Money

A lot happened this week that kept me thinking about money. (If you are thinking, "Hey, what happened with the scratch marks on the tree??" -- I'll get to that below. Great research, readers !!)

The stuff in that picture is the American version; there are different versions in every country (someday if I have grandchildren perhaps they'll enjoy going through my rather random coin collection, which was one of the many things I loved when visiting my grandparents). Money is a great invention. If everyone is willing to believe that these pieces of paper and metal are worth something, then we can exchange things we make and do. We can obtain food even if our work doesn't make food, and live in a house or apartment even if our work doesn't involve construction. Better yet, we can accumulate value now and spend it later. Zowie!!

Modern innovations and technology have made money even more powerful as a means of exchange. We trade with people very far away, whom we will never meet, through credit cards and pay pal and such. (I once ordered an inexpensive custom-size Chinese shirt; the vendor apparently didn't understand time zones and startled us with a phone call at 2:30 a.m. to ask for additional measurements.)

But clearly some things have gotten out of control. I listened to news this week about the horrible economy, the Obama Administration's attempts to make it better, and the fits and starts of government efforts to regulate the financial system to make it less likely we could see a mess like this in the future. I have to say that I'm all for regulating banks, but I don't believe we have the capacity to avoid future financial crises. I don't think we're smart enough; I think banks and other corporations will too often reward executives for short-term gains, encouraging (or requiring) them to ignore long-term risk; and I think there are huge amounts of money in hedge funds and foreign investors that are not going to be susceptible to regulation.

There was also a news report about new systems and devices developed in recent years to track the whereabouts of people arrested for non-violent trials, pending the hearing of their case. The use of these devices means that poor people arrested for minor offenses don't spend months in jail because they can't scrape together a few hundred dollars for bail. It also saves taxpayers lots of money on those unnecessary jail cells for the poor. Unhappily, bail bondsmen have been very successful stopping the deployment of these release systems. Bail bondsmen make a lot of money from poor people who otherwise would be stuck in jail. And if the bondsmen spend some of that money making the right campaign contributions, it turns out that politicians will then spend taxpayer dollars keeping poor people in jail instead of using the release system. Great for the bail bondsmen, great for the politicians, terrible for everyone else. The NPR story is here.

And finally, the most distressing political development of this year is the Supreme Court's overturning of years of precedent, allowing unfettered spending by corporations on political campaigns. Somehow I feel confident that in general, corporate values as expressed through campaign contributions are not going to mirror my values. The only thing that keeps me from complete despair about the future of money-infused politics is Steven Levitt's conclusion in Freakonomics that money makes a lot less difference in a campaign than you would think -- that it will only swing a close election (click on that phrase above to see what he says). On the other hand, it seems pretty likely that even the politicians we support will start to tilt their positions to try to attract more money (or avoid a well-funded opposition).

I guess we have a lot of work to do. Obama is just one guy, and we need to jump in with both feet.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
So about the scratch marks on the trees -- thank you to the many people who looked into this !!

A brief report back to you:
* The most popular theory was that the marks were made by deer rubbing their antlers on the bark, with a minority view that it could be bobcats.
* But I found the most compelling explanation to be from Rick's cousin Rob who lives just a few miles away from the tree in question, and said, "This barking on a red maple is done with the lower incisor teeth of a moose."
* And the overall most wonderful response was this, from our friend Ranger Bill in upstate New York: "On Saturday, I went skiing through one of the state forests nearby and saw a perfect imprint in the snow of a large hawk that had hit the snow (spread eagle, shall we say). Details of tail feathers and wings very distinct, and the light footprints of a red squirrel that dead-ended at the hawk imprint. No blood was noticeable. I entertained myself imaging the life and death struggle. I came back a few days later with a camera, and of course, it had all melted and distorted. Such a fleeting image. Most wildlife events are instantaneous, gone in a second. I always think its pretty neat to find evidence later, and then try to piece together a story. Who is going to tell you are wrong? Its your story, you can tell it any way you like. How cool is that!"


Have a great week, all !
Steve