the Treasury could allow for even the remote possibility it might be successful. Its success would not just alter the political dynamic by removing the the debt ceiling as a threat. The success of a platinum coin would fundamentally alter the conventional wisdom about the proper separation of fiscal and monetary policy and the need to control the debt immediately."
The explanation is a little complicated, but Duy spells it out here. In essence, when interest rates are at zero and the monetary authority can't make them any lower and the economy persistently stagnates, there is NO DIFFERENCE between money and debt. And there is no reason to feel any urgency about reducing debt right NOW, NOW, NOW.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
No detailed explanation was provided.
Economist Tim Duy explains, in essence, that the reason is not that the scheme wouldn't work - the reason not to do it is that it would.
Duy explains: "Bottom Line: The platinum coin idea was ultimately doomed to failure because neither the Federal Reserve nor the Treasury could allow for even the remote possibility it might be successful. Its success would not just alter the political dynamic by removing the the debt ceiling as a threat. The success of a platinum coin would fundamentally alter the conventional wisdom about the proper separation of fiscal and monetary policy and the need to control the debt immediately."
The explanation is a little complicated, but Duy spells it out here. In essence, when interest rates are at zero and the monetary authority can't make them any lower and the economy persistently stagnates, there is NO DIFFERENCE between money and debt. And there is no reason to feel any urgency about reducing debt right NOW, NOW, NOW.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Long Live The Hogettes!
The Hogettes have retired! Long Live the Hogettes.
It has been three decades. Thirty years ago the Washington Redskins' front line was christened "The Hogs," in honor of their blue-collar dedication to effective blocking, getting their snouts down in the mud if necessary.
ESPN's web site reports, "The group of male fans who have cheered on the Washington Redskins for three decades while wearing dresses, floppy hats and pig snouts announced Friday that the group is retiring."
The whole story is here on the Hogettes' web site.
To put the story in perspective, when the Hogettes were organized, there was no web and no web sites.
For that matter, hardly a fan is now alive who remembers that famous day and year.
Mile 181: Fourth Anniversary
I just noticed that today, January 11, 2013, is the fourth anniversary of my first post on Mile 181.
In January, 2009, I was beginning my second year as a Town commissioner.
I had by then been accused of conspiring in secret with other commissioners to modify town ordinances, most notably the noise ordinance. In fact, I had been scrupulous in discussing any public issue with other commissioners one at a time, rather than with two or more. The open meetings act plainly precluded negotiating with enough other commissioners to constitute a majority. So I didn't do that.
It occurred to me that nothing in the Open Meetings Act prevented me from making my positions on issues known to the public at large. I decided that a blog might be a good way to do that.
I started my blog in January, 2009. Here is my first post, explaining my take on the noise problem and my approach to solving it.
In the end, the Board of Commissioners passed a noise ordinance containing a measurable, objective standard. I would have liked it to be a bit more stringent, but when doing the people's business, you have to persuade a majority of the governing body to vote your way. Sometimes that requires more trimming of sails than one might prefer, but compromise is the price of success and the greatest challenge.
I make no apologies for the ordinance.
The ordinance is probably the main reason I wasn't reelected.
I note that subsequent Boards of Commissioners haven't repealed the ordinance.
I also note that I now have occasional readers on every continent.
In January, 2009, I was beginning my second year as a Town commissioner.
I had by then been accused of conspiring in secret with other commissioners to modify town ordinances, most notably the noise ordinance. In fact, I had been scrupulous in discussing any public issue with other commissioners one at a time, rather than with two or more. The open meetings act plainly precluded negotiating with enough other commissioners to constitute a majority. So I didn't do that.
It occurred to me that nothing in the Open Meetings Act prevented me from making my positions on issues known to the public at large. I decided that a blog might be a good way to do that.
I started my blog in January, 2009. Here is my first post, explaining my take on the noise problem and my approach to solving it.
In the end, the Board of Commissioners passed a noise ordinance containing a measurable, objective standard. I would have liked it to be a bit more stringent, but when doing the people's business, you have to persuade a majority of the governing body to vote your way. Sometimes that requires more trimming of sails than one might prefer, but compromise is the price of success and the greatest challenge.
I make no apologies for the ordinance.
The ordinance is probably the main reason I wasn't reelected.
I note that subsequent Boards of Commissioners haven't repealed the ordinance.
I also note that I now have occasional readers on every continent.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Debt Ceiling Blather
We got by the "fiscal cliff" without too much damage, though I think the agreement between the administration and the Republicans is damaging enough under the circumstances. The recovery is not yet self sustaining and any reduction in aggregate demand will not help. Right now we need more, not less government spending.
But cheer up - things could be worse. (As the old joke says, "so I cheered up and sure enough, things got worse!") Some Republicans are gearing up for another drive toward the cliff of default, the debt limit.
Let's be clear. The debt limit has nothing to do with controlling spending. That is done by Congressional action on taxes and appropriations. When the Treasury borrows, it only does so to pay the nation's bills already authorized by Congress. The debt limit makes no sense, and should be abolished.
Here are some thoughts by eminent economists the last time this reached crisis proportions. I share those thoughts.
But there is a new idea: the platinum coin. The Treasury would mint one or more platinum coins in very large denominations and deposit them with the Fed. It would then draw on those deposits to pay its bills. Paul Krugman explains the scheme.
Sound crazy? No more crazy than Congress telling the administration how much money to spend and what to spend it on; how much tax to raise and how to raise it, and then erect a barrier to actually paying the resulting bills. Now THAT's crazy!
It also violates a key provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, included with the precise reason of preventing Congressmen representing states of the former Confederacy from preventing the federal government from repaying loans that financed the Civil War. Now it is mainly the descendants of those former Confederates who are pushing the debt ceiling ploy.
I prefer the Constitutional route of telling these economic terrorists to go fly a kite. End this debt ceiling nonsense forever. My second choice is the platinum coin route. The problem I see with that is, the Treasury's authority to strike platinum coins can be removed by legislative action.
Constitutional amendments are harder.
Just do it!
But cheer up - things could be worse. (As the old joke says, "so I cheered up and sure enough, things got worse!") Some Republicans are gearing up for another drive toward the cliff of default, the debt limit.
Let's be clear. The debt limit has nothing to do with controlling spending. That is done by Congressional action on taxes and appropriations. When the Treasury borrows, it only does so to pay the nation's bills already authorized by Congress. The debt limit makes no sense, and should be abolished.
Here are some thoughts by eminent economists the last time this reached crisis proportions. I share those thoughts.
But there is a new idea: the platinum coin. The Treasury would mint one or more platinum coins in very large denominations and deposit them with the Fed. It would then draw on those deposits to pay its bills. Paul Krugman explains the scheme.
Sound crazy? No more crazy than Congress telling the administration how much money to spend and what to spend it on; how much tax to raise and how to raise it, and then erect a barrier to actually paying the resulting bills. Now THAT's crazy!
It also violates a key provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, included with the precise reason of preventing Congressmen representing states of the former Confederacy from preventing the federal government from repaying loans that financed the Civil War. Now it is mainly the descendants of those former Confederates who are pushing the debt ceiling ploy.
I prefer the Constitutional route of telling these economic terrorists to go fly a kite. End this debt ceiling nonsense forever. My second choice is the platinum coin route. The problem I see with that is, the Treasury's authority to strike platinum coins can be removed by legislative action.
Constitutional amendments are harder.
Just do it!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Hottest Year On Record: Inhofe
NOAA says 2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States.
"The average temperature was 55.3 degrees, 1 degree above the previous record and 3.2 degrees more than the 20th-century average. Temperatures were above normal in every month between June 2011 and September 2012, a 16-month stretch that hasn’t occurred since the government began keeping such records in 1895"
While the hottest year was underway, Senator James Inhofe of my home state of Oklahoma and home town of Tulsa, published his new book:
I think Inhofe should simply introduce legislation limiting temperature rise. That might hold off the drought in Oklahoma. How about a "sense of the Senate" resolution?
Perhaps he can collaborate with the North Carolina General Assembly who legislated limits to sea level rise.
If worse comes to worse for the environment, we can always retrain polar bears to hunt land animals. Just think how great it will be to have a year-round, permanent Northwest Passage.
"The average temperature was 55.3 degrees, 1 degree above the previous record and 3.2 degrees more than the 20th-century average. Temperatures were above normal in every month between June 2011 and September 2012, a 16-month stretch that hasn’t occurred since the government began keeping such records in 1895"
While the hottest year was underway, Senator James Inhofe of my home state of Oklahoma and home town of Tulsa, published his new book:
I think Inhofe should simply introduce legislation limiting temperature rise. That might hold off the drought in Oklahoma. How about a "sense of the Senate" resolution?
Perhaps he can collaborate with the North Carolina General Assembly who legislated limits to sea level rise.
If worse comes to worse for the environment, we can always retrain polar bears to hunt land animals. Just think how great it will be to have a year-round, permanent Northwest Passage.
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