Juggling Dynamite

We recently began watching the 1977 mini-series The Age of Uncertainty (all 15 episodes now available here on Youtube).

Classic Galbraith, the content is dense and the syntax meaty, while the big picture perspective is regularly irreverent, funny, unique and enriching. Galbraith died in 2006 (at 97) and I miss him. Watching these economic history lessons from the big man (figuratively and literally, he was 6’9″) are a treasure.

If you find episode one a bit dry, I would say they get better and are worth perseverance. There is much to be reminded of here. Especially perhaps, that economic uncertainty is not unique to our own time, but rather the constant theme of human evolution.

The Age of Uncertainty is a 1977 television series about economics, history and politics, co-produced by the BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA, and written and presented by Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

Galbraith acknowledges the successes of the market system in economics but associated it with instability, inefficiency and social inequity. He advocates government policies and interventions to remedy these perceived faults.

The series challenged the status quo and insulted the left and right alike.  For that it incited great controversy.  Wikipedia offers this summary:

The leader of the British Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher, and Keith Joseph objected to the screening of the series by the BBC as they perceived it too biased for a state-run TV station. Milton Friedman was brought over from Chicago to lecture against Galbraith’s economic viewpoints with Nicholas Kaldor opposing him.^[8] The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, publications associated with the Conservative political party, dismissed the series whilst the Financial Times and New York Times viewed it positively.^[9] Milton Friedman presented his own response to Galbraith in his series “Free to Choose“^[3]

Along with his other works Economics and the Public Purse and Money, The Age of Uncertainty reinforced Galbraith’s stature as a major American economist who opposed the economic theories of Milton Friedman.^[10]

Where once the problem was lack of supply, today a majority of humans are physically diminished by the too many calories they are consuming. Food knowledge and discipline on how and what to grow, prepare and consume for a healthy body are extremely rare wisdom today. This gives those who have it a significant advantage. This is not so simple as wealth or social class. Lots of people with ample means are eating themselves into ill health and teaching their kids how to do it from birth.  The good news is that when we show children how to eat for strong health, the habits tend to stay with them for a lifetime. The opposite is also true.  Health is foundational to productivity and quality of life, what could be more important than this?

Jamie Oliver is doing some very important work in his Food Revolution.  Here is a direct video link.

A bubble in student debt, enabled by central banks and underwritten by governments, has allowed post-secondary education costs to balloon more than 9% a year since 2000.  Meanwhile incomes have stagnated and job opportunities narrowed. The education delivered is not more valuable today, only more expensive, and the model has become grossly inefficient and counter-productive.

Only lenders and the administrators of bloated school budgets have benefited from this massive mal-investment of resources.  As debt levels must contract, this system and pricing is no longer sustainable.

Solutions lie in affordable, efficient delivery channels. Sal Khan is a leader in the education evolution that is necessary.

Salman Khan, Khan Academy Founder & CEO, discusses why he keeps Khan Academy free for students, what he thinks about public schools across the United States and how he’s working to forward education efforts across the globe. Here is a direct video link.