The future of books?

I read an interesting article today by Salon contributor Paul Lafarge on Why the book’s future never happened. Lafarge was referring to hypertext fiction, a non-linear “literature” that apparently was ahead of its time. When technology caught up, the genre was OBE (overcome by events ) and made obsolete like a four track tape (my father had a player and about 15 tape…superseded almost immediately by the eight track) by the Internet. Or maybe not. Read the article and decide for yourself. I investigated a little hypertext fiction and found it to be quite irritating. Perhaps it was only the non-linearity … when I read fiction, I like it to flow (do not confuse “flow” with “stream of consciousness”). But I don't think so. The links in the examples I saw seemed to be only links for the sake of linking…adding no value to the story, no continuation of the context. Bizarre plot devices are usually not received well anyway, so my annoyance with the hypertext genre of fiction is not surprising. I did find some of the comments to Lafarge’s article informative, so I encourage you to drill down. I don’t know if hypertext is the future of fiction, but electronic books seem to be. I love printed books – clearly, as I/we own more than 5500 of them. But I recently (late to the game as always) inherited my wife’s iPad after she bought an iPad 2 and have discovered the convenience of electronic books. I read a few on my iPhone, but the seven or so page flicks to read a single page of printed text tends to tedium. A few folks I know have Kindles or Nooks that they like (my wife uses the Kindle app on her iPad), but I’m pleased to have an ebook reader and the other features of the tablet. I can take a few moments at any point of the day to read a couple of pages or sit down and read an entire book without having to carry the hard copy…unless I want to. I miss Borders, and hope other chains don’t die, but I’m liking the technological alternative. I find one feature of the ebook reader I've settled on particularly useful. When I read a book to learn something, I like to make notes but too often never go back to them, as I’m reading new books and making more notes. With the electronic version, I can highlight the text or drop a bookmark and the reader keeps track of them for me. I’ve reloaded a couple of books I deleted after reading when I discovered that…embarrassing, as I’m usually pretty savvy with those things, but it hadn’t occurred to me that I could use the technology to even more of my advantage. So, I’m not going to call myself a convert because I will always treasure the feel of paper in hand, but I foresee continuing to enjoy the benefits of electronic versions of books. I just wish my various apps I like to use could each see the others’ books. I like the some of the features of one, some of another, but iTunes and the brilliance (snort) of the iOS folks forces me to load multiple copies of a book to each app if I want to read it in more than one. Not the only flaw that annoys me, but one that pertains to this post… Happy reading. However you manage it.

Continue ReadingThe future of books?

Derivative madness

Thought we bailed them out, Wall Street banks continue with much of their destructive behavior. Exhibit A: They hold 95% of Derivatives. How can we stop the madness? Large U.S. bank speculation in derivatives, the very thing which caused the economic crisis of 2008, is going on more than ever. JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have some 95% of such exotic investments, with only a small percentage being held by the tens of thousands of other banks in the US. Each of the current large bank holders of derivatives were recipients of bailout funds under the TARP. The federal law (Glass-Steagall) which had prevented banks from involving themselves in such ultra-risky transactions was repealed in 1996, and its replacement was a hard fought losing battle to pass the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. The proposed CFTC regulations to limit the type and numbers of such positions taken by commercial banks on such financial investments are being challenged even before they are made final. One of the new items proposed to be regulated is the type, number and amounts of positions taken on West Texas Light Crude oil which is a benchmark for the international price per barrel of oil. Previously, the WTLC market was regulated in Dubai and the UK and not in the US, so speculators could do as they pleased with those oil prices and not be subject to US regulation or even US scrutiny. It is commonly agreed that speculators add as much as 40% more to the price of a barrel of oil. The proposed CFTC regulations anger large speculative investors and they have threatened lawsuits even before the regulations go into effect. One method of suppressing speculation is a financial transaction tax. Some experts say that a broad series of financial transaction taxes will provide additional revenues to countries and also serve to prevent the kind of wholesale speculation in derivatives and other such exotica which gave us the world economic crisis in 2008. Taxing authorities could also provide regulators real-time information on the positions of various investors to monitor and avoid abuses. The European Community is about to impose such a tax on financial transactions to deter speculators and to raise revenues. Perhaps we in the US may do likewise.

Continue ReadingDerivative madness

Economist Joseph Stiglitz speaks to the Wall Street Occupiers

As reported at Slate, economist Joseph Stiglitz spoke words of support to the Occupiers of Wall Street:

You are right to be indignant. The fact is the system is not working right. It is not right that we have so many people without jobs when we have so many needs that we have to fulfill. It’s not right that we are throwing people out of their houses when we have so many homeless people. Our financial markets have an important role to play. They’re supposed to allocate capital, manage risks. But they misallocated capital, and they created risk. We are bearing the cost of their misdeeds. There’s a system where we’ve socialized losses and privatized gains. That’s not capitalism; that’s not a market economy. That’s a distorted economy, and if we continue with that, we won’t succeed in growing, and we won't succeed in creating a just society.

Continue ReadingEconomist Joseph Stiglitz speaks to the Wall Street Occupiers