A Great Adventure

Dear Friends,

It has been a long time since I have written and even longer since I have written with any regularity.  Now Jane and I are about to embark on a great adventure, and it seems like a good time to try to write again with some frequency.  We (Jane will be posting here as well) will be writing mainly about our adventure, but we hope to include some reflections on how the United States and its current President are viewed from Europe.

Jane and I are right now frantically packing for a one month trip to France to learn how to speak French.  We love France, and we can speak just enough French to survive, but frankly it is embarrassing and rather arrogant that we only speak one language.  We will be attending the Institut de Francais (here) in Villefranche-sur-Mer near Nice.  We go to school for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 4 weeks.  We eat breakfast and lunch at the school and are completely immersed in French.

the school




View of Cap Ferrat from school

We have rented a small apartment that according to the brochure overlooks the Mediterranean that is a six minute walk (according to Google) from the school.

The balcony of our apartment

 

The weather forecast for Minneapolis for tomorrow predicts a high of minus 1 (not counting the wind chill).  The weather forecast for Villefranche-sur Mer for tomorrow predicts a high of 52.

We received an email from a friend of ours who is French and lives in Paris today.  He writes in part

Glad to hear you are going to come to France, Villefranche is a very beautiful place, crowded in the summer, but certainly very quiet in Jan. You are likely to get some nice sunny weather at that time of the year, good chances of being able to have lunch in the outside in the sun, but rather cool at night of course. You should see mountains with snow in the back country and even sometimes the Corsican Peaks about 100 Km across the sea.The bay is wonderful and the cape houses some of the most expensive properties in France.There is a nice walk all around the Cape. 

The Cape he refers to is Cap Ferrat. The picturesque harbor of Villefranche-sur-Mer is protected on the east by Cap Ferrat and on the west by Cap de Nice.

We leave tomorrow (Thursday) and school starts Monday.  We start with a test for placement purposes.  We both are already having performance anxiety.  We will keep you posted as our adventure unfolds.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal and Jane

Larry Summers

Dear Friends,
The New York Times just reported that Larry Summers has withdrawn himself from consideration to be nominated as the next Federal Reserve Bank Chair.  He must have read my blog post and decided he could not continue.  Now let's hope that President Obama nominates Janet Yellen.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Federal Reserve Chair Nominee

Dear Friends,
President Obama will soon be nominating someone to become the new head of the Federal Reserve Bank.  It is widely reported that Larry Summers is on or perhaps even at the top of the short list for potential nominees (here).  I cannot understand why President Obama would even consider Mr. Summers as a candidate.  The editorial board of The New York Times made a very clear, cogent and convincing argument against Mr. Summers being the nominee (here). I find a couple of points raised by the editorial particularly persuasive:
First, Mr. Summers temperament is unsuited to lead the Fed.  He is dismissive, abrasive and lacks consensus building skills.  These traits could certainly lead to institutional dysfunction which we cannot afford.
Second, Mr. Summers has shown an incredible disdain for and aversion to reasonable and necessary financial regulations.  He was critical in the drive to eliminate the regulations put into effect by the Glass-Steagall Act, and he has resisted regulation of derivatives.  But most important even after seeing the carnage brought by a failure to properly regulate the financial industry, he refuses to acknowledge that the policies that he promoted lead directly to the Great Recession. 
Three Democratic Senators on the Banking Committee, Senators Testor (MT), Brown (OH) and Merkley (OR) have all indicated that they would not vote to confirm Mr. Summers. Senator Warren (D. MA) is also reported to be very concerned about Mr. Summers (here). 
There are others who are very well qualified and should be nominated instead of Mr. Summers.  Here is a link to an excellent article making a strong case for nominating Janet Yellen.
Please write President Obama to encourage him to nominate Janet Yellen as the next Fed Chair, not Larry Summers.  You can reach President Obama here.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal