and more links. . .

> 31 march 2009

layoff hostages: 3MCaterpillar

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Carmageddon '09 - Lemon Aid
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesEconomic CrisisPolitical Humor

faces of the recession

 

> 29 march 2009

goodbye, homo economicus. . .

Why did such discredited theories flourish? Largely because they justified whatever outcomes the markets happened to decree—laissez-faire ideology, big salaries for top executives and billions in bonuses for traders. And, conveniently, these theories were regarded as the gold-standard by academic economists who won Nobel prizes. [Anatole Kaletsky]

 

> 28 march 2009

in London. . .

golpe in the financial banana republic

 

> 26 march 2009

[ht: sm]

from my so-called friends. . .

Israel's shame. . .

Imagine a country that appoints someone who has been found guilty of striking a 12-year-old boy to be its foreign minister. The person in question is also under investigation for money-laundering, fraud and breach of trust; in addition, he was a bona fide member of an outlawed racist party and currently leads a political party that espouses fascist ideas. On top of all this, he does not even reside in the country he has been chosen to represent. [Neve Gordon]

 


Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

 

> 25 march 2009

Chuck Craypo: SBTND

 

> 24 march 2009

the big takeover [ht: pk]. . .

It's over—we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. [Matt Taibi]

depression blues--and rap and rock and folk and. . .

I am changing my name to Fannie Mae/I am going down to Washington, D.C./I'll be glad they got my back/Cause what they did for Freddie Mac/Will be perfectly acceptable to me. [Tom Paxton, "I'm Changing My Name to Fannie Mae"]

If everything was free, the world would be a better place/For you and me/Don't you agree?/No more poverty/. . . There would be no bank robberies/The crime life would stop/America would be at peace. [Willie Isz, "In the Red"]

There's a bailout coming, but it's not for you/It's for all those creeps hiding what they do. [Neil Young, "Fork in the Road"]

 

> 22 march 2009

SAF: a materialist?

 

> 19 march 2009

domesticating uncertainty on Wall Street? [ht: cr]

demonstrations in France, round 2. . .

distributions of sv. . .

The report finds that S&P 500 CEOs averaged $10.5 million in pay in 2007, 344 times the pay of typical American workers. Compensation levels for private investment fund managers soared even further. The top 50 hedge and private equity fund managers averaged $588 million each, more than 19,000 times as much as typical U.S. workers earned.

 

> 16 march 2009

b-school: crash and burn?

 

> 15 march 2009

another academic economist for hire: Anne Layne-Farrar

her attack on the EFCA. . .

Specifcially, my analysis predicts that passing EFCA would lead to a 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate for every 3 percentage points gained in union membership brought about by a system of card checks and mandatory arbitration.

paid for by The Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs, which is "chaired by HR Policy Association and includes the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the Associated Builders and Contractors, The International Council of Shopping Centers, the Real Estate Roundtable, the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce"

free-trader Bhagwati, in contrast, sides with SEIU

 

> 12 march 2009

Sen on "capitalism beyond the crisis". . .

the best he can come up with is a return to Smith, Keynes, and Pigou!

 

> 11 march 2009

billionaire bust. . .

The richest people in the world have gotten poorer, just like the rest of us. [Forbes]

 

> 10 march 2009

workers occupy Waterford Crystal. . .

Dr. Doom [the other one]

 

> 9 march 2009

wasting away in Hooverville [Jonathan Chait on Amity Shlaes's less-than-serious account of the New Deal]

 

> 7 march 2009

25 years ago. . .

 

> 6 march 2009

 

> 5 march 2009

change in the land of the Econs--NOT! [pdf]

 

> 3 march 2009

Mr Beef goes to Washington

Yoo-hoo in the OLC: a theory of presidential dictatorship and the suspension of constitutional rights [here are the memos]

 

> 2 march 2009

"The Financial Crisis and the Systemic Failure of Academic Economics" . . .

Defining away the most prevalent economic problems of modern economies and failing to communicate the limitations and assumptions of its popular models, the economics profession bears some responsibility for the current crisis. It has failed in its duty to society to provide as much insight as possible into the workings of the economy and in providing warnings about the tools it created.

but, of course, they've never heard of Marx

 

> 1 march 2009

best coffee in Chicago: Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea • Metropolis Coffee Co.

organized (legal) crime replaced by. . .organized (illegal) crime

 

> 28 february 2009

Tube City [Anthony Bourdain on eating in Chicago]

bad bank [the crisis, as explained on This American Life]

 

> 24 february 2009

and now Traco Windows (brought to you by the owners of Republic Windows)

 

> 23 february 2009

 

> 21 february 2009

MORE DEMONSTRATIONS

in Ireland. . .

in Brazil. . .

in Italy. . .

in Russia. . .

in the Philippines. . .

 

> 18 february 2009

more capitalist nationalization: Greenspan

 

> 17 february 2009

dismal narcissists. . .

The current recession has revealed the weaknesses in the structures of modern capitalism. But it also revealed as useless the mathematical contortions of academic economics. [Gregory Clark]

only the Brits

new American oligarchs

 

> 16 february 2009

MORE DEMONSTRATIONS

in California. . .

in Guadeloupe. . .

in Madagascar. . .

in Martinique. . .

in India. . .

capitalism goes to the Berlin film festival

[ht: ja]

my talk on the political economy of health care [handout: pdf]

 

> 14 february 2009

capitalist nationalization: Stiglitz & Roubini

 

> 12 february 2009

the new slums

[order from the MEF]

recession, poverty, and and the recoverty act. . .

contesting the surplus . . .

 

> 10 february 2009

Shepard Fairey, "Supply and Demand"

MORE DEMONSTRATIONS

in Iceland. . .

in Latvia. . .

 

> 8 february 2009

plan b for the poor rich. . .

 

> 7 february 2009

 

> 6 february 2009

 

> 4 february 2009

Summers v. Biden

[poster boy]

cap execs @ $.5m. . .

“That is pretty draconian — $500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus,” said James F. Reda, founder and managing director of James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm. “And you know these companies that are in trouble are not going to pay much of an annual dividend.”

"madmen in authority" & the mad theories of mainstream economists. . .

“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.”—J. M. Keynes

speaking of which. . .

the causes of unemployment, according to Larry Summers? government assistance and unionization!

more Summers: "I've always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted"

 

> 4 february 2009

"the market god has failed" [TF in WSJ]

idiots of the universe. . .

"We should have done it in the first place. But I don't think any of us thought these guys were this stupid. I don't think any of us believed that they would take billions of dollars in bonuses while their institutions were literally days from being wiped out. But they did. And we've learned our lesson."—Claire McCaskill

 

> 3 february 2009

STUDENTS

in Vermont. . .

in Arizona. . .

in Nevada. . .

 

> 31 january 2009

WORKERS

in the US. . .

in Spain. . .

in Germany. . .

in England. . .

in France. . .

in Russia. . .

 

> 30 january 2009

jump! you f#*ckers! [Dan Hind on the crisis (pdf, ht: ym)]

400 wealthiest Americans [2006]. . .

$105 billion in total adjusted gross income in 2006, average adjusted gross income of $263 million (up 23 percent from $214 million in 2005), $18 billion in taxes, 17 percent tax rate (the lowest rate paid by the richest 400 during the 15-year period covered by the IRS statistics)

162,962 layoffs for january 2009 at America's 500 largest public companies

architecture for the economic hangover [ht: sm]

“Today, we find ourselves at the after-party, rethinking and resituating architecture.”

$14.83 billion!

 

> 28 january 2009

rethinking Marx [in Time]

[ht: sc]

bailed-out execs plot against EFCA

 

> 27 january 2009

"Human skull in space" (oil on canvas) by Damien Hirst,

for the 150th-anniversary edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

Copyright: Damien Hirst 2009 [ht: ja]

 

> 21 january 2009

local currencies

[David Wojnarowicz]

 

> 20 january 2009

the ground has shifted. . .

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

fix it again, Tony

 

> 19 january 2009

a history lesson [MLK on the war in vietnam]. . .

These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. . .Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.

 

> 16 january 2009

animal spirits [conservatives discover the postmodern subject?]

 

> 15 january 2009

privatization kills

[ht: ja]

the good, the bad, and the downright ugly

 

> 13 january 2009

[ht: ms]

 

> 11 january 2009

$10 trillion hangover [Bilmes & Stiglitz in Harper's]

 

> 9 january 2009

december '08 unemployment numbers:

7.2% (U-3, the "official" rate = total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force)

13.5% (U-6 = U-3 + all marginally attached workers + total employed part time for economic reasons)

 

> 8 january 2009

ND grad on Israel & Gaza [Neve Gordon, currently chair of poli sci at Ben Gurion U]

more NG [in The Nation]

 

> 6 january 2009

where is our Ferdinand Pecora? [chief counsel for the Senate Banking and Current Committee in the 1930s]

[J. P. Morgan, Senate Banking Committee, 1933]

 

> 1 january 2009

[Banksy, of course]

 

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