Assisting, Demonstrating, Scaffolding

Yesterday Smiley had some friends over for some "Art Exploration Time".  I'll use the event as an example of three types of teaching.

Assisting

Smiley had not seen a hole punch in many months and probably did not remember ever using one.  He wanted to make holes in a paper plate.  Since his hands were not strong enough to use the punch, he got some continued assistance.  (The photo is not very clear about this, but you can just see Smiley behind his friend Stern, with Stern's mom helping use the hole punch.)

We also made gingerbread cookies.   Smiley is a good helper in the kitchen but needs continued assistance.  If I measure out ingredients he can dump them in the mixing bowls.  He can stir the mixing bowls without spilling, but does not stir adequately for most recipes.

Smiley likes being a helper.  He does not shy from activities that require continued assistance.  He can still feel more capable and knowledgable despite requiring constant help.

The same can be true for adults, too.  Many activities for adults, from scuba tours to kitchen canning classes, offer participants as much continued assistance as they desire.

Demonstrating

In that same photo you can notice Smiley's stamp set.  A multi-colored stamp pad was something new for his friends.  So I demonstrated how to use a damp cloth on a plate to clean the stamps before switching colors.  Even three-year-old Stern caught on immediately and needed no continuing help.

Stern's sister, Giddy, wanted to help roll the dough flat between the silpat baking sheet and the plastic wrap.  But she immediately realized the new challenge: unlike rolling clay on a table, this task involved boundary conditions since the dough should more-or-less fill the silpat.  "What do I do?" she asked.  I demonstrated starting from the middle and moving dough towards an edge that still needed more dough.  She caught on and needed no other help.

In my math classes at LCC I do too much demonstrating.  A constant issue is how to better use class time for assisting students that are struggling more, and how to design activities that use scaffolding for students that do not require as many demonstrations.

Scaffolding

A fun part of silpat gingerbread cookies is looking at the pieces between the cookie-cutter shapes and wondering what they look like.  I thought this piece looked like a wild boar, but Giddy decided it was a lion.

After making the mane with orange glaze she paused, unsure what to do.  "I have a hard time seeing the tail with that shape," I commented.  "Could you help me see the tail?"  She did: it is starting at the back, curving across the lion's yellow side, and ending in the red tuft of hairs.

My small and vague suggestion was just enough to get her going again.  This kind of small nudge is called scaffolding, after Vygotsky's theories.  A good teacher notices when a student is almost capable of more but needs a tiny nudge.

Smiley needed a more physical type of scaffolding when he tried to thread some colored yarn through the holes he punched around his paper plate.  Although he is practiced at making bead necklaces using wire or using dental floss and a blunt needle, he could not get the soft yarn through the holes.  So I made a stiff "needle" of tape on one end, which allowed him to proceed.

By doing as much scaffolding as possible we show our kids that they can be independent learners, but also that all learners sometimes get stuck and need small nudges to continue.

UPDATE: Smiley's friends names have been changed to "blog names".

Painting Objects with Parts

Towards the end of September we noticed a change in Smiley's painting.

Most of what he did and does for "painting" with colored paints was mixing colors in this dish of paints and in the bowl of water supposedly for cleaning his brush.  Making lines and curves on the paper not as interesting or engaging.  That much has not changed.

But previously he did not have any structure to his lines and curves, even if he named them (usually as escalators, train tracks, or roads).  Now he is painting objects made up of parts.

That purple item mystified us for a two weeks.  Smiley finally decided it was a flower.  Even if it was not originally anything in particular, it still demonstrates his slowly developing awareness that where on the paper he puts his lines and curves can be an important choice.

Yesterday he painted another mystery.

We know what this is: a map of Far Away Land.  He has been drawing these on his doodle pads, and now made one with paint.  The circle around the outside is the fence that separates Far Away Land from the rest of Eugene.

I am not yet sure if the placement of his other lines and curves has any intentionality. I have not had yet an appropriate time to sit with him and repeatedly ask, "Who else lives in Far Away Land?" and "Where is their home?".

Political Parties: Unions versus Corporations

I remember that back in the 1980s I figured out the difference between Democrats and Republicans.  (I make no claim that my observation was correct, since I was not very aware of politics at the time.)

Democrats valued caution.  They did not want to use the environment in ways that might wreck things, change how unions worked, or relax regulations on corporations.  Republicans valued progress.  They believed that America was prosperous enough to fix anything it might damage, and favored tinkering with policy in the hope it would foster innovation and improve average wealth.

Surely my observation about the difference between the parties was incomplete.  Perhaps it was entirely false.

Today the contrast is sadly clear, and quite divorced from the normal folk who belong to either party.  The Democratic leadership is in bed with the unions.  The Republican leadership is in bed with large corporations.

Today Instapundit had amazing examples of both.  The "Occupy Wall Street" protests are astrotrufed with unions hiring union members and unaffiliated Hispanics to participate. The ABA is a great example of regulatory capture. 

Most Americans are neither union leaders nor managers of large corporations, and are increasingly realizing how little we are represented in our republic.

The obvious way to reduce cronyism is to shift Federal power back to the states.  As Stephen Bainbridge writes:

Corporations do influence the government, of course. But then so do labor unions, the legal profession, the medical profession, special interest groups based on one form of racial or ethnic grievance or another, and lobbying interests ranging from Iowa corn to Texas oil. The problem isn’t corporations, the problem is that we have a government that has its fingers in nearly every aspect of the economy. That means that policy makers have the ability to pick economic winners and losers every day, and it’s only natural that those policies would be of concern to the people that they’re going to impact most directly, the businesses affected by them.

Eugene's Busy Three-Year-Olds

Since the rainy days are approaching I'm compiling a list of things that kids Smiley's age are invited to do around town for free or for little cost.

Please chime in if you know of other activities!

Eugene Park and Recreation (calendar, news) offers occasional, usually free activities.  For example, this weekend had an interpretive walk through Delta Ponds.

Springfield Parks (calendar) also has occasional, usually free events.  For example, next week has the Edible Festival at Willamalane Center on Saturday ($5 per adult).

The Eugene Library (kids page) has free weekly story and song events.  For three-year-olds the time is Wednesdays at 10:15am or 11am.

The Museum of Natural and Cultural History has free monthly Little Wonders stories and activity days for preschool-age kids on the first Wednesday of each month.  If you can find parking in the small lot next to the museum then the front desk will provide a temporary parking pass.

The Science Factory also has monthly Tot Discovery Days on the first Friday of each month.  These are only free if you are a member, but if you have a little kid in Eugene you probably are a member anyway since the Science Factory is a great thing to do on rainy Winter days.

The Schnitzer Museum of Art has free admission on the first Friday of each month.  Not as age-appropriate as the Science Factory offering, but free for families not Science Factory members.

The NAAG Gym has an open gym hour most days.  The cost is $4, or $3 for gym students.  This is less expensive than Bounce.  Smiley also prefers the equipment at NAAG.  (Smiley is currently a student in the weekly class on Thursdays at 2:30pm.  If you want to visit the weekly class, it's free the first time as the guest of an enrolled kid!)

The local homeschooling network, Barnraisers, often organizes activities for younger kids as well as school-age kids.  For example, yesterday I took both boys to River Turns Farm in Coburg for a tour and fruit picking, and most Mondays afternoons in October we are hosting an "art exploration" time.

Total Blender, Part 2

In August I wrote about our super-blender.  Time for an update.

Its ability to make soups quickly without heating up the house as much as using the stove did improve our summer dinner routines.  The types of soups that we made exclusively with the blender was limiting, but my wife had no trouble adapting a few of her tomato-based soups so that most of the preparation was done with the blender and the stove was used only a few minutes^*.

The blender does grind grain well simply by putting in two cups of grain and running the blender on its highest speed (for the default 50 seconds the "speed up" key runs).  The result is finer than with our grain mill.

But it will not replace our grain mill.  Doing two cups at a time requires too much babysitting, compounded by the fact that the blender is so incredibly noisy at maximum speed that being anywhere near it is annoying^**. The grain mill is slower but its large hopper and quieter noise win the prize.  However, it is nice to have the blender as a backup for when we are out of flour mix but want to quickly throw together a loaf of bread dough before bedtime to ferment and rise overnight.

My wife and I have discovered we like vastly different fruits and vegetables in our raw juices.

I have found that I like filling the blender with spinach.  I like spinach, and eating more is a healthy idea.  I add half a cup of milk so it blends, and on top dump about half a cup of either frozen mango or frozen raspberries.  (For me, blueberries, banana, or apple do not combine well with spinach.  And those five exhaust the list of fruits we can affordably buy organic year-round.)

My wife makes her juices with cantaloupe, carrot, and then some fruit.  Surprisingly, I do like carrots and cantaloupe but have learned that I like to eat those flavors, not drink them.

Lastly, we're making more pancakes and waffles in the mornings.  But that is simply because we have a reliable blender.  A normal blender would help with those equally well.

---

^* She uses the stove before blending to saute onions and garlic, and/or uses the stove after blending to bring the soup to a rolling boil for a few minutes so it will safely keep longer in the fridge.

^** We also had to explain what we were doing to the confused FAA personnel who knocked at our front door.

In Real Life

Smiley had his first day of preschool today.

I would write more, and put up photographs, but I am also terribly sick with an awful cold.

Yet I cannot go to sleep before retelling this conversation after we got into the car this morning:

Me: Remember, when we had the tour of the room two days ago we were told that today Daddy could not stay long.  But in a few days I can stay with you more and see what you do.

Smiley: Okay.

Me: But when I do stay, I might not be able to play with you.  I will have to do what your teacher says.  Maybe she will ask me to help other kids.  In preschool the teacher is the boss.

Smiley: Yes.  In classes the teacher is the boss, not the daddies.  That's how it is in real life.

Gallant at Four Months

Yesterday Gallant had his four month checkup.  His measurements (and percentiles) were length 23.4 in. (10%), weight 12 lb., 6 oz. (10%), head 16.3 in. (25%).

He is very slightly shorter and heavier than Smiley was when he was four months old.

Smiley at four months:


Gallant at four months:

Yerba Maté, Part 2

A bit more than a month ago I wrote about drinking yerba maté.

I decided to buy some from Eco Teas.  That brand is a good product: unsmoked for a more pleasant and healthier taste, and well-processed to include very few branch bits.

Amazon seemed to have a good deal, but the Eco Teas website is even less expensive if you actually want five pounds (which I did not).

In any case, compared to quality tea it is very cheap!

I soon realized that I only like yerba maté if I treat it like black tea.  I use about a tablespoon per 40 ounce teapot (instead of a tablespoon per eight ounces).  I add milk.  I really like the result, but it is nothing like the traditional experience.

It also means I am only getting about 6 mg of caffeine per eight-ounce cup, according to my handy caffeine chart.  That is comparable to decaff tea or hot cocoa!

Herbal Tea: 0 mg
Decaffeinated Tea: 1-8 mg
Hot Cocoa: 8 mg
Decaffeinated Coffee: 4-10 mg
Milk Chocolate (4 oz.): 4-40 mg
Dark Chocolate (4 oz.): 20-140 mg
Soda: 22-55 mg
White or Green Tea: 30-60 mg
Yerba Maté: 30-40 mg
Oolong Tea: 50-100 mg
Black Tea: 80-140 mg
Energy Drinks: 75-160 mg
Instant Coffee: 90-200 mg
Espresso (4 oz.): 180-220 mg
Drip Coffee: 160-300 mg
NoDoz (2 pills): 200 mg

Project Five or Bust

One of my LCC colleagues, Phil Moore had great news in February.  I'm finally getting around to blogging about it.

He organized a search named "Five or Bust" on a math forum to organize a "proof" by overpowering evidence for the conjecture that

k = 78557 is the smallest positive odd integer such that k + 2ⁿ is never a prime number for any positive integer n

Phil writes about his project's completion:

It is easy to show that 78557 + 2^n is never prime, being always divisible by 3, 5, 7, 13, 19, 37, or 73.

To show that 78557 is the smallest number with this property, we need to find for each odd k < 78557 some value of n which makes k + 2^n prime.

A collaborative search in 2001-2002 narrowed the search down to 8 values of k for which a prime or probable prime value was not known for the sequence k + 2^n. A probable prime is a number which passes a number of tests that all prime numbers will pass and most, but not all, composite numbers will fail. I started searching these 8 sequences in summer of 2007 and eliminated three of them by discovering three large probable primes. My largest discovery in June of 2008 at 358,640 digits was at that time the largest known probable prime.

In October of 2008, I organized the distributed search project "Five or Bust" to search the remaining 5 sequences. In November 2009, we found the fourth probable prime, narrowing the search to the single sequence 40291 + 2^n.

In early February, Engracio Esmenda of Chicago discovered that 40291 + 2^9092394 is a probable prime. This number contains 2,737,083 digits, and if written in 12-point font on a single line, would be over five-and-a-half miles long. We are pretty sure that we have found our prime, but we can't actually prove it. The probability that a random number of this size which has passed all of our probable prime tests is actually composite is about 1 chance in 10^1800. To prove it is actually prime would take about 4 trillion years on a typical computer of today, maybe only 300 billion years if the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis is ever proven.

Twenty of the values that have been discovered over the years of this search are probable primes as opposed to proven primes, so in order to make a mathematical theorem out of this, we are going to need some improvements in theory, technology, or both!

This project has been so much fun that I am a little sorry to see it end, but I am also relieved, as there was no reason to think that in the worst case, the search could easily have gone on for decades.

Congratulations, Phil and Engracio!

Smiley's Weapons

Even toddler Bibles have swords, bows, and arrows.  At the beginning of the summer Smiley began asking about these.

So my wife and I made him a pair of boffer swords.



He is still too young to learn the Four Rules of Boffer Sword Safety, which is okay.  He and his friends do not move fast enough or hit hard enough to be dangerous.  At this point the one rule "Swords hit legs" is sufficient.

He likes them.  They are a great way to be energetic outside.

I also retrieved from the garage my children's bow an one arrow.



Smiley was able to notch the arrow next to the bead attached to the string, but then lacked the coordination to shift how he held the bow or draw back the arrow. Perfect!

The bow and arrow are now back in the garage, having served their purpose for now.

Both types of weapons helped him continue to learn the difference between tools and toys.  In general, tools have more rules, have one way to properly use them, and are less indestructible.  Tools need more respect.

Unremembered Loss #25

Douglas Clarke, a cousin-in-law, publishes a monthly newsletter named Unremembered Loss about what he is learning as a writer.  He does not write much, but he writes worthwhile stuff well. 

Some issues are about technique.  For example, issue #24 was about writing a strong opening paragraph.  Other issues are about his personal growth either as a writer or as a father who tragically lost a teenage son.

Most issues are two pages.  Some months almost half of the newsletter's text is examples cited from his own novels and short stories, included to make his commentary clear.

The latest issue is #25, which discusses how he wrote this short story.  Its lessons directly apply to writing a short story about any life lesson.

If you like making up short stories, writing, or reading about someone's personal growth, consider subscribing.  Unfortunately, Douglas does not update his Unremembered Loss archive page well, so you do need to subscribe to reliably get new newsletters.

Gallant at Three Months

In early August I wrote about how Gallant was doing at two months and how Smiley was doing as a big brother.  Now it is the end of September.  Gallant is mostly through his third month.  What has changed?

Smiley still enjoys being a big brother and helping entertain the baby.





Smiley likes reading together too.


Gallant smiles a lot. He has a great smile.





Gallant has gone from having just found his fist in early August to being able to usually grasp something with both hands to be able to suck on it.



His love for being upright grows unbounded. He likes taking steps

and standing on laps


Since early August has progressed from sitting propped

to being tucked into the exersaucer with many towels and a pillow

to standing unassisted in the exersaucer or in his jumper



Only a couple weeks ago did he begin to enjoy tummy time.



He is nearly teething. (Smiley was also nearly nicknamed "Drooly".)

He still will not suck on a pacifier.  He tries chewing on it, and it zips out of this mouth like a shot watermelon seed.

So, go visit our 2011 photos.  Yesterday I uploaded 110 new ones from August and September.  The photos in this blog post are merely a few, and not all of the best.

Oh... Gallant had two "firsts" today.  He rolled over from his tummy to his side (both sides).  And he sat happily in the ergo upright, facing in, legs spread.

Smiley's First Board Game

What published games do I play with Smiley?  (My wife and I are now enjoying Arkham Horror.)

The only board game Smiley understands is Uncle Wiggly.  The game is a less well known simpler version of Chutes and Ladders, with only one ladder and all of the chutes only going back three spaces.  It uses number cards instead of a spinner.

When he was two years old it was two games.  We used the board and rabbit-characters that moved on its path as one activity for telling stories.  We used the number cards as another number-identification activity.

Now when Smiley plays he usually has his rabbit ignore the counting cards while my rabbit protagonist my play by the rules.  His rabbit hops about as he wishes, taunting my rabbit whenever it encounters trouble and must move back three spaces.

Sometimes Smiley uses is the only rabbit, and asks me to help him use the cards.  

Smiley does not know the books the game is based on, but he likes the plot of a rabbit going for a walk on a path and meeting "good guys" and "bad guys".  I have placed a hold request at the local library for the Uncle Wiggly Storybook so soon we can meet these characters.

In any case, since Smiley is finally interested in playing a game by the published rules I have added Candyland and Chutes and Ladders to his Amazon Wishlist.  Unfortunately, neither my wife nor I saved our childhood copies of those games.  Our relatives can get them for Smiley for the December holidays.

New Socks

For the past year I have been wearing a new kind of sock.

Remember how I used to wear an "Acrylic Blend Cushion" sock of a brand first called Towncraft and then called Stafford?  J.C. Penny stopped carrying those.

But Costco makes a Kirkland "Outdoor Trail Sock" that also works as the only sock I ever need.  It is soft enough to make my feet happy but thin enough to even work with my dress shoes.

(They also last even longer than the 14 month life of the previous kind.)

Unfortunately, it is a seasonal item.  Just last week they arrived back at our Costco.  Get them while you can!

Arkham Horror: Lies, the King in Yellow, and Statistics

I tried the board game Arkham Horror in May and loved it.  I recently was given the game and the expansion The King in Yellow as birthday presents.

(That expansion sounded like the best to own if I only intend to own one.)

Tangent: The expansion includes three distinct parts.  Foremost are more cards to aid replay value.  Second is a new way to remove sealed gates or gain Doom Track time (special Mythos Cards about the evil theater production can be included in that deck, the more they are placed towards the top the more they add difficulty).  Third is a new set of dire consequences for the Terror Track increasing.  Currently I have only tried using the extra cards.  The game is hard enough without two more ways to increase difficulty.

The only fundamental strategy for the game is to notice that not all unstable locations have an equal probability of turning into a sinister gate to another world.  The team of players should prioritize protecting the high-probability locations by "sealing" them.  (This involves closing a gate while using knowledge gained from clues about the evil forces invading Arkham.)

A consequence is to also notice where clues appear.  When no player has the ability to seal a location, closing a gate may still be worthwhile in a location where many clues are likely to appear before another gate would open there.

So, how does including the cards from that expansion alter the strategy?

The short story is that the "big four" unstable locations are Independence Square, Unvisited Isle, The Witch House, and Woods.  These four locations represent 60% of all potential gate occurrences.

Furthermore, the Science Building, the Historical Society, and Hibb's Roadhouse and are (in that order) the most appropriate places to close but not seal a gate.  These locations often get new clues, but seldom get a new gate.

Here are the new statistics.

Gates

13 Occurrences (15%): Independence Square, Unvisited Isle, The Witch House, Woods
8 Occurrences (10%): Black Cave, Graveyard, The Unnameable
2 Occurrences (2%): Hibb's Roadhouse, Historical Society, Science Building, Silver Twilight Lodge

Clues

13 Occurrences (17%): Black Cave
12 Occurrences (15%): The Unnameable
11 Occurrences (14%): Science Building
8 Occurrences (10%): Historical Society, Woods
7 Occurrences (9%): Hibb's Roadhouse, Independence Square, Unvisited Isle
2 Occurrences (3%): Graveyard, Silver Twilight Lodge
1 Occurrences (1%): The Witch House

Yerba Maté

Our hallway closet has a shelf with some teas my wife and I do not normally drink but we keep in case visitors want them.  This stash includes a bag of yerba maté that is several years old.

One evening last weekend my father wanted something with caffeine, but all our coffee is decaffeinated (since my wife is the coffee drinker and she is nursing little Gallant).

So my father and I tried the yerba maté.  It was good!  I was surprised that I liked it, remembering it from years ago as an acquired taste I lacked.

We get most of our teas from Stash Tea, which does carry some.  Amazon also has quite a few available with Amazon Prime free shipping.

Do any of you have a favorite source of yerba maté?  Are there big flavor differences between brands?

The Wellness Letter and Naturopathy

My family has read the Berkeley Wellness Letter for years.


Earlier this month I mentioned Bill, a friend and naturopathic physician.  The Wellness Letter has often provided us with topics of conversation.  That publication often recommends against treatments that research-based naturopathy would recommend.

---

As one example, the April 2011 issue recommended against any chiropractic neck manipulation, concluding with the sentence

Despite some claims, the "click" or popping sound that may occur during neck manipulation does not indicate that the procedure has corrected some problem.

Bill agrees with that statement, but realizes it misses the point.  The Wellness Letter is focusing on some high-publicity cases of chiropractors moving the neck too violently because they are focusing on making sounds happen.

Yes, some people have well-understood risk factors and should avoid chiropractic neck manipulation.  And any chiropractor emphasizing the sounds or judging success by the sounds is indeed behaving dangerously.  But properly performed chiropractic neck manipulation has insignificant risk for most people and when combined with deep tissue massage can aid neck mobility even if no sounds happen.

---

A second example is from the July 2011 issue.  A full-page article on the benefits of magnesium concludes with a recommendation to not take a magnesium supplement because these can cause diarrhea, or much less often nausea and cramps.

Bill agrees with that risk, but would again claim it misses the point.  The best studies he knows about recommend an average of between 200 and 400 milligrams of magnesium per day for optimal muscle health.  This is much more than most Americans get from food.  Once again there are some risk factors, but many if not most Americans could benefit with no ill effect from a magnesium supplement.

Naturopathy would often recommend trying a magnesium supplement--although not foolishly before a wedding or road trip!  The risk is a brief inconvenience: a day or two of diarrhea.  The potential benefit is a lifetime of better muscle health.

UPDATE: A concluding emphasis that since there are risk factors known for both chiropractic neck manipulation and taking a magnesium supplement it would always be wise to check with your doctor before agreeing to either treatment.

Blendtec Total Blender

My father and step-mother visited us last weekend.  Everyone had a nice time.

My birthday, my wife's birthday, and our anniversary are all close together.  And our blender recently wore out.

Tangent: Our old Oster Designer Cycle Blend blender finally wore out.  It was a present from another math graduate student at UCSB in 1994.  She used blenders to make nut butter, and habitually gave them to friends when the motor had worn down too much for her needs but not enough to be normally noticeable.  It served us well for many years!

We had nothing else important on our wish lists besides a new blender.  And Costco was having a sale on the Blendtec Total Blender.  So that is what we were given as a three-event present.

It's really nifty.

I expect the biggest change will be in making soups. Recall that Smiley naturally likes "fast soup".  Today is a hot day, so right now my wife is experimenting with a cold Mexican-style soup.

The Total Blender should also be a much faster grain mill than the attachment for our mixer.  Hooray!  (That mill works fine, but slowly.  And it heats up the mixer a lot, so we need to pause every twenty minutes or so to let it cool off.)

Putting more carrots in our diet will be healthy but neither exciting nor much extra convenience.  Using all the swiss chard our garden produces just got a lot easier.  I am especially looking forward to no longer peeling broccoli stems--we can use the florets in our typical cooking and simply blend the stems!

The Blendtec website has a few recipes.  The sales rep also recommended Robyn's Blog.  I am sure we will make up plenty of our own recipes.  (I anticipate creating a latke-like celerac pancake in early Winter.)

I also expect many of our favorite recipes will soon include optional ingredients for folks with super-blenders: extra root vegetables or greens for nutrition, along with whatever additional liquids or stuff is required to maintain the right texture and cooking properties.

Lastly, tossing stuff in is fun.  Yesterday I noticed we had half a can of pumpkin in the fridge that Smiley had started last week but lost interest in.  So I combined that with some frozen spinach that needed using up, half a cored apple that was on the counter after Smiley's lunch, two big carrots, enough milk to let it blend well, and as spices a dollop of heavy cream, five whole cloves, ground nutmeg, and ground cinnamon.  The result was a yummy pumpkin pie flavored smoothie.

Pangrams and a Cute Book

Ever heard of a pangram?  Those are sentences that use every letter of the alphabet.

Pangrams came up in a recent conversation, so I had to mention a delightful book named Ella Minnow Pea that celebrates the alphabet and the challenge of inventing a new pangram.

The Fed's Unprecendted Declaration

Earlier this month I wrote about a funny unprecedented economic development.

That week something else unprecedented, but more significant, also happened.  The Fed "promised" to keep interest rates low for two years.

M2 has doubled since the recession began.  Government spending has hopefully removed the threat of debt-deflation.  So we should expect inflation when the velocity of money finally increases and that increase in M2 shifts from bank holdings into consumer spending.

Will we see reasonable and controlled inflation with corresponding increases to wages?  That would help with both the residue of the mortgage crisis and our Federal debt.  (If the dollar is worth less, then debt measured in dollars is a smaller burden.)

Unfortunately, probably not.  Vowing to keep interest rates low despite the pressure of sharply increasing M2 is like plugging a leaky dam with a finger.  I am not sure why the Fed is acting like it is.

Perhaps our leaders our trying to avoid antagonizing other countries.  If a few years from now America is in a panic because of sudden and steep inflation then our future President will not look as malicious when he tells the leadership of other nations, "Oops.  Sorry the 32% of our debt that you hold just tanked in value.  Not quite sure what happened.  Our wages will adjust to our inflation, but you're plain out of luck."