I'm tired of the saying that people get more conservative as they get older.
Reality check: people get more conservative as they get more wealthy. The people saying "people get more conservative as they get older" are white people living in a privileged bubble in which, in the generations since WW2, people like them typically amassed more wealth as they aged.
#politics #economics #collapse #racism
1/2
US Economy Flashing Warning Signs—
with the services sector showing signs of stagnation~
Services make up ~”more than 2/3 of overall US economic activity,” yet seem to get little attention from the Trump Admin, which is highly focused on the production of goods.
The data from The Institute for Supply Management coincides with the BLS’s revised jobs report (which #trump fired the BLS commissioner over).
/1🧵
#USA #USeconomy #economics
—
* https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2024/07/the-rise-of-services-in-the-us-economy/
—
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-05/us-service-activity-nearly-stagnates-as-employment-contracts
As a political economist, of course I agree with Jostein Hauge when he concludes:
'Economics is fundamentally political — it has never been & never will be, a value-free science. At its core, economics is shaped by ideologies, human morality, competing interests, social norms & political priorities. Pretending otherwise does not make economics more rigorous. It makes it more dangerous. Economics was born as political economy for a reason!'
https://www.theglobalcurrents.com/p/economics-is-fundamentally-political
Yet another study shows that giving people no strings attached basic income doesn't make everyone crime junkies and boosts the economy. How many of these do people have to do before it sinks in? https://www.positive.news/economics/imagination-and-creation-are-products-of-time-and-space/ #Money #Economy #Economics
“not only is there no invocation of the free market […Smith] plainly sees that government, not private industry, is the only force capable of effectively ‘erecting and maintaining’ the technically unprofitable but nevertheless indispensable ‘publick works’ and ‘publick institutions’”
—Adam Smith’s THE WEALTH OF NATIONS was published 250 years ago #OTD, 8 March 1776. Evan Gottlieb examines Smith’s “Invisible Hand”
Apr 19
11 min
fixing "taxpayer dollar" false premise.
apr 27
3 min
A parable on how to reason about government taxes and spending
The company’s CFO and board have questioned the wisdom of massive data-center spending in the face of slowing growth
(1/8) As always @pluralistic writes about exactly what's on my mind a thread 🧵:
My political economy begins by taking F.A. Hayek seriously. I kid you not.
Hayek saw markets as a form of decentralized processing a logical “spontaneous order” that aggregates knowledge. He saw this pattern everywhere, including within the human mind (I'm sure like Dawkins he'd have been one-shotted by Claude).
Jun 19
10 min
A signed deal is more "whatever". The war has scarred oil production and deeply altered the calculus of energy/oil supplies.
Mainstream framing over US reserve's monetary policy is *especially* inappropriate under contemporary conditions
Global institutions are caught in a delusion, begging Silicon Valley to "do the right thing."
They fail to grasp the ironclad law of fiduciary duty. You cannot shame a corporate machine engineered strictly for capital efficiency. It’s a category error. If a system cannot feel empathy, stop trying to teach it how. Logic must fight logic.
#Politics #Economics #Finance #Reading #Writing #Substack #Technology #Business #Law #Philosophy
This week's net.wars, "The Sutton effect", goes to the 25th Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, where researchers mull the costs of cybersecurity failures: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/06/05/the-sutton-effect/ #NetWars #security #economics
notes and customs
https://www.letters.directory/
@writingbooks
@writingcommunity
@bookstodon
@violencestudies
#writingCommunity #books #bookstodon #ViolenceStudies #feminism #feministGeography #SpaceAndPlace #capitalism #ScienceFiction #SciFi #economics #finance #history #sociology #poverty #classism #authoritarianism #writing #InternetArchive
Like comptuer networks, markets are a trust technology that require well established trust boundaries. The recent DOJ egg collusion complaint shows that collusion can happen, not just when producers get together, but when they "hack" an interface the market uses to coordinate activity.
In this case, the prodcuers coordinated to spoof activity to fool a market monitor.
https://misaligned.markets/bad-eggs-market-collusion/
#economics #capitalism #antitrust #monopoly #economy #inflation #cybersecurity
notes and customs
https://www.letters.directory/
@writingbooks
@writingcommunity
@bookstodon
@violencestudies
#writingCommunity #books #bookstodon #ViolenceStudies #feminism #feministGeography #SpaceAndPlace #capitalism #ScienceFiction #SciFi #economics #finance #history #sociology #philosophy #poverty #classism #authoritarianism #writing #InternetArchive #humanities
Excellent!
https://riftlymedia.com/zipper-mechanics-fail-everyday-product-engineering/
I swear, every city needs a medina, a cheap mixed-use neighborhood where people can open tiny 2m × 2m shops that specialize in fixing zippers. Or sharpening kitchen knives. Or replacing shoe heels. You can get those services now, of course, but only at ruinous cost, because every shop has to pay thousands of dollars a month in rent on a high street. More tiny kiosks on narrow streets, sez I.
PAULINE HANSON’S TALENT:
TURNING FEAR INTO VOTES 💎
I watched a YouTube video today called: Why Did America Choose a White Supremacist for President?
What struck me was not simply what it said about America. It was what it might be saying about us.
America did not suddenly wake up one morning and become Trumpist. The ground was prepared. People were genuinely struggling. Housing was difficult. Wages were inadequate. Communities were changing. People were frightened, angry and increasingly distrustful of institutions.
Then along came a political movement with a wonderfully simple explanation: YOUR LIFE IS HARD BECAUSE OF THOSE PEOPLE.
Immigrants. Black people. Muslims. Women. Queer people. “Woke” people. Elites. Foreigners. Anyone except the economic and political systems that are actually producing much of the insecurity.
That is the bit Australians should be watching.
Because our problems are real too. Housing really is unaffordable. People are really struggling with food, electricity, and rent. Young people really are wondering whether they will ever own a home. Regional communities really do feel neglected.
And when people are frightened and angry, there is enormous political power in giving them somebody to blame.
One Nation understands this. Pauline Hanson is now talking about a “monocultural” Australia. One Nation talks about putting “Australians first” and increasingly presents immigration and multiculturalism as explanations for problems Australians can see and feel every day.
And people are listening.
One Nation is no longer some amusing little protest party on the edge of Australian politics. Recent polling has put it at roughly a quarter or more of the national primary vote.
That should get our attention.
But there is an even greater danger. Trumpism is not really a political party. It is a political method.
Create grievance. Find an enemy. Tell people their country has been stolen from them. Promise to give it back. Attack institutions that get in the way. Keep people angry enough that they stop asking who is actually benefiting.
One Nation may currently be the most obvious Australian vehicle for that politics. But if Labor or the Coalition begin copying it because they are frightened of losing votes, the infection spreads far beyond One Nation.
Australia is not America. Our history is different. Our institutions are different. Our political culture is different.
But we are not magically immune to fear, racism, resentment or demagoguery.
America should not simply be something we stare at in disbelief. It should be a warning.
This stuff does not arrive wearing a sign saying:
FASCISM STARTS MONDAY.
It arrives saying:
I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU’RE ANGRY.
And then it quietly tells you who to hate.
@DigitalCoup
@economics_that_works
@meditation
https://youtu.be/QRvjkt9p_eI?si=59Oo8P7Pk4dUL4FT
#Australia #OneNation #Fediverse #OpenWeb #BigTech #PaulineHanson #Trumpism #Democracy #Politics #people #anger #FASCISM #Labor #YouTube #Economics #Housing #CostOfLiving #Meditation #Breathwork
YOU’RE LOOKING
AT THE WRONG PARTS 💎
I sometimes wonder what people imagine is going on inside the life of someone with a visible disability.
I walk very strangely. My left arm doesn’t work at all. My hand is contracted into a claw. I do everything one-handed, and that clearly wasn’t covered in this model’s original operating instructions.
From the outside, I suspect it can look like a life dominated by disability.
“Poor bugger.” “What a tragedy.” “Everything must be so difficult?”
Meanwhile, inside my actual life, I’m usually wondering whether the coffee is ready, what ridiculous thing I can write on Mastodon, whether the dogs have been fed, or why everyone on the internet has suddenly gone mad again.
The disability is there, obviously. I cannot drive, and there are many things I cannot do unaided. Other things just take longer, because much of the world appears to have been designed by someone who assumed every human comes with two fully operational hands.
And most people are remarkably unhelpful.
That sounds like a complaint, but it has an unexpected benefit. If you’re disabled, you become bloody good at finding another way. You have to.
Eventually, you stop wondering how something is supposed to be done and work out how you can do it.
That doesn’t make accessibility unnecessary. Quite the opposite. But disabled people often become extremely skilled at adapting because the world gives us plenty of practice.
Disability is not the central event of my consciousness.
I don’t wake up thinking, “Good morning. I am disabled.”
I wake up thinking, “Coffee.”
Most of the time, I’m not experiencing myself as a tragic medical story. I’m just living.
I’ve had decades to become extremely competent at being this particular slightly damaged model of human being. Sometimes other people seem considerably more concerned about my disability than I am.
It’s sweet.
But unnecessary.
The odd thing about a visible disability is that people often see what doesn’t work before they notice the enormous amount that does.
And from inside here?
It’s mostly just Friday.
_____________________
@DigitalCoup
#Fediverse #OpenWeb #BigTech
@economics_that_works
#Economics #Housing #CostOfLiving
@meditation
#Meditation #Breathwork
#Disability #DisabledLife #Accessibility #Hemiplegia #Stroke #Life #coffee #human #medical #instructions #tragedy #Mastodon
DEATH, GOD, &
A VERY SMALL SPIDER 💎
I am increasingly aware that I will leave this world. I don’t know when. I don’t know how. Perhaps within the next decade. Perhaps sooner. Who knows.
And strangely, there is less fear in that now. Most of the fear seems to belong to what I imagine is unknown.
If death is simply the end of Robin and the end of this consciousness, then there will be nobody there to be bothered by it. It will simply be over. And if there is something beyond this life, another realm, another dimension, another form of consciousness, then I suppose I will recognise it when I get there.
I don’t know. And I am quite happy not knowing.
Human beings have created manifold books, religions and pictures of God, spirit, heaven, continuation and eternity. Perhaps some of them point towards something true. Perhaps some are simply beautiful ways of comforting ourselves in the face of death.
But every picture I can make of what comes next is still a picture being made here.
I don’t want to manufacture comfort. I want clarity. I want to meet whatever happens without having already decided what it is supposed to look like.
Maybe there is something. Maybe there is nothing. Either way, reality does not require my opinion.
And while I am sitting here contemplating this enormous mystery, a tiny spider appears beside me. He is absurdly small. I stop, look at him, laugh, and decide he can stay.
And suddenly, there it all is. Death. Consciousness. God. Eternity. And a tiny spider wandering across my morning.
The fire is on. The coffee is good. People are interacting with things I have written. The spider is minding his own business.
Life has not stopped being ordinary just because I know it ends. I rather like that.
None of it means anything until I give it meaning. And this morning, the meaning I choose is very simple.
Gratitude.
@DigitalCoup
@economics_that_works
@meditation
@3goodthings
#death #mortality #afterlife #consciousness #spirituality #ACIM #clarity #gratitude #presence #ordinarylife #mystery #life #openweb #human #person #spider #Economics #Housing #CostOfLiving #Meditation #Breathwork #Fediverse #OpenWeb #BigTech
Many of us are expecting some sort of AI-related 'correction' (crisis) in financial markets & not for the first time Andrew Bailey (Governor of the Bank of England) has expressed similar thoughts.
Now I haven't changed my mind but I am reminded of the famous John Maynard Keynes observation that:
'Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent'...
which seems to be about where we are, right now as the cost of living crisis continues..
