finta.com

Best line of the young New Year so far goes to Matthew Yglesias (writing about Mitt Romney):

There's a sense that a lot of us have that our public policy ought to be aiming to produce large gains for everyone. You often hear that for one reason or another the United States "can't afford" this or that. We "can't afford" to pay people Social Security benefits. We "can't afford" to build high-speed trains. We "can't afford" to give everyone early childhood education. But why can't we afford this stuff? Are we a poor country? No, we're not. We're one of the richest countries that's ever existed. Are we a poorer country than we used to be? No, we're not. But a very large share of the gains we've made over the past three decades have gone to a relatively small number of people. If the gains had been broadly shared, then the burden of paying for that basic infrastructure and public services would have to be very broadly shared. But the gains have been very concentrated, and so if we're going to afford that stuff, a large share of the revenue has to come from the people who've gotten the money.

That's not envy, that's math.

This is the output from my Everyday app on my iPhone. I started somewhere in March and got nearly a photo a day after that. Look close and you may see yourself in there.

Happy New Year -

December 24, 2007:

December 23, 2011:

Hungary's Constitutional Revolution

Jamie Dimon recently:

"Acting like everyone who's been successful is bad and that everyone who is rich is bad -- I just don't get it,"

This is not what "everyone", let alone anyone is saying. What they are saying is that rich people are not paying taxes at the same rate as most other people, for many reasons. Defending yourself or your industry in this way makes you look like a petulant ass.

I didn't know who Dimon was until 2008, and when I first saw him on TV when the crisis started he seemed like one guy who sort of got it. But he isn't. They (the bankers) can not see themselves from the outside, and why would they want to? It is hard to look at yourself honestly - but when your a complete disaster it is even worse.

What does your work day consist of? What needs to get done in the course of a day, especially a Monday? Mine is pretty full, and probably the last thing I should be doing is waxing meta on it, but sometimes you just need to clear your head to get to work (me anyway).

Monday morning - check my email. File some stuff, delete some spam posts from some blogs I maintain. The weekend was sort of quiet - but then I did turn comments off on a couple of sites that were just getting spammed over and over.

Financial - check the business bank account - by noon or so usually the accounts are updated. What did we receive, from clients, affiliates - what checks cleared, who do I have to pay today? Who owes us? Who do I need to remove from my sites, etc?

Check the forum - anything wrong? Approve new users. Need to make a post for someone who needs help. Need to publish the advertorial for a couple of new advertisers...

Stats - Google Analytics, over 20+ sites to glance over (not counting clients) - things seem pretty normal. Probably come back to this later in more depth.

AdSense - how much money did we make over the weekend? Is it up or down? Anything glaring stick out?

Affiliate sales - check a few of the more major and/or interesting ones - need to add more to many sites.

My to do list - continually expanding. There is a ton of development to do on my own websites and blogs. Then I have several clients sites to consider on a near daily basis (spam, form submissions, SEO, etc.). Plus actual new production work - there is a website to be converted into a new CMS, etc. And another who wants an estimate for the same kind of work. And another - now that I think about it! Must add that to the to do list.

Overseeing a project at the moment that I have a freelancer on for one of my own sites - need to check on that and her too.

Clients - not only website work, but consulting and marketing. I'm in charge of an affiliate program for a sport shoe retailer. Need to check their stats, ad spending, new affiliate applications, etc. Need to come up with a proposal for a similar client in Tennessee.

Caribmart.com - my map shop for Caribbean maps. Need to check inventory and look over the weekend sales.

And that is just a taste. That is Monday, and then most mornings of the week. I usually end up only getting any real "new" work done on holidays and weekends. Most of the time is just spent making sure clients and customers are happy and that something isn't falling apart, broken, spammed, out of stock, etc. Plus I need to make sure the server is running!

There has to be a better way...

This was from an afternoon of ice skating in Florence in 2007:

There is a lot of stuff in this animation:

I have a lot of friends, family, acquaintances, etc. and whenever our conversation turns political/financial I end up hearing mostly the usual (and WRONG) talking points about the deficit, spending, taxes, etc. It seems nearly everyone has been conditioned to believe some things that are just not true - like Social Security is bankrupt (it isn't and won't be for a long time), that taxes are too high (they are historically low, especially for the wealthy), but most of all that it is the deficit, deficit, deficit that is ruining us and we have to cut spending.

Well I read a lot, and one thing I have learned since the crisis is that there are many people who talk/write/pontificate on all of these matters, and that unfortunately most of them are wrong, and yes - friends, family and acquaintances you should stop listening to them!

Maybe in the future I will list all the people and media channels that are mostly wrong (that is a long list and will take a lot of time) - but now I just want to mention a few that have been right: Joe Stieglitz, Paul Krugman, and Dean Baker.

Here is a recent paragraph from Baker, dismantling yet another commenter who says we are (or will be) Greece:

"In short, the comparison with Greece is utterly baseless. People are making this comparison to advance their agenda for cutting Social Security and Medicare. It absolutely should not be taken seriously."

"It absolutely should not be taken seriously" - we all need to know this, and be able to tell people why.

And I don't want to hear about politics, left, right, center, etc. The three economists I mentioned have been right on the facts for years. They are right, as in factually correct. This isn't opinion. The people who have (and continue to be!) wrong may scream louder and get on TV more, but that only makes them even more dangerous for the rest of us. It doesn't make them right. You (friends, family, acquaintances) need to get right too. We're running out of time on this mess, and there just isn't any excuse not to know the facts.

We saw the Fleet Foxes last night in Bologna at Estragon. I have decent videos of a few songs that I am going to post soon. Robin Pecknold played "I Let You" which I did not get - but it was just like in the video below. The guy is really something, and the band was great:

"There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it."

― Henry Moore

AIR MAIL is an altered book. You can see the whole set on flickr.

You can see this painting at REVERSO INTERIORS, Borgo San Frediano, 134/r Firenze, Italia email alexfi1966@libero.it for inquiries.

Private collection