March 18

 Cold this morning--much below normal. Continues what we had coming in yesterday. The wind made what would have been mild temperatures very cold indeed.

Oh, my--The Former Guy just posted on his (Un-)Truth (Un-)Social that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in New York and urges his supporters to (protest). Are we looking at the second iteration of January 6? However, the news reporters noted that this might be a figment in what passes for TFG's mind. His lawyers say they haven't been informed by the New York DA's office. We have turned off the news because this speculation is dominating the time.

Interesting post on The Grey Mirror this morning in light of the last week of banking mini(?) crises. The article describes the banking system as an unstable arrangement whereby the banks "borrow short" and "loan long." That system is basically losing money and needs continuous infusions of cash to prevent a crash. It is a long article and goes into some esoteric (for a non-economist like me) but it raised an observation in my mind: the system of borrowing short and loaning long would only be feasible in a period of economic growth when one might reasonably expect expanded resources to fund a money losing scheme. Recessionary periods are, by definition, marked by declining growth which would dry up the resources with which to continue an unstable situation.

Some years ago I had a Chieftains album which featured a song about the "San Patricios." I was intrigued enough to look up some of the story on line. Patheos posted this article on the Batallón de San Patricio. The lyrics for John Riley (featured on the Chieftains Album Santiago) condenses some of the complaints of the Catholic Irish (and Catholic Germans) against the U.S. and the U.S. Army which led to their desertion and reforming as a battalion to fight for Mexico in the War of North American Invasion, as the Mexican-American War is known in Mexico. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

So, according to Medium, the Boom Generation is hated by those coming after, i.e., Millennials, Gen Z etc. There are parts of the criticism I can agree with and I am an early Boomer (born before 1950). My own history is somewhat mixed as to whether I benefited by being a part of that generation. I did get affordable college paid for part in part by GI Bill benefits (but as a Vietnam era vet my benefits were considerably less generous than for the "Greatest Generation") supplemented by part time summer jobs. At least until my last period in college when most of the student aid had shifted from scholarships and non-repayable grants to loans and the costs for books, fees, and tuition started climbing into the stratosphere. I never really got the kind of career that had been promised. Much of the criticism of Boomers fail to realize that the policies attributed to Boomer financial and political leaders were continuations of policies established by the previous generation. It takes a long time to change the direction of and philosophy governing a society. Another thought: the focus on the intergenerational antipathy fails to consider the problem of "unintended consequences." Doing A may accomplish desired B but undesired C or D. For a good treatise on that take a look at After the Ivory Tower Falls by Will Bunch.