Wikileaks

I just looked at the New York Times cover story on Wikileaks.  They managed to cover the story with an admirable whitewash – virtually nothing embarrassing was reported.  With the press like this, why worry about leaks?

Why is homeland security enforcing the nation against music downloads?”

“In what appears to be the latest phase of a far-reaching federal crackdown on online piracy of music and movies, a number of sites that facilitate illegal file-sharing were shut down this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.”

Sisario, Ben. 2010. “U.S. Shuts Down Web Sites in Piracy Crackdown.” New York Times (27 November).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/technology/27torrent.html?hp

A Thanksgiving of Austerity: A Modest Rant

My vent about the atrocious state of the world today.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mperelman2000?feature=mhsn

invisible handcuffs is ready to appear

invisible handcuffs

Amazon is listing the cost for a pre-order at $12.78.

http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Handcuffs-Capitalism-Tyranny-Stunting/dp/158367229X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290488577&sr=8-1

Alfred Nobel’s Family Disassociates Itself from the Nobel Prize

http://rwer.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/the-nobel-family-dissociates-itself-from-the-economics-prize/

Constant Capital and the Crisis in Contemporary Capitalism: Echoes from the Late Nineteenth Century

“Constant Capital and the Crisis in Contemporary Capitalism: Echoes from the Late Nineteenth Century” looks at the current crisis in light of how economists showed a superior understanding of the way the economy worked during the late nineteenth century.

http://users.ntua.gr/jea/tua/journl/jea_volume1_issue1_pp34_41.pdf

Comments would be very much appreciated.

An Open Letter to the President

This letter was sent to the President, who failed to heed the warning, which turned out to be correct.

“You have made yourself the Trustee for those in every country who seek to mend the evils of our condition by reasoned experiment within the framework of the existing social system. If you fail, rational change will be gravely prejudiced throughout the world, leaving orthodoxy and revolution to fight it out. But if you succeed, new and bolder methods will be tried everywhere, and we may date the first chapter of a new economic era from your accession to office.”

I wish I had the foresight to have written this letter, but it was sent to the new president in 1933. The author was John Maynard Keynes. Although the letter is old, it is absolutely on target in predicting, “If you fail, rational change will be gravely prejudiced throughout the world.”

Wake up Obama before you do more damage by imagining that cooperation with the Right rather than leadership is the way forward.

http://newdeal.feri.org/misc/keynes2.htm

By the way, in 1938 Keynes also warned the president that because of the 1937 austerity, “the present slump could have been predicted with absolute certainty.”

Brad DeLong reprinted that letter.

http://delong.typepad.com/egregious_moderation/2008/12/john-maynard-ke.html

For Profit Education vs. Disabled Veterans

Here is another example of the disgraceful behavior of the for profit colleges.  Daniel Golden is doing an outstanding job tracking this scandal.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-01/kaplan-quest-for-profit-at-taxpayer-expense-ensnares-disabled-u-s-veteran.html