Hongbao (Red Envelope) in China and America

The Hongbao (red envelope) is the name for bribing someone in China. It isn't just companies that need to bribe officials in the middle kingdom. I've worked with Chinese professors who had to pay off the reviewers in order to get a grant to do research in the United States. China, a country I really like a lot, is about as corrupt as possible.

By saying this I'm not demeaning the incredible work ethic of the Chinese people, or the fact that I've come to know Chinese with incredible integrity. These people have made my life richer and more fulfilled because of the opportunity I've had to work with them and know them as friends.

I always find it funny that we've passed international bribery laws, when the only way to get a foothold in China is to pay someone off. It's a universal truth.

I also don't want to sound holier than thou about my country. Many of my friends, who are well read and knowledgeable, believe that America, although not at the Chinese level, is becoming more corrupt. I grew up in a time when the average CEO made 40 times the amount  a man on the factory floor received. Now the average CEO makes 430 times what the factory worker does.

It seems more and more clear that our Congress is bought and paid for. Bankers own the Republican Party and Democratic senators like Chuck Schumer. Under Clinton they got rid of the Glass-Steagle act which separated investment banks from commercial, deposit accepting banks.

Under George Bush banks were allowed to be irresponsible and take incredible risks, which in turn ruined many of the retirement funds held by individuals.

The war between those who want this situation fixed, so we will never have to bail out banks again, and the bankers who think they'll make less of a profit with regulation, is an intense one with the bankers' lobbyists going all out. The fact that we save these banks from bankruptcy with taxpayer dollars seems never to be a bone of contention as they pay these lobbyists.

Because our history of anti-communism means the envelope will never be red, I wonder what color we will eventually use.

Why People are Running from Stocks

Yesterday I was watching Bloomberg television to escape the novel I was writing. Things were bad, with the unemployment rate rising and new job creation absurdly low. I listened to two different experts interpret the data:

One man said that you had to realize that the winter was warm and therefore the data is distorted because a lot of new employment was created in earlier months.

 The next man pointed out that not only was job creation in May very poor, but March and April had both been revised downwards. In other words the results for  labor creation in the two months before May were lower than the government had originally said they were.

It is this kind of manipulation by individual analysts which so distorts the true economic picture. People are running away from stocks in droves. The interest rate on the 10 year treasury is the lowest in history.

People are scared because they don't trust Wall Street. Given what these experts opined it seems like a perfectly rational response to me.

King Dimon and Congress

I just saw a headline which said "Dimon agrees to appear before Congress." The sub head says "he hasn't agreed to a date."

Well that's just fine. We learned long ago that Congress was owned by the big banks, so it isn't surprising he gets to pick and choose when he might drop by.

J.P. Morgan Chase, Dimon's bank, recently botched some really big bets (they prefer to call it hedging) which went bad. J.P. Morgan Chase, of course, doesn't really care very much since we, the taxpayers of the United States, will always come in to make them whole.

It's pretty clear that we didn't learn anything from 2008 and the financial crisis. The Republicans have been trying to fight off any new regulation of the banks. Dimon, however, really failed to oversee the bank's trading strategies and has made it more difficult for the GOP to hide the fact they're for the rich people.

The Democratic senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, wouldn't do anything to upset the banks under any conditions.

The common people in America may still not understand that they mean nothing to the congressmen, senators, and bankers who run America. Maybe we'll never get it.

Sorry Jews, You're Not Going With US

I find the position of born-again Christians fascinating when it comes to the state of Israel. They protect Israel because it must exist for the Apocalypse and the Rapture that follows.

So think about this, in the Rapture only Christians will escape to heaven, leaving the Jews behind in the smoldering ashes.

I suppose this doesn't bother the Jews, because they don't believe in what we call the New Testament anyway. However I'm a Christian who has a Jewish daughter, who was brought up in that tradition because her grandparents are Holocaust survivors.

Christians who use Acts 4: 8 through 12, to insist only Christians will have life after death are clearly setting up the Jews as a fall guy. In other words, you're not going to go, but we will use you for a while.

Somehow that doesn't sound like the Christian thing to do.

The Ballad of Zhong Yao Ren

               The American immigration experience wasn't always easy if you weren't white. I'm going to tell you a story, but change the name because his descendents still live in Arizona. It's a story that unfortunately is a part of American history. He was of Chinese heritage  so let's call this the Ballad of Zhong Yao Ren.

               A second generation American, Zhong owned a grocery store in Phoenix, Arizona. He was at a gas station near his market when a deputy sheriff came over and, without cause, beat him so badly he spent a week in the hospital. Phoenix didn't help with the medical bills. Later they let this deputy sheriff go. But back then in Arizona there was going to be no acknowledgment of a racially motivated beating.

               A patriotic man, Zhong loved America and all it stood for. He was proud and thought he should be accorded the same respect as any other man born in this country or naturalized here.

               One day he was in his new grocery store in a town outside of Phoenix (we won't mention the name of the town). All of a sudden this former deputy sheriff, who had turned into a common drunk, walked into the market. Zhong asked the man if he recognized him. The white man said no. At that point Zhong, who was cutting meet with a cleaver, raised his arm and chased the white man out the door, his cleaver above his head.

               He died a year ago, leaving behind his very successful children. They've never questioned their rights as Americans. My family came on the Mayflower, but Zhong knew what being American was all about. It doesn't matter when you arrived here; what color your skin is; or what your beliefs are. Everyone in this country deserves respect and Zhong Yao Ren never forgot that.

              

China: Where Supression of Infomation makesThings Worse for the Government and the People

In China, which has autocratic rule, you can shut down the channels of information available in most countries. In the Middle Kingdom, you can pretty much say what you want in an e-mail to one other person. The problem comes when you try to make a statement to multiple people. Your Internet provider will have to quickly step in and make sure this e-mail won't make political waves. China used to be very good at shutting down the flow of information, but just lately a crash of a new high-speed train got wider notice than party leaders expected.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have very good coverage of China and the Wall Street Journal translates its stories into Chinese and posts them on a website. I read both papers, and from conversations with Chinese friends on the Mainland, seem to know more than they do about what's going on with Bo Xilai and the death of a British citizen.

It has all the ingredients of Greek Tragedy. An ambitious wife with a lust for power and money, combined with the death of a British citizen who was apparently helping the party leader of Chongqing get money out of the country to foreign bank accounts. However, when you listen to the stories many Chinese immigrants pass from person to person, you hear about sexual activities by both Bo and his wife, multiple murders and vast amounts of money. The stories defy credibility.

This is all because China has worked so hard to keep information from its people. Rumors abound when there is a lack of freedom of information. Whatever strange things happened in Chongqing, the rumors have taken over. Suppressing information only makes people want to know more. And in a country in which gossip is on a world class level, the most lurid is bound to get the most attention. At a crucial moment of change in the leadership of China, rumors only fuel an instability where citizens imagine the worst

ADHD and Memories of Unfulfilled Dreams

For those of us with ADHD there is a compensation. I call it memories of unfulfilled dreams.

I guess it really started in the hammock strung between two trees on our farm. Because I was seven I was allowed to lay in it and travel to different worlds as my mind wandered off. But mostly my mind focused on the future of living on the farm, learning about life from my dad, and how perfect it would be.

Then I got a mild case of polio, which my dad caught, and within five days he was gone. Because of a pre-existing condition my father had no insurance. The farm and all the equipment, that hadn't been stolen in the night by neighbors, was sold off. However, to this day, I have a memory about the world I created while lying in the hammock. When things were tough, and if I didn't know if the Social Security check was going to feed us until the end of the month, I'd  go back to that memory, as if life had really turned out like that.

Later on I got ready for college.  Because of all the old movies I saw on television I envisioned Proms where they played "Deep Purple," and you met the girl next door and started life together. We'd go to the bonfire and then to the big game and life would be idyllic. There are less and less days in which I allow myself to drift back to that memory of unrealized expectations. I became a college Prof., a University VP and saw that the politics played in academia were probably more vicious than that involved in reaching the CEO position at Exxon.  However, for years, during those frequent  days as I fought that inner railroad train that wouldn't stop, they could be  forgotten by letting my mind drift back to those perfect worlds I'd created that never had a reality to match.

The Knock on the Door That Never Came

The other day I was talking to a friend in mainland China. I was complaining about the gridlock in Washington. We talked for a bit about Bo Xilai and how little the Chinese people knew about what was going on.

He then said to me, "I think you live in a very good country."

Those words brought back my perspective. As much as I criticize politics in this country, I can never forget why my ancestors came here in 1620. And it isn't just religious freedom that marks our country as a fine place. People still can be outspoken about any subject they want and about any one of our leaders.

 Some time ago, when I was in China, I picked up the Chinese name for GW. He was called Xiao (little) Bush because his father was Da (big) Bush. Bringing that concept back to America I put it in a very different context, one that the Chinese never intended. But I could denigrate his decisions in a college classroom. In China, denigrating Hu Jin Tao could end you in the slammer.

Calling him little Bush was a cheap shot, but I took it. They never came in the night to take me away.

I think I live in a very good country

My Party is Right. Your Party is Evil

America's bifurcation has reached new levels of absurdity. More and more people are realizing this and 40% of the electorate are registered Independent. While Democrats have 38%, Republicans have just 28%.

When each party takes control of the presidency or a house of Congress they believe they've been given a mandate. This is patently ridiculous. The party that has gained the power quickly pushes things too far and the independents become disturbed.

If Santorum became the nominee of the Republican Party in the fall, Republicans would soon go the way of the Whigs.

With the revelation that John Corzine is a crook, just like all the other bankers, the Democrats can get off their high horse. He authorized the transfer of clients money into an overseas account the company used to meet the firm's obligations.

Whether the Justice Department, or the SEC will throw him in jail, of course, is another question. The fox is guarding the hen house and he was a powerful Democrat.

What I've seen from the Corzine incident is the inability of Democratic Party members to see that a member of their party could be a criminal. I already knew the Republicans were incapable of identifying the wolves among the sheep.

My guess is the percentage of the electorate that registers Independent will only grow. Both parties have blinders on. The Democrats don't want to reduce the deficit. The Republicans don't want to pay for the wars they start or the basic safety net required for the American people.

The next time you think you're right, and the other party is evil, try to think that you might be making another decision based solely on ideology. As they say, "the Devil knows Scripture too."

France, Savoir Faire and Soccer

As an American, when I used to visit France it was at best a mixed experience. Since I speak Chinese, not the lingua franca (which once was French), I was barely tolerated. But I've changed that situation.

When I lived in Europe, the last French official soccer jersey they had for sale was the home jersey. (They won the '98 World Cup in the Blue one.)  This white jersey stands out because everybody wanted the Bleu one.

Every day on my last visit to the City of Light I wore this, washing it at night in the hotel. I was waited on first in small restaurants. I also tried not to be an American, by not yelling and by being polite. (man, it was hard)

I also said only two things loudly which were "La Belle France, and "Vive La France."

I'm looking forward someday to once again being the Toast of Paris.

Bloomberg Tries to Destroy Whistle Blower

For the last 36 hours Bloomberg television has been trying to destroy the reputation of Greg Smith, the Goldman Sachs whistle blower. They've put on everyone they can think of who will demean him. They talk about how he'll never get another job. They talk about how low-level he is and they talk about the fact he only makes $500,000 a year.

This concerted effort to destroy his credibility makes me wonder if Wall Street learned anything at all about the financial crisis.

I no longer respect Mayor Bloomberg and will not watch Bloomberg.com. This unrelenting attack is one of the most vicious  in journalism and makes Bloomberg look like Rupert Murdoch.

People who know Greg Smith, who worked in the London office of Goldman Sachs say he is a man of the highest principles. He is someone who is ethical to a fault. Because of this, he wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times which talked about the culture of Goldman Sachs. He said the bank tried to make money for the firm at the expense of its clients. Goldman Sachs has had its ethics questioned over and over. Its  flagrant self dealing is a matter of record.

We now know that Wall Street has learned nothing from the Financial Crisis. It will continue to do anything to make money at the expense of its clients. MF Global shows how little ethics matters on Wall Street.

Bloomberg has shown how little he respects the average American. I can't believe how much I used to admire him. Now I wonder just how slimy he is. Our country is in trouble and our public figures don't care.

John McCain and Neville Chamberlain

As he probably was for many others, John McCain used to be my hero. He was the rational voice in the Republican Party. I really miss him.

I still regard him as a great patriot, but the man who wants to drop bombs on a lot of countries is not the same John McCain I used to admire.

He has joined the Republicans who still think Neville Chamberlain is the enemy. In every war since World War II the Republicans have brought up the concept of appeasement and the Democrats, afraid to take a stand on anything except support for the teachers unions, have gone along.

The most interesting aspect of this is that Republicans were solidly behind America First which tried to keep us out of  the Second World War. They weren't interested in stopping the boxcars heading for Auschwitz. However, since Korea they've used Munich as a sledgehammer on other Americans who might not want to invade Iraq just because the Iraqis were nasty to George's daddy. So I watch John McCain, who now wants us to bomb Syria, and wonder if he knows how sleazy and uncoordinated the opposition is in that country?

It's too much I guess to hope the old John McCain will return. He has joined the disloyal opposition and wants us to kill everybody.

However, I still miss the John McCain that provided hope Americans could work together to fix our problems and transcend the vitriol and nastiness of our present two party system.

Gingrich Injures Romney and Hurts Republicans' Defense of the Rich

Newt Gingrich, who apparently doesn't want anyone to be president if he can't be, has damaged Romney for the general election and destroyed a Republican argument.

You see the Republicans always say taxes are too high and can't be raised, in combination with budget cuts, to fix our astounding deficit problems.

If Romney has earned $200,000,000  from taking over companies and firing people and only pays 15 percent in taxes, how is our system of government fair. How should those born again, anti abortion people feel about someone who makes a fortune, yet pays less taxes than they do?

There should be taxes on oil companies. General Electric should pay taxes as they help China build an aircraft  to compete with Boeing, the American company that helps so much in decreasing our deficit with China in balance of payments.

Romney doesn't pay any more than 15% in taxes because there's a special law for buyout fund managers that lets them count their work as capital gains so that limits their tax rate to 15%. In other words because he didn't create anything, or build anything, or work at a real job, he gets lower raxes than other people who go to work every day and try to make enough to feed their families.

Newt Gingrich didn't just injure Romney, he injured the Wall Street fat cats who used Republican concepts to avoid paying their fair share.

Why the farm reminds you of a real America

Robert Frost once wrote a poem about being versed in country things. I still don't know if an aspen and a poplar are the same thing. But there are some things I do know.

Until my father died when I was seven, we had Herefords, Horses, and game chickens my father would never loan to those who wanted to fight them. Since the cows were for beef, I never learned how to milk a cow, but I do know if you push on the side of a well trained horse it will move sideways.

You remember the times you ate the corn you pulled off the stalk and got "corn belly". Your father told you what to say if they asked if you had a TV? "No, but we got a new manure spreader."

You try to stay in touch with it. You put in 18 fruit trees or buy a horse that's a thoroughbred/warmblood, so your dad, the former ringmaster, will look down from Heaven and see you can stay on when she does a 360.

But hanging on is what it is. The longer you live in West LA, the more you think it's normal for high school  kids to have new BMWs  that miss you by a foot when you're in the crosswalk. You make friends with people from some other part of the country because you've learned Southern Californians really will never "do lunch" with you.

But the farm is always there in the background to remind you there are livable parts of
America that someday you can return to. There are some days that's enough.

Romney and Economic Rape

If you want to understand how Mitt Romney made his money and how he fits among many of the rapacious buyout fund operators you'll need a little lesson in how such funds take over companies.

A standard approach to taking over a business by a hedge or buyout fund is to borrow money that is combined with investor money to pay for the purchase. This immediately adds debt to the company's balance sheet. The operators of these funds make sure that they borrow enough that they can pay themselves back almost immediately, replacing what they invested. Frequently a 20% return to investors for these funds is not unusual. So the actual investment by people who put money into these funds (and the businesses they bought)  becomes much smaller.

When you add to the company's debt burden you have to do something to make the balance sheet look more attractive. That's done by getting rid of workers and thinning the company's labor costs. In other words the investors get money out of the company, while many employees lose their jobs.

Is this good for companies? Does acquiring a company using debt that injures the company's balance sheet  provide a way of building a better America? Four out of ten companies Romney invested in went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Romney built a fortune for himself.

Wall Street has played with America since the Clinton administration, making deals that did not add value to the American economy, but made Financial Ubermensch rich.

To those of you reading this who are unemployed, I'm telling you it has nothing to do with your ability to work hard and contribute to our country. You are just a victim of 20 years of economic rape.

The Search for the Darkness

It seems that many people around the world are searching for the darkness. Once you've seen "Oldboy," part of a trilogy from Korea, you start to wonder why there's an obsession for the dark side across the globe.

Therapists say is  has had quite an impact on the 18 to 30 generation. You wonder if it isn't part of a global desensitization.

I don't want to sum up the plot of "Oldboy," because you can always stream it on Netflix. Suffice to say, I saw enough as a reporter not to need a trip into hell. People I'm close to in the aforementioned demographic group don't have the same reaction to violence that I have.

Vampire stories have been around since "Vlad the Impaler" surfaced in Transylvania in the last century. (Transylvania was once part of Austria Hungary, and is now in Romania) Movies about Dracula were made in the 1930s and people used to joke about them. Now the movies and TV shows about vampires are omnipresent.

Hollywood producers for the last 30 years have hidden behind the First Amendment to produce gorier and gorier movies. (But Alexander Meikeljohn said people need free speech because they vote) The stretching of the First Amendment to cover carnage got sold to the America people by a ubiquitous media that wanted to make more money.

But the damage is done. I wonder how different generations view a hideous auto accident, or a terrorist incident? Is it all just theater? Does it touch people's souls? How many youth actually believe vampires are real?

Music for a Nation that needs it more than ever

The music and video for the barn raising scene in "Witness" may be the most beautiful exemplification of Americans working together to create something better.

The movies do this quite well. As far back as the 30s you had the end scene from the  movie "San Francisco" that inspired hopefor a city destroyed by an earthquake. Jeanette McDonald walked among the rubble as she and other San Franciscans sang "Nearer my God to Thee."

The first time I ever had a positive feeling for Mitt Romney came a few days ago. Among a group of followers he said the last and frequently unheard verse of America the Beautiful.

It goes like this: "oh beautiful for patriots dreams that see beyond the years.

Thy alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears."

Eternal Father, Strong to Save: a reckoning

I once had the opportunity to go on a picnic with a friend, and Will and Ariel Durant, those historians whose books were given to people who subscribed to the Book-of-the-Month club. I asked them what message they could take away from studying all these different civilizations. They said they found when a society lost its religious underpinnings it began to disintegrate.

My mother is close to death and I've been singing the favorite hymns she loved to create a connection to a body that suffered from Alzheimer's for over 10 years. They say there's no atheists in a foxhole and yesterday I was praying and singing some of the gospel songs I have on iTunes.

The experience is very painful, but I had a way to let my feelings out thanks to Steve Jobs and Jesus.

The need for religious underpinnings is becoming quite clear in China. Before Deng Xiaoping, the people could believe in communism, despite what Mao had done to them through the great leap forward and the cultural revolution.

Now money is the new God in China. I was surprised to see the image of Kong Fu Zi (Confucius) in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics. Perhaps the nine men who run China thought the people needed a old/new glue to hold them together. You can see how the tea party manipulates that need for common values in order to take us back to 1951, where African Americans and Asians knew their place, and white people could feel comfortable.

They say there are people who don't have the gene for religiosity. I however, have a need for a belief system that can sustain me. As I said in my article about Nirvana, I don't claim to have the only path to a Higher Power or union with the cosmos. But it seems all societies need it and some of us, individually, need it even more.

What people think Nirvana represents

In the West, people use the word "Nirvana" in a
way that makes it sound wonderful. I wonder what many of the people who use it
think it is? Because Buddhists believe that life is suffering, after many
reincarnations it is possible for a person to stop the reincarnation process,
and the pain that accompanies it, by leaving this world and ceasing to exist.
If you understand the world as envisioned in sixth century B.C.E. India, this
is an appealing concept. If today, you believe that life is suffering, it is
still as appealing.
Both Christianity and Buddhism require courage and an
attempt to do the right thing as a cornerstone of their religions. Although I am a
Christian, the actions of Buddhist monks almost always receive my admiration.
The word "cheng" in Mandarin means "to
become." In the Christian religion, you can become worthy of entering
heaven during one lifetime. Achieving Nirvana could consist of reincarnations
over millions of years.
Although I believe in the resurrection and am a Christian,
I've never assumed that I have the only way of reaching a higher power. So
therefore, when I hear the word Nirvana used, I realize that to many in the
West, it's a term they probably can't fathom.

Facebook and the Job You Always Wanted

Let's suppose you are 28 years old and have completed a graduate degree. You are going for an interview for the job you've always wanted. All your youthful indiscretions have passed into distant memory. You put on your new suit, tie your tie, and head into the future.

You expect to see a friendly face at the interview because you had a 3.7 as an undergraduate and did well in graduate school. But that face isn't so friendly, he's looking at you askance trying to decide whether you're the person on the resume or the pictures of you drunk as a skunk, in various versions of undress, on the new Facebook timeline?

America always has been the home of the second start. You could remake yourself into what you wanted to be by hard work and by changing your attitudes on life. That's going to be hard to do now since Facebook permanently has the picture of you and your then girlfriend on your site. This new feature should make a lot of people run from Facebook. The current generation's belief that everything should be open and available on the web will be tested now.

Facebook has already been selling your information to those sites who sell your life story people find near their Google mentions. One of the things a person in HR does is to protect the company from hiring loose cannons. In a job market which is very difficult, why would they hire you?

Where is America's Ethical Base?

We wonder what's happened to the America we imagined when we were children. I, like most people, really love my country. In some ways, it's gotten incredibly better. I dated the prettiest girl in college, but because she was Chinese, I didn't have a lot of competition. Today I wouldn't meet her expectations. African Americans were really mistreated openly, but a lot of that has changed for the better. I taught a lot of African Americans and Latinos in college and my life and the country's zeitgeist is better than it was before.

However, every time I gave a test, I knew 70% of the class had cheated before. Bankers used to be boring people that mostly tried to do the safe thing. Now they are people who would sell out their clients if they could make a buck. Investment bankers come from the top 5% of business school graduates, so they seem to be the best at manipulating the truth.

As I've said before, British political philosopher, Walter Bagehot, said in the 19th century that you could tell a lot about a country by the people they admired. John Corzine is the best example of how our ethics and morality have deteriorated. He was elected senator then governor of New Jersey, before he went on to lose $1.2 billion from restricted accounts used in trading for the fiduciary agent itself.

He's learned the American trick of fake humility when caught with a hand in the cookie jar. He clearly must have never had an ethical base, because anyone with any empathy wouldn't have done that to the small farmers and others who've suffered. Rumors have it that Obama planned to replace Geithner (who's wanted to leave for a while) with Corzine. It's hard to blame all our problems on the tea party when some Democrats have no ethical base. And that's true because Americans have placed money above ethics, empathy and inalienable values.

America, practically alone among nations, does not teach values in our school systems. We don't spend a lot of effort in our schools to explain ethics. The teachers union is a bunch of people who try to protect their tenure. Laws that require political correctness eat away at American values. We wait for the financial system to recover, but if those who are expected to play by the rules have no intention of doing so, then things will only get worse.

Christmas and Schadenfreude

Because a friend wanted to spend Christmas Eve with his wife, I took the overnight shift at United Press International in Boston. This shift ran from 12 AM to 8 AM on Christmas morning. This shift promised to have nothing serious happen in the way of news. However someone has to be at work in the large bureaus across the country in case Elvis is not really dead.

The guy who I was subbing for and his wife stopped by to give me a Christmas drink. That was pretty nice of them because there were a lot of places I'm sure they'd rather be. After they left though I began to monitor some of the national news stories that that were running on the A (national) wire.

You would not believe what kind of stories, describing every different kind of tragedy, were running on teletypes no one was reading. They were almost uniformly depressing. The one-story I will never forget started with "Christmas came early for John Jones of Boulder Colorado who lost his hands in a tractor accident." The stories went downhill from there.

I did not understand if it was "schadenfreude" (taking joy in other's misfortune) or an attempt to remind us of how lucky we were on this Christmas. But this shift has to be accompanied by a major antidepressant.

All I know is that I finished my shift and walked out in the cold New England air happy I wasn't John Jones (name changed). I say a prayer for him every Christmas Eve.

America, the perpetual patsy

America is a very confused country. With a Congress that's close to being declared brain dead and a president who never even ran a city before, it's like a missile without a guidance system.

There are some things we know. When I gave a test in college, national statistics told me that 70% of the people in that classroom had cheated before. Ethical behavior on the part of business school graduates, probably only happens by mistake and by those among the bottom quartile. (Those in the top 10% become investment bankers). However, because of the corrupt practices act, we're not allowed to bribe people overseas. Everyone who has any brains knows you can't sell something in China without bribing an official or businessman. The name for this practice in China is hong bao (red envelope). If you don't have some guanxi wang, you just might as well mail them a proposal from Buffalo. China has this tradition and it's getting stronger every day. However, we want to put Americans in jail that are trying to sell stuff there.

On the other hand, the Republicans don't want us to slap controls on China, a country whose currency manipulation is legendary. They talk about free trade as if giving another country the advantage is part of how it's supposed to work. All they care about is letting American companies make a little more money before our economy is destroyed. They act this way even though unequal currency transactions force companies to produce goods without American workers. House Republicans have made it clear that they will do nothing to stop China from destroying American jobs.

We have lost interest in protecting the country the tea party swears it loves. I don't know what Democrats believe, but I know it has nothing to do with balancing the budget and helping us survive as a nation.

I can see us in ten years shipping a large number of people to China where they'll become janitors. This is sad, because Americans don't bother to learn a foreign language, so they won't even be able to order lunch.

You're an Americano. I'm a Mexicano

There is a new program in California called the Dream Act that would provide illegal immigrants with scholarships and other aid to attend California universities. There are some good things about it, but there is something that bothers me.

I had the wonderful opportunity to teach Latinos for much of my life as a university administrator and professor. Some of these people were so intelligent and driven that I'm waiting for the days when I will take pride in their impressive achievements.

I frequently had conversations with American citizens that went like this; "Dr. Turner, you're an Americano."

"You were born here and are an American citizen, so there's no difference between you and me, "I said.

"No, I'm a Mexicano. You're an Americano."

Because I respected the minds of these excellent students, I would end the conversation, because there was no way I would be able to change their attitudes.

However, when you get citizenship, which could eventually happen to American university graduates, you become an American. There is no way you get to deny that. And while these days, citizenship seems to be more about rights than responsibilities, Americans of Latino descent have been some of our best soldiers in the two Bush Wars. Of course, I got my American citizenship through the Mayflower, but these Latinos are my equals. There is no difference between the two of us.

The Rains of Ireland

Now that I've got a following in Ireland, I want to tell this story.

Years ago, I was drinking with a friend in an Irish pub in Los Angeles. It was the kind of place that tossed you out if you asked for Bushmills.

That night, right after they passed the collection for the IRA, the storm outside collapsed the roof and enormous amounts of water poured into the pub as we rushed for the exits and our cars. I'd like to be able to understand if that was a sign from God, but I'm a Methodist, and what do we know.

The Kardashians and America's Future

A British political philosopher in the 19^th Century, Walter Bagehot, said you could judge a people by who they admired.

A friend told me today that a lot of people who are struggling to get by are offended by the blatant conspicuous consumption of the Kardashians. But I bet it’s not hurting their ratings. (If you don’t know who I’m referring to, don’t worry because you’ve probably been working hard to put a meal on the family table)

Now these mistresses in marketing have Kim divorcing a guy who she'd been married to for a heartbeat. Katherine Hepurn once said, "I don't care what you say about me, as long as it isn't true."

With the Kardashians it’s like being in Africa and seeing how America lives and thinking your country will soon have all the things America has.

But if you’re consumed by these reality shows about rich people, and disregard what they aren’t doing to help pull this country together, you should just be listening to the radio.

Congress has chosen Air Supply as its soundtrack and has Justin Bieber on their Iphones. They think we’re too weak to accept the suffering it’s going to take to recover from the financial crisis. They’ve provided money to people who went under the second time, because they never should have gotten the loan in the first place. (If it’s because of unemployment, please forgive that last comment)

Ben Bernanke has been working hard to prove John Maynard Keynes wasn’t just an economist 80 years ago. Every day we’re more in debt. QE3 could be the name of a British ship, but instead it's a bad idea on monetary policy

But, who is providing the answer? Not the tea party who wants to take America back to 1939 where African Americans were part of a segregated army and people looked at Chinese and remembered they needed their shirts laundered.

By the way, why do Republicans hate Obama worse than they did Clinton? You don’t think it’s because he’s black and decided to leave the slave’s quarters, do you?

The fact is that the Democrats want to keep spending, while the Republicans want us to default on Treasury dividends. Doesn’t any group of Americans care more about our need to sacrifice for a great country? My family has two Mayflower pilgrims in its line, and I can’t remember reading about a time where we were a country of wimps that had to have an I pad or they wouldn’t be able to show their face outside their home. Maybe everyone can’t have Air Jordan’s either.

We are spoiled and our Congressmen aren’t doing anything to fix this. When we have to stop printing money, and everybody realizes that polarization has destroyed our two party system, it will be too late. China will own us. Why don’t we all learn Greek and go out in the streets and riot because we can’t afford Godiva Ice Cream anymore.

I never expected much when my dad died when I was seven. I used to pray that the social security checks would stretch far enough until the 30th I can still remember my mother yelling at me that hamburgers were only for dinner. I seem to be among a few that never believed the beans would grow to the sky.