Manufacturing nothing

The financial downturn, or recession (there, I said it!) has multiple causes. Here's just one, courtesy of Charles Hugh Smith, via The Economist.

U.S. corporate profits no longer come from what Americans produce, or make with their hands, i.e. manufacturing. What Americans do, at least those of the wealthy variety, is to manipulate financial instruments (financial gaming), via computer keystrokes.

The American financial-services industry's share of total corporate profits rose
from 10% in the early 1980s to 40% at its peak last year. Its share of stock
market value grew fr om 6% to 19%. These proportions look all the more
striking—even unsustainable—when you note that financial services account for
only 15% of corporate America's gross value added and a mere 5% of
private-sector jobs.

So 5 percent of the U.S. workforce made 40 percent of the total corporate profits from playing around with risky, hard-to-understand paper.

To drop a 1984 Dire Strait's reference on you, that's "money for nothing."

Best-selling author receives gift of Moxie

[Best-selling author, Tess Gerritsen, at LPL; the six-pack of Moxie is sitting in the plastic bag to her right.]


Tess Gerritsen is a wildly successful writer. While her genre of medical thrillers isn’t my given choice of reading, I thought I’d take advantage of her appearance in Lewiston and see if I could ascertain what differentiates the Tess Gerritsens of the writing world, from the rest of us run-of-the-mill types. The woman’s one of America's most popular novelists, for gawd’s sake, having sold around 15 million books that have apparently been translated into 31 languages. Now that’s popular, chummy!

Gerritsen, who lives in Camden, was speaking at Lewiston Public Library’s Great Falls Forum, at noon on Thursday. She’s spoken in the area on other occasions and I’ve always missed her appearances. This time, I managed to get away from work for a bit, grabbed a sandwich and a six-pack of Moxie (more about that later) and headed downtown to the library.

The topic of her talk, “I’ve Got a Great Idea for a Book! (Or Do I?…),” brought out a number of the types that come to hear writers like Gerritsen, hoping that they’ll receive something by osmosis that might get them off the snide and into print. I actually sat next to a couple of folks who are at the talking stage of writing a book. What’s the “talking stage” of a book? It’s the “I have an idea for a book, but I can’t find the time to write it,” or, worse, “I know I have a book in me, but I’m not sure what it is.” WTF?

Now I’m no Tess Gerritsen, but the only way that I know to move a book from talk to finality, is to write. Profound, eh? I hesitate to offer writing advice, seeing that I’ve got exactly one book to my name, with another on the way, but really, I’m weary of hearing so-called writers whine about their lack of production and excuses why they can’t finish what they start out working on. Shut off the television; write after work, or early in the morning before work. Just get it done, my friend.

I found Gerritsen’s talk interesting. She’s obviously an exceptionally bright woman and a voracious researcher. She shared a number of humorous stories and anecdotes about how some of her books have developed. I enjoyed her story about her Chinese immigrant mother, who had an appetite for horror movies, taking young Tess to a wealth of 60s era films. That “bump in the chest” that she felt during these films is what she aims to evoke to her readers with her books.

Gerritsen spends a wealth of time researching material for her books, so she obviously is able to create authenticity of subject matter. Speaking of authenticity, I’ve emailed her several times. About a year ago, I inquired about possibly endorsing a book I was working on for another author. She emailed me back, and while she didn’t commit, she seemed sincere enough. Unlike some other well-known writers who live in Maine, with their coterie of handlers, shielding them from the public, Gerritsen seems to relish keeping in touch with fans. The fact that she blogs and shares some interesting stuff impresses me.

Recently, I emailed her again about whether she might be interested in contributing a Moxie story/anecdote for a chapter in the new book. Once again, she responded and told me that she had never tried Moxie. She wasn’t even sure where to find it. I jokingly wrote back that she’s been in Maine long enough and that it’s about time she took the plunge.

Deciding to have some fun with this, I was able to score a six-pack of mini-cans of Moxie, the drink invented by Maine native, Augustin Thompson, back in 1884. With its cult-following and niche popularity, Moxie is part of the culture of the Pine Tree State.

As soon as Ms. Gerritsen finished her talk, I quickly made my way to the table where she would be signing books. I introduced myself and she saw my paper bag. She asked me, “that’s not Moxie is it?” I presented my gift, she laughed, I shook her hand and that was my Thursday brush with writing royalty. I should have had someone snap my picture, but I didn’t think of that ahead of time. (did get one of her signing books, afterwards)

I enjoyed Gerritsen’s talk, but I sensed that some in the crowd of about 75 were disappointed because they weren't given that “silver bullet” of a book idea.

Note: The crowd makeup was interesting; predominantly over 55 and female. In fact, there were only 10-12 males in the room. Also, there didn't appear to be anyone under 30 present. I wondered if this is the demographic for Gerritsen's books?

Maine's news sources dry up

[I’ve been told that no one reads blog posts longer than 300-400 words. My site stats bear this out, but I don’t really care. If you can’t handle anything heavier than that, you know the drill—JB (note: photo is of Henry Louis Mencken) ]

What happened to my morning newspaper?

On Monday morning, our daily Portland Press Herald arrived in an emaciated state. Per usual, I made my daily 300 foot, 5:00 am trek up our driveway and across the busy road bordering our property. Upon retrieval of the newspaper from the delivery tube, I sensed the paper was thin, but it wasn’t until I was back in the light of my lighted kitchen did I know the story behind the paper’s paucity.

The nominally worthwhile, four-section Monday edition, had shrunk to only two. One of the sections I enjoyed, iHerald, a jazzed-up nod to twenty-somethings (who study after study show, don’t read newspapers), had been deep-sixed (or remaindered, online). The iHerald’s Favorites feature was one I actually looked for it each and every Monday, curious to see what local “celebrity” was featured. For the uninitiated, this section highligths someone with ties to greater-Portland, usually involved in some kind of creative endeavor (writing, making music, entrepreneurial business), but not always (local 20-something activist, cool community group) with a brief bio/explanation of what they do and their favorite web links. RiverVision Press and my writing/publishing actually graced the slot twice during 2006-2007. Given the paper’s reduction and lack of girth, as well as the loss of my favorite section, my wife heard me utter a familiar rhetorical question in our household, “why do we continue to subscribe to this piece-of-sh*t paper?”

Apparently, Jeannine Guttmann, in her semi-regular column, had provided an explanation for the source of my frustration, in Sunday’s Maine Sunday Telegram, the day before. Since Guttmann is a hit-or-miss proposition for me, I happened to miss that one, so Monday’s brief explanation took me by surprise.

In accessing the piece online, I found Guttmann to be in her typically lame, condescending writing mode, once more shilling for corporate ubiquity. Ms. Guttmann laid out her case for her paper’s shrinking content, with this opening.

If you're reading this column, you're probably a loyal reader of this newspaper. And when I write this column, I imagine that I'm speaking to you.

You are a member of that coveted group we call our "core readers." Demographically, you tend to be 44 years of age or older; you own your home; you are married or in a two-adult household; you have a college education; you have a higher income level than the Maine market average.

Many of you work in professional or technical careers, are self-employed or retired. Many of you are empty-nesters. You tend to be older Gen-Xers, boomers or the parents of boomers. You represent a huge cohort of people with sizable amounts of disposable income. And you love to read newspapers.

But let's go back to the age data again. Our core audience is solidly middle-aged or older. What about the younger folks?

Of course, let’s get back to the data!!

She goes on to tell us things that most of already know and have read elsewhere, written more convincingly, and interestingly, I might add.

Lamenting that here in Maine, ...our state’s been, buffeted by the dramatic waves of media transformation hitting the country. Some have called it a tsunami. With the rise of the Web and the loss of advertising that was once the exclusive domain of newspapers – think about all those classified and recruitment ads you've bought and read over the years – papers across the nation have to adjust.

"Adjust" means a smaller work force and a different product. Last week, our newspaper cut 27 staff positions, 15 of which were occupied. From the newsroom, with a staff of 103 full-time positions, we cut seven posts – five of which were occupied.

It is very difficult to say goodbye to colleagues and friends. It is very difficult to realize an end to one era is under way.

Of course, Ms. Guttmann assured those of us “core readers,” which according to her demographics, would be me that the content will not suffer. Yeah, right! Heard that line many before, coming from the mouth of similar corporate mouthpieces. Actually, heard something similar coming from her paper back in 2004.

I’m sure running a newspaper is tough, just like running any business is during difficult economic times. I’m not sure, given the data coming from other newspapers, with their dwindling circulations that dumbing down content for people who don’t (or can’t) read newspapers and cutting staff is going to stem the freefall in readership. That’s, just my opinion.

Give me some hard-hitting content

In my geographic area of the state, I’m in that newspaper “tweener” netherworld where subscribing to the Portland Newspapers’ product (Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram), with their maddening multi-edition way of publishing, means I get the Coastal Edition, which comes out of the Brunswick/Midcoast distribution area. This edition goes to print first, meaning I get no late sports scores; if the Sox play a game that goes to extra-innings, or starts later than 8:00 pm, I won’t get a result. I also miss late-ending local sports. Additionally, I rarely, if ever get any sports north, or west of Brunswick.

On the news side, their business section has some decent coverage of statewide issues and they actually do a decent job on workforce (my daytime job) and economic development-related stories with a statewide arc.

My other option, which I’ve gone with before (but currently am not) is to subscribe to two newspapers, including the Lewiston Sun Journal. This paper tends to have a more local orientation and is devoted to news north (north of Durham, but south of Augusta) and west of me. Even this paper, which I have a long and varied history with (I once delivered their afternoon Journal as a youngster, back in the day and was briefly employed as a regional circulation manager with the company during the 90s) has given me cause for concern. The content began to get “cuter” about two years ago and when they added their own “stupid” section for 20-somethings who need pictures and graphics to get the story (their “legendary” b-section), I quit the paper in a huff.

So, where the hell do I get my local news?

There are several weekly pubs circulating in our area. Turner Publications mails out a variety of community newspapers that are filled with advertorials, press release fare and business boosterism, but very little that I’d call “real news.” Ditto the Twin City Times and even The Forecaster newspapers, since taken over by the Sun Journal, seem to have cut out anything resembling investigative reporting.

One of the last local sources for actual hard news and capable reporting, the afternoon Brunswick Times Record has been bought by an out of state corporate entity. The Central Maine Newspapers are owned by The Blethen family, which owns and is selling The Portland Newspapers and the Bangor Daily News isn’t even an option for me, other than occasionally scanning articles online.

Interestingly, news still happens and sometimes that news isn’t always best served in a business/advertising-friendly format. The problem with running a newspaper entirely by financials and revenue sheets means that some of the hard-hitting journalism that used to find its way to the pages of Maine’s newspapers, has no print outlet.

For instance, those of you that have been stopping by Words Matter know that I grew up in Lisbon Falls, or as I am want to call it now, Moxietown. This town will always hold a special place in my heart and I’m who I am, for good, or for bad, because of the roots that are still planted deep in its rocky soil.

Over the past few months, I’ve become aware of matters that seemed a bit odd, even to an outsider. I’ve heard “whispers” about things, but nothing easily verified. Like when the town hired their new town manager, Steve Eldridge, who had left behind a somewhat checkered history in his former stint as town manager, in Rumford. In landing the job, he received a tidy compensation package from the community, which according to the Brunswick Times-Record, was set at $80,000/year.

Shortly after Eldridge took office, the town’s Economic and Community Development Director, Jennifer Stowell Norris resigned after five months on the job. I had the opportunity to meet Ms. Norris at the Growsmart Conference, back in the fall. Seeing her Lisbon name tag upon entering the day’s best breakout session, which featured one of my fave community-based writers, Stacy Mitchell of Big Box Swindle fame, I made a point of introducing myself to Jennifer at the end of the breakout.

I found out she had been hired by Lisbon and her passion and energy for my former hometown was evident. We had a 10-15 minute conversation, exchanged business cards and I told her I would follow-up with her, as I wanted to brief her on some of the workforce development projects I was working on that might benefit residents of her the municipality she was now serving. My belief is that workforce and economic development go hand-in-hand, and Jennifer agreed to meet.

When I met with her in late November, she informed me that she might be resigning. She couldn’t give me many of the details (at the time), but in February, I read an article by Michael Reagan, in the Brunswick Times Record about a possible fraudulent loan that Daniel Feeney, who was Ms. Norris’ predecessor, had made to a “non-existent business.”

Reagan, who no longer writes for the newspaper, is the only local reporter that I know of that has filed anything smacking of journalism on the town in recent memory. Until now that is.

In my job, I’m responsible for a five county region. I’ve already detailed the paucity of viable print news sources in our state. Being creative and fortunate to have acquired an education during an era when they actually taught students how to do research, I’m pretty good at ferreting out information. It also helps that I’ve actually done something resembling journalism, both as a freelancer and as a member of a collective practicing “direct action journalism” that once published that muckraking, spit-in-your-eye monthly, Portland Pigeon for two years, back in 2004/2005. In fact, I still maintain to this day that I’ve written the last “honest” article on a Maine-based professional sports team, with In Hadlock’s Shadow. I mention that to let you know that I appreciate journalism that has some connection to the history and tradition of news of the muckraking variety. I’ll even go a bit further. I think the problem with journalism today is that it often lacks credibility because of its obsession with ideological purity, over truth, or it caters to the corporate suite and doesn’t serve the needs of the people. Having said all that to say this, one source of news that I’ve utilized in the past, to find out what’s going on in remote areas of Oxford County, like Rumford, was an online entity called The River Valley Reporter, maintained by someone named Kevin Saisi.

For far too long, and for a variety of reasons, there has been too much misinformation and half-truths written and reported about Rumford, or the River Valley Region. Mr. Saisi tried to counter that and for that, I give him credit and acknowledge his efforts.

One issue that plagues the River Valley, is its geographic isolation from the trendiness of Portland and the pseudo-policymaking in Augusta. Additionally, it’s been an economically-depressed, rural region, with a heritage of working class values. In Maine and much of America, those qualities will always find you left out in the cold, or portrayed inaccurately when the big boys come calling.

When I visited Mr. Saisi’s site on Friday morning, to inquire about posting a press release (which I’ve done before), I immediately noticed a change. The former banner of The River Valley Reporter now read, The Rumford Reporter. I immediately checked my URL and knew I was at the correct site. Scrolling down the page, I stopped when I reached the headline reading, “Doar & Eldridge maintain close ties,” bylined by the initials, JSN. Reading down through a rather interesting piece, tying together the towns of Rumford and Lisbon, I discovered that JSN was, Jennifer Stowell Norris. Well I’ll be damned. Jennifer had landed back in Rumford and was bringing her passion for small towns to bear on this issue of “truthiness” (Stephen Colbert reference, not a typo) and the obvious lack thereof in the area’s print media. [The former small town newspaper in Rumford, the veritable Rumford Falls Times, has been bought by The Sun Journal—enough said there.]

I don’t know where all of this is going to lead. I know I learned some things about Rumford and my beloved Lisbon that I didn’t know. It certainly raised my awareness about the possibility that something is going on in Lisbon that I think taxpayers may want to be aware of. I also think it raises the issue of the public’s ability to get news.

Should the average citizen on the street require an internet connection, as well as some sleuthing ability to find out information that used to get reported by our area newspapers? Is the public served by an environment where officials who serve at the pleasure of the taxpayers and citizens of the town, can operate under the cover of darkness, or at least, the level of scrutiny that once existed when daily newspapers were more vibrant and arguably, practice a more hard-hitting version of news reporting?

I think these questions fit nicely with much of what I’ve written here in the past, tied to people in small communities, where my heart lies. I think they also fit well with some of the media criticism that I’ve done in this space. I’m hoping to hear more about the Rumford/Lisbon situation from The Rumford Reporter.

Boycotts build character

[I rip professional athletes on occasion; when they step up and act with integrity that deserves mention. Here's a case where the Red Sox showed character, particularly their veteran players, including Captain, Jason Varitek--JB]


FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP)—The Boston Red Sox ended a threatened boycott Wednesday of their final spring training game in Florida, resolving a dispute over paying coaches for the season-opening trip to Japan.

The televised game against Toronto started an hour late when players voted unanimously not to play the exhibition or to board Wednesday’s scheduled flight to Tokyo for the two-game series against Oakland on March 25 and 26.

Boston players insisted their coaches receive $40,000 appearances fees for the Japan trip, matching the deal negotiated for players by their union. After a few hours of talks among players from the Red Sox and Athletics, Major League Baseball, the clubs and the players’ association, the sides said the dispute had been resolved.

“We felt we had to make a stand, and being on ESPN didn’t hurt,” Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell said.

Major League Baseball agreed to pay the managers, coaches and trainers on the trip $20,000 each from management’s proceeds, a person familiar with the agreement said, speaking on condition of anonymity because details weren’t announced. The Red Sox agreed to make up the difference to make the amount equal, and to pay some of the other team personnel making the trip, the person said.

“The players just stepped up and they did what I think was right,” Boston bench coach Brad Mills said.

It had not yet between determined whether Oakland would make additional payments to its staff.

“Everyone connected with the trip will be fairly compensated,” baseball spokesman Rich Levin said.

Managers and coaches were included in the players’ pool payments for baseball’s two previous opening trips to Japan—the New York Mets played the Chicago Cubs in 2000 and the Yankees played Tampa Bay in 2004. But there was no such provision this time in the agreement between MLB and the players’ association.

In Phoenix, A’s players watched coverage of Boston’s dispute on television, called a team meeting and didn’t take batting practice before their game against a Los Angeles Angels’ split squad.

A’s player representative Huston Street emerged from the meeting and said the exhibition game would be played and Oakland players would make the trip.

“You have to stay firm in your belief, and I believe we’ve done that. Results have happened. That’s why we’re taking the field now. We wouldn’t be taking the field now if we didn’t firmly believe that the right thing was going to get done,” he said. “The right thing is going to get done. We’re going to play in Japan, and it’s going to be an incredible series that everybody has been looking forward to.”

Read the rest here.

Will rhetoric save the day?

The JWright/BObama incident and the presidential hopeful’s subsequent speech have something to say to America, but it will probably be lost on most of the voting public. Over the course of the past few days, we’ve all watched clips of Reverend Wright’s fiery oratory and prophetic pronouncements. While Wright’s opinions don’t necessarily represent the monolithic views of the black pastorate, I think they do represent a strain of theology that isn’t uncommon in many African-American churches.

Not surprisingly, media from across the spectrum have gotten the story wrong. If there’s one subject that media types know next to nothing about, it is theology and ecclesiastical polity. In fact, they wear their ignorance like a badge of honor. Add to the mix fiery rhetoric and a preaching style that few of the predominantly white media community have ever witnessed firsthand and you have the perfect storm required for getting everything wrong about this story. What makes this particularly galling is that many Americans, despite their carping about the MSM, will rely entirely on these misinformed, religious bigots, to interpret this story.

One of the better commentaries I’ve read is an essay by Tim Wise that ran yesterday, at Counterpunch. Do yourself a favor and read it from start to finish, even if it makes you squirm a bit. Wise writes, But here we are, in 2008, fuming at the words of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago--occasionally Barack Obama's pastor, and the man whom Obama credits with having brought him to Christianity--for merely reminding us of those evils about which we have remained so quiet, so dismissive, so unconcerned. It is not the crime that bothers us, but the remembrance of it, the unwillingness to let it go--these last words being the first ones uttered by most whites it seems whenever anyone, least of all an "angry black man" like Jeremiah Wright, foists upon us the bill of particulars for several centuries of white supremacy.

But our collective indignation, no matter how loudly we announce it, cannot drown out the truth. And as much as white America may not be able to hear it (and as much as politics may require Obama to condemn it) let us be clear, Jeremiah Wright fundamentally told the truth.

Barack Obama may be as deft as any politician I’ve encountered in my lifetime. Forced to walk a tightrope between a theology that he may in fact hold, at least in parts, and the need to comfort affluent white, well-educated liberals that overwhelmingly support him, Obama was able to hold Wright at arm’s length, without entirely tossing him under the bus of media backlash and right-wing outcry. His performance should also keep the elite types in his corner.

I don’t know exactly what Barack Obama holds to be true. Only a few people, privileged enough to be part of his inner circle do. I honestly hope that at his core, where values should reside that the prophetic teachings that he’s learned, sitting under his fiery pastor, will help guide him, if elected, to represent all Americans, not just the top one percent, or the corporate interests, or even the liberal elite, who get whisked out of the urban areas, by drivers, to their gated suburban enclaves.

Over the course of the past few months, I’ve allowed myself to depart from my original intent—to report on the horses in the horserace—but over the past couple of weeks, I find myself moving back to my original position that I held during the early days of the derby.

Despite Obama’s abundant rhetorical talent, I still have concerns that there is little difference between the two major corporately-controlled wings of American politics. Because of this, there’s probably very little that he can do to radically change the political crash course we’ll remain on.

In my opinion, Obama too often has appeared to appeal to people who are too busy, or too cool, or too “whatever,” to be bothered by politics.

As Ted Rall wrote, back in January, Obama can tell you that “there is something happening in America!” he just can’t tell you what it is." His speech yesterday helped lend a bit more definition to his political persona. Still, a part of me wonders why he didn’t give this speech earlier, when his motives would have been clearer, instead of because expediency required him to.

Speech, or no speech, I think David Walsh comes as close as anyone to “nailing” Obama for me. Sadly, the World Socialist Website isn’t a regular stop for most American’s when web surfing.