Fall to Winter

It’s October, but the wind and water temperature say it’s deep winter. Surfed what was probably the last south swell of the season, and battled wind, tide, cold and kelp to do it. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday had a steep south, about 180 to 190 degrees, lapping our shores. The result - a few fun waves at the Steps, El Segundo Bol, and Tiburones, long waits, a narrow window between super high tide and the mid-tide entrance to kelpville, and more long waits. But the waits had benefits. The time was well spent by the Ranger and others in the lineup to develop a new wetsuit design. Imagine a wetsuit that can double as a board bag, sleeping bag and blow-up doll. A great travel companion.

It has been flat for a few days - super flat. And the first major storm of the season is slated to arrive Tuesday. I spent the weekend battening down the hatches, picking fruit, and watching Gio play futbol. The weather feels like winter tonight, which makes it difficult to feel the baseball mood - but the playoffs are on. Snow during a baseball game?

Another shot of Gio's work - the eye - caught the eye of the sheriffs. A little portion of the abstract paint job could be seen over the fence as you drive down the street. So, I get a letter from the sheriffs informing me that there is graffiti on my house, and that such graffiti may incite more - and there goes the neighborhood. In addition, the sheriff's letter informed me that there is a graffiti abatement program whereby volunteers would come and paint over the graffiti at my house. Dude, seriously. I also included some more summertime photos of Fullers.

Regarding unemployment and US industry - “If we're going to import items like wind turbines rather than to build them here, it's highly unlikely that our tepid recovery is going to create anything close to full employment. That's because our policies are still geared to the grand laissez faire experiment that sunk our ship. That failed folly had three parts: 1. Deregulating finance to promote "financial innovation"; 2. tax relief for the wealthy to promote "entrepreneurial activity/investment" and 3; unfettered free trade to boost profits by moving production to where labor is cheap and environmental regulations lax.” The author brings up a good point – what do we produce? An economy does not live by finance alone. We cut trees, sell the environmental capital, and call it revenue. We produce good science and research, but at the rate which students turn to business and avoid science and engineering, this production may be threatened. What else do we produce? Agriculture – we are strong in food production – but do we import all the tools and amendments we need for that production? Cars and trucks? Wait, I know – global military industrial complex. We export more military wares than any nation on the planet – by a long shot. War and conflict are good for business. Ultimately, finance produces nothing. Finance facilitates production, but it does not produce – and to the extent the purpose of the finance is to make profit from no production, finance follows production and moves to where it can optimize profit; hence, production overseas. Similarly, investment of the wealth – finance – follows the path of highest profit – at the expense of US industry. Someday, as the quality of life increases throughout the globe – beating back the forces of finance that wish to keep pockets of the globe available for high profit production – the cost of production will be the same everywhere – then, production will return because profit will no be no higher elsewhere.

This idea of a nation of finance has an example in history – the Dutch Golden Age. The accumulation of capital in enormous amounts caused a demand for productive investment opportunities beside the immediate reinvestment in the business. It also necessitated innovative institutional arrangements to bring demand and supply of investment funds together. Apparently, war debt was one of the major factors in bringing the Golden age to a close. More research into the Dutch Golden Age may be informative.

Closing Word:
One should count each day a separate life. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)  ¶ 6:59 PM