Category: Economics
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Capitalist Realism
I picked up Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative? by Mark Fisher, from Zero Books, as my first read and first exposure to Fisher’s work. When he passed away by his own hand, in January 2017, I was struck by how many people were talking about him, and since I hadn’t known of his work…
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Real common wealth
Via The Huffington Post: The wealthy have made greater use of the common good–they have been empowered by it in creating their wealth–and thus they have a greater moral obligation to sustain it. They are merely paying their debt to society in arrears and investing in future empowerment. This is the fundamental truth that motivates…
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Forcing the clowns to break their fall makes high-wire act safer …
Here’s an example that shows that something is messed up in the way products are priced. The article “Slashdot | Apple Turning Cell Phone Market Upside Down?” observes: Everyone assumed that Apple’s $499/$599 prices for the iPhone was subsidized by Cingular. But, it appears that Apple is not allowing mobile carriers to subsidize the iPhone.…
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Funny money
Via Media Bloggers Association‘s aggregator, “More on the Pizza for Pesos Scandal“: And the Republic is still standing. Indeed. Up here at this end of the woods, I remember a time when most places actually accepted Canadian coin, and I remember that was quite convenient. Now days, I still get slipped Canadian coin every once…
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MPAA – size queen, fashion diva, and girlfriend from hell?
Via Slashdot, BBspot – MPAA Lobbying for Home Theater Regulations, Apparently the MPAA wants to reach into your living rooms and bedrooms and regulate the size of your equipment and the arrangement of your furniture: The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29″ with stereo sound and at…
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Why do the bastards hate Animal Farm so much?
Greed, individualism, power, empire, fear … at least Cheney is consistent, but why does he hate democracy so much? He seems to even hate the republic. I mean, I get that somewhere a whole lot of people got some wires crossed and can’t separate in their heads the idea of community from the fear of…
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How sane is it that to survive retail makes us insane?
I only noticed this yesterday, but Mervyn’s is closing in the Mall. This was announced as far back as January at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Layoff Tracker. Mervyns LLC said Monday that it will close 20 stores — including all 13 in Washington — by next year, affecting more than 1,400 positions, as the struggling retailer…
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Whither sprynet now?
Time to track the ownership of sprynet again? Last time I looked it was back in ’99. I sent out an e-mail: So, it’s been fun watching where Sprynet had ended up over the last couple years. Okay, so let me see if I can get this right: Sprynet was purchased by Compuserve Compuserve was…
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If it isn’t useful, then what is it good for anyway?
Writers Block Live » Blog Archive » The HD Boycott Begins Now “Under pressure from Hollywood, they are engineering a complete removal of the concept of fair use. They are setting up systems that will completely control how, when and where you can use content that you buy. Even worse, they can retroactively change the…
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Anti-Globalization is not anti-globalization
Anti-Globalization movement is to supporters of Globalization what anti-federalists were to the federalists. Which is a s much to say that things are not what they seem. The anti-Globalization movement is one which is a populist opposition to supporters of Globalization. This is much the same as the anti-federalists were a populist opposition to the…
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But, maybe, X is not X after all?
I was thinking about the logical typing of “monopoly” where both XY and XZ appear to be X, neither are V. Public and Private entities can appear to be “monopolies” however, they are different magnitudes of X where governments are X prime. To see public entities to be of the same order, or lesser order,…
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The people for John Kriscfalusi; democratized media; sense of virtual place
Via all kinds of stuff, “George Liquor Stories 1“: “So listen, next step is to get as many more people (not repeat persons, but new people) to comment AND I just found out that the more people who link to me, the better chance I have to get sponsors-and when I do I will make…
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What is liberty after all?
The notion that liberty is hypothetical opportunity ignores the existence of consequences and complexity. Sure, any one can rob a bank; any one can become a first tier telecommunications company. Except that, when taken in context, they cannot. There are real social and economic consequences to the choices that people make, even small ones. Robbing…
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Response to “X, non-X, What’s The Dif?”
Noticed a reflection on one of my rambling posts reflecting on “New Epstein Book” … Some interesting discussion. Certainly I could be wrong in my analysis, but that’s always a possibility. I do recognize that there’s a great deal more to be known about the function of and development of monopolies in the capitalist economic…
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Following Good Guys, RadioShack closes stores.
Via Yahoo! News, “RadioShack to close up to 700 stores” Harsh news. I wonder if the Radio Shack in the Capital Mall will be one of the stores to go? Large national chains closing … this is economic recovery? There was a time when my personal test of whether a town was a city was…
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Public “monopoly” …
Via Positive Liberty, “New Epstein Book“: “he says is the greatest weakness of the Progressivist economic perspective: the notion that monopoly was bad, unless it was run by government. ” I have not read the book and am responding to hearsay about it, but I am not sure I agree with the premise. I disagree…
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HBO wants its business to be off-limits for customers
Via Ars Technica, “HBO wants its programming to be off-limits for DVRs“: HBO has joined the fray with a recent FCC filing in which it argues that its programming—and all “Subscription Video On Demand” services—should fall into the category of “Copy Never.” In a broadcast-flagged world, that translate into consumers not being able to record…
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Suddenly scope-locked on net neutrality
Om Malik posts about an article the issue of network neutrality which appears quite good. Additionally, there’s a much better metaphor than mine here: Via Om Malik’s Broadband Blog, “Net Neutrality Not An Optional Feature of Internet“: “The telco and cable companies have in mind creating another type of customer not a class of service.…
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Theater Economics
Via Hacking NetFlix, “Theater Economics” points to an article at Slate about the economics of running a movie theatre: The Popcorn Palace Economy – The thirsty moviegoer fuels the business. By Edward Jay Epstein. The studios made films for theater chains that they either owned or controlled, and they harvested almost all their revenue from…
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