Donald's Blog
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This old house was only a few blocks from the state Capitol in Madison,
Wisconsin. All the neighborhood cats lived in the basement during the
winter. The house has long since been torn down, but in 1972 there were
AR2ax speakers in the front room, and a lot of good music was heard there. |
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In the 21st century I am just as opinionated as ever,
and I now have an outlet. I shall pontificate here about anything
that catches my fancy; I hope I will not make too great a fool
of myself. You may comment yea or nay about anything on the
site; I may quote you here, or I may not. Send brickbats etc.
to: dmclarke78@icloud.com.
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July 6, 2010Jascha Horenstein and Beethoven's Ninth
A fan of my CD discography of Jascha Horenstein has sent me this photograph, which was used on a vinyl edition of the Swedish Mahler Sixth. JH's 1963 broadcast of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the French National Radio Orchestra (soloists Pilar Lorengar, Marga Hoeffgen, Josef Traxel and Otto Weiner) has just been issued on a DVD: you can buy it here.
July 6, 2010Economic Growth, againWilliam McGurn in today's Wall Street Journal writes about the recent unanimous vote of the Chicago city council to allow a Wal-Mart store to be built in the Ninth Ward, where alderman Anthony Beale says it "gives my people hope." Mr. McGurn writes that the move opens the door "for as many as 24 stores in the coming years--and as many as 10,000 new jobs." Leaving aside the loaded question Mr. McGurn asks ("which form of community organizing is likely to bring real hope... the mostly government programs that young Mr, Obama fought for--or the... kind of investment Wal-Mart will be making?"), I have another question.
What is "economic growth"?
Ethne and I drove 1,000 miles yesterday. We burned a lot of gasoline and the traffic on I-81 was horrendous; we would much rather have taken the train. How many jobs would the building of high-speed trains create? Or how about developing and improving electric cars and just getting the freight off the highways onto rails? This wouldn't even require Federal money: a huge impetus would be a new tax of a dollar a gallon on gasoline, and in the end we would be sending less money to the people in the Middle East who hate us. Oh, and that reminds me: how about better pay and conditions for our troops so the "new army" can attract more and better people? And maybe reforming and simplifing tax codes nationwide, so that the people sitting on our money (our richest 500 non-financial companies; see Fareed Zakaria in yesterday's Washington Post) wouldn't be afraid to spend it?
No, economic growth in America is more big-box discount department stores selling mostly junk made in China to poor people. Pardon me while I jump in the toilet and flush myself away.