over my head in politics (and economics)

I don't know what local papers are like in other parts of the world, but here in the Washington suburbs, the papers are so full of political news that there is hardly room for anything else. I want to be informed, but this is way too much information on a single topic. I should mention that my TV set is only used to play videos or DVDs, so I get almost all my news from the daily paper. (FYI - I am a long-time liberal, but I will try to avoid politics on this blog. This will be like the arrangement I have with my conservative brothers. We want to keep the peace, so we just don't discuss politics.)

Sorry about the digresion - back to the newspapers. Even murders take a back seat to the latest political furor. (Actually, murders are so common in Baltimore and Washington that they hardly ever make the front page. A sad commentary on this part of the country.) The front section of the Washington Post had 20 pages this AM. On these pages were 14 articles relating to the upcoming election. (November's election can't come fast enough for me!) There were also about 9 articles on economics. When you subtract the many advertisements, there is very little room for any other news.

The past couple of weeks, for the first time in my life, I have been reading the business section of the paper. Since I own only a small mutual fund that has never done well, the stock market is not usually of personal interest to me, so I usually skip the business section and discard it along with the sports section. (Now, you know the worst about me - I don't follow sports, I don't watch TV, and I am a liberal!) So, recently I have been reading all about the current economic situation and various people's opinions on why it happened and what will happen next. (Tea leaf readings, anyone?) I have to admit that I don't really understand derivities and hedge funds and suchlike. The last time I studied economics was in college, many years ago. However, it is interesting that a very few people who do understand economics had some years ago predicted problems, especially in the unregulated derivative market. One was a woman, Brooksley Born ( She should have been named Cassandra, as no one listened to her.) Bond was the head of a small regulatory agency - the CFTC (Commodities Futures Trading Commission). From 1996 thru 1999 she tried to get Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve Chairman), Robert Rubin (Sec. of the Treasury) and Arthur Levitt (Securities and Exchange Chairman) to let her agency regulate derivatiaves. The three men refused, saying that it wasn't part of her job and shouldn't be regulated anyway. Was this because she was a woman? One has to wonder. Now, at least one of those three men is admitting that, yes, she was right and they should have done something. Hindsight is great, isn't it? (I will now admit that I had to get yesterday's paper out of the recycle box and find the article in order to get all the names and titles correct. I had never heard of Born until yesterday). It seems to me that there is plenty of blame to go around on what has happened to the US (and world) economy - politicians, regulators, banks, stock market traders, big companies, home owners, comsumers - we all share the blame. I just wish I thought we would all be sharing the pain equally! Ok, that's the rant for today.

On the home front, I did accomplish some things yesterday. I filled up my new shed with only about 2/3 of the items that were in the old one. I could have used a shed twice the size, if my yard was larger. Then I went inside to the basement and yes! cleared out the room that will become my studio. (I forgot to take a photo of it with all the junk in it, but I will take a picture when it is finished.) The clearing out process wasn't as bad as I had feared. I moved a few items into the larger storage room (discarding two empty computer boxes - why did I keep those?) and rearranged a bit and - viola! - room for a work table and two shelves mostly cleared for storing works in progress. In the process, I found a ton of old, hardened clay leftover from ceramics classes I have taken over many years. Well, it wasn't really a ton, but probably a couple hundred pounds. I have started recycling it by breaking up the hard clay with a hammer and putting it into buckets to soak. Since I have at several different kinds of clay that cannot be mixed together, I will have to keep several buckets going for some time now. In a week or so, I will pour off the excess water, let the very wet clay dry for a few weeks and then wedge it into good, usable clay. (If you enjoyed making mudpies as a child, you would like working with clay). Wedging soft clay is like dipping your hands in mud. Having felt what clay does to my hands, I would never doubt the drying effect of a mud facial!

You might notice that I finally have a photo on my blog. Please DO NOT enlarge this picture. When made larger, it shows all my wrinkles. This photo was taken by Sarah (eldest granddaughter) when I was visiting them a few weeks ago. The Greek fisherman's hat I'm wearing is a favorite with all the kids. I took pictures of each child wearing the hat, even the elusive Sarah who will do just about anything to keep her lovely face away from the camera. Here are those photos, but I cannot seem to get all three on the same line. Oh well. Olivia is to the left. Alex is right here below. Scroll down for Sarah. Sarah is here . She erased one photo of herself that I had just taken, but I managed to save this one.