Where linguistics and economics interact:
An extra scene from the 2008 documentary: American Feud: A History of Conservatives and Liberals. The 90 minute DVD contains 14 extra minutes of professor Chomsky. Here, Chomsky argues that the conventional notion of "invisible hand" is mistaken and that though worshipped by conservatives, Adam Smith is very rarely read.
It's funny how selective people's hearing can be. Funny how hypocritical people can be, and how much misinformation abounds in society today. How powerful words and ideas can be twisted and debased beyond all recognition.
"The talk about trade or free trade or entrepreneurial values or consumer choice or democratic functioning and so on, these terms are all demeaned. It's putting us into a world of delusion and fantasy."
31 January, 2012
05 January, 2012
Omioddio, UniDebito, che ridere...
Rights issue that they cannot sell... Looks like UniCredito might be paying the price for having expanded too quickly in the past decade.
13 December, 2011
This is sick, perverted and utterly indicative of our times
According to this article, the six people in the Walton family -- the heirs to the creator of Wal-Mart -- have the same amount of wealth as the poorest 90 million people in the US.
That's nuts.
What is even crazier is the fact that Alice Walton has created this art gallery containing art that celebrates the kinds of places in the US that have been wiped out thanks to Wal-Mart, and art that makes social commentary on the disparities between the rich and poor in the US, on money she and her family has made making the US a worse place to live.
Alice Walton, woman, you should be fucking ashamed of yourself. How can you look at yourself in the mirror every day? What kind of planet are you on?
Clearly not earth. Thanks for wrecking it for the rest of us. I hope you pray for your own soul a lot, because if there is a hell, you are most certainly going there.
That's nuts.
What is even crazier is the fact that Alice Walton has created this art gallery containing art that celebrates the kinds of places in the US that have been wiped out thanks to Wal-Mart, and art that makes social commentary on the disparities between the rich and poor in the US, on money she and her family has made making the US a worse place to live.
Alice Walton, woman, you should be fucking ashamed of yourself. How can you look at yourself in the mirror every day? What kind of planet are you on?
Clearly not earth. Thanks for wrecking it for the rest of us. I hope you pray for your own soul a lot, because if there is a hell, you are most certainly going there.
03 November, 2011
This is Pretty Damn Cool: The E tests the Dodd-Frank (better late than never)
This surprises me that this hasn't been done before. But now the Economist has tested the Dodd-Frank with its usual aplomb and stylish reporting at the recent Buttonwood conference.
The Dodd-Frank has been around for more than a year, but ostensibly many hoped that the world economy would be in a better place than it is now. It was made to protect tax payers from having to bail out another big bank. But it's never been tested, because no one knows what would happen if another big bank failed, like Lehman Bros did in 2008.
The Economist created a scenario with a fictitious bank called the New Jefferson Bank: a big player in the global derivatives market, and an international commercial player in the US, UK and Brazil. A trillion-plus in assets, big investment player, big management turnover, big loan losses in past recessions, has capital ratios of adequate levels but lots of outside exposure to bad debt. Management has crapped out on everyone, and its strategy is questionable.
It's Friday, April 23rd 2013. Markets are again stressed as they were during the Lehman Bros. failure.
What's would happen under the Dodd-Frank, according to some of the biggest brains in US finance? Click on the link and watch.
Absolutely fascinating.
The Dodd-Frank has been around for more than a year, but ostensibly many hoped that the world economy would be in a better place than it is now. It was made to protect tax payers from having to bail out another big bank. But it's never been tested, because no one knows what would happen if another big bank failed, like Lehman Bros did in 2008.
The Economist created a scenario with a fictitious bank called the New Jefferson Bank: a big player in the global derivatives market, and an international commercial player in the US, UK and Brazil. A trillion-plus in assets, big investment player, big management turnover, big loan losses in past recessions, has capital ratios of adequate levels but lots of outside exposure to bad debt. Management has crapped out on everyone, and its strategy is questionable.
It's Friday, April 23rd 2013. Markets are again stressed as they were during the Lehman Bros. failure.
What's would happen under the Dodd-Frank, according to some of the biggest brains in US finance? Click on the link and watch.
Absolutely fascinating.
14 September, 2011
07 September, 2011
Trouble...
This is turning back into a personal blog. Don't know why... inspiration is a strange animal.
Against all defiance thus shall I stand fast.
I am defiant in my defiance, and I defy all those who say otherwise.
I deny victory to those who think they've won,
And I let those who haven't started yet, to begin another one.
Against all defiance thus shall I stand fast.
I am defiant in my defiance, and I defy all those who say otherwise.
I deny victory to those who think they've won,
And I let those who haven't started yet, to begin another one.
31 August, 2011
A bit of free advertising for Lore Croci
I miss Florence.
I still consider it more my home than Toronto in certain respects. People there understand me a bit better than people from Toronto, and just take me for who I am rather than second guessing me all the time.
I don't know if I could go back there to live right now, because it still has a small-town feel to it, and people there can be a bit parochial. Not everyone though.
Lore Croci is anything but parochial, and he has built an amazing spot near Fiesole that looks like a dream come true.
Lore, I will come to visit you next time I go see the fam!
I still consider it more my home than Toronto in certain respects. People there understand me a bit better than people from Toronto, and just take me for who I am rather than second guessing me all the time.
I don't know if I could go back there to live right now, because it still has a small-town feel to it, and people there can be a bit parochial. Not everyone though.
Lore Croci is anything but parochial, and he has built an amazing spot near Fiesole that looks like a dream come true.
Lore, I will come to visit you next time I go see the fam!
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