America This Week: September 18-24
Reminder: to listen to Walter Kirn and Matt Taibbi’s podcast edition of ATW, click here. Financial officials are like offensive linemen: if you’re not noticing them, they’re probably doing a great job. Fed chief Jerome Powell had a tough week, and was in the news everywhere. Metaphorically, he gave up about fifty sacks. But he wasn’t the only big headline this week. The top stories…
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a year ago · 169 likes · 76 comments · Matt Taibbi, Eric Salzman, and Daniel Medina
Listen to This Article: America This Week, September 18-24
The boundary between Stanford University and Palo Alto is a road built by Spanish missionaries, El Camino Real. Permanently parked are dusty, dreary, recreational vehicles. A mile of mobile housing; Winnebagos and vans and camper shells, a scene out of Steinbeck. Vagabonds, trying to eak out a living on the King's road, in sight of present and future billionaires.
Marina Del Rey, on the westside of Los Angeles near LAX, is a lovely public space with hundreds of magnificent sailboats and yachts. It was built by Howard Hughes. His erstwhile aircraft factory was within walking distance of the harbor, across Bologna Creek. The factory property was redeveloped years ago. Its grass runway (the longest in North America) is now luxury housing, a development called Playa Vista. Google converted two of the aircraft hangers into office space for software engineers. Jefferson Avenue runs along the northern boundary of Playa Vista, toward the Pacific Ocean. From it you can almost see the masts of the sailboats bobbing in the harbor. Permanently parked on the side of the road, a mile of vagabond mobile housing.
The economy has developed beautiful new ways to accumulate wealth. The federal government appropriates trillions of dollars in new spending, feeding a vast bureaucracy that seems to do nothing. Tech start-ups long to join the ranks of the FANG, a Mount Rushmore of immortal corporate vampires feasting on the carcasses of companies built upon obsolete business models. Behind the scenes, the magic of the federal reserve ensures the world's largest financial institutions never fear failure.
I noticed a new no-parking on a street near my house near Stanford. Vehicles longer than a prescribed length are not allowed to park overnight. We are Martha's Vineyard. Go, survive elsewhere.
https://www.losaltosonline.com/news/oversized-vehicle-enforcement-in-mtn-view-set-to-begin-in-october/article_62e722ae-2e0e-11ed-bb23-4347d87fc907.html
I'm worried that the "I'm so cold" comment comes from Snowden (?) in Catch 22. I read it when I was a kid, and wouldn't want to read it again, but the "I'm cold" is not pretty. Then God's cornucopia. Read it 40 years ago. fyi: my uncle did 32 missions (and more) and didn't lose any of his crew, somehow, but saw others fold-up off his wing. Not pretty.