Travel & carbon trading

Babies grow so fast! It's only been a couple of months, and my grandson has doubled his size and become sharp enough to recognize that Grandma is actually a stranger. Each smile won doubled in value by virtue of its scarcity, like oil.

On the plane home, I read "Conning the Climate" by Mark Schapiro in Harper's (Feb 2010). I wanted to puke. If what he says about cap-and-trade is true (likely), and if my instincts are accurate (admittedly dubious), the sociopaths that gamed our financial system to near death are onto something new and not-so-new, playing a frighteningly similar game with carbon trading ("the fastest-growing commodities market on earth"). In the good old days I might have theorized that organized crime had taken us over, but no, I think it's individualistic sociopaths having a hell of a good time gaming each other and to hell with us insignificant and uninteresting ordinary people. It's enough to send an otherwise down-to-earth citizen, taking poetry classes and trips to enjoy nature and family, off to the boonies to hole up in a shack in the woods with neither running water nor internet access, struggling to become a good buddhist.

I remember well when the banking system forced us former savers into dubious investments by shriveling the interest rates on savings to effectively less-than-zero when inflation is figured in. I kicked and screamed and refused to cooperate for years, having concluded (with brilliant insight I might add) that the market is a colossal gambling casino that best serves players that can afford to lose. I nurse the heartfelt conviction that the savings interest evaporation was a conscious ploy to pull more money into the sociopath playground.