“ONE OF MEDICINE’S MORE DRAMATIC MOMENTS”.

“ONE OF MEDICINE’S MORE DRAMATIC MOMENTS”.

Annalisa sent me a link to this article about the first use of insulin.

 Of course I teared up reading it.

The article begins: “Before 1921, it was exceptional for people with Type 1 diabetes to live more than a year or two.”

The article continues: “Children dying from diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) were kept in large wards, often with 50 or more patients in a ward, mostly comatose. Grieving family members were often in attendance, awaiting the (until then, inevitable) death.

In one of medicine’s more dramatic moments Banting, Best, and Collip went from bed to bed, injecting an entire ward with the new purified extract. Before they had reached the last dying child, the first few were awakening from their coma, to the joyous exclamations of their families.”

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I MAKE A CLASSIC MONTY PYTHON MISTAKE.

I MAKE A CLASSIC MONTY PYTHON MISTAKE. One of my favorite moments in Monty Python and the Holy Grail is when the knights arrive at the Bridge of Death ( I had forgotten the name of the bridge but this wikipedia entry refreshed my recollection): “…they arrive at the Bridge of Death and must answer three questions from the bridge-keeper to pass. Lancelot answers first and correctly, and passes on. Robin and Galahad fail to answer correctly and are thrown over the bridge….

One of the questions that is answered incorrectly by a knight is: “what is your favorite color?”

I just realized that I answered incorrectly the question “What is your favorite ice cream flavor?” The question was posed by a friend’s granddaughter for a survey for a class assignment. I named mint chocolate chip.

However, when I saw that Mary Jane and Elmer had answered “Jamoca Almond Fudge”, I realized that my favorite is Brigham’s Coffee Fudge, which I haven’t seen on sale for many years.

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DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME COMES TO STONEHENGE.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME COMES TO STONEHENGE. The National Trust website has this post about the annual efforts to move the Avebury stones to conform with British Summer Time (Daylight Savings Time).

Here

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TRIED AND TRUE POLICIES.

TRIED AND TRUE POLICIES. I do feel somewhat boastful that I was right when I said on March 18, 2008, some six months before the Lehman bankruptcy, that what the central bank had to do in a liquidity crisis was to “…to stand ready to purchase broad ranges of securities…” However, all I was doing was applying long established principles. I referred to the year 1873 to emphasize how far back “the accepted doctrine of central bank behavior during a domestic crisis of liquidity” went.

A surprising thing about the financial crisis was that things which had worked in the past were not tried. I am thinking of the reluctant use of Keynesian fiscal policy and the failure to use government “bad banks” to clean up bad mortgages.

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LOOKING BACK AT THE QUESTION: ” WHAT WOULD KEYNES DO”?

LOOKING BACK AT THE QUESTION: “WHAT WOULD KEYNES DO”? The caption for my post on December 3, 2008 (less than three months after the Lehman bankruptcy) was “WHAT WOULD KEYNES DO”? The first sentence was: “Kids, in times of financial crisis, we find ourselves turning to Bagehot and Keynes.” At the end of the post, I agreed with Professor Krugman’s recommendation: “The answer, almost surely, is good old Keynesian fiscal stimulus.” Keynes wrote over 70 years ago. And so, Nick, I am saying that this is another old idea from a very wise man, and it is the right move.”

I take some pride that ten years later a large fiscal stimulus has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in employment (or, using a related measurement, a dramatic reduction in the rate of unemployment).

Of course, I was agreeing with Professor Krugman just as I had agreed with Bagehot and Keynes.

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A JUXTAPOSITION.

A JUXTAPOSITION. I juxtaposed my post of March 8, 2019 in which I quoted Professor Krugman: ““The end result was that policy moved quickly and fairly effectively to rescue banks, then turned its back on mass unemployment.”and my post of March 7, 2019 in which I quoted Nick: ““The danger of the half measure, however, of bailing out the banks but then pivoting to austerity is you wind up with the banks themselves propped up at the expensive the majority of the populace.”

I enjoy arguing with Nick but it is also a pleasure when we find ourselves in agreement.

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PROFESSOR KRUGMAN ON FISCAL POLICY DURING THE TEN YEARS AFTER THE LEHMAN BANKRUPTCY.

PROFESSOR KRUGMAN ON FISCAL POLICY DURING THE TEN YEARS AFTER THE LEHMAN BANKRUPTCY. On September 12, 2018, Paul Krugman reviewed the ten years after the Lehman bankruptcy in this column entitled “Botching the Great Recession”.

Krugman says that economic policies during that period were “botched”: “…unemployment stayed high for many years; we didn’t return to anything that felt remotely like full employment (leaving aside the question of whether we’re there even now) until late in Obama’s second term.”

The failure was in fiscal policy. “We needed fiscal expansion, some combination of spending and tax cuts.”

Krugman describes generally the villains of the failure to have a big enough fiscal stimulus–“some key Obama figures”, some “Very Serious People” and “Republicans”.

“…the Obama stimulus.. was too small and, even more important, faded out much too quickly.”

Krugman concludes that: “The end result was that policy moved quickly and fairly effectively to rescue banks, then turned its back on mass unemployment.”

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AGAINST AUSTERITY (COMMENTS).

AGAINST AUSTERITY (COMMENTS). In the last week Nick has commented twice about the economic policy of the last ten years.

On March 1, 2019, he wrote: “The danger of the half measure, however, of bailing out the banks but then pivoting to austerity is you wind up with the banks themselves propped up at the expensive the majority of the populace.”

I replied: “In the cases I can think of, austerity is never called for after the crisis (run on the bank) is over.”

Nick then commented on March 4, 2019: “I would argue that’s what has happened in the United States in the last ten years.”

I know that Nick is reading Mark Blyth’s AUSTERITY: The History of a Dangerous Idea, and I am going to read it also.

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LEASHES FOR TODDLERS.

LEASES FOR TODDLERS. When Annalisa was a toddler, there was a period when Mary Jane would put on her a leash when they went out for a walk. This was unusual. I have never seen any other toddler on a leash, and passing drivers would sometimes heckle mother and daughter.

Annalisa sent me a link to this wikipedia entry about the history of leashes for infants. Leashes were called “Leading strings” and were used in Europe in the 17th and 18th century. At the link there is a painting from the 1790’s by Angelica Kauffman of a child fastened by “leading strings”.

Annalisa asked in the e mail: “Did you know of the long history of child leashes?”
She added that she strongly believes in leashes for a child learning to walk.

x

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FINDING MORE AT STONEHENGE.

FINDING MORE AT STONEHENGE. I have been interested in discoveries at Stonehenge since Annalisa saw Stonehenge and was convinced that there was a lot more to find there. Lauren Kent’s article ends with the next things to be looked at in Stonehenge: “Archeologists now want to focus on the prehistoric connections between early people in the Preseli Hills and the English plains to the east, Pollard said. The team is also hoping to get access to the buried stumps at Stonehenge to confirm their origins.”

Kent’s article links to a good article on Stonehenge from English Heritage.

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