Dana Blankenhorn

The Sun Shines, The Wind Blows, and Watch Houston Become Detroit

Nearly a decade ago, having been tossed to the curb by ZDNet for calling out a “privacy” lobbyist as an industry shill, I changed the headline of this blog to focus on renewable energy.

“There is no energy shortage. The sun shines, the wind blows, the tides roll, we live on a molten rock.”

Tidal and geothermal energy have yet to make major contributions to our energy mix, but the Sun does indeed shine and the wind does indeed blow. More important is the cheapest form of renewable energy, efficiency, and which is always before us.

Today, U.S. energy demand is just passing its year 2000 peak. This is true despite Gross Domestic Product, the economy’s production of goods and services, rising from $13.131 trillion in 2000 to last year’s $18.566 trillion.  That’s 41% more economic activity with no increase in energy use.

Decoration Day

The holiday known as Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day.

It was established in 1868 to memorialize the Union victory over the South and the Slave Power.

The pro-slavery attitudes of the South never died, however. It became the “Noble Cause.” It remains ignoble today.

Jim Crow is one testament to it. So is opposition to the Civil Rights cause, the “duality of the southern thing.” Whites prohibiting “miscegenation” made every mixed-race baby a crime until 1967, six years after our 44^th President was born. I’ll explain why this is funny in a moment.

Human Capital and the 1980 Game

In 2020, we will be 12 years removed from the first political triumph of technology, the generational election of Barack Obama. All his progress is now being undone, much as a generation ago oil’s gains were threatened by Jimmy Carter and his cardigan sweater.

As we prepare to play the 1980 Game the question becomes, who is Ronald Reagan now? (It’s usually phrased, “Who Can Beat Trump?”) The answer lies in what drives our economy today, and in what drove it then.

I remain confident in the ultimate triumph of Democracy because, today, human capital is the gating factor to economic growth.

Getting Around

I have had the same bicycle for almost 40 years.

It’s a road bike with a Romic frame, hand-made by a Hungarian refugee. The derailleurs are by Campagnolo, the gearing Shimano.

It’s very nice. It cost me three teeth. A car ran into me, crushing my old bike, in early 1981, and this was offered by my mechanic as the replacement.

I mention this only to show I have experience in getting around an urban place without gasoline.

My strangest finding over that time is that Houston is a better city for bicycling than Atlanta, if you’re trying to go someplace. That’s because Houston is flat. Hills cost energy and limit the distance you can travel comfortably.

Where Elizabeth Warren is Wrong

Like a lot of people, I admire Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, or as the great Charlie Pierce calls her Senator Professor Warren (SPW).

But, again like most people, I can’t vote for her for President.

The reason, in my case, is Warren’s attitude to the Cloud Czars. Warren is staking a big part of her candidacy on running against them.

Let’s set aside, for a moment, the fact that the Czars – Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook – now command a combined market cap of nearly $4.5 TRILLION. Never mind that they dominate the business world, or that democracy always follows the Golden Rule – he who has the gold makes the rules. Democrats aren’t going to win the White House over the objection of the Czars and the bulk of the technology industry.

My beef here has to do with her proposal to break up the Czars, starting with Amazon.

Her argument against Amazon is that the company can see which brands people are buying, then put an Amazon version into the market and wipe out the other seller. It’s like she never heard of store brands.

Store brands have been a feature of American retailing practically since brands. Kroger does it with food. Target does it with clothes. Walmart does it with both. Walmart calls their store brands “Great Value.”