Waaaagh!

Four years is a long time.
I was in Liverpool this time 4 years ago (but not for long)...
married (though not for long)...
Kerry was ahead in most polls (but not for long)...

Four years later the banking system is in shambles. The LIBOR/FED spread is still sitting above 2.5 (meaning we still have a massively constricted inter-bank liquidity problem)... oil's spent time in the $150 range... the oil companies are all posting 'biggest profits ever' while somehow managing to convince the country that the price of oil has nothing to do with their bottom line... and a black man seems poised to be elected president in spite of all the people who've come up with rationalized reasons to vote for the old white guy that don't admit to the true abject racism inherent in their decision. No one wants to say america has become a land of the intellectually lazy, morally bankrupt, and egocentric. The press play gotcha when politicians even hint at the idea that america might be filled with racist assholes - as if it werent true and suggesting the alcoholic passed out after beating his kids in the room should stop drinking might and change his behavior somehow makes you the bad guy.

But we should have learned a lot.

There's the lesson that markets may not be the right answer for every situation. Markets are wonderful environments to encourage innovation and competition. The old invisible hand rewards efficiency and desirability in product differentiation - even when companies are selling something as vacuous as the appearance of douchedom... America wont learn that lesson - we'll blame the black guy instead.

There's a lesson that a land war in asia is a classic blunder... but anyone with half a brain would have learned that one the last time. Of course, the inevitable horrible conclusion to this latest military adventurism will be blamed on the black guy too.

Or how about that too many women are a lot more cold and calculating and heartless than they let on... that's one that some of us seem prone to fail to learn from regularly. I wonder if I can blame Obama for that.

Happy monday.