Friday, February 26, 2010

I Am Where The Snow is Not!

In cold, but dry, no-snow, Tennessee...(really, am not missing the shoveling.)
Watching the new Ricky Gervais show on HBO. Hilarious, but maybe just a tad crude. A 30-minute live action talk show literally turns into an animation talk show--British accents and all. 9 pm Friday night.
Is this part of the graphic-ing of reality TV?

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Are Plans Possible in an Age of Global Connectedness?

Is really possible for a country to make an economic plan projecting out, let's say, 5 or 10 years, when we are living in an increasingly interconnected global economy?

This question turned up in my head this morning while watching a Sunday talk show segment. Govs. Rendell (PA) and Schwartzeneggar (CA) were discussing the health of the US economy--Is it getting better or worse?
Both saw indicators at the state level that would suggest it's on the mend--just be optimistic and not overly enthusiastic, as much work is still needed.
Forming better infrastructures to maintain the economy came up, and Washington needs to get better at making plans.

As far as I know, even the best, well thought-out plans don't always pan out, largely due to the change in culture in which they are made. In this case, make that plural--cultures--with economies appearing over the past 5 year that make headlines now, but were developing countries 15 years ago.

If something dire happens in one country, how likely will it impact other countries around the world? For instance, how about all the mortgage-backed securities failing in this country, troubling both European banks and the Chinese? Or Greece and Portugal putting a hiccup into the world stock markets with their debt declarations, until the European Union stepped in to catch out these newest member nations? Or the U.S. ability to recall loans after lending so much money to South American nations back in the 80s and 90s? California is considered to be among the top 8 economies IN THE WORLD. What happens in California could be a harbinger of what's to come to the rest of the U.S., good or bad.

I have been shorted by thousands of dollars by non-paying tenants in rent money in the past 2 years. My only recourse is to find a job so I can pay for what they couldn't... my mortgage. Apart from one hand feeding another, what other plan exists? (There's that interconnectedness thing, again.)

Maybe we should take it up a notch:
Will going global in economic planning make a difference?
Maybe we should think bigger, now that we are all connected.

Musings for the day.