Smart Links 09 July 2012

Paul Summerville • July 7, 2012

Tags: Canada, China, Economics, Obama, Quebec, United States, Yes

Commentary on the grindingly slow US economy, melting oysters, China’s sexual revolution and its stuck economy, late lesbian onset, David Bromwhich’s take on Obama, and Quebec separation is not impossible.

Nasty numbers.

Reuters -- Analysis: Anxiety mounts as economy limps into second half
A slew of weak economic data is casting doubts over expectations of a pick-up in growth in the second half of the year.

Related.

Economist – The Doldrums
HOW long ago seem the promising months of early 2012, when the American economy added jobs at a healthy 225,000 monthly clip.

Cyclical

Structural

The real problem with global warming is the acidification of the oceans. Oysters are simply melting away.

Thompson Reuters -- Disappearing Oysters
Reuters’ Felix Salmon loves Pacific oysters. Sadly for him (and the rest of the world), they’re being wiped out due to acidification. Oceanic Preservation Society’s Louie Psihoyos explains what the vanishing oysters mean for the world’s oceans.

Everything’s changing.

Financial Times -- The bare necessities of naked marriage
If it weren’t for the dumplings, the language, the skyscrapers – and the fact that McDonald’s delivers 24 hours a day – I could swear that today’s Shanghai is just like the America of my childhood.

Except the ability to adjust. (ed’s note: sure the Chinese economy is close to overtaking the United States, but the question is what kind of shape it will be when it gets there, and it isn’t looking good).

Project Syndicate -- Why China Can’t Adjust
China’s current economic slowdown has no shortage of causes: Europe’s financial turmoil, sputtering recovery in the United States, and weak domestic investment growth, to name the most commonly cited factors.

LOL.

Independent -- Harriet Walker: Lesbianism – the love that's fair game for all
Turns out there's another meaning to LOL that David Cameron wasn't aware of: "Late-Onset Lesbianism".

Obama’s twisted words.

London Review of Books – Diary
I went to see Barack Obama speak in New York, in spring 2007, at a preliminary ‘sounding’ for donors and assorted others.

The toothache is back.

National Post -- Peter White: With regards to separation, beware of what Quebec wants
Thank goodness my friend Andrew Coyne is not prime minister!

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Twin Virtues: Inequality of Outcomes & Equality of Opportunity©

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Ultimately, the most successful societies find the balance between the twin virtues of inequality of outcomes and equality of opportunity.

The new politics must marry the twin virtues of unequal outcomes and equality of opportunity.

When too few get too much everybody ends up with less.

Can it be that striving for equality of opportunity however imperfect the process not only benefits the individual but also creates benefits for the society as a whole that are unintended but wonderful?

Economics must be a 'moral enterprise' as much as politics claims to be. Economic outcomes need to be framed in terms of right and wrong not just efficiency if only because these often align in surprising ways.

My vision of Canada is that any Canadian child from a family of limited circumstance can expect to have a chance at lifetime of unlimited opportunities.

Tax policy should be founded on the principle of generating steady tax revenues sufficient to maximise environmentally sustainable economic growth in order to fund fair government.

Public policy should be designed to decrease inequality before the law and increase equality of opportunity.

Capitalism is not the problem; the problem is what we do with capitalism.

Content is always more difficult to argue than conspiracy.

Let the state regulate and the market operate (most things).

Welfare strategies are best designed as a hand up not as a hand out.

Political debate should not be fact free fighting.

Explanation lasts longer than eloquence.

Always favour empowerment over dependency.

The most enduring public figures are embraced for the causes they fought for and not the concept of themselves they hoped others would remember them by.

Find your voice and don't be the echo of somebody else.