HARDING CLUB MINUTES:
Meeting of
Oct. 28, 2009
The meeting,
as usual, was held G&G’s Restaurant in Wappingers.
The Speaker
for the evening was Professor Bruce Judson.
Bruce Judson
is a senior faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management. An entrepreneur
and lawyer, Judson holds advanced degrees from Yale Law School and the Yale
School of Management. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He is the author
of Go It Alone! and Netmarketing, and the coauthor of Hyperwars.
In 2008 he both
predicted and hedged against the market crash, beating the investment results
of virtually every mutual fund and hedge fund.
The severe
economic downturn has been blamed on many things: deregulation, derivatives,
greedy borrowers, negligent lenders. But could there be a deeper problem that
is so severe, so long-lasting, and so dangerous that it makes these problems
look like minor swerves in the road? Could we be facing an existential
challenge to the promise of America, and to our system of government?
Inequality in America has reached historical highs. Throughout human
history, this level of disparity has proven intolerable, almost always leading
to political upheaval. Though many believe that America will never face a
second revolution, that our politics are stable, in It Could Happen Here, Yale
School of Management senior faculty fellow Bruce Judson makes the case that
revolution is a real possibility here, driven by a thirty-year, unprecedented
rise of inequality through six presidencies, three Fed chairmen, three
recessions, and many years of expansion.
The last time inequality rivaled current levels was in 1928, just before
the Crash and the Great Depression. Today we are in worse shape, divided into a
tiny plutocracy of super-rich, on the one hand, and a fragile, indebted,
unprotected "former middle class" on the other. As Judson shows,
revolutions can occur suddenly, as happened with the Soviet Union's 1991
dissolution, and America today exhibits the central precursors to a collapse extreme
economic inequality and an increasingly impoverished middle class. He makes the
most disturbing case yet for why our economics are leading us inevitably toward
a devastating crisis.
When Franklin Roosevelt faced a similar situation, he was saved by World
War II. This time, the
conflict may be at home, not abroad.
For more on the revolution that
could happen here, see www.a-e-e.org.
·
HARDING CLUB MINUTES:
Meeting of
Nov 11, 2009
The next meeting was held on Nov. 11. The Speaker was Jay Simpson on the topic: Genealogy.
}
More than
Date and Place of Birth
Date and Place of Marriage
Date and place of Death
}
It’s your family
history!
}
It’s your kin
The full presentation is attached and/or
can be viewed on our web site.
This was a husband a wife meeting. Most of those attending without their wives were relegated to the back tables
:-(.
Apparently in honor of having many of our
wives attending, G&G offered an assortment of hot h’odeurves.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.
Respectfully Submitted
Herb Stoller Recording Secretary
Speaker Schedule
|
Meeting Date |
Speaker |
Husband and Wife |
|
|
|
|
|
2-Dec |
State of the Pok Journal - Rothfeld |
|
|
16-Dec |
Pres &
CEO – GSD Chamber of Commerce-Ann Meagher – |
|
|
13-Jan |
State Of the County - Sandy Goldberg |
|
|
27-Jan |
|
|
|
10-Feb |
Chinese New Year - Jade Palace |
Yes |
|
24-Feb |
|
|
|
10-Mar |
|
|
|
24-Mar |
Jewish Deli Night at the JCC |
|