http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/pages/books/how-the-economy-was-lost-the-war-of-the-worlds/WE DID IT ON PURPOSE: THE POWER OF POLITICS
I love you Paul. I really do. You’re brilliant. You’re an incredible critic.
But the conservatives figured out that we had to bankrupt the state before it destroyed us. So what did we do? Everything possible to bankrupt it. What will we do once it’s bankrupt?
Gut the state.
And I plan to dance on its entrails.
Source date (UTC): 2013-09-02 17:07:00 UTC
TALEB’S RECIPE FOR A GOOD DAY : (Humiliate An Economist!)
1) Smile at a stranger,
2) Surprise someone by saying something unexpectedly nice,
3) Give some genuine attention to an elderly,
4) Invite someone who doesn’t have many friends for coffee,
5) Humiliate an economist, publicly, or create deep anxiety inside a Harvard professor.
Source date (UTC): 2013-09-02 14:51:00 UTC
http://t.co/uerV2OF5DE
Source date (UTC): 2013-09-01 15:09:00 UTC
(COMMENT) CLASS IN POSTMODERNISM (LITERATURE)
You know, I don’t read ‘literature’ any longer. I lost it. It’s all nonsense now. I just see structure, intent, character. It all feels tedious and mechanical. Like a lot of work for little reward. When, I can skim five papers on some subject and maybe get a gem out of one of them.
And I’m taking this lovely little class in Postmodernism. Why? Because, honestly, I ‘get it’ in the sense that I understand it’s methods, processes, arguments and consequences.
But I actually don’t ’empathize’ with it. I can’t even begin to have any emotional attachment to it whatsoever. It’s just IMPOSSIBLE to suspend disbelief. It’s worse that reading a trashy horror novel that’s predictable.
It’s like a play written by a narcissist about a tragedy of his own creation.
Experiences aren’t rare or unique except to the solipsist, to whom each of his own experiences is dramatically novel, and needing of expurgation.
Marx does’t tell us anything other than capitalism is so productive that we are each of us almost irrelevant to each other as economic entities. He doesn’t say that this is good, because we get everything so cheaply that the poorest of us lives better than kings of old.
If you want to fix alienation, then just ask, what you do with the time you used to use working and struggling? We freed women from household labor. Wasn’t that enough? Men from physical drudgery. WTF.
SO YOU”RE BORED? SO YOU”RE POOR?
Ok. Well lets fix the fact that you’re bored and poor.
But you have the choice to be bored and poor and fat and comfy and unfulfilled because of capitalism.
Source date (UTC): 2013-08-31 12:31:00 UTC
HEILBRONER
You know, I read ‘The Worldly Philosophers’ many years ago. And I thought that given his style and sympathy for Marxism that I’d read his book on Marxism.
And I would really like to say something intelligent here. But the fact of the matter is, that the guy is a great historian. And he doesn’t understand economics AT ALL.
I mean. I can’t even read it. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Ack.
Source date (UTC): 2013-08-31 11:52:00 UTC
http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/shhh-teen-mob-that-raped-2-women-was-black/WHAT IF ‘EQUALITY’ MEANS WE CAN ONLY MOVE DOWNWARD INTO DEGENERATION?
Source date (UTC): 2013-08-31 06:34:00 UTC
Here you go, Curt.
Source date (UTC): 2013-08-29 20:56:00 UTC
This weekend I’m going to go collect all my postings on all the progressive web sites over the past five years, where I argue that it’s not possible to pass economic legislation that the opposition considers immoral. And all the postings where I recommended how to achieve a compromise. And all the postings where I recommended how we could price-correct the housing bubble, and show that I was right. And that this is why the progressives are looking around for a new strategy.
And lastly, why I’m completely irrelevant to the discourse. lol
Source date (UTC): 2013-08-29 08:59:00 UTC
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/BL-REB-20139
Source date (UTC): 2013-08-28 13:54:00 UTC
http://themonkeycage.org/2013/08/22/a-theory-of-the-importance-of-very-serious-people-in-the-democratic-party/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themonkeycagefeed+%28The+Monkey+Cage%29SMART
“My theory … revolves around the role of the news media. The media are a liberal, Democratic-leaning institution. This can be seen, for example, from surveys of journalists (the last one I saw showed Democratic reporters outnumbering Republicans 2-1) or political endorsements or various other studies. It is my impression that the news media lean left but the public-relation industry leans right.
“Anyway, my point here is that the Republican party has a lot of resources, including much of big business, military officers, and organized religion. They don’t need the news media in the way that the Democrats do. And, I suspect one reason why Very Serious People are important for Democrats is that they are respected by the media. The Republicans can put together a budget that is mocked by major newspapers and nobody cares. But if the Democrats lose the support of the New York Times, they’re in trouble. Hence the asymmetry in seriousness. One might say that the Republicans are hurt by a similar asymmetry with regard to social issues, in that they can’t ignore the support of the religious right or talk radio. Although this is a bit different: the so-called Very Serious People pull the Democrats toward the center, while social issue groups pull the Republicans to the right.
“To put it another way, each party has a coalition of financial interests and political activists that are important in staffing the party and shaping its goals. The Democratic party’s balance has changed: in recent decades, with the decline of labor unions, various segments of industry such as high-tech have become important, also there are doctors and lawyers and newspapers. These are all groups that will tend to favor centrist, status-quo, what Krugman might call “very serious” policies.
“I think this could/should be studied more systematically (ideally in some sort of comparative analysis with data from many countries).”
Source date (UTC): 2013-08-26 01:46:00 UTC