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the phenomenology of leverage
Ubik, considered by some to be Philip K. Dick’s best novel, is a tragic comedy. Like almost all of Dick’s other books, science fiction is not used to speculative effect: man’s relationship with technology in Ubik cannot be characterized as beneficial or detrimental. It is mostly perverse: Dick portrays a world in which the adage [...]
Posted in economics Tagged economic crisis, MBS, mortgage crisis, philip k. dick, ubik Leave a comment
on healthcare
What is it about public debates? For some reason (and I do not think I am alone in this), the longer our great nation ponders over any given topic, the more I feel I possess the right to impart some kind of judgment on it. I do not think this has anything to do with [...]
Also posted in politics Tagged health care, obama, politics, republicans, roosevelt, tax cuts, world war ii Leave a comment
the best part about living in a poor state…
…Is knowing you can’t get much poorer. (source — registration required)
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wrapping paper in the street
The bonus season’s not even started, but at Goldman and JPM, you can hear the 30-something suits licking their chops all the way out in Albuquerque. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan today posted incredible multi-billion dollar profits, and we outsiders are left with little to do besides scratch our heads in wonder. Even though the [...]
Also posted in new circuits, politics Tagged economy, fed, finance, goldman, politics Leave a comment
does capitalism erode morals?
There’s an interesting interview with Michael Pollan up at the Rumpus Room. Pollan is the author of a few vaguely seminal books about food and western culture. In the interview, he says that
[Capitalism is] putting profit first and making money the measure of all things. You know Daniel Bell was a neo-conservative making that case, [...]
Also posted in philosophy Tagged capitalism, economics, food, michael pollan, morals Leave a comment
communalism in the 21st century
The latest issue of Reason magazine prints an article about the legal trevails of Christiania, the free-communitarian enclave in Copenhagen that has existed in a sort of legal purgatory for more than 40 years.
My mother lived on a commune in the early 70’s, and it’s difficult to decide whether the impulse of the post-WWII generation [...]
Also posted in politics Tagged communities, eminent domain, federalism, government, statism Leave a comment
on marijuana legalization
Okay, it’s finally grown irritating enough to merit a few short moments of analysis: should marijuana be legalized? The issue has become something of a hot-button topic of late, even getting its fair share of airtime on CNBC. There are three reasons for the recent push for marijuana legalization, all of them related in their [...]
Posted in economics Tagged crime, drug war, legalization, marijuana, mexico, violence Leave a comment
against boredom
The assorted fiscal and political crises now saturating western intellectual conversations and cocktail party bon mots are united by their total lack of appeal. When anyone with even so much as a passing interest in the “Credit Crunch” must learn about the particularities of Collateralized Debt Obligations and Keynesian financial stimulus theory, we are lost.
There [...]
Niall Ferguson and the Descent of Cash