Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived

A subtle change has been made to the comments links, so they no longer pop up. Does this in any way help with the problem about comments not appearing on permalinked posts, readers?

Update: seemingly not

Update: Oh yeah!


Thursday, June 30, 2011

 
Dear America, on the subject of Greece

Dear America. Yes, it's true that Euroland is not totally covering itself in glory and that, as you will know from numerous memorial sites, putting together a political and economic union of nominally sovereign states is a difficult job. But when you're writing your finger-wagging, chin-scratching opinion pieces, could we perhaps get a little bit of recognition of one fairly significant fact please? And that is, that we had a recession because of your mismanaged financial system. We suffered because of a problem you created. Not the other way round. Thanks for that.

Your pal, Europe.

PS: thanks again for saving our asses in the war, please send more chewing gum and nylons.
46 comments this item posted by the management 6/30/2011 04:08:00 AM

Friday, June 24, 2011

 
James "Whitey" Bulger

I've just noticed that like his fellow long-term fugitive, Osama bin Laden, James Bulger's hideout was conveniently located for a good golf course. Makes sense, if you're dealing with intelligence handlers all the time; there's something about both the CIA and ISI that makes me think "stalwarts of the local golf club".

I am not expecting, by the way, any condemnations by so-called "moderate" golfers.
4 comments this item posted by the management 6/24/2011 02:41:00 AM

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

 
I used to have the category "Idea for a sitcom" or "Music Link" for these things

Just to note that me and the missus watched "The Man In The White Suit" the other night, and it is clearly the movie that "Atlas Shrugged" should have been.
5 comments this item posted by the management 6/21/2011 11:29:00 PM

Monday, June 20, 2011

 
A modest proposal for the Eurozone crisis

I think that the general tenor of debate over the crucial next few weeks would be substantially improved if three or four of the smaller Eurozone creditor economies (ones which neither have a significant political voice in the discussions, nor are expected to provide a very large sum to the eventual bailout funds - say Austria, Slovenia, Belgium and the Netherlands) were each to replace their finance ministry delegations to the Heads of Government summit meeting with a small mynah bird trained to say the phrase "Isn't that what people said about Lehman Brothers?"
50 comments this item posted by the management 6/20/2011 12:25:00 AM

Friday, June 17, 2011

 
Go Dean!

Vintage Dean Baker, on the general subject of annoying opinion writers who, at this late stage and at least two years and five books after there was any excuse, still don't understand what happened in the housing bubble. I have mentioned in the past that the main thing I admire about Dean is that he is a liberal economist who doesn't feel the need to apologise for himself; I'd also add that another characteristic which makes him a man after my own heart is that, when attacking a perennial enemy, he doesn't miss an opportunity to take a few swings at targets of opportunity and related old feuds too. The American Left Such As It Is (this phrase [tm] Doug Henwood) badly needs a platoon of him.
8 comments this item posted by the management 6/17/2011 05:55:00 AM
 
Why "conspiracy theory" rhetoric is unproductive

I've found Charlie Skelton's Bilderberg coverage a bit overloaded with cutesy anecdotes, but this is a really good point:

In 2008, when George Osborne, as a private individual, hangs out in Corfu with a Russian oligarch (Oleg Deripaska), Nat Rothschild and Peter Mandelson, the British press has a field day with the gossip – Mandelson "dripping poison" about Osborne, and allegations that Osborne was grubbing around for party funds.

But in 2011, when Osborne spends four days, in his official role as chancellor of the exchequer, cooped up with Lord Mandelson, a Russian oligarch (Alexei Mordashov), and the former vice-chairman of Rothschild Europe (Franco Bernabè) – along with the president of the World Bank, the president of the European Central Bank, the Greek minister of finance, the queen of Spain, the chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, the governor of the Belgium National Bank, the chairman of Goldman Sachs International, and the chief executive of Marks and Spencer …

This isn't news.


Exactly. The reason that it does actually make sense to pay attention to these things is that the individuals who attend them are the sort of people who you would be interested in if they were just meeting up to play badminton together. The category error made by both the people who do the larf-o-larf thing about "maybe the Bilderberg group rules the world LOL!" and the people who fixate on it[1] is to think about the group itself, rather than the underlying structure of relationships and institutional power. "The Bilderberg Group" is just an administrative convenience.

[1] Although frankly there is an asymmetry here - I have never actually met or heard of anyone who holds the naive "Bilderberg is the secret world government" view (maybe Alex Jones), while people who use it as a straw man while holding an opposite view just as ridiculous are all over the place. When you think about it, the word "just" in "it's just a dinner club for rich and powerful people" is having to do a hell of a lot of work.
21 comments this item posted by the management 6/17/2011 01:09:00 AM

Friday, June 10, 2011

 
Nathan Barley was a documentary

"Bronies, being American men who are fans of "My Little Pony" and who write fan fiction about it. Normally I would put this in the category "of course this did not happen", but if it's a hoax it's a bloody elaborate one all over Youtube. There appears to be some degree of self-irony but even so.

site curator Shaun (he asked that his last name be withheld)

I'll bet he did. Via the Awl.

Update Apparently "bronies" exist, non-ironically, including some people who give a reasonable impression of being sane. My tiny square mind is duly blown. I suppose you'll all be telling me that this is a thing too.
13 comments this item posted by the management 6/10/2011 03:08:00 AM

Thursday, June 09, 2011

 
The Return of the Huayi

Same game; Thomas Hardy.
9 comments this item posted by the management 6/09/2011 06:09:00 AM


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