Mark Perry explains the mess that is California education

Mark J. Perry and the quote of the day:

 Every politically controlled educational system will inculcate the doctrine of state supremacy sooner or later. . . . Once that doctrine has been accepted, it becomes an almost superhuman task to break the stranglehold of the political power over the life of the citizen. It has had his body, property and mind in its clutches from infancy. An octopus would sooner release its prey. A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state. ~Isabel Paterson from “The God of the Machine” (1943)

We have a serious problem in California. Teachers, haven gotten themselves into the pickle. They have created an Orwellian world, unable to speak clearly on any relevant issue and do not have the ideology to escape. NCLB is a result of Orwellianism catastrophe, and was imported by the very teachers who suffer the catastrophe. Now they have no way out. Why oh why does  the California education system exhibit such ignorance?

Then what is the correct view of macroeconomics?

In some countries, such as China, Thailand, South Korea, and Vietnam, nominal GDP growth was driven to a large extent by real growth. Moreover, according to the soon-to-be-published Atlas of Economic Complexity, these economies began producing more complex products, a harbinger of sustainable growth. Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria also had very significant real growth, but nominal GDP was boosted by very large terms-of-trade effects and real appreciation. Ricardo Hausmann

Finite networks of distribution, otherwise known as Shannon optimal flow models. The model I pioneered, if I might say so. Complexity is the deliver and subdivide network that moves goods through the economy and out to consumers. An economy that maintains a complex, but minimal, distribution tree delivers the greater variety of goods under sustainable conditions. And that, under the correct model, is GDP growth.

Keynesians upset at growth

The big new on the economic from is the upward revision of second quarter growth.  Keynesians with their multipliers greater than one theory predicted less growth due to government cutbacks.  Meanwhile, the Reuters survey or economists mostly got it right, predicting an upward revision to 2.3%.

This test was important because it was the first experiment with austerity since the crash, and expansive austerity seemed to work in the short term.  It now seems the USA is batting 100% on the proposition that multipliers have been less than one for 30 years.  This economy constitutes 25% of the world economy, on average, and every debt expansion since 1980 has resulted in lower growth, and every debt reduction (sequestering and Bill Clinton) has resulted in higher growth.

So, how did Keynesians prove multipliers greater than one when a full quarter of the global economy demonstrated the opposite? It would seem that any data panel including the USA would be either erroneous or fraudulent.  It is an important distinction, because the economy is very interested in who or what is forcing a negative growth scenario on the USA, and now have strong indications that it is John Maynard Keynes, the dead man himself, who is trashing the American economy. And we know why, his fundamental assumption that the economy seeks the lowest volatility path is entirely wrong, on a macro and on a micro level.

Jared Bernstein said what!

It’s [Krugman's] a valid point; his use of IS-LM in the liquidity trap (where deficit spending has no impact on interest rates but increases GDP) has been consistently insightful and correct, and it provides a good example of an economic model that works. Jared

I often ask Paul, if multipliers are 1.3 then why are we at the bottom after 16 trillion in borrowing over 30 years. Why does the middle class take in in the shorts when deficit spending is high? Why did the Clinton regime of high taxes and shrinking federal government result in sustained growth? Why did California's budget flounder and go deeply red for two decades?

I never got an answer, until now. Jared explains it. We can no longer count. I have news for Jared, if bankers cannot convert from GDP growth to interest rates, then we are in very serious trouble. DC is bankrupt and the dollar no longer usable as a unit of account. Using this condition, Krugman's explanation is quite clear, government can borrow all it wants because DC is effectively bankrupt anyway.

California's one fifth Senator grabs some loot

Guess whose Company won the bid for CA high speed rail?

From the article: Out of the entire universe of those who could have won the first phase construction contract for California’s high speed rail boondoggle, who would stand out as the last person who would win it if there were no political patronage. Put another way, who is the most likely person to win it if there is political patronage? Both questions have the same answer: Richard Blum, the husband of California senator Diane Feinstein. So, who won the contract? Blum, of course, as the principle owner of Tutor Perini, the lead firm in the three-firm consortium selected by the California High Speed Rail Authority.

Not to worry Diane, we get it. It is not corruption, it is your reward for being an Undemocrat in the Great State of Mostly Corrupt. Who is this entity, Tutor-Saliba and Perini?

The Feds put together a task force to go after construction fraud, overruns and safety violations. Perini has been caught doing such things over and over again. They are absolutely ridiculous in California projects. It is like DBE fronting is a part of its business model. Overall fraud appears to be a part of that model also. According to the Seattle News some of the Perini headlines read: “In February, Tutor-Saliba and Perini agreed to pay $19 million to settle racketeering and fraud allegations in a San Francisco airport project.” “In 2004, Perini agreed to pay the federal government $998,500 to settle fraud claims in the construction of an embassy building in Venezuela.” “The companies are embroiled in an 11 – year legal battle over $16 million in extra costs on a Los Angeles subway job.” “Perini sued for more than $170 million in cost overruns on three New York City projects during the 1990s before settling for about $22 million.”

Mainly crooks associated with the California Undemocrat Party. A one fifth Feinstein and Darrel Steinberg, the reasons for California poverty.

Where California corruption met its match

It wasn't No CHild Left Behind. No, on that one idiot teachers unions got themselves into a bad fix.  Nor is it Obamacare, Californians are wise to the problems that are coming.  The real place where California corruption got upended was High Speed Rail. The whole concept behind high speed rail was simple, but stupid.  Chicago wanted a federal goody so California had an opportunity to steal. This was Jim Costa and his ignorant notion of the back room party channel. Now central California has a mess on its hands. Even the local paper, the Fresno Bee, is beginning to discover that we have a godawful mess on out hands, a very disruptive corrupt force unleashed upon central California. Voters are looking and discovering this this mass of corruption was specifically and openly designed to be a mass of corruption aimed squarely at the local economy. When voters, politicians, and newspapers all agree that California is deliberately self destructive, then few alternatives remain except a little bit of sanity now and then. hence the continuing attack on Darrel Steinberg, he is the official representative of deliberate, destructive corruption.

Corruptuion in New York State

How New York Became One Of The Most Corrupt States

It's happening again. Rarely a month seems to pass when there isn't some state legislator in New York facing indictment. The latest, former Democratic state Sen. Shirley Huntley, was sentenced Thursday to spend a year and a day in prison for stealing $88,000 from a charity she controlled. A day earlier, a federal judge had unsealed records showing that Huntley last year secretly recorded conversations with seven other elected officials she suspected of corruption.

According to a New York public interest group, causes are:

1. Single-Party Dominance
2. The Hunt For Campaign Funds
3. Insular Decision-Making
4. Media Aren't Watching

My claim is that all of these are derived from the relative difference in proportional voting due to unfair elections in the Senate. Both California and New York refuse to discuss the issue of democracy for the single reason that these politicians can be corrupt by playing the arbitrage game between state, local and national politics. It is the specific intent for both states to seek corruption.

Consider one theme, affirmative action in California. For years it has had one purpose, to suppress the Anglo minority over the plurality of Latinos, a deliberate attempt to preserve apartheid. If you ask Nancy Pelosi about this, she will cheerfully answer that it is quite normal for the Democratic part to engage in racial pandering, it is a good thing, she claims, good because Democrats do it, and possible because Democrats could care less about democracy. This is the standard party platform among the single party here in California, corruption and racism good, democracy bad. Latinos, evidently, believe the story, but the Senate, composed of small states happen to disagree with California racists, hence they make sure that citizens in California who agree with the goodness of corruption pay a hefty tax premium back to DC to cover the corruption charges.

The friday unemployment numbers are an event

Look at this chart.  Two interpretations, one, California has not passed the hump and is fading fast. Or two California has gotten its large city back on track.  These opposite futures will not coexist after Friday.

I look for resolution, and I fear that California is not past the hump.  The negative forces of Darrel Steinberg are alive and well in the state, the largest economy in the union. The politicians in DC should take notice, how did DC politics end up waiting on this terrible legislative menace, one Darrel Steinberg, who has completely congested the US economy?

The global brain

It is getting intelligent, the web, and fast.  We still have this last Moore's law to finish, and it ups the web one more gear. It is many Watsons, and the thing in our hands will be the most intelligent object we meet. The global brain is going to want something from us biologicals, what is it?

Good for Obama

I like his move for a debate, big A plus. And the debate will be: What is our responsibility to stop the imminent use of WMD?

Wow, a rubber neckers delight of a spectacle!