Book Review: Boomerang by Michael Lewis

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was classic Michael Lewis in that he deconstructs quantitatively driven scenarios and converts them into easily digestible stories albeit, with interesting characters. To imply that the author is an economic academic, rather than the journalist that he is, is stretching one's expectations.

Throughout the book he use the metaphor of what individuals or countries do with a pile of cash or credit once the lights have been turn off (left to our own private desires). In the case of the United States, we all went out and bought bigger houses. But the bigger picture he spins in the last chapter is that we wanted it all (until we were "too fat to fly"), we had grown used to having an economy of abundance that we decided to continue with the delusion even though it would have long term consequences. As he states in his last chapter:

"...And as he (Vallejo's new City Manager, Phil Batchelor) talked about the bankrupting of Vallejo I realized that I had heard this story before, or a private-sector version of it. The people who had power in the society, and were charged with saving it from itself, had instead bled the society to death. The problem with the police officers and firefighters isn't a public-sector problem; it isn't a problem with government; it's a problem with the entire society. It's what happened on Wall Street in the run-up to the subprime crisis. It's a problem of people taking what they can, just because they can, without regard to the larger social consequences. It's not just a coincidence that the debts of cities and states spun out of control at the same time as the debts of individual Americans. Alone in a dark room with a pile of money, Americans knew exactly what they wanted to do, from the top of society to the bottom. They'd been conditioned to grab as much as they could, without thinking about the long term consequences. Afterward, the people on Wall Street would privately bemoan the low morals of the America people who walked away from their subprime loans, and the American people would express outrage at the Wall Street people who paid themselves a fortune to design the bad loans..."

The last chapter also touches on the fiscal problems of San Jose, a city with the second highest level of per capita incomes in the U.S., after New York City, and yet, "is not all that far from being bankrupt".

All in all a good entertaining read which includes a globetrotting narrative into the stories and background of the European debt crisis. But if you remember to tell yourself that this is no financial thesis you enjoy the book as I did.



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Bus driving violinist or violinest moonlighting as a bus driver

Saw this amusing moment at the Palo Alto Station. Sorry the picture quality on my iPhone at night is not that great.

A San Mateo County Transit Bus Operator was taking a break. So he just shut the doors and started playing his violin. #youseeitallonthebus

Urban Triage - Imported to Detroit

Recently Detroit (in this case the auto industry and more specifically Chrysler) has been using gritty images of the city of Detroit to sell cars. Using visual, musical, and deep throated vocal images of a city determined to make a comeback by building you a better car, the reality is much different.

The very product that Detroit produces has been one of the reasons for its current harsh reality. The reality is that the "Motor City" ceased to grow a long time ago. Its population peaked in 1960 at 1,849,000 and today stands at only 914,000.  That decline has left the sprawling city with thousands of abandon homes. Whole neighborhoods exist with only one or two households on a street.

With a crumbling infrastructure that is increasing expensive to maintain the city has created the Detroit Works Project to perform one of America's first cases of urban triage. The city will now make the crucial decision about which neighborhood will stay and which will be reverted to brownfield status.

In the last two years the city under the direction of Detroit Works has demolished 2,000 structures with an additional 6,000 planned demolitions in the next two years. As Rainy Hamilton of Hamilton Anderson Associates states in the PBS Newshour news segment, "it's a density issue". The city can no longer maintain roads, streetlights, and sewers where there isn't a sufficient tax base. Neighborhoods will be triaged into categories of "steady, transitional, or distressed in an attempt to order and prioritize scarce city resources. Many of the city's neighborhoods will be ceded and the city's perimeter brought in to a more manageable level.

The question is, is Detroit the only city, or just the first in what we will see to selectively prune inefficient and expensive infrastructure and development. in an effort to focus on the core.

The question remains; what parts of your city do you prune first? Cue commercial.

"With Detroit on Brink of Financial Disaster, State Steps In" - PBS Newshour

Related article: Detroit needs a new app - hooking our youth back on cars

Imagine - This picture was in EVERY Starbucks in America

New York Times - Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Lose the Traffic. Keep That Times Square Grit.

Every Starbucks that I have been in sells the New York Times.  This picture was in just about every state, every city in America yesterday.  Maybe other towns and cities except (Chicago, San Francisco, El Paso, Cleavland, Miami and others) said;

If New York City can do this WHY CAN'T WE?

Why can't we?  San Jose

Why can't we? Los Angeles

Why can't we? Dallas

Why can't we? San Diego

This was not an accident! - Crash Kills Mom, Uncle, One Twin Son, other Twin on Life Support

We are so used to seeing those two words Traffic Accident.  But many times the incident cannot be described as an accident.  Trees falling in the roadway striking a car; that's an accident.  Deer enters the roadway causing a car to loose control; that's an accident.  But the Modesto Bee calls it an accident.

The solo vehicle accident claimed the lives of two of the Terras' adopted children, David, 20, and Sara, 23. Sara Terra's 3-year-old identical twin boys, Jason and Jessie Woodson, were critically injured. One later died.

Here are some reasons it doesn't warrant the term "traffic accident"

1. The car was travelling at a high rate of speed.
   
2. The car was seen to be weaving in and out of traffic.
   
3. The 3 year old twins were not placed in car seats.
   
4. The twins were not restrained in any manner.
   
5. The driver was driving on a suspended license.
   
6. The driver was described as smelling of alcohol (toxicology tests pending).
   
7. The driver was driving on one the most dangerous days of the year (Memorial Day Holiday).
   
8. The driver was driving at one of the most dangerous times of the day (or night).
   

With all of these risks; most of which were obvious to the mother, why did Sara Marie Terra allow her and her family to be driven in such a risky situation.  Three lives lost with one twin unlikely to make it of of life support; this shouldn't have happened.

Gone in an Instant: Modesto family devastated by Oakland wreck- Modesto Bee

Three Year Old Has No Brain Activity - SJ Mercury News 5-27-2009

James Howard Kuntlser - TED.org Talk

This is a great talk by James H. Kuntsler author of "The Geogarphy of Nowhere", "Home from Nowhere", and "The World Made by Hand".

How this all started. - Part I

After living in the valley for ten years now; I have contemplated going without a car for several years now. After reading a couple of very good books by James Kuntsler; first "The Geography of Nowhere; the Rise and Decline of Americas Man Made Landscape" and "Home from Nowhere" my eyes were opened to how American cities used to be and how they are now. My mother told me of growing up in San Diego and using the trolley to go the 2-3 miles downtown to go shopping or see a movie. They lived above the family business just as described in Kuntsler's books with a very tight knit fabric of families.

As for myself I grew up loving bikes, bike rides, bike races and any other thing having to do with bikes. At 14 I had a paper route or sub for others with a paper route. Having to get up at 4:00 in the morning wasn't so bad. I got to ride when no one was out and I still remember the smells at the time of the morning when there were no cars out and no winds or breezes. I used to ride or walk to school. In fact I had a friend and classmate who lived on the other side of town (back then in San Diego, the other side could have been 10 miles) and bike to school everyday.

In high school I met a friend of mine at a street corner early one morning with our bikes and crude panniers and headed north to Los Angles. We camped on the beach in San Clemente right next to the Western White House; President Nixon's old summer home. We got as far as Long Beach before heading back but we were hooked.

My next big ride wouldn't be until 1984, to ride north to Los Angles again to see the Olympic Bicycle Road race which was open to everyone. We rode up the day before putting in about 120 miles to get to our night's lodgings. The next day we rode to the venue to see the men's road race and watch Alexi Grewal win the U.S.'s first ever cycling gold medal.

After this I rode for fun and fitness but it wasn't until I took a two week bicycling trip around British Columbia, Canada that I really got into it again. I don't know what it is but the feeling of making my way around on a trip under my own power is intoxicating as it is practical.

How All This Started - Part III

How All This Started - Part II