Saturday Learning series - Geography (Iceland)

This week Geography Now's view on Iceland and the Icelandic flag.

Economic highlights are indeed highlights

The latest economic data should hearten Americans that president Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is working quite well thank you. Firstly the job situation is in fantastic shape.

The US unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent in April 2018 from 4.1 percent in the previous month, and below market expectations of 4 percent. It was the lowest rate since December 2000, as 236 thousand people exited the labor force. The number of unemployed decreased by 239 thousand to 6.35 million and employment was almost unchanged at 155.18 million. Unemployment Rate in the United States averaged 5.78 percent from 1948 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 10.80 percent in November of 1982 and a record low of 2.50 percent in May of 1953.

Visually;

And it's even better news in minority communities;

The unemployment rate for black workers dropped to 6.6 percent, beating the previous record low of 6.8 percent set in December.

The jobless rate for Hispanics fell to 4.8 percent, tying the record reached last year and in 2006.

Further, the United States is on the right path to become an energy super-power as well;

As global oil markets shift their attention from U.S. shale oil production back to a resurgent Saudi Arabia and Russia and geopolitical concerns bearing down on oil prices, Citigroup said last Wednesday that the U.S. is poised to surpass Saudi Arabia next year as the world’s largest exporter of crude and oil products.

The U.S. exported a record 8.3 million barrels per day (bpd) last week of crude oil and petroleum products, the government also said Wednesday. Top crude oil exporter Saudi Arabia’s, for its part, exported 9.3 million bpd in January, while Russia exported 7.4 million bpd, the bank added.

Even GDP

GDP is the ultimate indicator of economic success or failure.  While U.S. GDP results have lagged a bit behind expectations of late (achieving only a 2.3% growth in Q1 of 2017 versus 2.9% in Q4 of 2018), they are on track to blow past the 3% target set by president Trump, far exceeding the results of his predecessor.  That's not a partisan claim.  Hillary Clinton backer Warren Buffet says things are a lot rosier than the current GDP picture is indicating.

Warren Buffett, billionaire investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, believes the economy is growing faster than 2 percent.

"The last seven or eight years have averaged 2 percent roughly," he pointed out in an interview with CNBC's Becky Quick that aired on Friday. "It's stronger than that right now."

But he said, "There's no way to calibrate it. They [the government] have their own problems with seasonal adjustments in the first quarter."

There's more.  The trade deficit narrowed by 15% in March. With wage growth stalling however, inflation becomes less of a concern and therefore a Fed rate hike is less urgent and therefore less likely to be something that puts a brake on the economy.  

President Trump faces an entirely different situation that president Obama faced.  Despite being blessed with near zero interest rates president Obama presided over an anemic GDP growth of below 3%, making him the first president ever to achieve that ignominious result.  Not only were Obama's results abysmal, they were 'achieved' during the most lenient monetary conditions ever enjoyed by an American president.  In other words he was an anchor on the economy.

President Trump was elected because at some visceral level, Americans understood this failure under president Obama.  President Trump will not fall into that same malaise category as did president Obama and therefore his presidency will be seen as a success beyond what he has so far achieved.

Friday Musical Interlude - Pi (no kidding)

I stumbled across this video of Pi, converted to musical notes using some logic that is explained at the beginning of the video.  The result is a surprisingly beautiful melody.

Conservative Insurgent Thursday - Episode #6

Insurgent: noun a rebel or revolutionary.

      "an attack by armed insurgents"

synonyms: rebel, revolutionary, revolutionist, mutineer, insurrectionist, agitator, subversive, renegade, incendiary

This week we're looking at an atypical but profound conservative insurgent.  Professor Jordan Peterson:  he's atypical from the perspective that he's not a younger conservative, nor is he a typical conservative.  You could even argue he is much closer to a classical liberal who understands the need for a balance between left and right. He happens to see a current dramatic imbalance that favors radical socialist/communist left (a Left far too far for him). So he is an ally of the right and a remarkably powerful one who will not waver in the face of a liberal onslaught. He is most assuredly an insurgent who favors what conservatives favor.

Who is Jordan Peterson?

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto.  He studies a variety of types of psychology but his primary areas of interest seem to be religion and ideological beliefs.

In Canada he rose to prominence in 2016 for opposing the political correctness of the Canadian government's plan to enact Bill C-16. He was probably Canada's most forceful advocate of free speech in 2016.

He actually appeared before the Canadian Senate to discuss the flaws of the bill.  Here is the hearing unfiltered. It's dry but Peterson is typically brilliant.

Background:

Peterson was born in Alberta, Canada in 1962. He attended the University of Alberta as well as McGill University where he remained as a post-doctoral fellow from 1991 through 1993 when he moved to Harvard as an assistant and the associate professor.  In 1998 he returned to Canada as a professor at the University of Toronto.

As a teenager he worked for the socialist New Democratic Party throughout his teenage years before growing disillusioned by them at the age of 18.  By age 18 he had already been exposed to the writings of Ayn Rand, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  As he pursued an education in psychology he was clearly particularly influenced by Carl Jung.

Peterson has typically identified as a Christian when asked, although not always.  He sometimes approaches discussions concerning the benefits of Christianity from a clinical perspective. He identifies as a classical liberal, which is to say, a modern conservative.

Peterson married in 1989 and has a son and daughter.  He also became a grandfather in 2017.

Notable Achievements:

He has published two books, 1999's Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief and this year, 2018 he released 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.  In addition, he has been published in countless journals on psychology as well as non-psychology publications. In 2004, a multi-episode TV series aired based on Peterson's first book Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief.  He has also made numerous television appearances in Canada, the U.K. and increasingly the U.S. 


Peterson and several professorial colleagues created a writing therapy program with a series of online writing exercises, titled the Self Authoring Suite. Over 10,000 students had used the program as of January 2017, exhibiting drop-out rates decreased by 25% and GPAs having risen by 20% overall. 

His overall body of work including university lectures and speaking engagements wherein he speaks on a wide variety of topics.  Recently for example he met with David Rubin and Ben Shapiro and had a great dialogue on conservatism, religion and society.

Why We Need Him:

I've used the term brilliant debater in the past for conservative insurgents.  For Peterson it is especially true.  His command of the facts as well as his ability to recognize traps or tricks used to trip him up during debates is unparalleled.  In addition his conversations are engaging and able to hold the attention of viewers while making his points in ways that are sure to connect with the audience.

Here are some examples.

Highlight Reel:

Jordan Peterson has been known in his native Canada for other reasons for years. He has a boatload of highlights to share, but this is the obvious one to mention here. His internet/media persona blew up as a result of this Channel 4 interview in Great Britain. An interview that became a debate was completely owned by Peterson with not only common sense backed by facts, but also a razor-sharp ability to understand the dynamic of the conversation and navigate accordingly.  This is truly brilliant. Watch it, and enjoy the obvious gotcha moment in addition to all of the other victories Jordan Peterson racks up along the way.

To add onto obviousness of the brilliance Jordan displays, YouTube personality Charisma on Command offers a brilliant analysis of how Jordan Peterson adroitly managed the conversation.

His Social Media:

YouTube
Twitter
Facebook
Patreon
His own website

The Kanye Effect?

This is good news but let's see if it lasts (Kanye's support of president Trump, and more broadly, African-American males' increased support of president Trump).

Window Wednesday - Skip this one

If you don't know who this person is, don't bother finding out. Ignore.