Long time no see

I haven't written anything in quite a while. Maybe I should.

This  page has been functioning as my dumping found for excess thoughts, caused by reading way too much news, especially during the years 2002-2009 when I had something like an addiction, following the war on Iraq and the global economic downturn, fueled by the subprime crisis. I have certainly followed news very actively, but not with such an addiction anymore.

Recently, there has been a heightened level of interest in physical signs of climate change, rise of far right populist movements and overall political polarization in developed countries. I feel that a prolonged global trade war between the US and China is still just in its infancy, and will get quite a lot more intense, before settling into a new status quo.

The next economic downturn in the US will leave much more devastation behind it than most people currently realize, due to the pro-cyclic Republican tax policies that have produced a massive budget deficit at the very top of the business cycle. There will be no room for stimulus in the next downturn. The result will be either a self-enforcing austerity or a dramatic collapse in the value of the dollar and possible loss of US credit rating.

After some strange, partially media-led turmoil, our Finnish government is now led by a much younger group of people than ever since the 70's. This is a welcome development, but I hope they keep their feet on the ground. The centre-leftist government is met with a corporate media dead-set against some of its goals. It is difficult to filter the substance from the opinion.

With these developments, I am feeling that there is a risk of getting a information indigestion. It is certainly not helped by all the information that I need to digest in my professional life, which nowadays seems to consist of continuous learning of new software development tools and libraries.