Hiatus

The Uncommon Knowledge Blog has been, and will continue to, be taking a hiatus from our efforts to supplement the enjoyment of Uncommon Knowledge episodes.

The show itself however is alive and well and continues to release new content every two weeks at National Review Online.

If you ever have any reviews of episodes or letters to guests or to Peter Robinson that you'd like published, we certainly will accept them for review.

http://www.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge

adam.uncknowledge@gmail.com

The French Know Best

In light of our series this week on the American economy, I thought I'd highlight some of the arguments that are being made in the Big Three Bailout Battle.

John Judis at TNR's The Plank criticized the Bush Administration's foot-dragging on passing financial assistance for Ford, GM, and Chrysler. He made comparisons to Reagan's move to protect US chip makers from Japanese competition and then said:

American workers and engineers will lose their ability to compete in a major durable goods industry--and that’s not a good thing.

Other countries seem to understand this. French President Nicholas Sarkozy announced a $33 billion bailout package yesterday. France is not in as bad shape as the United States, but Sarkozy is worried about the French auto industry and is promising to protect it in exchange for a commitment from it to produce cars in France rather than to outsource the production of them.

I'm not sure that styling our government's intervention in the economy after the French is a good idea. This is the same country whose laws have created a black market in labor since they have a national limit on how many hours a person can work. That's like our minimum wage laws in the United States that prevent Americans willing to work for less, but end up losing out to illegal immigrants or see their jobs shipped overseas.

We should not decrease our participation in the competitive marketplace. Sure, we win some and we lose some and our automakers are losing right now. But to say that we can't still compete in design and that we'll be relegated to assembly is selling American ingenuity far too short. Our country has thrived in a competitive market, and while we've taken some hits, we'll be better off staying in the fight than refusing to participate.

New Episode Monday - Peter Thiel

The guests on Uncommon Knowledge have become increasingly tied to current events (Shelby Steele on Barack Obama and race, Thomas Sowell on differences between conservatism and liberalism on the eve of the presidential election, etc.) and this week is no exception.

Peter Robinson's guest for this series is Peter Thiel. As I told you before Thanksgiving, he is a co-founder of PayPal and is now a hedgefund manager at Clarium Capital (formerly Thiel Capital). In 2008, he was #377 on the Forbes 400.

A few interesting factiods: Thiel is 40 years old, single and got his BA and JD from Stanford.

Here is a link to the book, The American Challenge, which is discussed in the series.

Thanksgiving Eve Leak

Just to whet your appetite (*ahem*) for the next series of Uncommon Knowledge, I wanted to let you know that Peter Robinson's guest will be Peter Thiel. Here is his Wikipedia page.

I've just finished watching it and it combines a timely review of the American economy with a thoughtful reflection on how the realities of America today compare with past predictions of America's future.

Peter Thiel is one of the co-founder's of PayPal and now is president of Clarium Capital Management LLC. You should briefly check out their very enigmatic web presence.

Goodbye Careers in Business?

We are The Uncommon Knowledge Blog don't want to sink into obsolescence by only reading conservative opinion, so this week we've begun undertaking an occasional survey of left-leaning magazines. Today's choice was The Nation. The article was titled, You Voted. Now What? and can be read here.

There are three options given to youthful Obama supporters. The gist of the advice is "be like Barack Obama." And then aside from encouraging readers to actually go to Harvard, Kristina Rizga actually outlines job options much like Obama's own choices: 1) community organizer, 2) PeaceCorps/AmeriCorps/Teach for America and 3) become a politician.

Sadly, as America begins its journey through the "worst recession since the Great Depression," at least this liberal thinker (and activist according to her bio) doesn't see it fitting to even include careers in business among her admonitions to the rising generation.

As we continue to read liberal commentary, we'll be watching for nuance in the traditional stereotype of "liberals hate business." Certainly, that must be an ugly caricature and myth and not actually the default position.

Shelby Steele on Barack Obama

After two weeks off-the-air, Uncommon Knowledge returns this week with Hoover Institution Senior Fellow, Shelby Steele as Peter Robinson's guest. Steele was featured in the New York Times in the past week for his book on Obama and its now infamous subtitle, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win. You can read that article here.

What strikes me most about the two segments released thus far are 1) Steele's explanation of the difference between "The Bargainer" and "The Challenger" using Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis and 2) his own personal reflection on being the son of a black father and white mother and the need for multiracial people to prove their blackness.

Watch Segment 1 and Segment 2.

Future posting on The Uncommon Knowledge Blog will be more sporadic (as it has been throughout the month of November), but we are not leaving altogether.