VeeJay's extended family is exceptionally literate. Fluent in several languages including Russian, French, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese, they have a keen interest in just about everything. You might wonder why they bother with the silliness of politics. VeeJay asked if we have ever wondered what might happen if everyone could read the news and understand it. Would Noam Chomsky be elected president as a write-in candidate? Probably not. Good things happen but not this good. Still, the truth is out there. The beautiful thing about a democracy is that the truth is so easy to obscure with nonsense. You need to be an expert in semantics to figure out the contextual ramifications of each word. Honorable. Right. The honorable Trent Lott says that the right thing has been done to the American people. What a relief. Then he says that you can't trust politicians.
Paul Harvey is no longer with us. It is hard to know the rest of the story.
Health care insurance, what a foolish mental straight jacket. The one thing that insurance companies and their actuarial tables do for health care is to make health care more like something which is dependant upon a roll of the dice. That's unassuring. We surely would be reassured if the unsureness of insurance were completely removed from the health care context.

Here's what we think...
It's astonishing how many people think that there is no useful information in the news. It's there. You sometimes have to follow the story for an extended period of time. Eventually you may be able to figure out whether Social Security will make society secure or insecure. Bill Buckley has finished with the Firing Line program. Maybe he heard about the new kid. Paul Krugman. Krugman means tavern owner in German. Paul Krugman gets the story right quite often. Disclosure: Krugman is a Princeton professor. What does he profess? Read the New York Times.

Vee Jay likes the New Yorker very much.

HIGH HOPES
Issue of 2002-08-05, Posted 2002-07-29
newyorker.com/talk/content/?020805ta_talk_cassidy
"Even now, stocks are far from cheap—a point that Kenneth Dam, the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, acknowledged in a surprising moment of candor. At last week's lows, stocks in the S. & P. 500 index were selling for about twenty-two times their earnings per share over the past twelve months. Going back to 1870, stocks have traded, on average, at about fourteen times earnings. It's true that some firms' profits are unusually low because of the recent recession, but there is still no indication of a sustained recovery in corporate earnings. Indeed, there is a serious threat of a relapse."
"Since the spring of 2000, about seven trillion dollars of stock-market wealth has vanished—about seven hundred thousand dollars for each American household."
John Cassidy"

Here's what we think...
Knowing is better than guessing. Guessing is better than hoping. "fourteen times earnings," translation, P/E has been an average of 14 since 1870. " about seven trillion dollars of stock-market wealth has vanished—about seven hundred thousand dollars for each American household." Wow.

VeeJay recommends articles from the New York Times. :

Bush Job Approval Dips Into 60's
"Witt said Bush's ratings remain high because of two factors -- strong ratings on the war and heavy support from Republicans. Republican approval of the president remains near nine in 10, while independents are at almost two-thirds and Democrats have fallen to about half in recent polls, according to a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press."
nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Polls.html

The Reality Thing, June 25, 2002, by Paul Krugman
"For the distinctive feature of all the programs the administration has pushed in response to real problems is that they do little or nothing to address those problems."
"As I've noted before, the Bush administration has an infallibility complex: it never, ever, admits making a mistake. And that kind of arrogance tends, eventually, to bring disaster. You can read all about it in Aristotle."
nytimes.com/2002/06/25/opinion/25KRUG.html

The Soul of George W. Bush, March 23, 2002, by Bill Keller
"If you were hoping for the right-of-center moderate Mr. Bush campaigned as, or if you shared the patronizing view of the president as a good-natured boob tugged along by avuncular ideologues, this may strike you as chilling. But have no doubt, it is très sérieux."
nytimes.com/2002/03/23/opinion/23KELL.html

June 28, 2002, Generally Accepted Accounting Abuses, By Michael H. Granof and Stephen A. Zeff
"As investors contemplate the allegations of accounting fraud at WorldCom, which follow accounting scandals at Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, Tyco and elsewhere, they will undoubtedly reach the obvious conclusion: The accounting profession has lost its way. They are right to demand that Congress and federal regulators take steps to improve standards and tighten oversight, and there are ways officials can better ensure financial transparency."
"Is such a serious change warranted? Just ask the stockholders of Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, Tyco, WorldCom - and the next paper lion to fall in the field."
nytimes.com/2002/06/28/opinion/28GRAN.html

Some Washington Post articles VeeJay recommends.
washingtonpost.com

Mr. O'Neill's Gaffes
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29057-2002Jul31.html
"Mr. O'Neill made comments that contributed to a fall of more than 5 percent in the value of Brazil's currency the next day and triggered a formal protest from Brazil's government."
"Referring to Argentina and Uruguay as well as Brazil, the secretary said the challenge for these governments is to make sure that financial assistance 'doesn't just go out of the country to Swiss bank accounts.' In Mr. O'Neill's defense, it's true that capital flight is a danger. But invoking that danger on television is not a smart way to bolster confidence in the region, and the subsequent fall in Brazil's currency was hardly surprising."
Mr. O'Neill's Gaffes provide insight into the question of where foreign aid in the form of financial aid eventually winds up. Swiss bank accounts.

Tone-Deaf Economic Team, by Jim Hoagland
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8122-2002Jul26.html
"GOP expectations that the war on terrorism would automatically bring Republican gains in November are being ground down by the appearance of chaos and crime in the markets. Bush's own standing suffers from the contrast between the integrity and discipline he demands of all in the war on global terror and his administration's puny, grudging and, yes, tone-deaf, responses to national financial distress."
Our prediction: Democrats can hope but we are not looking for them to make significant gains in November. Why should they?

Enronomics Explained, by Richard Cohen
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52561-2002Jan28.html
"The principle that the government can and should run a deficit to stimulate a sick economy was first propounded by John Maynard Keynes. This is called Keynesian Economics. The principle that the government can and should run a deficit when it does not have to was developed by George W. Bush. This is called Enronian Economics."
"He has managed, in a way that would make Kenny Boy green with envy, to make a projected $4 trillion budget surplus disappear."

VeeJay highly recommends some New York Times articles.

Two Thousand Acres, by Paul Krugman, March 1, 2002
nytimes.com/2002/03/01/opinion/01KRUG.html

The Sunny Side of the Street , by Bill Keller, July 27, 2002
"To begin with, the crisis has deflated an artificially inflated market, and forced us to face up to the fact that we were living an economic lie."
"Here's another cheering prospect. This shift in the zeitgeist may stimulate a healthy resistance to the overweening influence of corporate lobbies. I'm betting we won't be privatizing Social Security anytime soon, despite the president's continued devotion to the scheme. Legislation to stop companies from dodging taxes by setting up phony headquarters in Bermuda is at least up for discussion. The Bush tax cut - mother of all deficits - still seems nearly invulnerable, but who knows?"
"There is no reason voters' wrath should be reserved for Republicans. Democrats like Tom Daschle and Joseph Lieberman and Chris Dodd and Charles Schumer, for example, have helped smother important corporate reforms, and there are plenty of Congressional Democrats who act like wholly owned subsidiaries of special interests."
nytimes.com/2002/07/27/opinion/27KELL.html

Everyone Is Outraged, by Paul Krugman, July 2, 2002
"My last column, describing techniques of corporate fraud, omitted one method also favored by Enron: the fictitious asset sale. Returning to the ice-cream store, what you do is sell your old delivery van to XYZ Corporation for an outlandish price, and claim the capital gain as a profit. But the transaction is a sham: XYZ Corporation is actually you under another name. Before investors figure this out, however, you can sell a lot of stock at artificially high prices."
"And if some cynic should suggest that Mr. Bush's new anger over corporate fraud is less than sincere, I know how his spokesmen will react. They'll be outraged."
nytimes.com/2002/07/02/opinion/02KRUG.html

July 30, 2002, Our Banana Republics, by Paul Krugman
"But the responsibility era is over. Even as state governments face up to the consequences of cooked books in the 1990's, the Bush administration is following in their footsteps."
"The latest antics of the White House Office of Management and Budget have even the most hardened cynics shaking their heads. It's not just that projections for fiscal 2002 have gone from a $150 billion surplus to a $165 billion deficit in the space of a few months; it's not just that the O.M.B. projects a much smaller deficit next year, when everyone else - including the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee - says the deficit will increase. It's also the fact that O.M.B officials simply lie about what their own report says."
nytimes.com/2002/07/30/opinion/30KRUG.html

VeeJay says, "Have you read William Blum's books?
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II
Rogue State A Guide to the World's Only Superpower.
Or maybe Howard Zinn's The Twentieth Century: a People's History?"