Republicans and Democrats keep fighting over budgets; Chinese shop for global assets.

In 1977 the Brazilian weekly “Manchete” published an article entitled “Os argentinos brigan, os brasileiros compran”. (“the Argentines fight, the Brazilians shop") –referring to the flow of Brazilian tourists coming to shop in Buenos Aires when the peso was low due to political volatility, which usually triggered a rise in the dollar and other currencies relative to the argentinian peso. (The photo above is a picture of Brazilian tourists at a hotel in Buenos Aires from the above mentioned magazine article.)

Look at the consequences:

	Year	GDP US$
Argentina	2009	7,666
Argentina	1976	1,900
Brazil	2009	8,114
Brazil	1976	1,154

Argentina's GDP in 1976 was 180% that of Brazil and in 2009 it was 90%. China and the US are today like Argentina and Brazil were in 1976.

American Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2009 was nearly $15 trillion, while China’s was $5 trillion. By 2017 many economists consider it a virtual certainty that China's GDP will surpass the U.S. and by 2030 it will be more than double that of the U.S. In the last 20 years Argentina's economy has been stagnant - high unemployment, no growth, flat wages. Brazil's economy has flourished. Argentina has persued a low tax, weak peso economic policy while Brazil persued a higher tax, higher growth, strong currency policy.

Occupy Wall Street

I was struck by a sign held up by one of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. It read, "I care about you". In the last decade we have seen buildings brought down by hijacked airplanes, a decade long "war on terror", sanctioned torture, wounded vets, financial system excess and collapse, unprecedented long term unemployment, dysfunctional government, a careerist every man for himself ethos that has warped the notion of an honest day's work into an obscene free for all on Wall Street, a middle class under water in housing and retirement accounts, increasing austerity in education and social services...the list goes on and on. It does not surprise me that an alternative answer to the question "why are we here and what are we doing?" is emerging and that experiments in "sustainability", "disruption" and "DIY" (do it yourself) are part of the current counter culture. I have no idea what the answer is but "I care about you" seems like a reasonable starting point. I think the kid who wrote that sign has a future.

Good People

From the Short Story "Good People" by David Foster Wallace published in the New Yorker February, 2007...

“…he was answered now with a type of vision, what he would later call within his own mind a vision or moment of grace. He was not a hypocrite, just broken and split off like all men. Later on, he believed that what happened was he’d had a moment of almost seeing them both as Jesus saw them—as blind but groping, wanting to please God despite their inborn fallen nature.”

Odd fact of the day...

The day after flight 1549 crash landed in the Hudson River without the loss of a single life the numbers 1549 were so frequently played in the NY lottery that ticket sales had to be shut down for fear that if the numbers hit the lottery would lose millions. The winning numbers in the New York lotterry Pick Four turned out to be 1548.

Reunion

I went to my 40th high school reunion in NY this week. It reminded me of what for me was the biggest part of my high school experience - 11th grade as an exchange student in Marcos Paz Argentina. That was 1969. I have been back to Marcos Paz many times since but my trip back in 2008 was special. Below is a video of my arrival. That was a reunion.

The (Perfect) Song Of The Week...

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" here in the video below sung by Nina Simone.

In 2010, Simone's version was used for the end credits of season one's 6th and final episode of BBC's crime drama Luther. In 2011, it was used again for the trailer for the show's second season.

"You know baby, sometimes I am so carefree...

...with a joy that's hard to hide.

And then sometimes again it seems all I have is worry...

...and then you bound to see my other side.

Sometimes I find myself alone regretting...

some little foolish thing.

Some simple thing that I have done.

Cuz, I'm just a soul whose intentions are good...

I try so hard, so please, Lord

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.

Luther and Denial

The BBC has a TV series called Luther. Luther is a psychological crime drama television series starring Idris Elba (from The Wire) as the title character, Detective Chief Inspector John Luther, working for the Serious Crime Unit. Luther is "dazzling, obsessive, possessed - and sometimes dangerous in the violence of his fixations - and he has paid a heavy price for his dedication; he has never been able to prevent himself from being consumed by the darkness of the crimes he deals with". The show has some almost poetry dialogue like this observation about DENIAL from the last episode of series one:

"It turns out people lie to themselves about three things; they view themselves in implausibly positive ways, they think they have far more control over their lives than they actually do and they believe the future will be better than the evidence from the present can possibly justify. But, you're way beyond that now. You are in front of the stand up mirror and lying to yourself isn't going to help anymore. So, please, tell me again, why are you here?"

That could be something we all need to hear at one time or another because the paradox of lying to ourselves is that we do not even know we are doing it. It starts with a simple enough observation "you are way beyond that now" (seeing and starting from where things are) and concludes not with an answer but with a big, important question - why are you here? (not "what can I do to help" but "what do you want to do to help yourself?") Ye gads, maybe I am reading too much into it or maybe it is just me, but that really seems like some smart stuff for a cop show on TV.

Here is a cool video tribute to Season 1 (with a great song used on the show). (Season two begins on September 28.)