Stranger Things

Taibbi on Trump and Michael Wolff

"He was like an instinctive, pampered, and hugely successful actor. Everybody was either a lackey who did his bidding or a high-ranking film functionary trying to coax out his performance — without making him angry or petulant." 

Wolff writes Team Trump was really hoping to "almost win" the presidency as part of a PR-driven business move, only to be horrified by the reality of securing a hugely demanding government job: 

"Once he lost, Trump would be both insanely famous and a martyr to Crooked Hillary... Melania Trump, who had been assured by her husband that he wouldn't become president, could return to inconspicuously lunching. Losing would work out for everybody. Losing was winning.

"On Election Night, when the unexpected trend — Trump might actually win — seemed confirmed, Don Jr. told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania was in tears — and not of joy."

the myth of "populism"

The Myth of “Populism” by Anton Jäger

Jeremy Corbyn

Labour and 21st Century Class Politics by Phil BC

Farmer on sovereign wealth fund

A UK Sovereign Wealth Fund by Roger Farmer

come a little a bit closer you're my kind of man so big and so strong

So I started walking her way
She belonged to bad man Jose
And I knew, yes I knew I should leave
When I heard her say, yeah
Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of man
So big and so strong
Come a little bit closer
I'm all alone and the night is so long

what? Kevin Drum on how racist America is.

Return of the Empire?

Donald Trump’s Victory Probably Wasn’t Uniquely Driven by Racial Resentment by Kevin Drum

Now as America experiences a blue wave, America is exceptional and not as racist as people say. Oh but it is pretty still racist.

Cornel West on TNC

Ta-Nehisi Coates is the neoliberal face of the black freedom struggle by Cornel West

Yggies on Bruenig's SWL (social wealth fund) and his response

Why Social Wealth Funds Are Not Just Taxes by Matt Bruenig

Collective ownership of the means of production by Matt Yglesias

Revisiting the Meidner Plan by Peter Gowan and Mio Tastas Viktorsson

The Red and the Black by Seth Ackerman

Tackling Wealth Inequality Like A Swede by Peter Gowan and Mio Tastas Viktorsson

Models For Worker Codetermination In Europe by Peter Gowan

Study: austerity helped the Nazis come to power

Study: austerity helped the Nazis come to power by Dylan Matthews

krugman on economic anxiety

The longer high unemployment drags on, the greater the odds that crazy people will win big in the midterm elections — dooming us to economic policy failure on a truly grand scale.

Interest rates: the phantom menace

Sanders: Wall Street right to call me dangerous

Sanders: Goldman Sachs boss right to call me dangerous 

Bruenig on social wealth fund

A Simple Fix for Our Massive Inequality Problem by Matt Bruenig

Coppola on bitcoin

The Fundamental Conflict At The Heart Of Bitcoin by Frances Coppola

defeatism of Serwer and Coates

Democrats Should Reject the Defeatism of Serwer and Coates by David Atkins

loanable funds theory

WHAT IS THE LOANABLE FUNDS THEORY?

According to Keynes: " It is the interaction of supply and demand in the bond market – not the ‘loanable funds’ market – which determines the rate of interest."

Fed

Fed Officials Are Concerned About Hot U.S. Labor Market

George Carlin on golf course and houses

interest rates and expectations

A New Conundrum in the Bond Market? by Michael D. Bauer

Interest Rates and Expectations: Responses and Further Thoughts by JW Mason

Interest Rates and (In)elastic Expectations by JW Mason

Labour and Revisiting the Meidner Plan (Sweden)

A Plan To Win The Socialism Sweden Nearly Achieved by Peter Gowan
Revisiting the Meidner Plan