Tangents

The bane of The Common Man's existence in elementary and middle school were the Presidential Physical Fitness Award. The award was created by Lyndon Johnson in 1966, who used the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (established by Eisenhower in 1956) to promote it and the tests by which the awards were won. So, every year, The Common Man and his classmates had to spend a full week of gym doing the shuttle run, pull-ups, sit-ups, the 100 yard dash, and other events designed to make The Common Man realize just how slow he really was. It's not that The Common Man was out of shape, mind you (that's what college was for), rather that he was just very unathletic. What little success he did have as an athlete was achieved largely on guile, aggressiveness, and dumb luck. But during these tests that actually measured physical ability, The Common Man was left in the dust by the Jeremy Beaulieus and the Jason Youngs of the world who were gifted with phenomenal speed, strength, and flexibility.

Despite his hatred of these tests, however, The Common Man appreciates their ability to help us understand what is happening to America's school children. According to a report released by the California Department of Education, the athletic prowess of their students is decreasing. The Sacramento Bee reports that "roughly a third of California students met all standards measured on the state's annual physical fitness test last school year. Elementary kids were even less fit; only 28.5 percent measured up. In Sacramento County, 29.1 percent of elementary students tested met fitness standards." This is in part, the D.o.E. believes, because recently constructed schools tend to have no actual gymnasium. Rather, they have multi-purpose rooms that double as assembly rooms or cafeterias. On many winter days, then, when it rains, California students are forced indoors, but without a place to play. And in several schools, the breakfast and lunch programs offered by the school leave the room available for only an hour anyway.

It is also worth noting that, according to the national Parent Teacher Association, 40 percent of elementary schools have eliminated recess entirely, and many more have cut it back. The pressures on educators to increase test scores in order to secure funding and save jobs, and the need to save money on school construction, has severely limited the exercise that America's children are getting. No wonder, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 17 percent of schoolchildren are obese in America. Bring back recess and gym!



It's remarkable what power three little letters have. Consider: Recess, that disappearing hour of awesome in the middle of the school day, was awesome. This fixture of elementary school life for The Common Man allowed hours of freeze tag, kickball, and touch football for The Common Man as he grew up. It promoted social and physical growth and made Mrs. Seifert's fourth-grade math class somewhat bearable. The Common Man has only good memories of recess, except for the one time he got in a fight with Jason Magnuson in third grade and both participants ended up crying and holding their groins in the aftermath.

However, recession generally sucks. And according to the National Bureau of Economic Statistics, America is mired within one. Spawned by an unholy alliance of risky debt, high oil prices, and unsustainable growth, the recession has already dramatically altered the course of this nation by providing Barak Obama an easy victory over John McCain. And as it either drags on or is abated by new stimulus packages, the strength of the economy will have real effects on the U.S.'s ability to wage war in the Middle East, protect and support its allies, and counter the increasing economic strength of China and India (not to mention the military aggression of growingly fascist Russia). So it is fair to say that, like the worldwide Depression of the 1930s, the current economic crisis has a similar potential to change and fundamentally reorder the global powers.

By global powers, of course, The Common Man means the Disney Corporation. According to NPR, Disney's profits have slipped sharply as American families are taking fewer and less expensive vacations. Orlando, in particular, has seen a 10 percent drop in hotel reservations, and Florida has seen about a million fewer tourists this year. In response Disney has been offering free nights at its hotels and free food vouchers for its attractions. Disney is close to The Common Man's heart. It is, after all, where he and The Uncommon Wife fell madly in love after they snuck away from a dry wedding party to get liquored up at the House of Blues. But even so, The Common Man anticipates that Disney's bottom line will continue to suffer as more Americans cut back on extravagances, and the company continues to charge an arm and a leg to get close to Mickey.

The Waiting Game

The Uncommon Wife has left The Common Man all alone with The Boy for the rest of the week, while she flies out to NYC to visit The Brother-in-law. Faced with complete, utter freedom from womanly ways, The Common Man tried to figure out how to have the manliest time possible and to impart manly wisdom to The Boy before he turns two next week. As is typical, The Common Man tired of thinking around the 30 second mark, and decided instead to take the boy back to Minnesota to, again, visit his grandparents.



Like The Common Man, it seems as though the United States Congress does not want to think long and hard about the problems facing the nation's economy these days. Today, before House Committees, Treasury Secretary Harry Paulson and FED Chairman Ben Bernanke tried to quiet panicky lawmakers who claimed that the banking bailout plan, approved in September, was not working. Since originally receiving the ok to use government funds to buy up at-risk mortgage debt, Paulson has shifted strategies and used the money to infuse $158 billion in cash into troubled banks. Paulson defended his strategy, saying, "When the facts changed and the circumstances [surrounding the financial crisis] changed, we changed the strategy. We didn't implement a flawed strategy. We implemented a strategy that worked." Yet critics are still worried that Paulson's strategy has not yet freed the wheels of the frozen credit market.

While lawmakers are right to closely watch how Americans' money is being spent by Paulson, The Common Man again hopes (once again) that everyone can just take a deep breath here. After all, how long did it take for this crisis to develop? Years, perhaps a decade or more. The pressure has been building for a long while for sure. To be up in arms because the proposed solution hasn't been an unparalleled success within two months is either a) impatient and moronic or b) blatantly opportunistic, using the crisis as a smokescreen to further shift blame for the meltdown onto an unpopular and ineffective lame-duck president who has next to no political capital at this point.

As for Paulson's apparent shift in strategy, The Common Man doesn't claim to be smart enough to know whether his new tactic will be a success or not. The Common Man is not an economist, nor does he have a lot of experience with macroeconomics (sorry Grandpa, only now does The Common Man see the folly of not taking that Econ course, as you suggested). But he does know that when financial systems are this unhealthy, like a patient recovering in ICU, they will take some time get back to normal. And lingering symptoms of whatever disease made them sick may be felt for some time, no matter how good the doctor treating it is. And given how slowly Congress can move and how rapidly the financial crisis may shift in composition and tenor, perhaps its best that Paulson have the flexibility to shift gears when he needs to, rather than waiting for approval to do so.

So sit back, America. Just hold off on the panic a little longer. The Common Man knows your portfolios are hurting (his is too). And he knows that there are still some tough times ahead. But for God's sake, don't shout blindly to the rafters that the roof is falling while Paulson works hard to prop it up. Show some restraint. Show some backbone. And show some manly fortitude. Wait and see what this this strategy can do before you come to bury it.

Finance and Freak Outs

The Common Man, like most of you, has been following the economic news in the wake of the recovery plan passed by Congress, signed by President Bush, and enacted by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. And like most of you, he's incredibly curious (and hopeful) to see whether it will work. After all, The Common Man would like to not have to ride the rails, eating beans from a can, grifting his way across the nation. Frankly, his grifting skills are in steep decline and he doesn't like beans all that much. Trains are cool though.

As he's checked back to CNN.com, he's been incredibly amused to follow the headlines associated with the bailout. Indeed, when stocks fell on Monday, CNN.com reported that investors had no confidence in the bailout plan. But on Tuesday, when the Dow rallied in the morning, the headline suggested something like the international economic relief plan had made investors confident in the solvency of their system. Indeed, whenever the stock market rises and falls, financial journalists seem to switch their narrative. If the market is up, the measures proposed by the FED are working; if the market is down, they aren't. Sometimes the narrative shifts a couple of times a day, as though everyone on Wall Street loses their shit at exactly the same time. (Currently, CNN.com is talking about a "Wall Street Whipsaw: Stocks turn mixed as investors consider recession talk, lower oil prices.")

Meanwhile, regular Americans are watching this rollercoaster and are getting nauseous and nervous. The volatility, not just of the market, but of the narrative makes it difficult to know who to trust and what exactly is happening. It's like re-reading a comic strip, but finding that the panels keep changing, and it's never how you remember it. It's disorienting and is promoting panic, and The Common Man can't help but think it's counterproductive.

Is it possible to separate the narrative of the Dow's rise and fall from the narrative of the economic recovery plan at this point? The Common Man doesn't know. The two are so intrinsically tied in America's mind right now that it will be incredibly difficult to parsel them out. Yet, The Common Man thinks that's absolutely necessary, to give the recovery plan the time it needs to work without constant speculation about whether it's working or not. Give the damn thing a couple of months, dammit before you pronounce, once and for all, how things are going. In the mean time, tell Americans how best to protect their assets and reassure them that, probably, things will eventually be ok again. Stop promoting the provoking the greatest fears of Americans who believe that a new depression is likely.

If recent history has taught The Common Man anything, its that you can't judge the effectiveness of a policy by the first few days after it's implemented. The Iraq War went great for a few weeks and everyone in Washington seemed to love No Child Left Behind when it was initially passed. Be calm, be reasoned, and let the recovery plan do it's job why don't you. Leave the editorializing for later. That goes for the media as well as for the individual.

Beacon of Manhood: Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart

When the skies are darkest and gloom has settled over the whole of the American landscape, in the forms of an unpopular war and a spiraling economic collapse, The Common Man is often most struck by the single rays of light that shine down between the clouds, briefly illuminating one small part of the world and reminding him that, yes, the sun will shine again. One such ray of light is Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

In an Op-Ed piece for the Chicago Sun-Times, Dart announced today that he and his deputies would no longer be evicting tenants from foreclosed-on properties. Dart writes, "Too many times, our deputies arrive at a home to carry out a mortgage foreclosure eviction, only to find a tenant -- dutifully paying their rent each month -- who is unaware their landlord stopped using that rent money to pay the mortgage. They had no fair warning that they were about to be thrown out of their home." The banks, Dart argues, "have done nothing to determine, in advance, who's living in the building -- even though it's required by state law," and in doing so have forfeited their right to have the Cook County Sheriff do their dirty work for them.

Dart acknowledges that his refusal to execute evictions may be against the law and may land him in jail for contempt of court. "If that's the case, I'm willing to accept it though I believe most judges in Cook County share my desire to find a solution for this mess." Dewitt's willingness to suffer the consequences for his actions, and his willingness to violate what he considers to be an unjust law, recalls the struggle of one of America's greatest men, who famously wrote "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.... One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the consequences. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the consciousness of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

Now, Dart's actions may be motivated by more than altruism. Indeed, his refusal to evict residents will undoubtedly play well with voters and will turn him into a populist symbol around which to rally. And his refusal to act may pass the responsibility to execute the evictions on to a party who will have less regard for those they are kicking to the curb. However, his willingness to stand up for this cause draws attention to a growing problem in America's metropolitan areas and could lead to government action to alleviate this problem. It is blatantly unfair for landlords to pocket rent checks from their tenants and not pay their own mortgages. And it's not the tenants fault that their landlords are rats. That Dart has identified this inequity and is taking action to alleviate it makes him this week's Beacon of Manhood.

Argh

The Common Man set forth this past weekend to the northernmost woods, sure that the financial crisis was being averted and that, as John McCain mentioned in the first debate between he and Barak Obama (which The Common Man and The Uncommon Wife listened to in the car on the way north, and both agreed that Obama at least held serve against and perhaps gained ground on his rival), that "a deal had been reached." Sadly, this was not to be.

Instead, after a weekend of fishing, boating, and playing with The Boy and his grandparents in the relatively unspoiled beauty of Lake Muskellunge, The Common Man returned home to find headlines like "Lawmakers point fingers as bailout fails" and "Backers scramble after bailout failure hits stocks." Indeed, all hell has broken loose on the floors of Congress and Wall Street. Investors are running for cover, and House Republicans are just running. The shift in tone from last week (worried) to this (panicked out of their gourd) was palpable.

The Common Man won't pretend to understand the ins and outs of the rescue plan, nor to know with any certainty whether it will succeed or fail. But he does know that, if you want to know whether any radical plan is a good idea, it's best to look at the actions of disinterested parties, those who have no outside reason to want the plan to succeed or fail outside of their own good nature.

After all, The Common Man believes that most politicians are cowards, more concerned with keeping their jobs than with actually improving the country. And, sure enough, when you look at the Congressional voting record, you find that Congressmen who are not running for reelection overwhelmingly support the bill. According to fivethirtyeight.com, "among 26 congressmen NOT running for re-election (almost all of whom are Republicans), 23 voted in favor of the bill, as opposed to 2 against and one abstaining." Meanwhile, among the 38 Congressmen in tight elections, 30 voted against the measure, a development that is less surprising given how poorly the issue has been framed in the popular media and its resultant unpopularity.

So, it seems clear, Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to act in the best interests of this nation (as did 40% of Democrats), fearing for their political lives. That's the definition of unmanly, and The Common Man is disgusted with this Dewmocracy.

Working the Bilge

The Common Man's longstanding position on the war in Iraq is a blanket "you break it, you buy it" policy. As a nation, the UnitedStates chose to elect George Bush in 2000 (please, The Common Man doesn't want to hear about Florida, regardless of how valid your complaints may or may not be. Rutherford B. Hayes won the 1876 election in the House of Representatives by promising to end Reconstruction. John Kennedy won in 1960 (in part) because of rampant voter fraud.) and to reelect him in 2004. He (and his advisers), using the authority the American people gave him, invaded Iraq in 2003. Anything that President Bush did or ordered done, any failure by the Commander-in-Chief is shared, in part, by the populace that elected him (and that chooses to live in a political system that elected him. And so, in essence, the Iraq folly can be traced back directly to the American voters, and they need to bear responsibility for that.

So, while The Common Man doesn't like the war and how that war impeded and impedes the U.S.'s ability to fight in Afghanistan, the U.S. has a moral commitment to maintain a significant presence in Iraq until that nation is secure enough to stand on its own, and not crumble from attacks from within and without. The U.S. broke down the system that held the country together, it has an obligation to stay there until a new framework will hold (and will guarantee freedoms for its citizens). Whoever is elected president, The Common Man feels confident that a stark, unfiltered, and realistic assessment of the Iraq situation with generals on the ground in that country will be the deciding factor as to what the U.S. role is from here on out. The desire to protect America's international integrity and reputation in future foreign relations and international actions will trump any and all campaign promises. So while it's good to have a plan to offer potential solutions, it's important that the candidates be flexible to the reality of Iraq and mindful of the commitments the U.S has made, and the responsibilities it bears.

When The Common Man tries to apply the same principle to the recently proposed mortgage bailout, he has mixed feelings. The Common Man strongly believes that individual entities need to endure the consequences for their actions. When you bet on red, and the roulette wheel stops on black, you shouldn't get to get your chips back just because you bet your rent check. Institutions should not be rewarded for their irresponsibility.



The Common Man is also struck by how angry the situation makes him, and how, impulsively, he wants to see these Wall Street types suffer for the mess they made. It's part of a collective schadenfreude that The Common Man is starting to see among normal Americans who just want to punish the guilty and feel better again about their country and their prospects. As though the collapse of a major financial institution and the layoff of all of its employees will somehow make their lives better. The Common Man definitely sympathizes with that viewpoint.

But does that mean that the U.S. should simply let these companies fail? Not necessarily. Think about this crisis from a father's perspective. When your child misbehaves, and engages in risky behavior, parents will often let their child suffer the consequences of their actions, if those consequences are minor. The Common Man, for instance, will allow The Boy to climb up on a footstool, or swing on the big kid swings, or climb the ladder to his treehouse. If he falls, he will be scared, and may have a bruise. He'll cry because he's not even two years old yet. But he'll learn. And The Common Man is there to make sure that nothing too serious befalls him and to catch him if it looks like he's in real danger.

However, just because The Common Man wants his son to learn a lesson about taking care and being thoughtful about his actions, doesn't mean The Common Man wants The Boy to run into the street or to ride his little car down the stairs or stick a paper clip in the light socket. That kind of behavior carries with it unacceptable risk of permanent, life-altering damage. Sure, if he survives he has learned a valuable lesson, but c'mon...

Anyway, when you look at the current bailout of mortgage market, try to look at it from a father's perspective. Yes, you want these companies to learn a valuable lesson about their actions. And you want them to never do something this stupid and risky again. But you (presumably) don't want them to wind up permanently disfigured or dead if their role in the larger economy is such that the economy is better off with them in it.

In that light, several of the proposals in the bailout package being offered by the federal government make sense. CEOs who condoned (or who stood by while others condoned) this behavior should not get to profit from their resignations. The companies themselves should not escape in better shape than they were in before they started these irresponsible lending practices. They should have to bear some of the losses, and should have to pay for the privilege of being bailed out. U.S. taxpayers should be on the hook for as little of the bailout as possible, and the government should be allowed to benefit from any future profit from these companies until its investment is paid off.

In America, it's a cliche to say that the punishment should fit the crime. But having a strong and meaningful punishment that will deter future bad behavior (the real goal of fatherly discipline) does not require the deaths of American financial institutions. Instead, the U.S. government needs to implement policies that force companies like Bear Stearns and AIG and Lehman Brothers to reap consequences for their actions and take responsibility for what they've done, while providing them a way forward into a better, more socially and economically responsible means of doing business, while continuing to provide the proper oversight and guidance that any good father would give his child. And it sounds as though that's what Congress is trying to do. The Common Man hopes so.

Quick Hits

--The Common Man rewatched Jon Stewart's interview with former British P.M. Tony Blair last night, and came away just as disappointed in the interview as he was the first time. Stewart, though a comedic genious, seems to have a pathalogical need to extort some kind of apology or admission from every single person connected in any way to The Bush Administration or the Iraq war.

While The Common Man sympathizes with Stewart's frustration and shares his view that invading Iraq was a terrible decision and that the prosecution of the war was unforgivably bungled, it serves no real purpose at this point, in front of a friendly audience (in studio and at home), all of whom agree with Stewart, to browbeat these former officials for the positions they held and to try to get them admit they were wrong. They know they were wrong, and 90 percent of America knows they were wrong. It seems to be a psychological need for victory that Stewart can never quite satisfy, an itch in the small of his back he cannot scratch.

Rather than pursue a line of questioning that could lead to actual insight from a man who has apparently has a close relationship with this President, his decision making, and his administration (particularly the intriguing question of exactly why Tony Blair likes our President so much and wondering about how Blair's newly acquired Catholicism has informed or would inform his decision-making, and what role religion does or should have in a democracy). The Common Man will embed the interview below so you can make up your own mind, but as much as The Common Man loves his work, he thinks Jon Stewart has bought into his own bull a little too much.





--After all, why focus on what the Bush Administration has done in the past, when you could talk about what they're doing right now to screw over this country. According to an NPR report this morning, the banking bailout proposed by the Bush Administration represents "the largest transfer of power from Congress to the administration that [Jon Macey, a professor and deputy dean of Yale Law School] has ever seen." The legislation gives the Secretary of the Treasury virtually unchecked power over any matter regarded to the bailout. In particular, the section that reads "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency" is particularly troubling, as it freezes out oversight from any regulartory agency or legal action that would prevent the Department of the Treasury from taking action. Such a clause, it is The Common Man's understanding, could also allow the Treasury Department to withhold documents and evidence related to its decision-making that would shed light on any potential illegal or unethical behavior.

Considering this administration's close ties to business interests, their consistent attempts to grab more and more power for the executive branch (see Charlie Savage's book, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy), and their obsession with secrecy, you can bet that the last few months of the Bush Presidency (and potentially all the months of a McCain or Obama presidency) will leave this country criminally underinformed and its investors vulnerable. If you are at all a fan of smaller government, you cannot support this bailout as currently proposed.

--Last night's episode of Heroes was exhilerating. After a disappointing and convoluted second season, The Common Man is glad to see the fighting and the adventure and the crazy powers taking center stage again. The Common Man loves angst in his TV, but when it gets in the way of moving the story forward it simply becomes angst for angst's sake and the endless handwringing is most unmanly and boring. Do something already.

--Tonight begins the last stand of the Minnesota Twins, as they face off against the first-place Chicago White Sox in a three-game series to decide the American League Central. Two-and-a-half games back, it's likely the Twins will need to win all three games in order to have a shot at the division. The series is being played in Minnesota, and the Twins excel at home and the Sox struggle on the road. So there's at least a decent chance for the sweep. As always, The Common Man clings to hope until they have been mathematically eliminated. Good luck, boys. The Common Man will be watching in his Joe Mauer jersey tonight.







--And, finally, The Common Man would like to welcome Return To Manliness back to the blogging fold. Kevin was on hiatus for a while there, and The Common Man missed his insight and his visits to this neck of the blogosphere greatly. He's back writing and has a new layout (ooh, pretty!). So check him out.

Beacon of Manhood: Scott Adams

In the mid-nineties, if you were paying anything that resembled attention, you learned to appreciate the genius that was Dilbert. Capitolizing on the growing cubicle-discontent that also spawned the terrific Office Space and eventually led to today's British and American versions of The Office, Dilbert-creator Scott Adams poked fun at corporate culture, management incompetence (not that, as The Common Man peruses today's financial news, any of them has learned a damn thing since then), consumer greediness, and the willful ignorance of the masses. Dilbert's popularity culminated in a two-season run on the UPN as an animated series (which, The Common Man supposes, qualifies it as a success on that network), voiced by Daniel Stern, Chris Elliot, and Kathy Griffin, from 1999-2000. Dilbert motors on today, enjoying slightly less cultural cache, but still earning its creator millions upon millions of dollars. The lucky and talented bastard.

But Adams, to his credit, is not content to simply swim through his cash a la Scrooge McDuck. Partly out of curiosity, and partly out of frustration, Adams has put his money to work for the rest of America. In a commentary for CNN.com, Adams writes, "This summer I found myself wishing someone would give voters useful and unbiased information about which candidate has the best plans for the economy. Then I realized that I am someone, which is both inconvenient and expensive. So for once I asked not what my country could do for me." And so, Adams privately funded his own survey of (500) economists at the non-partisan American Economic Association to see who economists believe has the better plan for restoring the American economy to its former strength and vitality.

Like any good political surveyer, Adams is up front and honest about his biases, claiming that he leans libertarian on many social issues, won't vote for candidates who promise to raise taxes in his income bracket, and is uninspired by John McCain. His findings are intersting. Economists tend to break down on party lines in their answers, with 88 percent of Democrats supporting Obama's policies, and 80 percent of Republicans supporting McCain's. Economists who identify themselves as independents (27 percent of the total), break for Obama by 46 percent to 39 percent (presumably with 23 percent claiming there would be no substantive difference between the candidate's plans, as far as the future of the U.S. economy is concerned). The most important economic issues facing the U.S. going forward, according to these 500 economists, are (in order) education, health care, international trade, and energy.

So, are these economists right? As Adams points out, it probably impossible for them to predict, with any degree of certainty, just what will happen to the U.S. economy in coming years, let alone six months. "In my view," he writes, "if an economist uses a complicated model to predict just about anything, you can ignore it." However, just because uncertainty is an inherent part of any model doesn't mean that economists' suggestions and opinions aren't important. Indeed, as Adams puts it, "if a doctor tells you to eat less and exercise more, that's good advice even if you later get hit by a bus."

So, thanks are in order to Scott Adams for his efforts. His survey results may have faults (for instance, there's no way to tell from the data exactly what the degree of bias is of the economists, or how their choice of profession informs their beliefs), and may not be an accurate prediction of what will if Obama or McCain is elected this November, but his results are interesting, easy to comprehend, and show a remarkable dedication to public service and self-sacrifice. Scott Adams did what many Americans don't do: what he can. Simply because he can do more than others doesn't make his contributions any more or less impressive. They are impressive on their own. So, this week, The Common Man awards his Beacon of Manhood to Scott Adams and, again, thanks him for his efforts and for providing an excellent example to the rest of the country.