What is The Brookings Institution and Why Should I Care?

"The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions. Celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2006, Brookings analyzes current and emerging issues and produces new ideas that matter - for the nation and the world." Sounds pretty cool. Check out their Web site, they are certainly doing a BUNCH of stuff that matters. Much of it I'm sure will be of interest to just about anyone, as their reach is so broad. They seem to be quite transparent, publishing news and transcripts of their findings and their studies.

While on their Web site, be sure to check out their Board of Trustees. Members of this board also serve on the boards of about 45 other companies and institutions. It's sort of a "who's who" of formulating the public discourse for intellectual society and culture. They are a nonprofit as they claim, but there is no way that they can be as devoted to "independent research" as they claim to be with these corporate ties... Or can they?

They seem to have their hands on a lot of really wonderful programs and research, and I'm sure without the influence of those sitting on corporate boards they would not be able to receive the funding that they need to make this stuff happen. They also say things and promote ideas that are--at least on the surface--quite progressive. The articles they have published on the Web, for the most part, seem to me to be fair, balanced, insightful, and yes, independent of corporate influence. In this case--it seems that an honest voice manages to remain honest despite close connections to corporate interests.

The Corporate Elite

Many people (including me) throw around the term "corporate elite." So who are the coroprate elite? What does the term really mean?

The corporate elite are those at the heads of the world's major corporations. Last year, 294 executives of area companies received packages worth $1 million or more. Check out what the top 100 CEOs earned in 2004. Many of these people sit on not just one, but several corporate boards. The network amongst these people is deep and wide.

I just found an excellent Web site that consists of a database that lists the corporate boards of all of the top US companies, (www.theyrule.net) and links them together. For instance, the May Department Stores Company (which owns Filene's, Kaufmann's, Lord & Taylor, and several other chains) has both Joyce M. Roche and Helene L. Kaplan on its corporate board. Roche also sits on the corporate boards of both SBC Communications and Anheuser-Bush. Kaplan also sits on the corporate boards of Met Life, Exxon Mobil, and J.P. Morgan Chase. On the corporate board of Exxon Mobil sits William R. Howell. Howell sits on the boards of Haliburton, American Electric Power, Pfizer, and Williams Companies, Inc.

So I've listed three people--namely Joyce M. Roche, Helene L. Kaplan, and William R. Howell--and we see that among them they sit on the corporate boards of 10 companies that are responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars moving around in the world economy. Three people--with influence over hundreds of billions of dollars. Safe to say that they are members of the corporate elite.

TheyRule allows you to enter two companies and see how the members of their corporate boards are linked. And one of the most interesting features is the saving and loading of "maps." A "map" in this context is a connection of corporate directors to the boards they sit on and to each other. Individuals have created hundreds of maps and saved them on this site that show strong connections between everything from G. H.W. Bush to Bill Clinton, to Big Oil and the Military Industrial Complex, right down to Coke and Pepsi... The links also extend into the cabinets of both Bush and Clinton, educational institutions, the stock markets...

Big business is united with Democrats and Republicans, colleges and universities, banks, the news media, and even armies... Virtually nothing stands in their way. The only thing that can is the united will of the people. Unfortunately, politics and business (in the form of the media) stand firmly opposed to the unity of the people, because they realize it would mean the end of their hegemony. Who else besides me thinks it's time we saw right through the propeganda of divisiveness and united to fight the common enemy of the people?

China To Spend 180 Billion Dollars To Boost Renewable Energy Use

Beijing (AFP) Nov 07, 2005
China said Monday it would spend about 180 billion dollars over the next 15 years to increase its use of renewable energy to 15 percent of the total generated, from the current seven percent.

http://www.terradaily.com/news/energy-tech-05zzzzzzzzc.html

Quote:
"Renewable energy, including solar, wind power and hydropower, will contribute to better energy security in China," said Zhang.

"It also delivers substantial economic and environmental results, alleviating poverty."

In the coming 15 years China will develop biomass energy, which stems from plant and animal matter, and hopes to replace ten million tons of petroleum with renewable energy annually, Zhang said.

so many people brush off peak oil by saying "we'll just switch to alternatives. nuclear, biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, etc." to which i always respond "how much is it going to cost to convert our infrastructure? how long is it going to take?" here's some evidence: it's going to take 15 years and 180 billion for china to go from 7% to 15% (still woefully inadequate). anyone STILL think we can just switch to alternatives and the problem will just vanish?

Gasoline prices going down... for now... why?

In the days before hurricaines Katrina and Rita crippled US oil production and refining capacity, a gallon of regular unleaded was $2.55 at my local gas station. That soared as high as $3.29 before beginning a slow and somewhat steady decline to its current level--$2.19. Pretty good, pretty cheap, all things considered.

I would assume that few people have stopped and thought about exactly why gas and crude oil prices are on the decline. They probably assume that with all of the whining about price gouging--gasoline retailers and oil companies got the message. Or they might not even care to think about it at all, since the hundreds of miles they drive per week just got a whole lot cheaper. Well, here's something you may or may not have known: On September 2nd, the IEA (International Energy Agency) decided to release 2 million barrels per day of crude oil and "refined product" from Europe's strategic reserve to the American market.

These are wholesale prices--so taxes and such are not included. See the huge drop in prices towards the beginning of September and the mostly steady decline since then? The small upward curve represents the effects of hurricane Rita. But otherwise prices are going down, down, and down since September 2 when this 2 mbpd was released from the European reserve. What do you think is going to happen when the 2 mbpd stops?

Well, we're going to find out. The IEA has not posted the announcement on their Web site yet, but they recently declared that the 2 million barrels per day from Europe will indeed stop. "Not because they are hateful meanies, but because, after all, it is Europe's strategic reserve and they can't sell it all to us because, well, some strategic emergency might come up for them, too." (quote from linked source). There will be a 1-2 week period where shipments that were in transit or supplies that were already earmarked for shipment get delivered and such... But after that, we will most likely face supply shortages--just in time for the winter heating season. Yes, we can take 2 mbpd out of our own strategic reserves for a while--but aside from a reletively tiny 2 million barrel Northeast Home Heating Oil reserve, US reserves do not include refined products. So that doesn't really help us where refinery capacities are an issue.

I'm sure that there are good people thinking about this problem and devising a way around it... While I'm sure the rest of the world would like us to stop using 25% of the world's oil resrouces while we only produce 5%, but nobody in the American government wants Americans to have to deal with shortages and rising prices. So there is no doubt some movement to mitigate the effects of this recent announcement by the IEA. Interesting though that information about all of this is very difficult to come by. You really have to be a news-hound or you have to be searching for it.

In any case, don't be surprised if by December we see gasoline, crude oil, and heating fuel costs begin to rise again as the 2 million barrels per day from the European reserve are removed from circulation. Fill your tanks now... And please don't blame oil companies or the government--blame the culture of comfort and consumption that we are slaves to...

Instant Runoff Voting

I had a nice blog entry almost finished where I again showed that the movement to debunk peak oil is filled with a bunch of economists that say "people have said we were running out of resources in the past, and it's never happened, so it obviously never will!" while the petrolium geologists all still agree that production is in the process of peaking over the next few years. But of course Firefox crashed before I could publish it, further supporting my dad's advice that I should compose the blog entries in a word processor (though he suggests that mostly so he won't have to be my spell-checker).

Anyway, since it's election day and since my blog entry on bogus peak-oil debunking articles wasn't fated to happen, I'd like to introduce you to (or remind you of, if you know about this already) Instant Runoff Voting.

"IRV is a reform that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, so that in cases where there is no initial majority winner, a runoff recount can be conducted without a new election to determine which candidate is actually preferred by a majority of voters."

It opens elections to a wider number of candidates, eliminates the "spoiler" factor for alternative parties, and allows a winner to be chosen based on a true majority rather than a plurality. I, for one, believe that America should adopt Instant Runoff Voting immediately, but of course changing anything at the Federal level is quite impossible. So I will be contacting my state and local officials to raise the issue on the local level where some progress may actually be made.

Movie Recommendation

Me and You and Everyone We Know

I just watched this with the wife... Some movies are cool and refreshing like a glass of water. Some are sweet and bubbly like a can of cola. Some are trite and inconsequential, like the plastic bottle of "red drink" you might find at the local "convenience" store. Me and You and Everyone We Know is a fine red wine. Complex. Roll it around your tongue and discover different flavors--some bitter, some sweet, and some you just can't explain.

People are sad, disconnected, and ashamed. People are open books. People express love with the innocence of a child. Children are not quite so innocent. People are alone in an interconnected universe. People are peering over the edge of the cliff into the abyss of freedom and happiness--terrified of falling.