“A person never lies as much as after a hunt, during a war, and before an election.”

Otto Von Bismarck

I woke up this morning to a very orange sunrise as the smoke from the fires over the last few days dissipates.  It is probably good news because the smoke dispersing means that the wind has died down.  We were perfectly safe this time.  The nearest fire was in Yorba Linda about 15 miles away as the crow flies.  It is very sad to learn that people have lost all of their possessions.  The good news is that there have been no reports of people losing their lives.  We had a fire in Sierra Madre in the spring and I wrote about it extensively.

One of the important things to do is to put it in perspective.  There are about 3 million homes in the Los Angeles area and less than a thousand of them have burned.  About 3/100′s of a percent.  It is tragic for the individuals but compared to 50% of the homes in New Orleans being damaged by Katrina it is minor. It also means that there are 2,999,000 that are not damaged by this fire.  The video footage of fires burning down hillsides at night is compelling and TV news shows so much of it, on an endless loop, that we start to believe that the whole world is burning.  It is not. Remember much of the media have, in the words of Marek Kohn “devoted themselves to the art of making the middle class afraid.”

The massive wild fire in Montecito last night made me think of a similarity between forests and the economy and forest fires and economic crisis.

Until the 1970′s we used to try to put out all forest fires as soon as possible.  Then we learned that “Forests in which fires are regularly suppressed can burn much hotter and more dangerously when a fire finally does break out.”  It turns out that the best way to keep forests healthy is to allow fires to happen.  It is counter intuitive.  I propose that the same is true for our economy.  The best way to keep our economy strong is to allow companies to fail.  in other words to have small fires.  By saving companies like Chrysler and Harley Davidson in the 1970′s and 1980′s we kept the old models in place and ensured that when another crisis occurred it would be even more dangerous than the last time.

If Chrysler had been allowed to fail in 1980 maybe there would have been enough space in the Detroit ecosystem for a new type of car company to grow that would have caused Ford, GM and the UAW to change the way they did business.  Certainly saving companies is a short term solution that is proving to be costly and counter productive.  If we let the bad companies fail there would be room for new ones that do the job better.  If the government had let United Airlines and American Airlines fail there could be more companies like Southwest Airlines around right now and we would all be better off.

It is a human instinct to try and save companies and the jobs and creativity that they represent.  In the same way it was a human instinct to try to put out all wild fires.  We have finally learned that it is a bad idea to put out every fire and it seems to me that the same is true about saving companies.  Read the rest of this entry »

Now this is a good idea that is being done well:

http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org/

I haven’t read the book but I like the concept.  One of their ideas is to work to be complaint free for 25 days.  If you do you can have your name listed on their roster on the web site.  Good idea!

Found Starbucks art?

Recycling a sleeve?

Dragonfly coffee?

I drank the coffee, I made the dragonfly and I photographed it I just can’t figure out a name for it.

Thanks to Joe C who watched me do all of the above and didn’t mock me.

The football industry has been growing at about 6% per year.  The Reality TV business has been growing at about 12% per year.  We here at swcamborne.com want football to be more important than reality TV so we have come up with an idea we call Reality Football.

Reality Football will allows football fans to be far more involved in games and therefore will significantly improve ratings and revenue for the teams.  Click her to read how it will work. Read the rest of this entry »

“This is the dawning of the age of Obamarus”

With apologies to the artists of The Fifth Dimension and Hair the age of Obamarus is as ephemeral as Aquarius.  I wish that I had the ability to add music or at least some notes.  I hope that not to many people are disappointed.  Let the sun shine…..

Simon says:

“During the winter the weather in Southern California is salubrious.”

salubrious sa·lu·bri·ous (sə-loo’-brē-əs)
adj. Conducive or favorable to health or well-being.

“Government does not solve problems;

it subsidizes them.”

Ronald Reagan

As the stock market continues its downward spiral I have been thinking about worst case scenarios.  I came up with this:

A wise person will prepare for old age three ways:
-By living in a place with good laws, a generous spirit and a surplus.
-By modeling the above traits within your family and community.
-And by trying to build enough personal reserves so that you are not dependent on either of the above.

I suppose I should also mention:

• Low expectations
• A ready smile
• and a sense of gratitude.

It is a start.