More Proof

I read in the WSJ that the cotton market suffered an unusual spike early this year, at a time when cotton supplies were ample. That is another example how the flood of pension fund "investment" into commodities has overwhelmed markets designed for "real" hedging activities. "Real" market participants such as farmers and cotton dealers got hurt. These huge pools of money need to be prohibited from the futures markets. If they want to "invest" in cotton, let them buy plantations and grow more themselves.

The arrogant US government seems to say it wants to "punish" Russia for "disproportionate" actions in Georgia. Is that not an admission that Georgia started it ? So why is the US sticking its nose into this mess ? And now I read the US is canceling a joint naval exercise with Russia. Why ? This benefits the US in trying to bring Russia into more joint activities. I don't like any of this. The US seems to be reverting to cold war behavior. Good relations between the US and Russia are extremely important. Why not focus on priorities for the US for once ?

Books

[This "Books" section is a new feature of this blog that I will include from time to time.]

"Walter Lippmann and the American Century" by Ronald Steel is an outstanding book about "the" most important political commentator of the 20th century. Walter Lippmann wrote hugely successful syndicated columns that appeared in hundreds of newspapers from about 1930 to about 1966. Prior to 1930 he was a major writer and even was involved with Woodrow Wilson's creation of the famous "Fourteen Points" which was an intellectual basis of American war aims in Wolrd War I.

Lippmann personally knew or met extensively nearly every major political figure and world leader from around 1910 until 1970, from Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson to Charles De Gaulle and Nehru to Lyndon Johnson and Nikita Khrushchev. The book contains first hand information as it had access to Lippmann's private papers and notes and the author interviewed Lippmann extensively before his death in 1974.

If you want to understand the 20th century, this book helps enormously. Quite a few of my ideas on that period have been altered as I read this book and saw the first hand information contained therein. [The book has 600 pages and is available on amazon.com in paperback. ]

I think its perspective helps with the current "crisis" with Russia and Georgia, too.

Word of the Day

"Obdurate" - adjective [$10]
Obdurate means 1. stubborn; 2. hardened against persuasion or influence.
Sentence: The arrogance and hypocrisy of the US State Department can only make Russia more obdurate in its dealing with Georgia.

Bonus Word

[I am using these to bring out some obscure words that I might not otherwise ever be able to use as a word of the day, including terms of geography and nature.]

"Purl" - verb and noun [$10] - this is the second meaning, not the sewing/knitting term.
Purl means (verb, intransitive) (of a brook, etc.) flow with swirling motion and babbling sound; (noun) this motion or sound.
Sentence: "A river, amber tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army's feet; ..." [from "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane, the first paragraph].