Nova Scotia: We have everything we need to succeed

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Nova Scotia: We have everything we need to succeed

Americans Learn to Succeed by Learning From Failure

America succeeds because Americans fail and forgive. That’s the intriguing message — or part of it — of Megan McArdle’s new book “The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success.”

McArdle, a Bloomberg blogger and columnist, stands out among economic writers, and not just because she’s the only woman among them who is 6 feet 2 inches. She combines a shrewd knowledge of economics and practical experience with a writing style that every so often segues into comedy monologue.

Americans fail a lot, she argues. Most new businesses fail. Most predictions are wrong. As the screenwriter William Goldman wrote about Hollywood, “Nobody knows anything.”

And attempts to guard against failure can result in greater failures later on. Children prevented from roughhousing at recess may engage in riskier behavior later. Antibiotic overuse makes bacteria resistant to antibiotics, which then don’t work when you really need them.

But good judgment comes from experience. And experience comes from bad judgment — from failures. The key question is how you respond, whether you learn from failure and rebound.

Drawing from pre-history, McArdle contrasts farmers and foragers, the hunter-gatherers who lived before the development of agriculture.

Foragers tend to share success with neighbors, in the expectation that others will share later. They see success as the result of luck — the hunter who happens to spy a particularly vulnerable mammoth.

Farmers tend to share success only with family members. They see success — a plenteous harvest — as the result of their own families’ hard work and conscientiousness. They see no reason to share it with the lazy and feckless.

Americans, in McArdle’s view, have values like those of farmers. Much more than Europeans, they believe that there is a connection between effort and reward. Those who have earned more deserve it.

Europeans tend to believe that success comes mostly from luck. They enlist government to, in President Obama’s words to Joe the Plumber, “spread the wealth around.”

But in some respects, Americans behave like foragers. They’re often ready to forgive failures. High-tech entrepreneurs like to hire people whose businesses failed because it shows a willingness to take chances.

The U.S., McArdle points out, has the most accessible bankruptcy laws in the world. You can slough off your debts (except for student loans) relatively easily. In supposedly progressive Denmark, they hang over you for life.

The result is that, contrary to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s adage, there are many, many second acts in American life.
Americans also, though McArdle doesn’t mention this, donate far more to charity than Europeans do. Great philanthropists have created beneficial institutions — Andrew Carnegie’s libraries, John D. Rockefeller’s research medical schools, many donors’ universities — which Europe can’t match.

McArdle mostly ignores religion, but this blend of farmer property-owning and forager sharing is in line with Christian teaching. There is such a thing as sin, and it should be penalized. But there is also the possibility of forgiveness and redemption and a duty to share in your own way.

Though not technically part of the millennial generation (those born after 1980), McArdle presents a Millennials’ view of the world.

Sudden macroeconomic shifts can result in months of soul-deadening unemployment (she was working in IT just as the dot-com bubble burst).

The future is wildly unpredictable, failure is frequent, success seemingly serendipitous (her freelance blogging got her a job blogging at the Economist).

Her advice is to avoid enterprises that are in long-term decline, such as General Motors starting in the 1970s.

In business and public policy, try to learn from well-conducted experiments — but recognize that successful trials can’t always be replicated on a large scale.

Don’t rush to conclude that disasters like the 2008 financial crash are the result of conspiracy or the errors of one easily identified group of malefactors. Bubbles happen in any free market economy and are hard to identify until they burst.

“The world is an increasingly insecure place,” she writes, “and there is no way to make it less risky.”

The best way ahead is to admit mistakes quickly, understand that you may well fail, but you can usually rebound and punish rule-breaking promptly and consistently but lightly.

This book about people who fail is also a book about how a nation succeeds. The “American Bourgeois Synthesis,” McArdle writes, is good but not perfect, promoting entrepreneurship but over-penalizing some mistakes.

Americans — and America — can succeed, but only if people learn from their failures. 

RealClearPolitics – Articles

Americans Learn to Succeed by Learning From Failure

To Succeed At Breast-Feeding, Most New Moms Could Use Help

That’s how it’s supposed to work. But for most new moms, breast-feeding doesn’t come easily, a study finds.

iStockphoto.com

The majority of new mothers try to breast-feed. But it’s not easy.

Only 13 percent manage to breast-feed exclusively for the six months that are recommended for a baby’s health. And, as you might expect, the moms who have trouble with breast-feeding in the first week with a new baby are the ones most likely to give up, a study finds.

Researchers at the UC Davis Medical Center surveyed 418 first-time mothers about breast-feeding, starting while they were pregnant and continuing until the baby was two months old. Almost all of the women said they intended to breast-feed.

Three days after giving birth, 92 percent of the new mothers said they were having problems breast-feeding.

Half of the mothers reported problems with getting the baby to latch on to the breast, or other feeding issues like nipple confusion, when a baby may prefer a bottle. And 44 percent said pain was a problem. And 40 percent said they felt that they weren’t producing enough milk.

The most commonly reported problems during the first week were also the ones that made it more likely that a mom would give up.

The researchers didn’t do physical exams of the moms and babies, so they don’t know what was happening for sure. But they speculate that some of the first-time mothers may have misread the babies’ cues, mistaking fussiness for hunger, for instance, or thinking the babies weren’t getting enough milk when they’re doing just fine.

Shots – Health News

More Moms Are Breast-Feeding, But Many Babies Still Miss Out

Still, they think the biggest reason that women struggled is that once they left the hospital they lacked access to lactation counselors in that critical first week.
Two months after birth, 47 percent of the mothers said they had used formula, and 21 percent said they had stopped breast-feeding.

Just 34 of the women said they had no problems breast-feeding at day three. All but one of them were still exclusively breast-feeding at two months. Those women tended to be younger than 30, Hispanic, had an unmedicated vaginal delivery and said they had strong support for breast-feeding.

The study is a bit unusual because it didn’t use a checklist that restricted the women’s choice of responses; it let them answer in their own words. That makes it all the more striking that their responses were so similar.

Giving new mothers more help with breast-feeding problems in that first week home with the baby could help a lot, the authors conclude. The study was published online in the journal Pediatrics.

This study presents a gloomier view than a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention back in July, perhaps because this new study used exclusive breast-feeding at the measure of success. The CDC study found that almost half of babies were being breast-fed at least some of the time at 6 months, up from 35 percent in 2000.

Health officials urge women to feed babies breast milk because it reduces the infant’s risk of ear infections and diarrhea, and promotes better health into adulthood.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers breast-feed for 12 months and the World Health Organization backs breast-feeding for up to two years.

News

To Succeed At Breast-Feeding, Most New Moms Could Use Help

Dems dredge up Vitter prostitution scandal – BOEHNER SEEKS DEMS" HELP IN FISCAL TALKS – Zients to succeed Sperling – REID"S SYRIA WHIPLASH – Pete King goes his own way in "16 run

By Scott Wong (swong@politico.com or @scottwongDC)

DEMS DREDGE UP VITTER PROSTITUTION SCANDAL – Manu Raju and John Bresnahan have the scoop for POLITICO: “Senate Democrats have had all they can take from David Vitter and his fixation on Obamacare — and they’re dredging up his past prostitution scandal to hit back. Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has infuriated Democrats this week by commandeering the Senate floor, demanding a vote on his amendment repealing federal contributions to help pay for lawmakers’ health care coverage. But Democratic senators are preparing a legislative response targeting a sordid Vitter episode. If Vitter continues to insist on a vote on his proposal, Democrats could counter with one of their own: Lawmakers will be denied those government contributions if there is ‘probable cause’ they solicited prostitutes.

– “According to draft legislation obtained by POLITICO, Democrats are weighing whether to force a Senate vote on a plan that would effectively resurrect Vitter’s past if the conservative Republican continues to press forward with his Obamacare-bashing proposal. Such a hardball move could bring back uncomfortable memories of the 2007 ‘D.C. Madam’ scandal in which Vitter’s phone number turned up in a Washington-based prostitution ring. Vitter apologized for committing a ‘very serious sin’ but did not elaborate. … It’s unclear which Democratic senator will offer the plan or whether a vote will ever come to pass. It was drafted by staff in response to requests by several Democratic senators. And sources say it was discussed at a Senate Democratic lunch on Thursday.

–“‘Harry Reid is acting like an old-time Vegas mafia thug, and a desperate one at that,’ Vitter said in a statement to POLITICO, referring to the Senate majority leader. ‘This just shows how far Washington insiders will go to protect their special Obamacare exemption.’” http://politi.co/14LKNIn

– THE DEBATE on the underlying Shaheen-Portman energy bill has “devolved into an accidental collision between Obamacare and the Keystone XL pipeline,” write POLITICO’s Darren Goode and Andrew Restuccia. “On one side is Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who has halted action on a bipartisan energy-efficiency bill while demanding a vote on an unrelated Obamacare measure. On the other is Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who wants to use the energy bill as a vehicle for a pro-Keystone amendment that he’s crafted to make as much bipartisan noise as possible. They can’t both get what they want — unless Democratic leaders cave in to Vitter’s demands, which they showed no signs of doing. So the energy bill is in limbo.” http://politi.co/1812j8u

MILITANTS ATTACKED the U.S. consulate in Afghanistan, killing two Afghan policemen and injuring dozens of others. All consulate personnel are safe and accounted for. The L.A. Times: http://lat.ms/1bcjLvR

REBUILT AFTER SANDY, N.J. BOARDWALK GOES UP IN FLAMES – Kate Zernike “Nearly a year after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Jersey Shore, a boardwalk that was just rebuilt was ravaged by fire on Thursday, as a blaze that began at an iconic ice cream shop quickly engulfed businesses along a stretch of beach in two towns.  Flames and black plumes of smoke shot high above the Boardwalk in Seaside Park, where the fire began after 2 p.m. Within hours, strong gusts of wind swept the fire north along the adjoining Boardwalk of Seaside Heights, where a roller coaster had sat mangled in the ocean for months and became a symbol of the storm’s damage.  Funtown Pier, nearly destroyed by the hurricane, collapsed in flames. And nearby, the fire appeared to have ruined a historic carousel that had been painstakingly restored after the storm and reopened just months ago. In all, about 20 businesses over a six-block stretch were almost completely destroyed, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said at a news conference. Local officials suggested that number was too low.  … “When he heard the news, the governor said, ‘I said to my staff, ‘I feel like I want to throw up.’” http://nyti.ms/1bd1xKE

** A message from the Reagan Presidential Foundation: Registration has opened for “The Reagan National Defense Forum: Building Peace Through Strength Through 2025.” Speakers include Secretary Chuck Hagel, General Martin Dempsey, Secretary John McHugh, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, SASC Chairman Carl Levin and HASC Chairman “Buck” McKeon.

FEC: BOEHNER DONORS MAY HAVE EXCEEDED LIMITS – Jessica Wehrman writes in the Columbus Dispatch: “The Federal Election Commission is questioning House Speaker John Boehner about $ 64,000 in excess campaign contributions, according to a letter the bipartisan panel sent to Boehner this week. Under federal campaign-finance law, lawmakers can receive donations from individuals of up to $ 2,500 for a primary and $ 2,500 for a general election. Political-action committees can donate twice that amount. The letter references donations mostly made at the end of 2011 and questions contributions from three individuals and six political-action committees. The individual donations came from a Rockport, Maine, retiree; an Arlington, Va., telecom lobbyist; and a former chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. … The letter also questions whether Boehner failed to refund or redesignate other potentially excessive contributions within the required 60-day limit, listing 10 individual donors whose refunds or redesignations might not have been issued by that deadline. … Cory Fritz, a Boehner spokesman, said the campaign would respond to the letter. ‘We take compliance with FEC rules and regulations seriously, and will take all corrective action necessary,’ Fritz said.” http://bit.ly/1814rwP

NYT, A1, “Boehner Seeking Democrats’ Help on Fiscal Talks,” By Jonathan Weisman: “With Congress momentarily freed from the Syrian crisis, lawmakers plunged back into their bitter fiscal standoff on Thursday as Speaker John A. Boehner appealed to the Obama administration and Democratic leaders to help him resolve divisions in the Republican ranks that could lead to a government shutdown by month’s end. In meetings with Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders on Thursday after a session with Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew on Wednesday, Mr. Boehner sought a resumption of negotiations that could keep the government running and yield a deficit-reduction deal that would persuade recalcitrant conservatives to raise the government’s borrowing limit.

– “Much of the federal government will shut down as of Oct. 1 unless Congress approves new spending bills to replace expiring ones, and by mid-October, the Treasury Department will lose the borrowing authority to finance the government and pay its debts. … Mr. Lew and Congressional Democrats held firm that they would no longer negotiate on raising the debt ceiling, which they see as the duty of the party in power in the House. And they made it clear to the speaker that they would never accept Republican demands to repeal, defund or delay Mr. Obama’s signature health care law. White House officials dismissed it as ‘a nonstarter.’” http://nyti.ms/13VDqvj

JEFF ZIENTS will succeed Gene Sperling as the chief White House economic adviser, the NYT’s Jackie Calmes reports. Zients did two stints as the president’s acting budget director. http://nyti.ms/14LRbPI

– Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, says he would oppose Larry Summers if he’s tapped to lead the Fed, the WSJ reports: http://on.wsj.com/1e7IDWs

TRANSITIONS – Ian Sams, press secretary for Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is making the jump to the DNC as regional press secretary. A colleague emails: “He’s a proud Tennessean, graduate of the University Alabama, and diehard Alabama football fan (Roll Tide indeed).” He celebrated last night with friends and colleagues at Vendetta on H Street.

IT’S A GLOOMY FRIDAY THE 13^TH THIS MORNING IN D.C. but cooler weather has arrived. Welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don’t already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include @smahaskey and @PhilGordonPHX

TODAY IN CONGRESS – Both the House and Senate are out today.

AROUND THE HILL – Former Rep. Barney Frank, former House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former commissioner of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and former CBO director, speak on a panel entitled “After the Fall: Five Years After Lehman’s Collapse, Where Are We Now?,” hosted by the American Action Network, at noon in Rayburn B318.

POLL: GOP SEES UPTICK ON KEY ISSUES – Neil King Jr. reports for the Wall Street Journal: “The Republican Party is gaining a public-opinion edge on several key issues ahead of the 2014 elections, as Americans question President Barack Obama’s leadership on Syria and worry about the country’s overall direction, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. Republicans are now rated higher than Democrats on handling the economy and foreign policy, and the GOP’s lead has strengthened on several other issues, including dealing with the federal deficit and ensuring a strong national defense. On topics such as health care, Democrats have seen their long-standing advantage whittled to lows not seen in years.” http://on.wsj.com/180qQul

Las Vegas Sun, “Obama gave Reid political whiplash on Syria,” By Karoun Demirjian: “As senate majority leader, part of Harry Reid’s unofficial job description is to work the Democratic president’s policies through the Congress. But in the past few days, President Barack Obama’s official stance on striking Syria has changed with enough frequency to give Reid political whiplash on a very public stage. ‘The president and his team really dumped a bad one on him this time,’ said Jim Manley, Reid’s former communications director. ‘When the president asks him to do something he’s going to try to get it done … but he got caught in the whipsaw, the back-and-forth that went on last week.’ Reid was the first of the congressional leaders to make an official speech [on Syria] Monday … But within a few hours, Russian officials announced that they had struck a deal with Syria, under which Syrian President Bashar Assad would turn over all of his chemical weapons. Obama had known the Russians were working the deal — but apparently, had kept it quiet. And Reid was forced to backpedal fast. He took the planned Syria vote off the Senate’s calendar Monday night, and by Tuesday, Reid had edited his firm conviction to allow for giving peace a chance. …

– “But aides admit it’s been a whirlwind. And unlike other cases in which White House policy has evolved – as it did during recent debates about the fiscal cliff and gun control — Reid’s traditional vote-rustling strategies didn’t present a workable solution in this fight.” http://bit.ly/1eKPiVz

RUBIO RESPONDS TO PUTIN – Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) writes in National Review: “In this morning’s New York Times, Russian president Vladimir Putin argued that America is not exceptional, and that American leadership does not make the world safer. I could not disagree more strongly. While Russia and the U.S. did work together to defeat the Nazis in World War II as Putin points out, our histories since then tell two very different stories. While strong U.S. leadership rebuilt a free and prosperous Western Europe after the war, the Soviet Union did the opposite, spreading a Communist ideology that imprisoned people behind walls and on islands. The U.S. won the Cold War because of our willingness to lead the free world, and today we remain the world’s sole super power. The question facing our nation now is whether we will continue to lead in the future. I believe we must.” http://bit.ly/15nNHl1

– Speaker John  Boehner told reporters he was “insulted” after reading the much-talked-about op-ed: http://politi.co/18WcbR8

PETE KING GOES HIS OWN WAY IN ’16 RUN – POLITICO’s Katie Glueck in Wolfeboro, N.H.: “ Presidential hopefuls don’t typically open their sales pitch by promoting policies that voters overwhelmingly oppose or by knocking their own party almost as much as the other one. Peter King is not your typical presidential hopeful. The brash Republican congressman from Long Island has been making the rounds in New Hampshire, pressing for military action in Syria — which about one in three Americans support — and warning against growing isolationist sentiment at home, symbolized by the rise of libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). At stops around the state last weekend, King charged that President Barack Obama’s approach ‘is weakening the office of the president of the United States’ …And his keen focus on national security when poll after poll indicates the country has turned inward after a dozen years of war isn’t the kind of message likely to fire up the Republican faithful.

– “But for King, that message is the point. His main motivation is unmistakable: pushing back against what he sees as a ‘dangerous’ strain of isolationism that’s gaining strength in the GOP. Trips to early states like New Hampshire make him not just a ‘Republican congressman’ in the media but also a “potential 2016 candidate” — giving him a bigger megaphone to drive his message.” http://politi.co/189Pwyf

OBAMA’S GOP COUSIN MAY PRIMARY ROBERTS – Our own James Hohmann and Manu Raju report: “Barack Obama’s second cousin once removed, is laying the groundwork for a potential Republican primary challenge against Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts next year. Milton Wolf has been gauging support, sources told POLITICO, sending an email to GOP activists the last week of August asking them to get in touch if they want more senators like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul. Wolf, a 42-year-old practicing radiologist, accused Roberts of raising the debt ceiling, bailing out Wall Street and supporting earmarks. He noted that Roberts said recently that he does not see a way out of using military force in Syria and endorsed former Kansas Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be secretary of Health and Human Services. … The president’s great-great-grandfather, Thomas Creekmore McCurry, is Wolf’s great-grandfather. His mother was five years older than Obama’s mother, and he writes on his Website that the two were childhood friends in Wichita.” http://politi.co/1aH0vas

CONGRESS APPROVAL RATING ACTUALLY IMPROVES – Sean Sullivan writes in the Washington Post: “How poor a job is Congress doing in the eyes of the American public? So poor that fewer than one in five Americans approve — and that’s actually GOOD news for Capitol Hill lawmakers. Congress’ approval rating jumped up five points from 14 percent to 19 percent during the last month, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday. It’s the highest number since October of 2012. (Of course, “highest” is a relative term given how low the numbers have been.) So why the jump? Gallup suggests it could be related to President Obama asking Congress to approve military action against Syria. (That ask is currently on hold.) Americans strongly oppose a strike, and Congress has been very skeptical, too.” http://wapo.st/15VjFHL

THURSDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – We had another tie: Colleen Shogan and Michael Quigley both correctly answered seconds apart that two former first ladies are buried in Arlington Cemetery: Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis and Helen Herron Taft.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Colleen Shogan has today’s question: In honor of Yom Kippur, who was the first Jewish member of Congress?  And what district did he represent? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/

** A message from the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library: The Reagan National Defense Forum on November 16, 2013 is bringing together leaders and key stakeholders in the defense community – including members of Congress, civilian officials and military leaders from the Defense Department and industry – to address the health of our national defense and to stimulate a discussion that promotes policies that strengthen the United States military into the future.  Registrations is $ 499 per person. For more information and tickets, please visit www.ReaganFoundation.org/Defense.  

The program includes a keynote address by General Dempsey, remarks by Secretary Hagel, and multiple panels including “Counterterrorism in 2025,” “Congress, Industry and the Pentagon” and “The Industrial Base After a Decade of War.”

“My husband would be so pleased to know that his ‘Peace Through Strength’ policies are being discussed again with a focus on today’s new technology and tomorrow’s needs.” – Former First Lady Nancy Reagan

POLITICO – Top 10 – Huddle

Dems dredge up Vitter prostitution scandal – BOEHNER SEEKS DEMS" HELP IN FISCAL TALKS – Zients to succeed Sperling – REID"S SYRIA WHIPLASH – Pete King goes his own way in "16 run