John Paul Rollert diskuterar i New York Time’s blogg The Stone Adam Smith’s kidnappade och missförstådda begrepp den osynliga handen: “Few phrases in Western philosophy have embedded themselves as deeply in the vernacular as Smith’s invisible hand, and no single image has ever so captivated (and occasionally inflamed) the popular mind. This has been the case…
Privatiseringars gåtfulla stupiditet
Effektivitet, konkurrens och valfrihet för kunden är de slitna mantran som används när privatiseringars konsekvenser ska säljas in och rationaliseras. En bransch som på ett slående sätt motbevisar alla tre argumenten är produktionen, distributionen och försäljningen av elektricitet. James Meek har en lång men aldrig tråkig artikel i London Review of Books om hur utförsäljningen…
Feedback in the system or Is there an echo in here?
Timothy Snyder posted a text on The New York Review of Books’ blog, titled Grand Old Marxist. It’s a good and elaborate text on how the current crop of Republican politicians are direct descendants of the Cartesian school of Rationalism. But it feels soo eerily familiar, if not downright spooky. He starts his well written piece…
Voodoo Economics Squared
With Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential candidate the GOP is doubling down on the neoclassical dogma that was popularized by Ronald Reagan more than thirty years ago. It has since been tried, tested and thoroughly debunked. It’s central piece of argument, that tax cuts will, by some magic will of it’s own, pay for…
Paul Ryan’s bi-monthly chore, with dress socks on
Mitt Romney valde till sist Paul Ryan som sin vice-president kandidat. Matt Taibbi twittrade om sitt utmärkta porträtt av Ryan, och hans politik, från april förra året. Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle Class; or, Paul Ryan Has Balls “Paul Ryan, the Republican Party’s latest entrant in the seemingly endless series…