Doug Mohney weighs in (though he misspells Keith Cowing’s name — a common error). The SLS is fiscally insane.
Category Archives: Business
For Aspiring Space Engineers
…some advice.
Propellant Depots Going Mainstream
Ken Chang has an article about them in the New York Times. And over at The Space Review today, Andrew Gasser of Tea Party in Space defends them from the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt being sown by the defenders of the status quo.
Philistines
Why architects design such awful buildings. I think something similar goes on in the fashion industry. And if we don’t get how wonderful their creations are, there’s something wrong with us.
Lileks, call your office. I think that Tom Wolfe had something to say about this as well.
Can’t Get Good Goons These Days
Some thoughts on the upcoming ignominious end to Occupy Wall Street:
…the value of the sword of Damocles is that it hangs, not that it falls. Obama told Wall Street that he was the only thing standing between them and the pitchforks. That scared them into line for a while. But now Wall Street’s sick of him, and doesn’t care. They’re not playing ball like they used to.
So he unleashed the pitchforks and what we got was the #occupy movement, a pathetic, and totally non-scary, embarrassment for the Democrats. Republicans are now hoping they’ll stay in place until November of 2012.
That Alinsky stuff just doesn’t work like it used to.
[Update a couple minutes later]
When rage becomes the machine.
Pay The Americans Now, Or Pay The Russians Later
I have a post up at Open Market about the penny-wise-pound-foolishness of Congress with Commercial Crew.
What Could Go Wrong?
The EU is considering banning publication of European bond ratings. While they’re at it, they might also want to consider removing all the batteries from their smoke detectors, as a fire-prevention measure.
Back Space Taxis
…or pay more to the Russians. A rapid-fire Reuters dispatch on Lori’s talk this morning, from Irene Klotz, who’s sitting behind me.
[Afternoon update]
Alan Boyle (who’s sitting next to Irene): Pay the Americans now, or pay the Russians later.
The European Identity Crisis
The real problem isn’t financial:
A disciplined Teutonic economic order does not suit the French way of life; orderly, inflation-fighting Prussian capitalism is only slightly less horrible than the Anglo-Saxon law of the jungle from a French point of view. At the end of the day, France may simply be incapable of adjusting to the rigors of a German economic style; if so, the question of the nature of the monetary union turns into an irreconcilable contest between two fundamentally different approaches to political economy. Either France (and the rest of the Latins and Greeks) must live under German rules, or the Germans (and the other thrifty and orderly northern countries) must become more like Zorba the Greek.
The inability to square this circle is the real reason it is taking Europe so long to figure out how to deal with the euro crisis. Europe is having an identity crisis — and this is not something that can be settled in a weekend.
Or perhaps ever. At least not peacefully.
Integrity At NASA
The Tea Party in Space is very concerned about the Shuttlyndra.