read it and find out

Debtonation: how globalisation dies by Ann Pettifor

Interesting article - I'm not as sure as the author on the likelihood of a major debt-fueled meltdown, if only because I believe it most certain that capitalism will be saved by socialism, yet again. The Fed will create more money abracadabra, and the government will bail out any enterprise deemed too big to fail. Goddamned pinkos! The beauty of capitalism is that it, like evolution, is supposed to reward wisdom and punish foolishness. If only capitalism would be left to run itself into extinction without getting propped up by socialist government intervention, then the foolishness of such an outmoded system of production would get properly punished.

Oh well, no worries, it's not like tens of thousands of people die daily from starvation, or the overconsumption of a few is imperiling the entire planet... let's cling to modern tribalism and auto-fellatio, and pat ourselves on the back for the fact that social evolution has reached its apex and we've got the bestest system of production ever.

For the bible tells me so

God Hates the World

Christian music video of the year- "God Hates the World" ... It's for real, so it would be impossible to make a parody that could top it.

Read it and weep, crustacean-loving heathens!

God Hates Shrimp

"Shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, all these are an abomination before the Lord, just as gays are an abomination. Why stop at protesting gay marriage? Bring all of God's law unto the heathens and the sodomites. ..."

You heard it here first, folks. God hates people who pinch tail and suck heads; he hates shrimp-eaters.

Physics Envy is contagious

New Element Discovered: Capitalisium by Dan Brook

Capitalist economists have long suffered from a psychological disorder known as 'physics envy' (PE). This arises from the fact that the nature of the economy is such that the only reliable way to study it involves only description and never prediction. This generates a great deal of envy among capitalist economists, who consider their colleagues in the hard science of physics and envy them their methodological tools: mathematical tools which give the physicists such strong and solid predictive potency.

Communist economists traditionally do not fall prey to PE, because they are happy with the methodological tools at their disposal, and know that their field of inquiry does not allow for physics-like prediction. Yet it seems like PE may be mutating... Here, the physics of a communist economist, revealed!

How the news doesn't work

Remarkable, isn't it? Link

read it and find out

Economists question dominance of free-market ideas by Patricia Cohen

Ooh... The NYT picking up on the movement for a post-autistic economics. Not exactly a nail in the neoclassical school's coffin, but a sign that the coffin is being prepared.

Wonder of the world? Does exploitation really provoke wonder in anyone?

Memories, Too, Can Desecrate - Does the Taj Mahal Deserve to be a Wonder of the World? by Farzana Versey

Sahir Ludhyanvi's "Taaj Mahal"
(translated from the Urdu by Annie Zaidi)

The Taaj might be, to you, a monument to Love
And you might be enamoured of this lovely place
But let us meet elsewhere, my love.

This is no place for the poor - this court of royalty
where marks of royal grandeur are etched into each lane;
This is no place for loving souls to walk.

My love, veiled by a curtain of exhibitionist loyalty (faithfulness),
this is but a display of grandeur - you should have noticed.
You, who are so pleased by the tombs of dead kings,
there is darkness in your own house! - You should have noticed.

Countless people, in this world, have fallen in love.
Do you think their feelings were worth less?

But they lacked the means to make an exhibition of love,
because they were poor - just like us.

These monuments, these tombs, this vast space, these forts -
They are but symbols of greatness, employed by arrogant kings.
They are but flowers embroidered on the face of the world,
in which mingles the colour of our ancestors' blood.

My love, those people too must have been in love,
whose skill gave to this place it's beautiful form.
But their beloved's graves lie nameless, unmarked,
where no one has ever lit any candles...

This garden, the Yamuna's riverbanks, this palace,
these beautiful carvings on walls and doors, these arches and niches -

A king has used his wealth to mock the loves of poor folk like us.
My love, let us meet elsewhere!

Improving on slavery by bringing it back to its Roots

WTO | NEWS - WTO Announces Formalized Slavery Model for Africa - The Yes Men

I was just checking out the Yes Men site to see what they've been up to... at theyesmen.org Anyway, if you haven't heard of them, they're like the American version of the early Tupamaros with their guerilla theater. Just a lot less guerilla and a lot more theater. So, exactly the United Statesian version of the Tupamaros.

Anyway, you might have heard of their Dow Chemical impersonation on BBC, where they accepted full responsibility for Bhopal on behalf of Dow, and Dow stock dropped by about a billion dollars - unfortunately, it went right back up after the BBC issued a retraction, but anyway... One of their latest gigs was impersonating WTO spokesmen at a conference on African trade at UPenn's Wharton biz school, where they introduced a program of 'full private stewardry of labor' - i.e., slavery - as a means of improving the lives of Africans. Afterwards, the US trade rep for Africa, "Dr. Laurie Ann Agama (Director for African Affairs at the Office of the US Trade Representative), prefaced her remarks by thanking Schmidt for his macroscopic perspective, saying that the USTR view adds details to the WTO's general approach. Nigerian Central Bank Governor Soludo also acknowledged the WTO proposal, though he did not seem to appreciate it as much as did Agama." (from http://gamoonbat.blogspot.com/search/label/NIgeria)