As usual Paul Krugman puts it better than me:

I’m sure that in his own mind Rand Paul sees himself as a principled libertarian, applying the same standard of personal responsibility to everyone. In practice, however, it’s only the poor and powerless who get held to that standard; when it’s a big coal or oil company — and we already know that both Massey and BP were severely negligent — well, “sometimes accidents happen.”

Dreams last night involved some rare but familiar themes – and they added up to bad news. The charismatic stranger picked me up in his fast car to help with a job. The job involved helping him with a mission – an exploration of the abandoned underground city. There was danger from competitors – other teams – and the normal dangers of being underground. However it turned out that the real danger was that in that particular environment – moral rules were somewhat suspended. I wound up discovering that through my own actions that I’m not a good person.

So yeah, I’m glad to be awake now.

I would like to present a small proposal to get the world economy back on track.

First, history: Some companies choose to “publicly” trade shares of themselves. The chief benefit to a fledgeling company in going public is that it enables the company to raise capital from a very broad pool of investors. This is frequently the time that the original owners cash in on years of hard work. The original owners and investors sell off some fraction of their company to “the market,” and take the money. In many cases a company will have been structured such that it “owns itself.” Thus, when the company sells a portion of itself to the market at large – it can “capitalize,” shorthand for generating a large amount of cash all at once.

There is a downstream advantage, both to the company and to the economy as a whole that when companies are publicly traded, we can get accurate assessments of the value of – not just the corporations themselves – but also of whole segments of the economy.

Finally, the existence of such markets enables the ordinary citizen to diversify his investments in a straightforward way. A lot of the social benefit of banks comes in stability over the very long term – decades. Rather than investing just in my neighbor’s business – I can pay a broker to spread my retirement account across the whole economy. The goal there is not any sort of get rich quick scheme – but rather to prevent a single disaster from rendering me penniless after decades of work.

The government (by which I mean “the citizenry,” by which I mean “me”) has a variety of interests in regulating the markets on which corporations are traded. We want to prevent fraud. We want to ensure that the market is not biased. Finally, we have an interest in regulating all aspects of corporate behavior. Corporations are powerful constructs in society, longer lived and richer by far than individuals – and beyond ethics or morals by design. They bear watching.

So here’s the proposal. It’s a few simple and straightforward ideas:

* If a market manages sales of shares of publicly traded corporations, then all transactions in that market must involve the purchase or sale of actual shares of actual companies. Gambling in derivatives, future prices, horse races, coin tosses, whether or not it will rain, and so on shall be barred from these public stock markets. Note that such transactions would still be absolutely legal. I just want to separate the institutions that exist to capitalize and assign value to corporations from the ones that exist for gamblers to make a quick buck off the system.

This purifies the stock market to some extent and gets it back to its roots.

* All offers for sale or purchase must be submitted to the market with a lower and higher bound on the asking / offering price, and a specific number of shares.

A large part of the goal here is to prevent accidental destruction of a real corporation that employs real people and produces real goods. Last week’s stock market “oopsie,” might have bankrupted successful and profitable companies.

* All transactions for a particular day, in a particular market, will be settled at the close of the business day. The algorithm for setting an order in which they will be settled shall be public, though it may differ from market to market.

Yes, that’s “one settlement per day.” This ought to lend a more contemplative, research driven bent to the investment world.

Of course, gamblers will still be able to gamble as fast as their hot little hands can twitch … they just can’t do it with the actual shares of actual corporations that employ actual people. I don’t want jobs or retirement accounts on the line when gamblers freak out.

And yes, day traders, you’re just gamblers. You contribute no value to society through your actions – and you’re looking to make a quick buck off the suckers. I don’t mind that you do your thing – but I would rather that you screw each other rather than me.

Just got back from randori with the Budolin brothers, who are visiting from Estonia for a week. They’re a marvelous two man team. Alexsi is about my size – except in the “won a bronze medal in the Sydney Olympics,” sort of shape. He’s the talker, and he’s also the coach of the Estonian national Judo team. His brother, Dimitri is the bigger, quiet one. My first thought on seeing him was “great, they brought a tank.” After working with him, I’ve modified my opinion: They brought a fast tank.

Sunday was the seminar, where we spent four hours learning material from them and another hour of randori. Today was a smaller group (only my club) and all randori. The nice part about randori is that you’re not actually competing – you’re training. People work techniques and play at a vigorous but respectful pace.

We worked out for about two hours, and I wound up going a round with each of them. Working with Alexi was like being a mouse being trained by a cat in how to avoid and counter cats. I may be in good shape – but that’s something else again. Working with Dimitri – well – fortunately for me he has great control. I have no idea how someone that big can also be faster than me.

I dig judo. It’s a small and close knit world community – such that I actually get to play current, active olympic medalists. What did you do today?

I want punishment for the oil gusher that’s currently dumping into the gulf of mexico. I think that our current system of corporate punishment is inadequate, and I want to propose a slight change. Basically – I think that corporations should be no less culpable than individuals for their crimes.

My understanding of law as it stands is that we’re going to ‘monetize’ the punishment. We’re going to make BP and their contractors pay for the cleanup. The deaths of 11 workers, thousands of large animals (sea turtles, whales), and so on are all just an unfortunate accident. The effects on the gulf coast (fishermen going out of business, children sickened) are just part of doing business – and insofar as there is punishment – it will be served by payment of a fee. Like when you’re late with a library book – or when you park your car without feeding the meter.

One pays a fee for inconveniencing people by leaving your car in the wrong place. One is punished for negligent manslaughter.

I use those examples because – I’m not sure of the exact numbers – but my impression is that the legal limits on BP’s culpability (a couple of billion or so) are lower than their annual profits (10 billion or so) from last year – which was a crappy year for them. Any fiscal punishment that does not even exceed their profits is zero relative to the people responsible. All of that is simply and straightforwardly passed on to the shareholders (your retirement account and mine), and then on to the customers at the gas pump (you and me).

We’re fining ourselves for this disaster. We’re morons.

I think that the company should be wiped out. I think that BP should lose their charter to do business within the US. I think that the board of directors and all the executive officers should be barred for life from board or officer level participation in any publicly traded corporation. True, this will simply move the action around – Exxon will snap up BP’s territories – but if the stakes are “no big important jobs for you, ever again, if this happens on your watch,” then perhaps the executives will give more than a wink and a nod to regulation.

I also think that insofar as Transocean and Haliburton were involved, they should face similar punishment. If this was just a small subcontract for Haliburton – perhaps only the executives responsible could be banned.

I understand that the corporate actions here were so large and diffuse that personal responsibility may be unobtainable. But these bastards killed nearly a dozen people directly, fouled a decent portion of the earth, and are poisoning thousands of humans and millions of animals.

“Low profits for a year” is inadequate. If those are the stakes, then this will happen again and again.

We need punishment.

Personal responsibility, people.

I have decided that the news lately makes more sense if I assume that some shadowy, world-spanning conspiracy has begun their terraforming initiative in preparation for a takeover by the evil from beyond time and space.

Seriously. “National treasuries are plundered AND volcanos erupt AND we accidentally fill the gulf with oil?” Too confusing.

Much simpler to say “National treasuries were plundered TO make the volcanos erupt AND to fill the gulf with oil.”

Don’t get me started on that little firecracker bomb guy in Times Square. When they fake that hard, you back off and look for the real attack coming over the hill behind you.

Listened to the news in the car. Here are the high points:

* Oil gusher is still gushing. I found myself wondering if anyone would care about a highly dangerous and dirty “extraction” industry if it only killed people and spoiled habitats in West Virginia. I also wondered if miners would get more respect if they dressed in utility overalls so they kinda look like firefighters – like the oil rig guys.

* The first military tribunal since Obama took office is starting down in Guantanamo, only six months after Obama took office, promising to close Guantanamo and stop having military tribunals. It involves a guy who was fifteen years old when he (allegedly) threw a grenade that killed a US serviceman, during a US attack on the facility where he was (allegedly) making bombs. EIGHT YEARS LATER, he’s seeing the first glimmers of a trial – and they’re asking questions like “the confessions that we got from him (when he was 15) by telling him he would be taken to the US and raped over and over, can we use that now that he’s 23?” I found myself wondering “EIGHT GODDAMN YEARS?” Wow. Neither swift, nor fair, nor by anything even approaching “peers.” I guess he probably deserves it though – not having been smart enough to be born in the US.

* Obama nominated a supreme court justice. I have no idea what to think about that – but I hope she can counteract some of the crazy that’s been coming down from the bench lately. If life were more like The Onion, that would be fine with me.

* Europe apparently put forth a bailout that is larger than the one the US used two years ago – except that there’s no money to back it up – or something. We’re apparently supposed to judge whether or not that’s a good idea by watching the S&P 500 – which almost crashed due to somethingorother related to high speed automated trading earlier this week. I found myself wondering whether incompetence suffices to explain all of this – or if we need to invoke malice.

* The pope is edging towards saying unconditionally that child abuse is wrong. I found myself wondering how this is news or progress – and whether (if we’re airing dirty laundry) he might at some point admit that the evidence for the divinity of Jesus is slim at best and that christians would find addressing salvation in this current life a better use of their time than worrying incessantly about a hypothetical next one.

Then there was a nice human interest story about a family who has played drums at some kings tomb for the last 600 years. I liked that.

I decided to visit Boston’s South End “First Friday,” art event. A bunch of galleries open their doors and put out chips, salsa, juice, and the occasional bottle of wine. People dress in their festive best – their casual whatever – or perhaps some art of their own design (we saw some truly awesome outfits) and wander around taking in the scene. I thought that it was just fantastic that the city can still support a little mini-bohemian artsy corner – even in the current, savage economic times. It lifted my spirits to see how creative my fellow human beings can be.

Of particular note were Galvinized Hats, a funky – modern – artsy hat store and Triiibe, photography gallery that was showing a series of photos of identical triplets. That second was fascinating because it really brought out how much clothing and attitude generate an impression of someone. Even given physically identical (or reasonably so) models – they were able to create complex social dynamics in their images. It was cool.

Yesterday I went ballistic with bleach, broom, and vacuum and got the house slapped into some semblance of neatness. Of note was the liberation (LIBERTY, I SAY!) of the guest room from the oppression of cardboard boxes and plastic storage tubs. Then redmed put on some shoes that made her a full inch taller than me and went to her charity gala. For my part, I went to get sauced at as part of technolopes birthday. He’s got two friends with the same birthday as him – so we had like 20 people whooping it up.

In other news, the martial arts training proceeds apace. I feel like I’m starting to make progress at Judo again – which is a good thing. It seems to just take time (and effort, and caution to avoid injury) to teach my body to not oppose force with force. I’ve been *thinking* about that sort of thing for a while – but I finally feel like it’s starting to *happen*.

Many martial artists (back to Miyamoto Musashi) have observed that there is something swift and powerful underlying the techniques and movements that we train. Much as with Buddhism – you spend tremendous and deliberate effort to train your body and mind to do a particular thing – but then you then have to get your conscious and deliberate mind out of the way to allow that technique to blossom. Musashi referred to it as “the thing, itself.” Bruce Lee talked about this as well. I experience it – in tiny, tiny glimpses – now and again. For me, the feeling is that instead of working and working to *do* something to my opponent – they have begun to set themselves up for me. Outside observers tell me that those are the times when I’m doing it right. However, it doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything at all. My mind is in the position of deciding to finish a throw – noting that my opponent is favoring a particular foot or angle – or deciding to keep my back to the sun. My opponent then kindly lines himself up and nearly jumps onto my hip. I just turn my head and put him on the ground – wondering why he would do such a thing. Then he complements me on a nicely executed throw. It’s oddly peaceful.

Of course, it’s not peaceful when they do it back to me – but that’s why we start every class by training in how to fall without injury.

And now: Iron Man 2

Since it’s come up again, here’s my take on citizenship. I know that this is not how it *is*. I’m writing about how it *ought* to be.

Citizenship should not be automatic. It should certainly not be automatically based on two things over which you had no control whatsoever, namely:

* Where your mother was physically located when you were born
* The citizenship status of your parents when you were born

Citizenship should not be permanent. One should be required to re-apply for it at least every ten years.

Citizenship should be the result of a deliberate assumption of responsibility.

Ideally, I would combine this with another of my hobby-horses – the universal age of responsibility. We have a truckload of stupid age related thresholds where – because a human happens to survive 16 years they can apply for a drivers license. It’s 18 to register for the draft, and 21 to drink alcohol. At the same time we have un-ending arguments about when a child should be legally culpable for their actions. That’s stupid. Just because someone has survived a certain amount of time makes them no more responsible than they were on the day before. Much better to insist that if you want to vote, drive, sign contracts, be eligible for military service, be held responsible for your actions, and so on – then you must appear before a judge and demonstrate certain things.

Here’s my list of requirements for citizenship:

* Gotta be at least 14 years of age.
* Gotta be “of sound mind and body,” to the extent that you can meaningfully assume responsibility for your actions.
* Gotta be able to read and understand at least one of the languages that your state uses to transact business. At the moment, this is English. I would encourage California to allow Spanish, since they already publish translations of most of their dealings. This absolutely ought to be decided state by state.
* Gotta have an address where you can receive mail
* Gotta not be currently serving time / probation for on any crime.
* Gotta be up to date on your taxes.
* Must be solvent – not currently in bankruptcy.
* No felonies in the last 5 years.
* Gotta swear a loyalty oath to the U.S. of A.

We can talk later about what to do with people who decide not to re-up, kids who decide not to become citizens by the time that they’re 24 (wards of the state, I say), and elder adults who fail the “mental competence” part.

That’s my opinion. Have at it.

The world is far too depressing to write serious blog posts. Instead, here’s a bit of analysis:

I have an American Express card for Business Expenses. I use it for all my travel stuff, mostly, plus the occasional piece of software. I’ve bought DiskWarrior, like, four times. Turns out that AmEx has a pretty sweet “rewards” program that I never bothered to look into. After six years of brutal travel – I have a fair number of points.

Looks like there are three broad ways you can redeem points. After a bit of googling – here are the values:

* Stuff. You can redeem your points for stuff, and the redemption value is remarkably consistent at $0.005 per point. I.e: With 100,000 points, I could get $500 worth of stuff.

* Store specific gift cards: These appear to be the way to go – since they redeem at exactly $0.01 per point. You get double value over “stuff,” and (even better) most of the stuff-providing-stores also offer gift cards.

* Amex “same as cash” cards. These drop back down to exactly $0.005 per point.

I’m told that one can play truly insane games by turning points into (for example) frequent flier miles and thence into travel – but I have no idea how to do that and I don’t want to burn a bunch of time figuring it out