I received a question in Quora about the use of a certain word. I explained as best I could, and am reproducing the result below. ------------------------------------------------------------------ T o some extent “liberalism” is simply like the word “bark” It can be used in many different ways. One has to decide from context whether the bark in question is the outside of a tree or the sound a dog makes. It would be just goofy to argue about this: “no, the REAL meaning of bark is the outside of a tree! You are trying to subvert and distort the language by transposing the word to the canine context.” Many of the arguments about the word “liberal” that one encounters are confused in much the same way. In the United States, the term is often used for what one might alternatively call a social democrat: for someone who believes that (a) there is a role for profit-seeking activity in the production of wealth, but (b) the DISTRIBUTION of that wealth is a matter in which the s...
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The phrase "begs the question" has suffered of late from a great amount of abuse. In response, I'm going to be, as this photo suggests, a little gnomic. I could go work on my garden. Someone observing me, could blog: "This begs the question, does he know which is weed and which is a flower?" This would disclose not only that I have querulous neighbors, but that at least one of them is ignorant of the vocabulary of logical fallacies, the domain whence comes the abused expression. Proper use: "It is obvious that I know which one is a weed, because I tug certain plants right out of the ground with gusto!" "That begs the question." My hypothetical riposte is an effort to prove something by presuming what was to be proved. If someone suspected that I was tugging the wrong plants out of the ground, he wouldn't be persuaded otherwise by my reflection on my own gusto when I do so. But let's get back to the misuse. I suggest that...
For those of my readers not familiar with the lingo of the financial world, let me begin with a definition of clearing and then of a clearinghouse. Clearing is the process by which transactions are reconciled, that is, money matched to the product or service it is purchasing. An institution that "clears" a transaction is also the institution that, in the first instance, runs the risk of default. Simple example: I make some large purchase with a check. The seller accepts my check in payment. In that case, in a common arrangement my bank would be the clearing party, and would bear that initial risk of default. It is the bank, not the seller, and not in the first instance me either, who will be "out" if my check is in excess of my deposit account. In finance, then, a clearinghouse (sometimes written in two words as 'clearing house') is an institution that provides clearing and settlement services for commodities, derivatives, or securities transact...