Gongol.com Archives: July 2018

Brian Gongol


July 12, 2018

The United States of America "Americans and their Congress still believe in the transatlantic alliance"

Necessary words from Sen. John McCain, as the President engages in a pattern of behavior that (at best) confuses and frustrates our NATO allies. If this profoundly transactionalist behavior confuses you, that's good: It's bizarre to think relationships are like an Etch-A-Sketch that gets erased every day. As Sam Zell has said, "You succeed or you fail based on who your partners are." That's advice applicable not only in real estate, where Zell made his fortune, but in the world at large.

News Survival in a photograph

A 5-month-old baby was left buried face-down in the Montana woods for nine hours until he was rescued by a search team. He survived and has been released from the hospital. If there is but one thing civilization should stand for, it should be that innocent children ought never to be subjected to malicious cruelty or endangerment.

Business and Finance Is a corporate recession just around the corner?

The more fiddling around with accounting statements, the more people should worry that something is rotten in Denmark.

Business and Finance Interest payments on the Federal debt: 1.6% of GDP today -- 7% later

2030 used to seem like a long time away. But if you have a kid born this year, he or she will barely be in middle school by that time. That isn't the long term...it's now the medium-to-short run.

Science and Technology Replacing plastic bags with banana-based packaging

A fantastic example why the old moniker of "developing" countries is really misleading. The global middle class is growing fast -- and innovating -- and that's a very good development. More people capable of living lives with a little bit of room for comfort means not only a direct improvement to the human condition (which we should cheer!), but also spillover effects for the rest of the world. The United States was massively innovative at a time when it was still in many ways a "developing" country. Innovations have a way of finding their way to the rest of the world speedily, so the more people who have the capacity to experiment and try out new ideas, the better for everyone.

Iowa Better streetlights

The move towards LED streetlights (as opposed to yellow sodium lights) is a welcome upgrade

Socialism Doesn't Work Corporatism is just another form of socialism

Don't fall for any of the ugly cousins in this family

News Move to Australia, then move out of it

A new story about the "micronation" boom in Australia teases the claims some people make to having their own states-within-a-state. It's silly, and it's definitely not the wave of the future -- but we should take seriously the more realistic prospects for city-states to re-emerge in the 21st Century.

Science and Technology We welcome our robot (mower) overlords

But what if the first people to get them are also the ones who had the best suburban diagonals? We'll miss it when it's gone.


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