Category: Economics

Book Review – The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age

2019-09-26 / / 0 Comments

Paperback: 154 pages
Publisher: Columbia Global Reports (Nov. 13, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0999745468
ISBN-13: 978-0999745465

Tim Wu’s book is one of many books published in recent years by mainstream publishers purporting to have answers to the malaise Capitalism is mired in. Naturally, being given the imprimatur, of a “respectable” publishing house, Wu’s book suffers from the same weaknesses as all the others. Rather than name the system . . . Capitalism and confront it head on, they all do side swipes or drive bys. This, at best, comes off as long past its due date reformism or, at worst, a diversion from the burning issue of the day. Namely, how to get rid of Capitalism. Continue reading

Wanted: IT Miracle Worker (Satire)

2019-05-23 / / 0 Comments

Note: This is an older post from my Blogger days.

Allforusandnothingforu, an other-worldly, outsized outsourcing company, is looking for a super-duper IT guru. This ideal candidate will have a B.S., M.A. and PhD in everything, strong lying and passing the puck skills, the ability to lift 1000 pounds, be a team suck-up and adapt to the company’s tunnel vision.  Must be willing to be part of an on-call rotation and able to work 24/7. We offer a competitive salary (as compared to Walmart), non-paid holidays, 2 weeks vacation (when we can spare you), generous (read Obamacare) health package and a 401k plan, guaranteed by a top Wall Street firm, to be there when you retire. Continue reading

Book Review – The Production of Money: How to Break the Power of Bankers

2019-05-17 / / 0 Comments

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Verso (March 28, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781786631343
ISBN-13: 978-1786631343
ASIN: 1786631342

I began this book with not a lot of hope and sure enough, after just the first chapter my fears were confirmed. Pettifor correctly poses the problems of the economy being over-leveraged,  hyper-financialized, and threatened by deflation. All of it rooted in a political system  bought lock, stock and barrel by the same financial interests that by a whisker nearly collapsed the economy in 2008. The wider public, she bemoans, lacks “a wider understanding of where money comes from and how the financial system operates” while the official Left, blind-sided by the crisis beginning in 2007 but blooming in 2008, essentially put its collective head in the sand when they weren’t, that is, helping implement austerity (see Syriza in Greece) which, along with Quantitative Easing, was the solution chosen by the system. As a corollary to the system’s response to the crisis, she rightly notes, ours is not a robotic future devoid of human labor, which is another way to attack the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, because “this vision is touted as if the supply of minerals essential to robots, . . . and the emissions associated with their extraction, are infinite.”
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