Dear Soulmate,
I'm going to try to speak the words that my heart wants you to know I want you to see what you mean to me and why I love you so.Nobody else can know my thoughts and touch my soul like you can.No one can melt my heart like you do simply by holding my hand.With a loving glance or a tender kiss you make my cares isappear.Warm thoughts of you surround me and always keep you near. I need nothing more from you than this- to know that you'll always be mine.And the promise of your love in my life- until the end of time. You're in the galaxy of my love.Embarking on a holy mission.Traveling through space and time. Might I describe to you in detail my passions and desires for you? May I share with you, my love, your truest beauty through my eyes? Sweeter than the air I breathe is your voice in my straining ear. The comfort of your hand in mine will ever allay my deepest fears. To feel you quiver at my touch, it is the warmth of the summer sun. You hold me as if to never let go and we overcome the pain of the world. Refreshing as the rain on my face your laughter heals my very soul. Pray, my love, this dream never ends and I will not know a day without you. When you kiss me part of my soul drains away and becomes part of you. And I feel you do the same.I feel you become closer to me;I feel so loved and I feel the ecstasy.That only you could bring. I feel I could cry for I had stopped dreaming, long ago, of finding the perfect woman and even as the moment ends and our lips begin to part. I can still hear the pounding of my fragile heart. Now the kiss has passed, but the feeling doesn't leave as I fall back into your arms and begin to dream....
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
ARTICLE: CNBC.COM Summers: US faces a 'Downton Abbey' economy
Summers: US faces a 'Downton Abbey' economy
ECONOMY, GLOBAL ECONOMY, ECONOMIC NEWS, US ECONOMY, ECONOMICS, STATE OF ECONOMY, US STOCK MARKETS, US INDEXES, TREASURIES, COMMODITIES, LARRY SUMMERS, DAVOS, RICH, WEALTH, POOR, MOBILITY, INEQUALITY, LARRY SUMMERS, IMF, INTERNATIONAL, BARACK OBAMA, INCOME INEQUALITY, POLITICS, WEALTH, TAXES, GOP, POLICY, ECONOMY, US ECONOMY, U.S. MARKETS, UNEMPLOYMENT, BUSINESS NEWS
CNBC.com | Monday, 17 Feb 2014 | 3:46 AM ET
The U.S. is at risk of becoming a "Downton Abbey" economy, as the gap between the top 1 percent and the poor widens, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers has warned.
In a comment piece for the Financial Times, Summers highlighted that the share of income going to the top earners in the U.S. has increased sharply, while real wages and family incomes remain stagnant. These conditions will last beyond the normalisation of the economic cycle and budget deficits, Summers added.
(Read more: Making the rich poorer isn't the American Dream: Summers)
"The cumulative effect of all these developments is that the U.S. may well be on the way to becoming a Downton Abbey economy. President Barack Obama is right to be concerned. Those who condemn him for 'tearing down the wealthy' and engaging in un-American populism are, to put it politely, lacking in historical perspective," Summers wrote.
Summers, who was at one time in the frame to take over Ben Bernanke as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, added that President John Kennedy sent the FBI to audit executives' personal tax returns following a spike in steel prices, while President Richard Nixon insisted on tax investigations "of the books of companies which raised their prices more than 1.5 per cent above the January ceiling" he said.
Recent analysis by Oxfam, released ahead of last month's World Economic Forum held in Davos, found that 85 of the richest people in the world have accumulated as much wealth between them as half of the world's population.
(Read more: Larry Summers and the never-ending bubble economy)
The charity said the tiny elite of multibillionaires, who could fit into a double-decker bus, have piled up fortunes equivalent to the wealth of the world's poorest 3.5 billion people, boasting a collective worth of $1.7 trillion.
Oxfam also calculated that almost half the world's wealth, $110 trillion, is owned by just 1 per cent of its population. The group said 70 percent of people live in countries where the gap between the rich and poor has widened in the last 30 years.
Policies that prefer the rich, such as the capital gains exemption, the ability to defer tax on unrealised capital gains, and the tax-free nature of gains on assets that passed on at death reinforce inequality, however identifying policies that reduce inequality "is not enough" said Summers.
"To be effective they must also raise the incomes of the middle class and the poor. Tax reform has a major role to play. The current tax code is so badly designed that it is very likely to be having the effect of reducing economic growth. It also allows the rich to shield a far greater proportion of their income from taxation than the poor. For example, last year's increase in the stock market represented an increase in wealth of about $6 trillion, of which the lion's share went to the very wealthy," he added.
President Obama used his State of the Union address last month to highlight the growing disparity between America's richest and poorest citizens, saying that, after four years of economic growth with sky-high corporate profits and stock prices, average wages had not changed.
"Those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled," he said.
"The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead. And too many still aren't working at all," he added.
In his Financial Times piece, Summers suggested closing loopholes enjoyed by the wealthy, which would enable taxes to be cut elsewhere. He suggested measures such as earned income tax credit, which could raise the incomes of the poor and middle class by more than they cost the Treasury, by giving people incentives to work and save.
He said it was ironic that advocates of the free market are often those that are least in favour of curbing tax benefits for the rich, and sooner or later inequality needs to be addressed.
However policies that aim instead to thwart market forces rarely work, he said, and usually "fall victim to the law of unintended consequences," said Summers.
ECONOMY, GLOBAL ECONOMY, ECONOMIC NEWS, US ECONOMY, ECONOMICS, STATE OF ECONOMY, US STOCK MARKETS, US INDEXES, TREASURIES, COMMODITIES, LARRY SUMMERS, DAVOS, RICH, WEALTH, POOR, MOBILITY, INEQUALITY, LARRY SUMMERS, IMF, INTERNATIONAL, BARACK OBAMA, INCOME INEQUALITY, POLITICS, WEALTH, TAXES, GOP, POLICY, ECONOMY, US ECONOMY, U.S. MARKETS, UNEMPLOYMENT, BUSINESS NEWS
CNBC.com | Monday, 17 Feb 2014 | 3:46 AM ET
The U.S. is at risk of becoming a "Downton Abbey" economy, as the gap between the top 1 percent and the poor widens, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers has warned.
In a comment piece for the Financial Times, Summers highlighted that the share of income going to the top earners in the U.S. has increased sharply, while real wages and family incomes remain stagnant. These conditions will last beyond the normalisation of the economic cycle and budget deficits, Summers added.
(Read more: Making the rich poorer isn't the American Dream: Summers)
"The cumulative effect of all these developments is that the U.S. may well be on the way to becoming a Downton Abbey economy. President Barack Obama is right to be concerned. Those who condemn him for 'tearing down the wealthy' and engaging in un-American populism are, to put it politely, lacking in historical perspective," Summers wrote.
Summers, who was at one time in the frame to take over Ben Bernanke as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, added that President John Kennedy sent the FBI to audit executives' personal tax returns following a spike in steel prices, while President Richard Nixon insisted on tax investigations "of the books of companies which raised their prices more than 1.5 per cent above the January ceiling" he said.
Recent analysis by Oxfam, released ahead of last month's World Economic Forum held in Davos, found that 85 of the richest people in the world have accumulated as much wealth between them as half of the world's population.
(Read more: Larry Summers and the never-ending bubble economy)
The charity said the tiny elite of multibillionaires, who could fit into a double-decker bus, have piled up fortunes equivalent to the wealth of the world's poorest 3.5 billion people, boasting a collective worth of $1.7 trillion.
Oxfam also calculated that almost half the world's wealth, $110 trillion, is owned by just 1 per cent of its population. The group said 70 percent of people live in countries where the gap between the rich and poor has widened in the last 30 years.
Policies that prefer the rich, such as the capital gains exemption, the ability to defer tax on unrealised capital gains, and the tax-free nature of gains on assets that passed on at death reinforce inequality, however identifying policies that reduce inequality "is not enough" said Summers.
"To be effective they must also raise the incomes of the middle class and the poor. Tax reform has a major role to play. The current tax code is so badly designed that it is very likely to be having the effect of reducing economic growth. It also allows the rich to shield a far greater proportion of their income from taxation than the poor. For example, last year's increase in the stock market represented an increase in wealth of about $6 trillion, of which the lion's share went to the very wealthy," he added.
President Obama used his State of the Union address last month to highlight the growing disparity between America's richest and poorest citizens, saying that, after four years of economic growth with sky-high corporate profits and stock prices, average wages had not changed.
"Those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled," he said.
"The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead. And too many still aren't working at all," he added.
In his Financial Times piece, Summers suggested closing loopholes enjoyed by the wealthy, which would enable taxes to be cut elsewhere. He suggested measures such as earned income tax credit, which could raise the incomes of the poor and middle class by more than they cost the Treasury, by giving people incentives to work and save.
He said it was ironic that advocates of the free market are often those that are least in favour of curbing tax benefits for the rich, and sooner or later inequality needs to be addressed.
However policies that aim instead to thwart market forces rarely work, he said, and usually "fall victim to the law of unintended consequences," said Summers.
DEAR SOULMATE
Dear Soulmate
I missed you today...
when once again I awoke and you weren't here
I missed you today...
and it brought a rush of tears
I missed you today...
with the silence in our home
I missed you today...
and I knew I was alone
I missed you today...
as I drank a cup of tea
I missed you today...
and I wondered if you missed me
DEAR SOULMATE
Dear Soulmate
If you could see yourself through my eyes,You would see the springtime's morning sunrise.If you could hear yourself through my ears,You would hear the skies gently falling tears.If you could touch yourself with my hands,You would feel the cool beach's sands.If you could love yourself with my heart, You would see the woman from whom you'd never part.All of my life,I have longed for someone like you, So warm and tender, with a love so true. You light up my life with each passing day, Now that I have found you,I will never let you get away. The beauty of your smile, and the warmth of your heart. The great inner beauty you possess, is what won me over, and did from the very start. As I sit here and think of you, the memories of how we met are ever so strong. You came into my life at a time I felt so alone.All of my life I've longed for someone who would love me, for who I am and nothing more. You captured my mind and soul, so you, my love, you are the key to my heart's door. Each day we are together, is another day in paradise. Knowing I've finally found someone to love me, surely does feel so nice. No more lonely days and nights, for they are gone forever, never to come again. Since you came into my life, I have so much love to give you from within.My body, soul and mind are yours until the day I shall die. And even after then... the memory of love we have for each other will speak to us for all eternity. And another page of love will be written in history.As days go by let's you and I keep this love we have between us alive. As the hair on our heads grows gray, we will look back at these precious memories of love with a smile. There will be no one who can take this love away from us.Because in God and each other, we will forever put our trust. All my life I have dreamed of a love so true and pure, like yours. Now that I have found you, throughout all eternity this love of ours will always endure. I know we both are human and are prone to make mistakes. All of our mistakes, we will work through, for true love is our fate. This day I pledge my love to you for always... for better or for worse, until death do us part. Our hearts will blend into one heart. You and I will always be the reality that dreams do come true.All of my life I have dreamed of you, Now my soul is at peace forever. For you are here finally.
If you could see yourself through my eyes,You would see the springtime's morning sunrise.If you could hear yourself through my ears,You would hear the skies gently falling tears.If you could touch yourself with my hands,You would feel the cool beach's sands.If you could love yourself with my heart, You would see the woman from whom you'd never part.All of my life,I have longed for someone like you, So warm and tender, with a love so true. You light up my life with each passing day, Now that I have found you,I will never let you get away. The beauty of your smile, and the warmth of your heart. The great inner beauty you possess, is what won me over, and did from the very start. As I sit here and think of you, the memories of how we met are ever so strong. You came into my life at a time I felt so alone.All of my life I've longed for someone who would love me, for who I am and nothing more. You captured my mind and soul, so you, my love, you are the key to my heart's door. Each day we are together, is another day in paradise. Knowing I've finally found someone to love me, surely does feel so nice. No more lonely days and nights, for they are gone forever, never to come again. Since you came into my life, I have so much love to give you from within.My body, soul and mind are yours until the day I shall die. And even after then... the memory of love we have for each other will speak to us for all eternity. And another page of love will be written in history.As days go by let's you and I keep this love we have between us alive. As the hair on our heads grows gray, we will look back at these precious memories of love with a smile. There will be no one who can take this love away from us.Because in God and each other, we will forever put our trust. All my life I have dreamed of a love so true and pure, like yours. Now that I have found you, throughout all eternity this love of ours will always endure. I know we both are human and are prone to make mistakes. All of our mistakes, we will work through, for true love is our fate. This day I pledge my love to you for always... for better or for worse, until death do us part. Our hearts will blend into one heart. You and I will always be the reality that dreams do come true.All of my life I have dreamed of you, Now my soul is at peace forever. For you are here finally.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
DEAR SOULMATE
Dear Soulmate,
The day I saw you,I was lost in your eyes.Since that moment,I fell in love with you.The day you filled my empty heart with your love.Since then, every heartbeat of mine says your name out loud.The day I missed you,I looked deep in the sky.the brightest star in the sky represented you.The day I saw you..There are no words in any language to make a sentence so pure and sweet to describe what comes to my mind once our eyes meet. To see you is heavenly, to touch you is grace, To feel your heart beat is a warm embrace. To know what you are thinking is enough that it will get me through when life gets too rough. Just knowing what I have lying by my side.This must be a dream, but I can't wake up To find someone like you is not just luck. I love you and I need you, so stay by side, For I promise you- our love will never die.You are the voice that caresses my soul.You are the touch that eases my aching muscles. You are the body that swims in my eyes.You are the person I am one with You are the soul that mates with my own You are the object of my passion You are the dreams that soothe my sleep You are the hand that wipes my tears away You are the company that pulls me from loneliness You are the light in my dark existence You are the bait that keeps me moving forward You are the obsession that keeps me alive
The day I saw you,I was lost in your eyes.Since that moment,I fell in love with you.The day you filled my empty heart with your love.Since then, every heartbeat of mine says your name out loud.The day I missed you,I looked deep in the sky.the brightest star in the sky represented you.The day I saw you..There are no words in any language to make a sentence so pure and sweet to describe what comes to my mind once our eyes meet. To see you is heavenly, to touch you is grace, To feel your heart beat is a warm embrace. To know what you are thinking is enough that it will get me through when life gets too rough. Just knowing what I have lying by my side.This must be a dream, but I can't wake up To find someone like you is not just luck. I love you and I need you, so stay by side, For I promise you- our love will never die.You are the voice that caresses my soul.You are the touch that eases my aching muscles. You are the body that swims in my eyes.You are the person I am one with You are the soul that mates with my own You are the object of my passion You are the dreams that soothe my sleep You are the hand that wipes my tears away You are the company that pulls me from loneliness You are the light in my dark existence You are the bait that keeps me moving forward You are the obsession that keeps me alive
LOVE LETTER: DEAR SOULMATE
Dear Soulmate
How can I express myself to you in a way that you can truly understand how you make me feel? Well I can start by saying, I love you, or, you mean the world to me, but for some reason those phrases don't seem enough. There is something that you do to my body, heart, soul and mind that can't be described. There is some kind of indescribable comfort you bring to my soul. You take my mind on an unexplainable high. You fill my body with a vibrant exhilaration, adrenalin and my heart is overwhelmed by the love you feed it.Pin-pointing your perfections is an act of timely impossibility. You've become the biggest part of me and though my heart feared to open up to a stranger, with you it did so with no hesitation. To look into your eyes gives me the drive I need to succeed in my life.To embrace your touch gives me the push to believe there is good in life. To hear you speak gives me encouragement to never give up and to have you by my side gives me the strength I need to dream. I thank the God every day that he crossed our paths. I thank the God every day for the love he placed in my heart for you. Imagine you gone? It's something I dare not do for a second, because without you my heart would fall into a deep sea of depression. I've come to understand the meaning of trust and the feeling of true love. The reason is because of you. Your love has been an influence to my desires, a motivation to my dreams and a temptation to my heart that can not be denied. And yet, all these words don't seem enough to dictate the way you make me feel and I'm afraid that till the end of time, words never will. So, I'll explain myself in ways of action and hope you will capture all the messages I'm sending.Once again, I thank the God for my many blessings. Once again I thank the God, for his plan was to send a beautiful angel to wash away all the strife,an angel who has shown me a life so new, a beautiful angel I found in you. I LOVE YOU
How can I express myself to you in a way that you can truly understand how you make me feel? Well I can start by saying, I love you, or, you mean the world to me, but for some reason those phrases don't seem enough. There is something that you do to my body, heart, soul and mind that can't be described. There is some kind of indescribable comfort you bring to my soul. You take my mind on an unexplainable high. You fill my body with a vibrant exhilaration, adrenalin and my heart is overwhelmed by the love you feed it.Pin-pointing your perfections is an act of timely impossibility. You've become the biggest part of me and though my heart feared to open up to a stranger, with you it did so with no hesitation. To look into your eyes gives me the drive I need to succeed in my life.To embrace your touch gives me the push to believe there is good in life. To hear you speak gives me encouragement to never give up and to have you by my side gives me the strength I need to dream. I thank the God every day that he crossed our paths. I thank the God every day for the love he placed in my heart for you. Imagine you gone? It's something I dare not do for a second, because without you my heart would fall into a deep sea of depression. I've come to understand the meaning of trust and the feeling of true love. The reason is because of you. Your love has been an influence to my desires, a motivation to my dreams and a temptation to my heart that can not be denied. And yet, all these words don't seem enough to dictate the way you make me feel and I'm afraid that till the end of time, words never will. So, I'll explain myself in ways of action and hope you will capture all the messages I'm sending.Once again, I thank the God for my many blessings. Once again I thank the God, for his plan was to send a beautiful angel to wash away all the strife,an angel who has shown me a life so new, a beautiful angel I found in you. I LOVE YOU
LOVE: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY
1. Believe me you, hearing this everyday from someone you love is pure bliss and there's nothing that can ever replace that feeling.
2. And that's not it. Someone once told me the real definition of love, which is "when that person is the first thing you thing of in the morning AND the last thing when you go to sleep at night, you know it's love".
3. It's love when you're straight forward and you EXPRESS
4. And it doesn't matter who's the one expressing. "The boy should take the first step" is only and totally a myth when it comes to loving someone.
5. Love is passionate and irresistible.
6. The way you look at each other is a reason enough why you're in love with each other.
7. You always have that one person around with who you can pull off this stunt and it indefinitely gives you shivers every time you do it because (you should've guessed it by now) you're in LOVE.
8. Who doesn't like to be an "exception"? And it (love) only happens to some of us, which obviously makes us exceptional.
9. Yes, you have distinguished ways of telling someone you love them.
10. But when you do, your enviable passion gets too much to handle.
11. However, it ends up in THAT beautiful thing called "love".
12. You know when you're sad, you have him in front of you who's crying much more than you on the inside AND on the outside.
13. It's that aura, that feeling when that person is around and he wants the exact same thing as you. That's love.
14. You constantly wish you never have to see a day more than your lover because you don't know or don't want to know of a life without him.
15. And you're constantly told you're perfect (which, noone ever is and you definitely aren't) but what he means is that you're perfect FOR HIM and that's all that matters to him and to you.
16. You knew it since day one that the search is over and here is your FULL STOP.
17. And the (more than) best feeling ever is when you both feel the same way. It does feel like heaven for a second (no kidding).
18. When you've been waiting for an act or expression of reassurance and it happens without saying a word, it feels like it's the good life all over again.
19. With this person around you FOREVER, you can never fall short of love in the whole wide world.
20. And when he's not around, you leave no opportunity to tell him what he means to you.
21. You may be insecure (possibly) for life but that's because you're with the most amazing person in the world and that's how you think the world feels too.
22. No matter what, that person would remain the closest person to your heart ALWAYS. That person, who is still the first thing you think of in the morning and the last thing you think of when you go to sleep at night.
23. And the thought of not ending up together kills you a little EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
THOUGHTS/lOVE/ DATING: GREATEST LOVE STORIES IN SCI FICTION TELEVISION AND MOVIES
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Teenage love is a tricky thing, and in the 2006 adaptation of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Makoto messes it up over and over again. After she discovers that she can literally leap through time, Makoto uses her power to play cupid not only with her friends, but with her own love life. She learns that relationships are complicated, even when you can arrange it so that certain conversations never happened. This beautiful anime film expands on the stories told in other adaptations of Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel. Makoto's aunt in the film is the protagonist of the original novel, and we see some of the ramifications of her own time traveling romance.
The Time Traveler's Wife
Throughout The time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger compares her main characters' relationship to that between a sailor and his wife. The description is apt as we see Henry and Clare torn apart again and again, never knowing if the storms of life will keep them apart forever. Henry suffers from a genetic condition similar to epilepsy, but instead of having seizures he travels through time. He and Clare struggle to lead normal lives despite his frequent disappearances. In 2009 Robert Schwentke adapted this into a film starring Rachel McAdams, the actress most type-cast as a time traveler's love interest.
Outlander
Just after World War II, British army nurse Claire Randall is vacationing with her husband in Scotland when she stumbles through a group of standing stones into the year 1743. She wins the trust of a clan of Scotsmen after using her medical knowledge to relocate the arm of Jamie MacKenzie. One thing leads to another and Claire ends up being forced to marry Jamie, breaking her marriage vows to her husband in the future. The situation becomes further complicated when Claire realizes she is falling in love with Jamie. She must choose between trying to find a way back to her present and her husband, or staying with the man she now believes to be the love of her life. This sexy tale has gripped readers for over a decade. The eighth book in the series will be released in March 2014, and Ronald D. Moore is producing a television series based on the books set to come out in Spring 2014.
Somewhere in Time
The course of a life can turn on a penny as we learn in the 1980 film Somewhere In Time. The movie was based on Richard Matheson's beloved sci/fi book Bid Time Return. The story begins with Richard Collier having a strange encounter with an old woman who begs him to "come back to me" and gives him a pocket watch. Shortly later, Collier learns that she was Elise McKenna, an actress from the early 1900s. He grows enamored with her photograph and becomes determined to find a way to travel back in time to meet her. His former professor, who believes he has self-hypnotised himself back to the year 1571, teaches him how to will himself into 1912. When he finds Elise, their whirlwind romance lights up the screen.
Amy and Rory's storyline on Doctor Who
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are among the most popular companions in Doctor Who, and their romance stands out as one of the new series' best storylines. They have rocky moments, but seeing their struggles only makes their relationship stronger and more believable to the viewer. We get to see their relationship develop from Rory's one-sided teenage crush to Amy's willingness to sacrifice everything for him. It's difficult to pick one episode to represent their love story, but the tenth episode of the sixth series is a good place to start. The Girl Who Waited deals with some of the more complex issues with time travel and it's fascinating to watch these characters navigate a messy situation involving both a younger and older Amy.
Back to the Future
Oh Back to the Future, we will never get tired of your time travel hijinks. Marty McFly travels back in time to the 1950s, and in doing so, stops his parents from meeting for the first time. Instead of falling in love with George McFly when her father hits him with her car, Lorraine Baines starts falling for her time traveling son. Hilarity ensues as Marty must play cupid and get his parents to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance before he and his siblings disappear forever. Spoiler, he succeeds, and his parents fall madly in love. As George tells Lorraine, "I'm your density. I mean, your destiny."
Safety Not Guaranteed
A man named Kenneth posts an ad seeking: "Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed." Darius, a young reporter, is sent out with a group to investigate his claims and see what he's really after, or if he's just insane. After winning his trust, the two begin to bond. What follows is a beautiful story about two people learning to accept and trust each other's weirdness. They build a time machine, train, and do everything they can to prepare themselves for the future. Spoiler: The ending is subjective and we never learn for certain if Kenneth can successfully time travel.
Only Backwards
This short story explores the sweetness of a first kiss, and the sacrifices made for loved ones. Mason invents a time machine so he can revisit the most important moment in his life, but not everything goes according to plan. When he returns, every memory after that moment is gone. He is a teenager trapped in a 40 year old body, with no recollection of his beloved wife. They touchingly console each other as they navigate this strange situation. She tells him, "Don't worry...You won't be alone. I'll be here."
Midnight in Paris
Gil Pender doesn't have the best of luck with his time traveling romances, unless you count his love affair with the city of Paris. In Midnight in Paris, he is on vacation with his fiancee when he discovers that every night at midnight, he travels back in time. He finds himself in the 1920s and he encounters all of his favorite writers and artists from that time period. With his present-day romance going poorly, he falls in love with Picasso's mistress Adriana. They begin a relationship, but the present is always there, calling Gil back. This nostalgic movie is romantic, funny, and full of fantasy.
Sense of the Past
When Henry James died, he left an unfinished time travel romance novel behind. It was published in 1917 and spawned a play and two movies. In the novel, Ralph Pendrel discovers that by going into his ancestor's London home, he is also transported to their time. In this time period, he is engaged to a woman named Molly Midmore, although he finds himself more attracted to her sister, Nan. The notes Henry James left outlining the rest of the novel make it clear that Nan reciprocate his love, and eventually realizes that he is a time traveler. If the novel had been finished, Ralph would have had to choose between returning to his own time and another woman or staying with Nan in the past.
The Dancers at the Edge of Time
The universe is about to end, but that doesn't stop Jherek Carnelian from having love on the brain. From the moment he sees Amelia Underwood, a Victorian time traveler, he knows that they will fall in love. Michael Moorecock's series which includes An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and the End of All Songs, follows the lovers as they bounce back and forth through time. As the series goes on we see that their relationship is more important than even they could have imagined.
Quantum Leap: Star Crossed
Sam Beckett's wife left him at the altar, but it didn't happen in every timeline. In Star Crossed Sam leaps back to Donna's college days long before their marriage is set to begin. He theorized that she couldn't commit to him due to issues with her father, and he sets out to fix them before it's too late. Al repeatedly warns him against this plan, but Sam loves her and will do anything to give their relationship a second chance.
Quantum Leap: Catch a Falling Star - May 21, 1979 (6 Dec. 1989)
Sam must save an alcoholic actor from a fall during a performance of "Man of LaMancha." His old piano teacher is also present and finds Sam's host very attractive.
Star Trek: City on the Edge of Forever
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are transported to New York City during the Great Depression — and I bet you can guess which ones falls in love. McCoy saves Edith Keeler's life, and Kirk falls in love with her. Edith is an impressive pacifist who would have gone on to delay WWII and indirectly lead to an Axis victory. Lovestruck Kirk must make a terrible decision—to set the timeline right with Edith's death, or change the course of history forever.
Time and Again
At the heart of Jack Finney's classic time travel novel is the romance between Simon Morley and Julia Charbonneau. The book has a complex plot full of action, mystery, and adventure, but the love story holds it all together. Simon Morley travels back to the 1882 New York City in order to solve a mystery. While in the past he falls in love with Julia, although she doesn't immediately reciprocate his feelings. Their sweet relationship has many memorable moments, but none as fun as the scenes of 1882 Julia experiencing 1970 NYC.
The Man Who Folded Himself
David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded himself gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "self love." Daniel Eakins is a college student who inherits a Timebelt, and with it the ability to travel through time. He uses it to travel to his future where he meets alternate versions of himself, and eventually having a sexual relationship with himself. He eventually meets a female version of himself, Diane, and they attempt to have a more traditional relationship, even having a child together. It's a strange sort of love story, but that doesn't make the book any less powerful.
Outer Limit- The Man Who Was Never Born
“The Man Who Was Never Born” opens with intrepid astronaut Captain Joseph Reardon returning home after an eight-month deep space mission. As he nears earth, he passes through a time convulsion and is thrust 185 years into the future, where the earth is a barely-populated wasteland. Upon landing, he is met by Andro, a friendly mutant who gives him a grim history lesson: in the late twentieth century, a scientist named Bertram Cabot Jr. created a virus that genetically altered mankind, rendering them hideous and unable to reproduce.
Sixty-seven years ago, French audiences were treated to one of the most beautiful, haunting films ever made: La Belle et la Bete (that's Beauty and the Beast for you 'Muricans), Jean Cocteau’s sparkling and exquisite adaptation of the 18th century fairy tale. Fifty years ago tonight, ABC presented something of a variation on this film, a similarly sparkling and beautiful fairy tale rich with visual ingenuity… only instead of an enchanted castle, they gave us a spaceship; instead of a roaring beast, they gave us an ugly mutant with a handgun.
Heroes- Once Upon A Time in Texas
Hiro Nakamura arrives three years in the past to save the love of his life, Charlie Andrews. Shortly after arriving, Hiro encounters Sylar, who proceeds into the diner. Charlie pours coffee for her would-be assassin, who startles her after Sylar reveals he knows about her aneurysm. Hiro watches from afar, wondering how he can stop Sylar. Meanwhile, in the present, Samuel Sullivan is worried for his dying friend Arnold, who has the ability to manipulate space–time like Hiro, and intends to have Hiro replace him. When Samuel wonders where he could be, Lydia reveals that Hiro had loved Charlie before she died, correctly deducing Hiro must have gone back in time to save her. Samuel asks Arnold one last time to be sent back, and appears by Hiro. Samuel warns Hiro of the implications to history he could cause by saving Charlie. Hiro asserts Charlie is that important to him, and promises to keep everything else in balance.
Teenage love is a tricky thing, and in the 2006 adaptation of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Makoto messes it up over and over again. After she discovers that she can literally leap through time, Makoto uses her power to play cupid not only with her friends, but with her own love life. She learns that relationships are complicated, even when you can arrange it so that certain conversations never happened. This beautiful anime film expands on the stories told in other adaptations of Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel. Makoto's aunt in the film is the protagonist of the original novel, and we see some of the ramifications of her own time traveling romance.
The Time Traveler's Wife
Throughout The time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger compares her main characters' relationship to that between a sailor and his wife. The description is apt as we see Henry and Clare torn apart again and again, never knowing if the storms of life will keep them apart forever. Henry suffers from a genetic condition similar to epilepsy, but instead of having seizures he travels through time. He and Clare struggle to lead normal lives despite his frequent disappearances. In 2009 Robert Schwentke adapted this into a film starring Rachel McAdams, the actress most type-cast as a time traveler's love interest.
Outlander
Just after World War II, British army nurse Claire Randall is vacationing with her husband in Scotland when she stumbles through a group of standing stones into the year 1743. She wins the trust of a clan of Scotsmen after using her medical knowledge to relocate the arm of Jamie MacKenzie. One thing leads to another and Claire ends up being forced to marry Jamie, breaking her marriage vows to her husband in the future. The situation becomes further complicated when Claire realizes she is falling in love with Jamie. She must choose between trying to find a way back to her present and her husband, or staying with the man she now believes to be the love of her life. This sexy tale has gripped readers for over a decade. The eighth book in the series will be released in March 2014, and Ronald D. Moore is producing a television series based on the books set to come out in Spring 2014.
Somewhere in Time
The course of a life can turn on a penny as we learn in the 1980 film Somewhere In Time. The movie was based on Richard Matheson's beloved sci/fi book Bid Time Return. The story begins with Richard Collier having a strange encounter with an old woman who begs him to "come back to me" and gives him a pocket watch. Shortly later, Collier learns that she was Elise McKenna, an actress from the early 1900s. He grows enamored with her photograph and becomes determined to find a way to travel back in time to meet her. His former professor, who believes he has self-hypnotised himself back to the year 1571, teaches him how to will himself into 1912. When he finds Elise, their whirlwind romance lights up the screen.
Amy and Rory's storyline on Doctor Who
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are among the most popular companions in Doctor Who, and their romance stands out as one of the new series' best storylines. They have rocky moments, but seeing their struggles only makes their relationship stronger and more believable to the viewer. We get to see their relationship develop from Rory's one-sided teenage crush to Amy's willingness to sacrifice everything for him. It's difficult to pick one episode to represent their love story, but the tenth episode of the sixth series is a good place to start. The Girl Who Waited deals with some of the more complex issues with time travel and it's fascinating to watch these characters navigate a messy situation involving both a younger and older Amy.
Back to the Future
Oh Back to the Future, we will never get tired of your time travel hijinks. Marty McFly travels back in time to the 1950s, and in doing so, stops his parents from meeting for the first time. Instead of falling in love with George McFly when her father hits him with her car, Lorraine Baines starts falling for her time traveling son. Hilarity ensues as Marty must play cupid and get his parents to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance before he and his siblings disappear forever. Spoiler, he succeeds, and his parents fall madly in love. As George tells Lorraine, "I'm your density. I mean, your destiny."
Safety Not Guaranteed
A man named Kenneth posts an ad seeking: "Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed." Darius, a young reporter, is sent out with a group to investigate his claims and see what he's really after, or if he's just insane. After winning his trust, the two begin to bond. What follows is a beautiful story about two people learning to accept and trust each other's weirdness. They build a time machine, train, and do everything they can to prepare themselves for the future. Spoiler: The ending is subjective and we never learn for certain if Kenneth can successfully time travel.
Only Backwards
This short story explores the sweetness of a first kiss, and the sacrifices made for loved ones. Mason invents a time machine so he can revisit the most important moment in his life, but not everything goes according to plan. When he returns, every memory after that moment is gone. He is a teenager trapped in a 40 year old body, with no recollection of his beloved wife. They touchingly console each other as they navigate this strange situation. She tells him, "Don't worry...You won't be alone. I'll be here."
Midnight in Paris
Gil Pender doesn't have the best of luck with his time traveling romances, unless you count his love affair with the city of Paris. In Midnight in Paris, he is on vacation with his fiancee when he discovers that every night at midnight, he travels back in time. He finds himself in the 1920s and he encounters all of his favorite writers and artists from that time period. With his present-day romance going poorly, he falls in love with Picasso's mistress Adriana. They begin a relationship, but the present is always there, calling Gil back. This nostalgic movie is romantic, funny, and full of fantasy.
Sense of the Past
When Henry James died, he left an unfinished time travel romance novel behind. It was published in 1917 and spawned a play and two movies. In the novel, Ralph Pendrel discovers that by going into his ancestor's London home, he is also transported to their time. In this time period, he is engaged to a woman named Molly Midmore, although he finds himself more attracted to her sister, Nan. The notes Henry James left outlining the rest of the novel make it clear that Nan reciprocate his love, and eventually realizes that he is a time traveler. If the novel had been finished, Ralph would have had to choose between returning to his own time and another woman or staying with Nan in the past.
The Dancers at the Edge of Time
The universe is about to end, but that doesn't stop Jherek Carnelian from having love on the brain. From the moment he sees Amelia Underwood, a Victorian time traveler, he knows that they will fall in love. Michael Moorecock's series which includes An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and the End of All Songs, follows the lovers as they bounce back and forth through time. As the series goes on we see that their relationship is more important than even they could have imagined.
Quantum Leap: Star Crossed
Sam Beckett's wife left him at the altar, but it didn't happen in every timeline. In Star Crossed Sam leaps back to Donna's college days long before their marriage is set to begin. He theorized that she couldn't commit to him due to issues with her father, and he sets out to fix them before it's too late. Al repeatedly warns him against this plan, but Sam loves her and will do anything to give their relationship a second chance.
Quantum Leap: Catch a Falling Star - May 21, 1979 (6 Dec. 1989)
Sam must save an alcoholic actor from a fall during a performance of "Man of LaMancha." His old piano teacher is also present and finds Sam's host very attractive.
Star Trek: City on the Edge of Forever
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are transported to New York City during the Great Depression — and I bet you can guess which ones falls in love. McCoy saves Edith Keeler's life, and Kirk falls in love with her. Edith is an impressive pacifist who would have gone on to delay WWII and indirectly lead to an Axis victory. Lovestruck Kirk must make a terrible decision—to set the timeline right with Edith's death, or change the course of history forever.
Time and Again
At the heart of Jack Finney's classic time travel novel is the romance between Simon Morley and Julia Charbonneau. The book has a complex plot full of action, mystery, and adventure, but the love story holds it all together. Simon Morley travels back to the 1882 New York City in order to solve a mystery. While in the past he falls in love with Julia, although she doesn't immediately reciprocate his feelings. Their sweet relationship has many memorable moments, but none as fun as the scenes of 1882 Julia experiencing 1970 NYC.
The Man Who Folded Himself
David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded himself gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "self love." Daniel Eakins is a college student who inherits a Timebelt, and with it the ability to travel through time. He uses it to travel to his future where he meets alternate versions of himself, and eventually having a sexual relationship with himself. He eventually meets a female version of himself, Diane, and they attempt to have a more traditional relationship, even having a child together. It's a strange sort of love story, but that doesn't make the book any less powerful.
Outer Limit- The Man Who Was Never Born
“The Man Who Was Never Born” opens with intrepid astronaut Captain Joseph Reardon returning home after an eight-month deep space mission. As he nears earth, he passes through a time convulsion and is thrust 185 years into the future, where the earth is a barely-populated wasteland. Upon landing, he is met by Andro, a friendly mutant who gives him a grim history lesson: in the late twentieth century, a scientist named Bertram Cabot Jr. created a virus that genetically altered mankind, rendering them hideous and unable to reproduce.
Sixty-seven years ago, French audiences were treated to one of the most beautiful, haunting films ever made: La Belle et la Bete (that's Beauty and the Beast for you 'Muricans), Jean Cocteau’s sparkling and exquisite adaptation of the 18th century fairy tale. Fifty years ago tonight, ABC presented something of a variation on this film, a similarly sparkling and beautiful fairy tale rich with visual ingenuity… only instead of an enchanted castle, they gave us a spaceship; instead of a roaring beast, they gave us an ugly mutant with a handgun.
Heroes- Once Upon A Time in Texas
Hiro Nakamura arrives three years in the past to save the love of his life, Charlie Andrews. Shortly after arriving, Hiro encounters Sylar, who proceeds into the diner. Charlie pours coffee for her would-be assassin, who startles her after Sylar reveals he knows about her aneurysm. Hiro watches from afar, wondering how he can stop Sylar. Meanwhile, in the present, Samuel Sullivan is worried for his dying friend Arnold, who has the ability to manipulate space–time like Hiro, and intends to have Hiro replace him. When Samuel wonders where he could be, Lydia reveals that Hiro had loved Charlie before she died, correctly deducing Hiro must have gone back in time to save her. Samuel asks Arnold one last time to be sent back, and appears by Hiro. Samuel warns Hiro of the implications to history he could cause by saving Charlie. Hiro asserts Charlie is that important to him, and promises to keep everything else in balance.
ARTICLE: NYTIMES: Capitalism vs. Democracy by Thomas B. Edsall
Capitalism vs. Democracy
Thomas Piketty’s new book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” described by one French newspaper as a “a political and theoretical bulldozer,” defies left and right orthodoxy by arguing that worsening inequality is an inevitable outcome of free market capitalism.
Piketty, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, does not stop there. He contends that capitalism’s inherent dynamic propels powerful forces that threaten democratic societies.
Capitalism, according to Piketty, confronts both modern and modernizing countries with a dilemma: entrepreneurs become increasingly dominant over those who own only their own labor. In Piketty’s view, while emerging economies can defeat this logic in the near term, in the long run, “when pay setters set their own pay, there’s no limit,” unless “confiscatory tax rates” are imposed.
Piketty’s book — published four months ago in France and due out in English this March — suggests that traditional liberal government policies on spending, taxation and regulation will fail to diminish inequality. Piketty has also delivered and posted a series of lectures in French and English outlining his argument.
Conservative readers will find that Piketty’s book disputes the view that the free market, liberated from the distorting effects of government intervention, “distributes,” as Milton Friedman famously put it, “the fruits of economic progress among all people. That’s the secret of the enormous improvements in the conditions of the working person over the past two centuries.”
Piketty proposes instead that the rise in inequality reflects markets working precisely as they should: “This has nothing to do with a market imperfection: the more perfect the capital market, the higher” the rate of return on capital is in comparison to the rate of growth of the economy. The higher this ratio is, the greater inequality is.
In a 20-page review for the June issue of the Journal of Economic Literature that has already caused a stir, Branko Milanovic, an economist in the World Bank’s research department, declared:
“I am hesitant to call Thomas Piketty’s new book Capital in the 21st Century one of the best books in economics written in the past several decades. Not that I do not believe it is, but I am careful because of the inflation of positive book reviews and because contemporaries are often poor judges of what may ultimately prove to be influential. With these two caveats, let me state that we are in the presence of one of the watershed books in economic thinking.”
There are a number of key arguments in Piketty’s book. One is that the six-decade period of growing equality in western nations – starting roughly with the onset of World War I and extending into the early 1970s – was unique and highly unlikely to be repeated. That period, Piketty suggests, represented an exception to the more deeply rooted pattern of growing inequality.
According to Piketty, those halcyon six decades were the result of two world wars and the Great Depression. The owners of capital – those at the top of the pyramid of wealth and income – absorbed a series of devastating blows. These included the loss of credibility and authority as markets crashed; physical destruction of capital throughout Europe in both World War I and World War II; the raising of tax rates, especially on high incomes, to finance the wars; high rates of inflation that eroded the assets of creditors; the nationalization of major industries in both England and France; and the appropriation of industries and property in post-colonial countries.
At the same time, the Great Depression produced the New Deal coalition in the United States, which empowered an insurgent labor movement. The postwar period saw huge gains in growth and productivity, the benefits of which were shared with workers who had strong backing from the trade union movement and from the dominant Democratic Party. Widespread support for liberal social and economic policy was so strong that even a Republican president who won easily twice, Dwight D. Eisenhower, recognized that an assault on the New Deal would be futile. In Eisenhower’s words, “Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear from that party again in our political history.”
The six decades between 1914 and 1973 stand out from the past and future, according to Piketty, because the rate of economic growth exceeded the after-tax rate of return on capital. Since then, the rate of growth of the economy has declined, while the return on capital is rising to its pre-World War I levels.
“If the rate of return on capital remains permanently above the rate of growth of the economy – this is Piketty’s key inequality relationship,” Milanovic writes in his review, it “generates a changing functional distribution of income in favor of capital and, if capital incomes are more concentrated than incomes from labor (a rather uncontroversial fact), personal income distribution will also get more unequal — which indeed is what we have witnessed in the past 30 years.”
Piketty has produced the chart at Figure 1 to illustrate his larger point.
The only way to halt this process, he argues, is to impose a global progressive tax on wealth – global in order to prevent (among other things) the transfer of assets to countries without such levies. A global tax, in this scheme, would restrict the concentration of wealth and limit the income flowing to capital.
Piketty would impose an annual graduated tax on stocks and bonds, property and other assets that are customarily not taxed until they are sold. He leaves open the rate and formula for distributing revenues.
The Piketty diagnosis helps explain the recent drop in the share of national income going to labor (see Figure 2) and a parallel increase in the share going to capital.
Piketty’s analysis also sheds light on the worldwide growth in the number of the unemployed. The International Labor Organization, an agency of the United Nations, reported recently that the number of unemployed grew by 5 million from 2012 to 2013, reaching nearly 202 million by the end of last year. It is projected to grow to 215 million by 2018.
Piketty’s wealth tax solution runs directly counter to the principles of contemporary American conservatives who advocate antithetical public policies: cutting top rates and eliminating the estate tax. It would also run counter to the interests of those countries that have purposefully legislated low tax rates in order to attract investment. The very infeasibility of establishing a global wealth tax serves to reinforce Piketty’s argument concerning the inevitability of increasing inequality.
Some liberals are none too happy with Piketty, either.
Dean Baker, one of the founders of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote me in an email that he believes that Piketty “is far too pessimistic.” Baker contends that there are a host of far less ambitious actions that might help to ameliorate inequality:
“Is it really implausible that we would ever see any sort of tax on finance in the U.S., either the financial transactions tax that I would favor or the financial activities tax advocated by the I.M.F.?”
Baker also noted that “much of our capital is tied up in intellectual property” and that reform of patent laws could serve both to limit the value of drug and other patents and simultaneously lower consumer costs.
Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, responded to my email asking for his take on Piketty:
Recent Comments
Guy Josserand III
12 days ago
Piketty gets the diagnosis right but I wonder why he does not speak the solutions as expressed by THE watershed work on political economics...
Roger McKinney
12 days ago
Piketty's conclusions contradict those of Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Fogel. In "Escape from Hunger and Premature Death" Fogel...
Diane Merriam
12 days ago
I don't understand why "income inequality" is a bad thing. How does wanting something that someone else has mean you're entitled to it? Do...
See All Comments
“We’d take the perspective that this phenomenon is related to the suppression of wage growth so that policies which generate broad-based wage growth are an antidote. The political economy is such that the political power to enact those taxes also requires a mobilized citizenry and institutional power, such as a robust labor movement.”
Daron Acemoglu, a more centrist economist at MIT, praised Piketty’s careful acquisition of data, as well as his emphasis on the economic forces and political conflicts over distribution that shape inequality. In an email, Acemoglu went on to say:
“Part of his interpretation I do not share. Piketty argues that there is a natural tendency for high inequality in ‘capitalist’ economies (the term capitalist is not my favorite) and that certain unusual events (world wars, the Great Depression and policy responses thereto) temporarily reduced inequality. Then both earnings inequality and inequality between capital and labor have been reverting back to their ‘normal’ levels. I don’t think that the data allow us to reach this conclusion. All we see is this pattern of fall and rise, but so many other things are going on. It is consistent with what Piketty says, but it is also consistent with certain technological changes and discontinuities (or globalization) having created a surge in inequality which will then stabilize or even reverse in the next several decades. It is also consistent with the dynamics of political power changing and this being a major contributor to the rise in inequality in advanced economies. We may be seeing parts of several different trends underpinned by several different major shocks rather than the mean-reverting dynamics following the shocks that Piketty singles out.”
There is, however, significant liberal applause for Piketty.
Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard who specializes in inequality, unions and employment patterns, wrote me by email:
“I am in 100 percent agreement with Piketty and would add that much of labor inequality comes because high earners got paid through stock options and capital ownership.”
Freeman and two colleagues, Joseph Blasi and Douglas Kruse, professors at the School of Labor and Management Relations at Rutgers, contend in their 2013 book, “The Citizen’s Share: Putting Ownership Back into Democracy,” that they have an alternative to a global wealth tax. They argue that:
“The way forward is to reform the structure of American business so that workers can supplement their wages with significant capital ownership stakes and meaningful capital income and profit shares.”
In other words, let’s turn everyone into a capitalist.
Piketty does not treat worker ownership as a solution, and he is generally dismissive of small-bore reforms, arguing that they will have only modest effects on economic growth worldwide, which he believes is very likely to be stuck at 1 to 1.5 percent through the rest of this century.
Piketty joins a number of scholars raising significant questions about how the global economic system will deal with such phenomena as robotics, the hollowing out of the job market, outsourcing and global competition.
His prognosis is extremely bleak. Without what he acknowledges is a politically unrealistic global wealth tax, he sees the United States and the developed world on a path toward a degree of inequality that will reach levels likely to cause severe social disruption.
Final judgment on Piketty’s work will come with time – a problem in and of itself, because if he is right, inequality will worsen, making it all the more difficult to take preemptive action.
Thomas Piketty’s new book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” described by one French newspaper as a “a political and theoretical bulldozer,” defies left and right orthodoxy by arguing that worsening inequality is an inevitable outcome of free market capitalism.
Piketty, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, does not stop there. He contends that capitalism’s inherent dynamic propels powerful forces that threaten democratic societies.
Capitalism, according to Piketty, confronts both modern and modernizing countries with a dilemma: entrepreneurs become increasingly dominant over those who own only their own labor. In Piketty’s view, while emerging economies can defeat this logic in the near term, in the long run, “when pay setters set their own pay, there’s no limit,” unless “confiscatory tax rates” are imposed.
Piketty’s book — published four months ago in France and due out in English this March — suggests that traditional liberal government policies on spending, taxation and regulation will fail to diminish inequality. Piketty has also delivered and posted a series of lectures in French and English outlining his argument.
Conservative readers will find that Piketty’s book disputes the view that the free market, liberated from the distorting effects of government intervention, “distributes,” as Milton Friedman famously put it, “the fruits of economic progress among all people. That’s the secret of the enormous improvements in the conditions of the working person over the past two centuries.”
Piketty proposes instead that the rise in inequality reflects markets working precisely as they should: “This has nothing to do with a market imperfection: the more perfect the capital market, the higher” the rate of return on capital is in comparison to the rate of growth of the economy. The higher this ratio is, the greater inequality is.
In a 20-page review for the June issue of the Journal of Economic Literature that has already caused a stir, Branko Milanovic, an economist in the World Bank’s research department, declared:
“I am hesitant to call Thomas Piketty’s new book Capital in the 21st Century one of the best books in economics written in the past several decades. Not that I do not believe it is, but I am careful because of the inflation of positive book reviews and because contemporaries are often poor judges of what may ultimately prove to be influential. With these two caveats, let me state that we are in the presence of one of the watershed books in economic thinking.”
There are a number of key arguments in Piketty’s book. One is that the six-decade period of growing equality in western nations – starting roughly with the onset of World War I and extending into the early 1970s – was unique and highly unlikely to be repeated. That period, Piketty suggests, represented an exception to the more deeply rooted pattern of growing inequality.
According to Piketty, those halcyon six decades were the result of two world wars and the Great Depression. The owners of capital – those at the top of the pyramid of wealth and income – absorbed a series of devastating blows. These included the loss of credibility and authority as markets crashed; physical destruction of capital throughout Europe in both World War I and World War II; the raising of tax rates, especially on high incomes, to finance the wars; high rates of inflation that eroded the assets of creditors; the nationalization of major industries in both England and France; and the appropriation of industries and property in post-colonial countries.
At the same time, the Great Depression produced the New Deal coalition in the United States, which empowered an insurgent labor movement. The postwar period saw huge gains in growth and productivity, the benefits of which were shared with workers who had strong backing from the trade union movement and from the dominant Democratic Party. Widespread support for liberal social and economic policy was so strong that even a Republican president who won easily twice, Dwight D. Eisenhower, recognized that an assault on the New Deal would be futile. In Eisenhower’s words, “Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear from that party again in our political history.”
The six decades between 1914 and 1973 stand out from the past and future, according to Piketty, because the rate of economic growth exceeded the after-tax rate of return on capital. Since then, the rate of growth of the economy has declined, while the return on capital is rising to its pre-World War I levels.
“If the rate of return on capital remains permanently above the rate of growth of the economy – this is Piketty’s key inequality relationship,” Milanovic writes in his review, it “generates a changing functional distribution of income in favor of capital and, if capital incomes are more concentrated than incomes from labor (a rather uncontroversial fact), personal income distribution will also get more unequal — which indeed is what we have witnessed in the past 30 years.”
Piketty has produced the chart at Figure 1 to illustrate his larger point.
The only way to halt this process, he argues, is to impose a global progressive tax on wealth – global in order to prevent (among other things) the transfer of assets to countries without such levies. A global tax, in this scheme, would restrict the concentration of wealth and limit the income flowing to capital.
Piketty would impose an annual graduated tax on stocks and bonds, property and other assets that are customarily not taxed until they are sold. He leaves open the rate and formula for distributing revenues.
The Piketty diagnosis helps explain the recent drop in the share of national income going to labor (see Figure 2) and a parallel increase in the share going to capital.
Piketty’s analysis also sheds light on the worldwide growth in the number of the unemployed. The International Labor Organization, an agency of the United Nations, reported recently that the number of unemployed grew by 5 million from 2012 to 2013, reaching nearly 202 million by the end of last year. It is projected to grow to 215 million by 2018.
Piketty’s wealth tax solution runs directly counter to the principles of contemporary American conservatives who advocate antithetical public policies: cutting top rates and eliminating the estate tax. It would also run counter to the interests of those countries that have purposefully legislated low tax rates in order to attract investment. The very infeasibility of establishing a global wealth tax serves to reinforce Piketty’s argument concerning the inevitability of increasing inequality.
Some liberals are none too happy with Piketty, either.
Dean Baker, one of the founders of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote me in an email that he believes that Piketty “is far too pessimistic.” Baker contends that there are a host of far less ambitious actions that might help to ameliorate inequality:
“Is it really implausible that we would ever see any sort of tax on finance in the U.S., either the financial transactions tax that I would favor or the financial activities tax advocated by the I.M.F.?”
Baker also noted that “much of our capital is tied up in intellectual property” and that reform of patent laws could serve both to limit the value of drug and other patents and simultaneously lower consumer costs.
Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, responded to my email asking for his take on Piketty:
Recent Comments
Guy Josserand III
12 days ago
Piketty gets the diagnosis right but I wonder why he does not speak the solutions as expressed by THE watershed work on political economics...
Roger McKinney
12 days ago
Piketty's conclusions contradict those of Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Fogel. In "Escape from Hunger and Premature Death" Fogel...
Diane Merriam
12 days ago
I don't understand why "income inequality" is a bad thing. How does wanting something that someone else has mean you're entitled to it? Do...
See All Comments
“We’d take the perspective that this phenomenon is related to the suppression of wage growth so that policies which generate broad-based wage growth are an antidote. The political economy is such that the political power to enact those taxes also requires a mobilized citizenry and institutional power, such as a robust labor movement.”
Daron Acemoglu, a more centrist economist at MIT, praised Piketty’s careful acquisition of data, as well as his emphasis on the economic forces and political conflicts over distribution that shape inequality. In an email, Acemoglu went on to say:
“Part of his interpretation I do not share. Piketty argues that there is a natural tendency for high inequality in ‘capitalist’ economies (the term capitalist is not my favorite) and that certain unusual events (world wars, the Great Depression and policy responses thereto) temporarily reduced inequality. Then both earnings inequality and inequality between capital and labor have been reverting back to their ‘normal’ levels. I don’t think that the data allow us to reach this conclusion. All we see is this pattern of fall and rise, but so many other things are going on. It is consistent with what Piketty says, but it is also consistent with certain technological changes and discontinuities (or globalization) having created a surge in inequality which will then stabilize or even reverse in the next several decades. It is also consistent with the dynamics of political power changing and this being a major contributor to the rise in inequality in advanced economies. We may be seeing parts of several different trends underpinned by several different major shocks rather than the mean-reverting dynamics following the shocks that Piketty singles out.”
There is, however, significant liberal applause for Piketty.
Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard who specializes in inequality, unions and employment patterns, wrote me by email:
“I am in 100 percent agreement with Piketty and would add that much of labor inequality comes because high earners got paid through stock options and capital ownership.”
Freeman and two colleagues, Joseph Blasi and Douglas Kruse, professors at the School of Labor and Management Relations at Rutgers, contend in their 2013 book, “The Citizen’s Share: Putting Ownership Back into Democracy,” that they have an alternative to a global wealth tax. They argue that:
“The way forward is to reform the structure of American business so that workers can supplement their wages with significant capital ownership stakes and meaningful capital income and profit shares.”
In other words, let’s turn everyone into a capitalist.
Piketty does not treat worker ownership as a solution, and he is generally dismissive of small-bore reforms, arguing that they will have only modest effects on economic growth worldwide, which he believes is very likely to be stuck at 1 to 1.5 percent through the rest of this century.
Piketty joins a number of scholars raising significant questions about how the global economic system will deal with such phenomena as robotics, the hollowing out of the job market, outsourcing and global competition.
His prognosis is extremely bleak. Without what he acknowledges is a politically unrealistic global wealth tax, he sees the United States and the developed world on a path toward a degree of inequality that will reach levels likely to cause severe social disruption.
Final judgment on Piketty’s work will come with time – a problem in and of itself, because if he is right, inequality will worsen, making it all the more difficult to take preemptive action.
DATING/LOVE: WOMAN NOW ARE JUST UNRELIABLE
When a girl flaked (i.e., unexpectedly cancelled or failed to show for a date, or screened your calls) on you in the not too distant past, it usually meant there was a lack of attraction or she lost what little attraction there was in the interim between meeting her and calling her the next day. Occasionally, flakes were legitimate consequences of bad logistics or real plans that she had.
But, today, with the proliferation of smart phones and dumb disrespect, flaking has become de rigeur in certain segments of the female population. The NewYorkBetaTimes is on top of the trend (h/t reader M Serious):
Not long before that, Leandra Medine, the 23-year-old fashion blogger behind Man Repeller, sat down at the SoHo restaurant Jack’s Wife Freda and waited for her three friends. As she nursed a glass of wine, she glanced down at her phone to learn, via text, that all of her friends had bailed.
Random missed connections? Not quite.
Texting and instant messaging make it easier to navigate our social lives, but they are also turning us into ill-mannered flakes. Not long ago, the only way to break a social engagement, outside of blowing off someone completely, was to do it in person or on the phone. An effusive apology was expected, or at least the appearance of contrition.
But now, when our fingers tap our way out of social obligations, the barriers to canceling have been lowered. Not feeling up for going out? Have better plans? Just type a note on the fly (“Sorry can’t make it tonight”) and hit send.
And don’t worry about giving advance notice. The later, the better. After all, bailing on dinner via text message doesn’t feel as disrespectful as standing up someone, or as embarrassing.
Social media isn’t bringing us together as its creators and cheerleaders promised it would; it’s tearing apart our humanity. Our social minds have evolved in a face-to-face medium, not a faceless ASCII ether. When you can’t see the disappointment or anger on the face of the person you’re shafting, you don’t feel bad about it. Smartphones feed the shamelessness of our culture.
And it is practically endemic among those in their 20s and younger, who were raised in the age of instant chatter.
“Texting is lazy, and it encourages and promotes flakiness,” Mr. Cohen said. “You’re not treating anything with any weight, and it turns us all into 14-year-olds. We’re all 14-year-olds in suits and high heels.”
Social media is also making emotionally stunted children out of all of us. Or, more precisely, emotionally blank aspie idiots. I wonder if the ability to read emotions from a person’s face and body language is declining in lockstep with the rise of texting and IMing? If it is, as I suspect, then salesmen with cunning social skills will be able to clean up in an environment of over-trusting spergy kiddies. Some of you will be able to see the connection to antagonistic mass diversity here.
Rachel Libeskind, a 23-year-old artist who lives in TriBeCa, is constantly navigating her social circles from her iPhone. She finds that she’ll triple- or even quadruple-book plans on weekend nights, knowing there’s only a 60 percent chance she’ll engage in any of them.
“People will text me, ‘Let’s do something this week,’ and I’ll have three or four plans laid out for the week, and on average, more than half of them fall through,” she said. “The social plans I make are always changing, always shifting.”
Girls especially love this age of electronic “micro-coordinating”, because the plethora of shallow plans make them feel wanted, loved, desired, popular, BUSY BUSY BUSY. It’s an incipient attention whore’s paradise. Until 4 out of 5 plans fall through, and she has to micro-coordinate another ten plans to get her lookatme! fix.
Players like this situation as well, because it allows them to juggle multiple women seamlessly and to cut girls off without undue chick drama.
Moreover, it’s not considered boorish when her peers abandon one another. “Because there is very little at stake in terms of having these plans, it’s not that rude,” she said. “It’s implicit because that’s how everyone is operating.”
Social media and smartphones have ensured that nothing is important, because the second something *is* important, there are real consequences for flaking on it. And no woman-child wants to deal with icky real consequences. Yuk!
“My parents always say that when you make a plan, even if your finger is falling off, even if you’re bleeding, you can’t stand people up,” said Ms. Medine, the fashion blogger. [editor: "fashion blogger". jesus. all i want for christmas is a day of the rope... a day of the rope...] “But to me, it’s not rude. If your plans fall through, that’s fine. We live in a city where there are a million other plans waiting for you.”
This is why the modern day player has to have, as part of his seduction arsenal, professional anti-flaking techniques. If you don’t know how to handle the flakes that will inevitably occur, you are handicapped in the mating market. And you know what kind of guy thrives in the Age of Flakes? — The guy who knows how to flip the script and get women to chase *him*, so that he is the one with the option to flake.
Seriously, what the fuck is up with American women acting and looking like men, and American men acting and looking like manboobs? Did a silent enemy slip something into our water supply? Are my balls just astronomically bigger than the average man’s because I don’t apologize for my manhood, and I prefer feminine women?
My techie-minded prediction is that the Age of Flaking will slowly come to an end when video-texting and video calling become widely used. Once you can’t text or IM without seeing a moving face before you, the boorishness will wither with the rising shame.
“If you text a friend that you can’t make dinner because you’re feeling sick, and then a picture of you dancing on a bar shows up on someone’s Instagram feed, you just got caught,” Mr. Blasberg said. “With the rise of social media and technology, it’s harder to use little white lies to get out of things.”
Orwell was only partly right. Big Brother is everywhere, but he is as much your friend or neighbor as he is your government.
But, today, with the proliferation of smart phones and dumb disrespect, flaking has become de rigeur in certain segments of the female population. The NewYorkBetaTimes is on top of the trend (h/t reader M Serious):
Not long before that, Leandra Medine, the 23-year-old fashion blogger behind Man Repeller, sat down at the SoHo restaurant Jack’s Wife Freda and waited for her three friends. As she nursed a glass of wine, she glanced down at her phone to learn, via text, that all of her friends had bailed.
Random missed connections? Not quite.
Texting and instant messaging make it easier to navigate our social lives, but they are also turning us into ill-mannered flakes. Not long ago, the only way to break a social engagement, outside of blowing off someone completely, was to do it in person or on the phone. An effusive apology was expected, or at least the appearance of contrition.
But now, when our fingers tap our way out of social obligations, the barriers to canceling have been lowered. Not feeling up for going out? Have better plans? Just type a note on the fly (“Sorry can’t make it tonight”) and hit send.
And don’t worry about giving advance notice. The later, the better. After all, bailing on dinner via text message doesn’t feel as disrespectful as standing up someone, or as embarrassing.
Social media isn’t bringing us together as its creators and cheerleaders promised it would; it’s tearing apart our humanity. Our social minds have evolved in a face-to-face medium, not a faceless ASCII ether. When you can’t see the disappointment or anger on the face of the person you’re shafting, you don’t feel bad about it. Smartphones feed the shamelessness of our culture.
And it is practically endemic among those in their 20s and younger, who were raised in the age of instant chatter.
“Texting is lazy, and it encourages and promotes flakiness,” Mr. Cohen said. “You’re not treating anything with any weight, and it turns us all into 14-year-olds. We’re all 14-year-olds in suits and high heels.”
Social media is also making emotionally stunted children out of all of us. Or, more precisely, emotionally blank aspie idiots. I wonder if the ability to read emotions from a person’s face and body language is declining in lockstep with the rise of texting and IMing? If it is, as I suspect, then salesmen with cunning social skills will be able to clean up in an environment of over-trusting spergy kiddies. Some of you will be able to see the connection to antagonistic mass diversity here.
Rachel Libeskind, a 23-year-old artist who lives in TriBeCa, is constantly navigating her social circles from her iPhone. She finds that she’ll triple- or even quadruple-book plans on weekend nights, knowing there’s only a 60 percent chance she’ll engage in any of them.
“People will text me, ‘Let’s do something this week,’ and I’ll have three or four plans laid out for the week, and on average, more than half of them fall through,” she said. “The social plans I make are always changing, always shifting.”
Girls especially love this age of electronic “micro-coordinating”, because the plethora of shallow plans make them feel wanted, loved, desired, popular, BUSY BUSY BUSY. It’s an incipient attention whore’s paradise. Until 4 out of 5 plans fall through, and she has to micro-coordinate another ten plans to get her lookatme! fix.
Players like this situation as well, because it allows them to juggle multiple women seamlessly and to cut girls off without undue chick drama.
Moreover, it’s not considered boorish when her peers abandon one another. “Because there is very little at stake in terms of having these plans, it’s not that rude,” she said. “It’s implicit because that’s how everyone is operating.”
Social media and smartphones have ensured that nothing is important, because the second something *is* important, there are real consequences for flaking on it. And no woman-child wants to deal with icky real consequences. Yuk!
“My parents always say that when you make a plan, even if your finger is falling off, even if you’re bleeding, you can’t stand people up,” said Ms. Medine, the fashion blogger. [editor: "fashion blogger". jesus. all i want for christmas is a day of the rope... a day of the rope...] “But to me, it’s not rude. If your plans fall through, that’s fine. We live in a city where there are a million other plans waiting for you.”
This is why the modern day player has to have, as part of his seduction arsenal, professional anti-flaking techniques. If you don’t know how to handle the flakes that will inevitably occur, you are handicapped in the mating market. And you know what kind of guy thrives in the Age of Flakes? — The guy who knows how to flip the script and get women to chase *him*, so that he is the one with the option to flake.
Seriously, what the fuck is up with American women acting and looking like men, and American men acting and looking like manboobs? Did a silent enemy slip something into our water supply? Are my balls just astronomically bigger than the average man’s because I don’t apologize for my manhood, and I prefer feminine women?
My techie-minded prediction is that the Age of Flaking will slowly come to an end when video-texting and video calling become widely used. Once you can’t text or IM without seeing a moving face before you, the boorishness will wither with the rising shame.
“If you text a friend that you can’t make dinner because you’re feeling sick, and then a picture of you dancing on a bar shows up on someone’s Instagram feed, you just got caught,” Mr. Blasberg said. “With the rise of social media and technology, it’s harder to use little white lies to get out of things.”
Orwell was only partly right. Big Brother is everywhere, but he is as much your friend or neighbor as he is your government.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
PERSONAL: ISN'T IT AMAZING.....HAVE YOU EVER
Isn't it amazing...how one letter can change your day? Isn't it amazing...how one word can brighten your day a little bit more? Isn't it amazing...how one look can make your heart warm? Isn't it amazing... how one touch can make you feel nice and warm inside? Isn't it amazing...how one phone call can make you smile? Isn't it amazing... how one person can change your life? Have you ever found someone you love? Have you ever dreamed of life with them,and every sweet word from their lips...makes you break down inside, Have you ever looked into her eyes,and found the one that could make you whole. Have you ever closed your eyes...and brought a smile to your face... Have you ever got chills up and down your body just by the littlest touch of the one you love. Have you ever felt passion that is just uncontrollable and being around her is like a riot in the heart and nothing to hold you back. Have you ever fallen in love so deep words couldn't even express... Have you ever found someone you love? You lay there with your head on my chest listening to my heartbeat, enjoying the embrace of my arms, inhaling my manly body scent. I hold me tighter and and whisper affectionate words that leave you burning inside, not ever wanting to lose this moment spent with me.All I want is you,All I want is your love.I long to hear those unspoken words,to tell me how much I mean to you. All I want is a hug from you. I need the reassurance that you'll be here, to stand by my side when I'm alone.All I want is a smile from you. I hope to see your cheeky grin,to linger in my mind for days to follow.All I want is your attention.I seek to capture what might allure you, to sit and keep me company.All I want is to smell your smell.I dream to hold you close, To smell the smell I remember so well.All I want is a touch from your hand. I sit and wish you would join me,And hold my hand endlessly.All I want is to be the one,All I want is to be your perfect one.I set my hopes that you love me continually,To consider me to ever be the one.
I look at your picture every day. I've fallen in love... what can I say? You make me smile and dance around look at this happiness I've found. How I long for you to be here...so I can hold you close, my dear...I wish you weren't away so far because I only want to be where you are... Your eyes- so loving and mesmerizing. Your smile- so sweet, how very soothing. Your skin- so smooth how I yearn to touch. Do you know I love you so very much?Nothing within my power, I wouldn't do just so I could be closer to you I'm writing this now to let you know I really do love you so
I look at your picture every day. I've fallen in love... what can I say? You make me smile and dance around look at this happiness I've found. How I long for you to be here...so I can hold you close, my dear...I wish you weren't away so far because I only want to be where you are... Your eyes- so loving and mesmerizing. Your smile- so sweet, how very soothing. Your skin- so smooth how I yearn to touch. Do you know I love you so very much?Nothing within my power, I wouldn't do just so I could be closer to you I'm writing this now to let you know I really do love you so
POETRY: THE ONE THING
Day to day, night to night, breath to breath,
My heart is starving for only one thing,
Which would be my sweet medicine,
And would cure me from my dreadful illness.
The last hope of a hopeless man,
Who's lips were thirsty for a kiss for so long,
Ears were "hungry" to hear the word "love,"
Soul and body cried for a soft touch.
I'm afraid of what I am feeling again,
Because my heart was broken so many times;
When a girl said, 'bye...' I felt I would die.
Your love gave me hope again,
But happiness and joy are not my guests;
I'm afraid to be happy... but I want to be
2
The need to be loved is so powerful
So great that it is almost pathetic
Yet everyday we crave this thing called love
Our one passion to be wanted by another
To feel important to that one person
We desire that happiness in our lives
Alone at night, we are not ourselves
In our minds we secretly go crazy
Our hearts grow more vulnerable as each lonely,
Aching moment goes by
We begin to feel like there is no tomorrow for us
Yet when tomorrow rings in bright and new
The madness will toll loudly once again
There is no escape from this thing we call love
The world is filled with that enduring feeling
As lovers stroll down the street hand in hand
For not even sleep can release us of this desire
For even in our dreams we are tormented with the want
You can't escpae your mind so what is one to do
This thing called love
It will eventually take control of you
3
So when you close your eyes,
Do you dream of soft blue skies,
Or do you float out on a river,
And watch the flowers as they shiver?
Do you find youself falling through a hole,
Do you reach deep inside your soul,
Or do you sing your song out loud,
And float away inside a cloud?
Do you run through an endless maze,
Do you cry inside a soft haze,
Or do you climb up an endless tree,
And strain to find the top you can't see.
So when you wake up,
Do you try,
To escape,
Back inside,
That realm we call imagination,
That erotic, soft, scary sensation,
In your dreams.
4
Why do I love you so
You sometimes ask
I wish I had the answer
Because I really don't know
Maybe it's the way
the gentle touch you give
The one that I sometime crave
Or, how you comfort me
When I'm not sure which direction to choose in life
Or how you are understanding and forgiving
With the choices I have come to make, even in the past
Maybe it's the way
I get scared of you, all the while wanting you
Or maybe it's the way
You don't brush me aside and place me second
Or, how you promise me the world
When all I want is you
Or, maybe it's just because
My heart's so attached to you
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