The Empire Files has the video CIA Stories: The CIA is Born.
Abby Martin introduces the first installment of a new Empire Files series about the CIA explaining why the agency was created, and how it became the most nefarious criminal organization in the world, with CIA expert Douglas Valentine.
Global Institute for Sustainable Proeperity – GISP has the podcast #105 Sam Levey: Krugman, Bond Markets & BS Jobs.
Patricia and Christian talk to MMT scholar and Deficit Owl Sam Levey about recent press coverage of MMT and the late David Graeber’s Bulls**t Jobs.
Even I learned some nuances about MMT. There is one problematic issue that stood out for me. Sam claimed an algebraic formula where the variable C appears on both sides of the equation. I know I have debunked this before because the C on each side of the equation does not stand for the same thing, and cannot be cancelled out. I think I wrote about how the correct equation could be written when Joe Firestone made a similar mistake. I can’t find this previous article anywhere on my blog.
Institute for New Economic Thinking has posted Calculating the Cost of COVID.
Inflation? Expanding digital currencies? What’s next in this brave new world?
Jens Nordvig (Founder & CEO, Exante Data) describes what he saw as the pandemic unfolded, and where it might be taking us.
More non-ideological analysis of what is going on. It is not an attempt to predict the future. I like reporting the news rather than trying to predict the news.
Institute for New Economic Thinking has the article China and the Supply Chain: A Comment on the June 2021 White House Review By James K. Galbraith.
Contrary to rhetoric from Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. has an economic interest in trade and peace with China.
A very calm and even handed analysis of the situation. It would do a world of good if more people in the USA understood this.
The Blockchain Debate Podcast has the episode on Central Bank Digital Currency.
Motion: The US urgently needs to catch up on Central Bank Digital Currency (Robert Hockett vs. Lawrence White)Motion: The US urgently needs to catch up on Central Bank Digital Currency (Robert Hockett vs. Lawrence White)
Good discussion of central bank digital currency issues. Larry White kept talking about the loanable funds model of private bank lending before being challenged by how private bank lending is currently conducted.
I think the discussion lends credibility to my idea of saying that private banks create promises of money compared to the central bank creating actual money. I think that is less confusing than talking about exogenous money and endogenous money or real bills. I am not proposing any new theory, just some change in terminology.
Marketwatch has the article After China causes bitcoin to crater, threat of new U.S. regulations loom over crypto market, experts say.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrencies took it on the chin Monday after the Chinese government continued its regulatory crackdown on bitcoin miners and companies that provide payment services for crypto-related transactions.
Could some sense be returning to the field of cryptocurrencies?
VMware has posted the article Cybercrime is everywhere and citizens are caught in the crossfire.
Ransomware attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure are headlining the nightly news. Within the past month, an attack on the U.S. fuel company Colonial Pipeline by ransomware group DarkSide caused gas shortages along the East Coast and a ransomware attack on the world’s largest meat processor JBS by cybercriminal gang REvil underscored a dire threat to the global food supply chain. The impact of cybercrime is being felt in our physical world and citizens are caught in the crosshairs of these attacks.
This is a little more information from a source that I trust somewhat. They name two particular criminal organizations, DarkSide and REvil, that I intend to research to see if I can find the connection to any country that is enabling them. I have asked VMware if they have any countries in mind that are enabling these two bad actors.
According to the Wikipedia article DarkSide (hacking group), the article suspects Russia, but does not claim to have proof. An opinion I have not seen in the oligarchs’ news mafia, not that I have been looking for an objective report.
The podcast The Realignment has the episode Dr. Eric Weinstein: What Happens Now?.
Dr. Eric Weinstein, host of “The Portal” podcast and managing director at Thiel Capital, makes his third Realignment appearance to discuss where Marshall and Saagar should take The Realignment and Breaking Points, returning heterodox viewpoints to institutions, and why and how those who’ve tried to do so have failed so far.
This is deep and thought provoking.
Naked Capitalism has the article Biden Taps Lina Khan to Chair the FTC.
Khan, a Columbia University law professor, is a noted Big Tech critic. While still a student at Yale Law School, she penned an important article for the Yale Law Journal,
This Note argues that the current framework in antitrust – specifically its pegging competition to “consumer welfare,” defined as short-term price effects – is unequipped to capture the architecture of market power in the modern economy.
I have blogged about this fallacy in the way the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the law in recent years.
The Yale Law Journal article Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox by LINA M. KHAN
Building the Dream has a great podcast What’s up with this inflation?.
Saikat and I discuss recent inflation fears with New Consensus’ Bob Hockett.
The beauty of this discussion is not that they have answers to every question, but that they tell you what are the right questions to ask. When you know the right questions and you know what answers are missing, you can have some equanimity in living through unsettled times. You can at least foresee what will settle things down.