Flight from Trantor

Wasting away

The statist assault on health care, energy and free speech obscures signs of the building malaise in less obvious quarters of the economy.  In a thoughtful article about the high-tech sector, Michael Malone writes

The high technology revolution that has transformed modern America (and the world) has been driven by three factors.  Innovations in applied science – the bottom slice of bread; large companies – the top slice; and – the meat in the middle – new company creation. [...] Right now . . .and as far as I can see in the future . . .it is that middle that is missing.  All of the prosperity I see returning to Silicon Valley is, in fact, something of an illusion. [...]

The crucial center of the tech world – new and fast-moving companies – the meat in the technology sandwich – is gone.  Under the press of an economic slowdown, government regulations that have handcuffed entrepreneurs and venture capitalists – and perhaps most of all, an Administration that increasingly seems actively hostile to entrepreneurship and small business – high tech is hollowing out.  [...]

Over the last couple months, I’ve seen some spectacular new start-up companies, some with finished products on the market.  All of them are starving from lack of capital –and their business plans, which would have attracted tens of millions of dollars two years ago, earning only shrugs and apologies from straitened venture capitalists and banks.  My guess is that several hundred new start-ups in Silicon Valley have already been lost, with no sign anywhere on the horizon.

And it looks like a fair number of bright new would-be stars in the tech sector are agreeing with their feet in a reverse brain-drain.

[T]he generational difference between older Indians who have made it in the Valley and the younger group in the room was striking. The present reality is this. Large numbers of the Valley’s top young guns (and some older bulls, as well) are seeing opportunities in other countries and are returning home. It isn’t just the Indians. Ask any VC who does business in China, and they’ll tell you about the tens of thousands who have already returned to cities like Shanghai and Beijing. The VC’s are following the talent. [...]

Only 7% of Chinese students, 9% of European students, and 25% of Indian students believe that the best days of the U.S. economy lie ahead. Conversely, 74% of Chinese students and 86% of Indian students believe that the best days for their home country’s economy lie ahead. National Science Foundation studies have shown that the “5 year stay rates” for Chinese and Indians science and engineering PhD’s have historically been around 92 % and 85% respectively (NSF tracks these 5 years at a time, and the vast majority stay permanently). So something has clearly changed.

This is probably what we could expect to happen as global economic and educational disparities level out with a developing world.  But rather than an organic and leisurely pace of change, our political class seems hell bent on shoving our economy over a cliff.  Their recklessness will have consequences.

Libertarian surge?

Everyone loves to talk about the recent poll showing that only 20% of respondents identify as "Liberal", and how the percentage of self-identified Conservatives is at an all time high.  My take is that with Liberalism exposed in the manner of the current Congress and Administration as statist progressivism, a lot of folks who might have thought themselves "liberal", or at least a Democrat are saying, "If this is what it means to be a liberal, that ain't me."  It may in fact be that a significant chunk of people in the middle, the Independents, actually hold the Market in higher esteem than their political affiliation and past voting might indicate.  It is a question that probably did not give much cause for reflection for many people if only because it was taken for granted at a deep level.  Now that the Market is under direct and openly hostile attack, people are forced to take a closer look at where they stand.

It also seems that may people are going to greater lengths to differentiate between economic and social positions, which no doubt accounts for the relatively high level of "libertarians" identified by Gallup.

I guess we will find out in the next couple of elections.

Obama channelling Nixon?

I was tempted to write this last week when the Fox News Wars started.  I thought it was too cute. 

But it looks like even CNN has picked up on the meme now; Anderson Cooper to boot.

Not only is Obama not getting anywhere with his petulant swipes at virtually the sole dissenting media voice (in this country anyway), but it actually seems to be hurting him.  Small wonder that.

Attack of the Faculty Lounge Lizards

Watching Glenn Beck's expose` of Anita Dunn's philosophical allegiance to Mao Tse-tung last night,  I had trouble getting as worked up as Beck did.  I agree that the ideological loyalties of the Obama insiders are a deep concern, but I must be too jaded by years of familiarity with people like them in a variety of contexts to get real excited about any given Mao-spouter.  She fits right in at any major university academic department or Democrat political confab.  And she is exactly the kind of person that I feared we would have in an Obama administration, who has pulled heavily from the leftist academic (is that redundant?)  community.

A couple of years ago I had a conversation with the director at one of my customers (a not-for-profit organization) who had just returned from a month in China.  She was waxing poetic about Chinese society and how much more advanced it was than the US, and how efficiently and quickly the Chinese could complete major projects and industrial/cultural re-orientations (no kidding).  Of course Bush was president then and by that yardstick everyone else was much better.  Bill Maher has been taped saying much the same thing lately.

Kind of makes Anita Dunn seem almost mainstream, in a sick and dangerous kind of way.  In large swaths of American society today, sadly there is noting really remarkable about Dunn or others like her.

Punked in Copenhagen

BBC News' Adam Brookes in Chicago: "The shock of Chicago's elimination was greater for the fact that it came in the first round. And greater for the fact that President Obama had taken valuable hours from his packed and tense political schedule to travel to Copenhagen. His legendary powers of persuasion will be said to have failed him...."

This is from live Text Commentary on a BBC page that was linked by Drudge with the big red headline "THE EGO HAS LANDED". 

Oh well, I am sure Obama will do better with the Iranians.

But in truth I am surprised.  I thought that Obama would not pull this stunt unless he thought it was a done deal.  (listening to Rush just now, he is saying on same vibe)  I would bet real money that Washington was led on to believe that it was in the bag, and then someone pulled a string. 

The world loves to see us embarrassed.  No matter who occupies the White House.  Certain people canot figure that out.

How stupid is Hollywood?

This is almost beneath comment, but sometimes you just cannot ignore it.  From Better Midler fretting about the hateful, dangerous Glenn Beck to Whoopi Goldberg defending Roman Polanski on the ground that what he did to his 13 year old victim wasn't really "rape-rape", sometimes you have to notice.

I can understand why the Hollywood airheads think anyone cares about what they think:  It is what they are all about.  As Sir Lawrence Olivier famously said, acting is all about "Look at me!".  Still, you might think they would have smarter publicists and business managers.  I guess they make enough money playing to their choir that they are not concerned about how they come off outside the echo chamber.  And perhaps, even though you can't bank it, the moral conceit is priceless.

It is one thing to dislike Beck.  Even some conservatives have made a minor career out of that.  But to excuse the forcible rape of a 13 year old child....   A thirteen old child.  Raped by a 44 year old man.  What depravity.

The real tragedy is that in the process, real suffering, real atrocities, real oppression are diminished to a point where they becomes almost trivial and commonplace.