5-19-12 Hodgepodge
Saturday, May 19, 2012
On the Road
Traveling. Late to bed and early to rise. Baby wide awake at 4:30 a.m. and
counting. This short post is going to be it for today. Comments and email will
probably have to wait until tomorrow.
Weekend Reading
"The detachment and indifference to the underlying asset is actually a major
benefit in that it permits one to learn the patience and market psychology of
how to trade, including the basics of money management and controlling risk" --
Jonathan Hoenig, in "Forex Teaches Trading Without
Training Wheels" at SmartMoney
"It isn't the past alone that shapes us. It's our
ideas and attitudes." --
Michael Hurd, in "Get Past the Past!" at DrHurd.com
"The result of producing, saving, and investing is not the miser's
life nor
the cartoonish life of Mr. Scrooge but the life of earned success, supreme
comfort, and guilt-free happiness. 'Austerity' seems much too harsh a name for
this kind of wonderful life." -- Richard Salsman, in "Fiscal Austerity and Rational Morality" at
Forbes
Another False Dichotomy
The Salsman piece is the first of a series of three that look to be required
reading. Arguing that "the debate needs a moral dimension and would benefit
much from applying a rational morality", Salsman notes that a
false dichotomy, between prodigality and aesceticism, is undermining the real
debate we need to be having, about the size and scope of government. It is
interesting to me that, before reading the piece, I'd never considered the full
(and wrong) implications of the term "austerity", and yet now, these seem
obvious.
-- CAV
Updates
Today: Minor format edits.
2 comments:
Gus, within today's fiscal politics there is a stark contrast of which Salsman defines one side rather well...
"Typically, the ascetic likes to make sure others feel the pain which he claims is so moral in his own motives. If, instead, 'austerity' means something rational and commonsensical, something that benefits our life instead of ruining it, something that entails not our sacrifice but our self-interest, then we’ve got a truly moral meaning." - R. M. Salsman
Too many left-leaning politicians, however, would have us believe they subscribe mightily to an utopian mantra which observes, with obvious error, I believe:
“The fact that logic cannot satisfy us awakens an almost insatiable hunger for the irrational.” - atheist author A. N. Wilson
I am not sure what you're getting at with the second quote. (I am an atheist and disagree with it, for starters.)
But regarding Salsman defining one side of the debate, I think the reason he does this is that "austerity" is so frequently confused with or mistaken for the rational policies he proposes. There is no such danger with the policies of continued profligate spending.
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