my wife; 29

she dreams, sometimes
of fixing the middle east
over coffee
in her christian louboutins

and sometimes

she lives a simple dream
of fixing peace between siblings
over coffee
in her love worn slippers

wild words

"words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking" -- keynes

there are moments and events in lives
where all that has gone before
serves to mark
the highwater of our being
and we are left to wonder at where we are.

becket

under the maple trees
wrapped in a blanket with his favorite ball
he waits for the snow

how the ipod changed my life

i was recently surprised by my wife. she used our years of accumulated credit card points to get me an ipod and i will be the first to admit that it has changed my life.

now, i may be the only person who has an ipod without any music on it. but i am addicted to the podcasts. my personal favorite is tom keene from bloomberg news.

but after a few weeks i've found something even better. itunes u.

while everyone knows the ipod has forever changed music, itunes u has opened the doors of higher education to everyone regardless of their financial status or geographical location.

i've been downloading special lectures and even entire semesters from some of the planet's leading universities. last night i listened to joseph stiglitz guest lecturing at oxford and i'm excited to start on berkeley's history of economics course. many of the courses found in itunes u can be used in conjunction with online syllabi and reading lists. other than getting college credit, you can get the same education as those who are paying tuition - this is a pretty good deal.

descartes famously said, 'cogito, ergo sum'. right on, brother. right on.

hard times

we are in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the great depression. all of us have grown complacent -- safe in the knowledge that economists have disected the depression and have a pretty good idea of what triggered it, what made it worse and ultimately what turned the tide. so, 'never again' was reasonable and comforting. it is of great comfort that our current fed chairman is an expert on depression economics.

i want to be clear, that many of the problems faced by average americans during the great depression are unlikely to be repeated. we have made many fundamental economic changes that will cause this current crisis to unfold in a different fashion.

in the 30's we had millions of americans unable to feed or house their families. at its peak, unemployment hit almost 25%. with unemployment so high there was a tremendous disparity of power between management and labor. without our modern workplace protections this lead to massive exploitation -- overworking employees, failure to pay in full for work that was done (with the threat that if you didn't like your reduced paycheck you were welcome to leave and there were millions of americans waiting to take your job), no health and safety protections like osha . . . the list of improvements in contrasting the current crisis with the great depression is long and fundamentally important to the outcome. so, we are not about to repeat the 30's.

that being said, this crisis will have some similarities to the depression that are worth noting. the american experience during the great depression altered our national consciousness and its echoes have been felt even to our lifetimes. similarly, the current economic meltdown will have real effects on every american.

for one real effect you only need to look at our baby boomer generation. the first baby boomer officially reached retirement age within the last year. pundits were quick to point out that our boomers did not have enough savings to retire and maintain their current lifestyles. they were heavily in debt, had underfunded retirement savings and had cashed out the equity in their homes meaning they had mortgage payments to look forward to in retirement. this was the the view of the 'average' boomer in early 2007 before the economic wheels started to come off.

if we fast forward to today we find that average american has seen their retirement savings cut by 30% and the market value of their homes cut by about 20% across the board. this is a staggering loss of net worth that most affects those in retirement or close to it.

this will have a stunning effect on those close to retirement. many will not be able to afford retirement and will need to continue working to pay their bills. rising fuel, food and heating costs will exacerbate the issue.

those of us far from retirement will feel the ecomic ripples from the boomers. since 70% of our gdp comes from consumer spending we are going to see a significant contraction over the years to come.

we are not about to replay the great depression -- in many ways we are better positioned to handle the most basic needs of our citizens. but we are living in tumultuous times and the history that unfolds over the years to come will change the american psyche forever.

equinox

orion, taurus and the pleides in the sky tonight as i came home late from work.

hello, old friends.

1941

this was the last time we saw yields on 3-month treasury bills as low as we saw them today. how low? how does .02% sound?

so why are t-bills so low? supply and demand, baby. everyone is afraid to put their money anywhere that isn't "safe" and what is considered "safe" has shrunk to precious little -- so everyone piles into t-bills and the yield drops like a rock.

remember investments we used to think were safe? blue chip stocks, money market funds, and even fdic-insured savings accounts? people are in a panic and the next thing (which we need to avoid at all costs) is a run on the banks to withdraw funds and hide them in mattresses, flower pots, cookie jars, whatever.

markets move with herd psychology and the herd is pretty damn spooked. this is the time to stop -- think -- and NOT do what everyone else is doing.

in 1941 things looked pretty bleak too. the next few years will be tough, incredibly tough for some -- but we will get through it.

wwjpmd

those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it -- and how many have heard of the panic of 1907? last night i watched the news unfold on bloomberg, ft and other sites as lehman was left to fail. the surprise move by lewis at bofa to acquire merrill lynch immediately reminded me of j.p. morgan's famous maneuvers in the panic of 1907.

when faced with cascading bank failures and asked to prop up the house in greatest danger, he resisted the pressure to fund what he considered a doomed enterprise. instead, he sought out the next bank in the line of fire that could actually be saved. in creating such a firewall the panic of 1907 burned itself out in a matter of weeks.

2008 -- in a crisis that has already lasted more than a year, and seems to continually plumb new depths, its hard to see this move as the point where things begin to turn back. but that is the way of markets, it is always easier in hindsight to spot the turning points.

as tens of thousands of lehman and merrill employees rapidly flood the market with resumes -- it puts the security of our small home and our decision to simplify life into sharp perspective. i think i'll turn off the computer now and play outside with the kids.

tuesday

on the way
to our csa farm
we saw a kingfisher
on the wire
a pair of cranes
stalking through a field
a mother turkey
with three little ones

and our two little ones
slept in the backseat
and i enjoyed the drive
in the country
with my wife
what a day

becket

canis familiaris quiesco

so still and quiet
he sleeps at my feet
and i'll sleep the better
because he is there

corn chowder

the weakened remains of gustav caused an abrubt shift from the heat of summer -- cooler and wetter, it looks and feels like fall is here -- morning coffee with slippers and a robe to keep off the chill.

chowder season.

last night i picked two ears of heirloom corn, bloody butcher, from the 12 foot stalks in our garden. adding a couple of garden green bells and a few hungarian wax peppers made a superb corn chowder.

growing my own food -- even in part, i'm more in touch with the change of seasons, the weather, the local climate and the soil. living on a drumlin, my garden dirt was shaped by glaciers that retreated only 10,000 years ago.

soil pressed by glaciers -- and plants watered by the remains of a hurricane -- create a history of time and space in a simple chowder.

i am what i eat.

september crickets

outside my window the crickets are singing.

i count 20 chirps in 15 seconds.

add 37 and the cricket says its 57 degrees fahrenheit.

noaa says its 61.

not bad for a cricket.

life is compromise

in each opportunity we pursue there are doors we close behind us. some of those doors, once closed, may never be opened again.

we are told we can do anything, and have everything. we are taught to reach for it all and madison avenue banks on our misguided beliefs.

but if life is compromise it follows that life is choice. and choice is powerful.

in 2004 my wife and i chose to move from madison, wisconsin to the small town of beaver dam. we picked our home for several reasons. it was near my job. it was priced well within our means. and the town was pleasant and near horicon marsh national wildlife refuge.

we live a simple life. we hike, we garden, we read, we spend lots of time with each other and with our two small children.

living simply is challenging but rewarding.

these are our everyday adventures from the little house on the drumlin.