Alan Greenspan Strikes Again!

Apparently Alan Greenspan, the consummate Washington, DC insider, is going to deliver a paper at the Brookings Institute tomorrow.  And he will "admit" that the Fed, under his tenure as chairman, did not predict the severity of the housing "bubble" and subsequent crash.  Ya' think?

But the most disturbing part of his talk is that he refuses to believe that regulatory efforts can at least mitigate these kinds of debacles.  In fact, in his usual "magical" language, he talks about how "central controls" will ruin capitalism.  And that we can not do anything to prevent bubbles, merely analyze them in their aftermaths.

I suppose the millions of people who lost their homes due to foreclosures or are underwater in their loan to equity ratios will be consoled with his thoughts.

Can a Mansion Be Green? Come on...

A particular peeve of mine has been what is now being called "greenwashing."  When some developer manages to spend a lot of money to amp up the thermal values of windows, install the oh-so perfect heating system, maybe even slap a rain barrel on the gutters, and obtain LEED certification.  How can two people living in 10,000 square feet even think it's "green?"

Finally, some folks in Berkeley are calling it what it is: greenwashing.

The Incongruence of Federal Farm Policies

On one hand we have Michelle Obama, the First Lady, opening local farmer's markets near the White House, exhorting kids and parents to eat better, and even growing her own food on the White House lawn.

On the other hand, an important and vital forum about anti-trust issues in Corporate Agriculture, and until yesterday, not one "local" farmer had been invited to the discussions.

Not a good sign.

And Reason This Became Criminal Is....?

Will someone please explain why this is criminal?  I get all the airport security rigamarole, but really, to give this young man a criminal record because he wanted to kiss his girlfriend?  What is wrong with this picture?

The Complications of Being a Conservationist

Today's ruling from USFWS demonstrates the complications of being a conservationist. Long sought by many environmentalists, a ruling to place the Sage Grouse on the endangered species list would thwart many wind farms and other alternative energy projects in the basin regions of eastern Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming. Of course, it would also make it very difficult for natural gas exploration.

So the current administration chose a middle ground, announcing they were concerned about the viability of this amazing upland bird, but could not, at this time, place it on the list.

Every single environmental/conservative decision has enormous consequences. We'll probably soon know whether the rejection of the application sends this bird into extinction. On the other hand, by listing it as a candidate species, perhaps, just perhaps, all the efforts by conservation groups, private landowners, and governments may just work.

It's complicated, right?

Understanding Regulation

Every day there are stories about how regulation prevents a good guy from fulfilling his passion. In this story, it's about someone who wanted to start a small farm in an area of King County, Washington which used to be filled with small farms (ah, I remember many a summer picking strawberries out in Carnation) but which is now filled with Microsoft mega-estates. Yep, there is open space, that is, unbuilt lawns for the large, gated estates.

What we don't really understand in our society is often regulation is meant to protect special interests. For instance, during the Northern spotted owl debates in the Pacific Northwest, large multi-national timber companies encouraged enforcement of the Endangered Species Act because they knew it would eliminate competition from smaller, more nimble logging companies. And indeed, the big companies survived, the small ones went bankrupt. But the cleverness of this "campaign" was the small logging companies thought it was the forest activists that wanted them out of business, not their so-called colleagues in the big timber companies!

And this story about the farm is another example. Surely the hip Microsoft millionaires shop in chic markets exclaiming local foods. But they just don't want the smell of manure next door to their "LEED Certified" houses behind gates. So they regulate farms away from their fancy homes....

Underwater Homes Part 2

Great piece in the Wall Street Journal about walking away from homes with no equity.

I still think we have a long long way to go in this real estate debacle.