Juggling Dynamite

Although many fight the progress and change needed in the world, I see a lot of very exciting things happening in science and innovation which I know can help to solve the major hurdles presently facing humanity. As much as I am defensive of capital during the present credit crisis, I also can’t help but be longer-term optimistic about opportunities ahead. A couple of examples of important new thinking are below.

Last night on Piers Morgan Tonight, Suzanne Somers explained that she was recently able to grow her breast back after a mastectomy with an innovative new process that injects one’s own stem cells into the chest. The ramifications of what this can mean for the future of stem cells to heal and rejuvenate the human body is mind-boggling. She explains the remarkable process here.

Separately in the field of alternative energy, the evolution of ideas is also exciting. My 12 year old son wants to be an engineer so he can help develop efficient new technologies for the future. This is the type of thinking that inspires him (and me). Here is the direct link.

Paul Krugman is a controversial economist to say the least. In recent years he has become famous for anti-austerity pleas, insisting that governments need to keep up deficit spending to ward off an intensifying of the global recession. I would agree that governments can ideally help ease downturns where possible through stimulative spending in things like infrastructure. My point would be, not all government spending is equal in this. It matters what governments direct taxpayer dollars into, if they are to be helpful in moderating the extreme highs and lows of the business cycle.

The trouble is that governments have been notoriously bad at moderating the upswing in risk and credit. Indeed politicians tend to follow not lead, jumping onto status quo bandwagons accelerating risk to the upside. And as we have seen in the past few years, when the inevitable downside hits, where governments could have had a moderating effect on pain in the real economy, they have foolishly squandered finite, precious resources by trying to resist needed changes and bail out undeserving institutions and their leaders in sectors like banks and car companies. So much revenue and deficit spending was misdirected to wrong headed moves at the start of the financial crisis, that there is much less available now to help moderate the next phase of contraction.

In this interview, Krugman makes some very insightful points on money, cognitive dissonance in wealth and power, and the general human desire to be liked and respected. Here is the direct link.

“The presidential election is well under way but as President Barack Obama tries to position himself as the defender of the middle-class who will protect the 99% against corporate malfeasance and too big to fail banks, he may find himself in a precarious position. His record does not necessarily reflect his rhetoric and at the same time Wall Street donors have padded his campaign coffers.”

Peter Schweizer author of “Throw them All Out” and president of the Government Accountability Institute, a non-profit think tank, joined The Daily Ticker to talk about the connection between Washington and Wall Street and how Obama’s benign response to the financial crisis could hurt his bid for re-election. Here is the direct link.