Bits and Pieces: The Meaning of "Dickensian".

(source)

Christmas was approaching and Tim Worstall angrily demanded people to try and look up the meaning of "Dickensian".

Your wish is my command, govnah!

The Party!

Believe it or not, I used to be a Party guy.

Anyway, the opening scene from the 1998 film "Blade":



I've been to darker parties in my time. But I suspect there weren't many vampires there and then. If there were, at least in my recollection, they weren't as good-looking. I can't recall any tomato sauce sprinklers, either. :-)

I do remember two things, though: for one, I didn't like killjoys.

And the dance music was really cool. And -- even if I say so myself -- I probably still dance better than those guys.

Corbin vs Pommy Bullies.

Personally, I don't know a great deal about Jeremy Corbin.

But I do know something relating to him: I don't like bullies. And I especially dislike cowardly pommy bullies. I mean, when all that arrogant, pale-faced mediocrity manages to find the balls to have a go against a single person -- as they are doing against Corbin -- it's a sure sign there must be something valuable about him/her.

Only in Australia.

(source)

Give me a break.

When Maynard met Naomi.

Ariadne Birnberg writes "Most Beautiful Maynard", the story of her grandmother, Naomi Bentwich, and her lifelong, unrequited, and presumably platonic love for John Maynard Keynes.

Given the differences between its protagonists -- the naively idealistic Jewish woman, and the anti-Semitic gay/bisexual man; Naomi, of middle class extraction, acting as secretary for Keynes, Eton alumnus, elitist, financial speculator, bureaucrat, academic, eugenicist and member of the cultural avant-garde -- the tale Birnberg relates could have easily turned into a farce.

Instead, Birnberg delivers a fascinating and humane account, where the unavoidable absurd is balanced by Birnberg's respect for the subject: Naomi in the foreground, Keynes in the shadow (the brief appearances other notables make, particularly Keynes' biographers, are somewhat less flattering).

----------

In our times of instant celebrity, it would be easy to dismiss Naomi's story as another star-struck fan's harmless eccentricity. It would be deeply short-sighted, too.

She wasn't the only one falling for Keynes' spell. And she wasn't the last one worshipping that hero. There must have been something especial to the man, something evident to many -- then and now -- but unfathomable to me.

In this sense, Birnberg's story works wonderfully as a metaphor for Keynesianism.

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A promising first delivery by Birnberg, and a great read for Keynes' fans.

The Weird Wide Web.

Well, well, well, it seems in my early fifties my dream finally came true: I've become a kind of sex symbol! Woohoo!

According to Blogger, I've been receiving visitors directed here from the “geile-porno-filme-kaufen.com” website. It's far from a deluge, but it's better than nothing.

The blurb Google returns reads:

“Geile Porno Filme kaufen. Jeden Tag gibt es eine Vielzahl an geilen neuen Pornos – Diese können bequem online angesehen oder bestellt werden!”

Had I been forewarned of my new status, perhaps I would have dyed my hair and prepared something. As things turned out, I’m afraid I have nothing to offer in the way of “Pornos”, “geilen” or otherwise.

Sorry!

Mecano: "La (Otra) Fuerza del Destino".

Economist, teacher, writer, musician, TSSIer, blogger and nice guy extraordinaire, Peter Cooper reminded me of pop songs from the 1980s.

Well, Pete, here's a 1988 song I always remember, by Spanish band Mecano. Ana Torroja sings "La Fuerza del Destino".

Yes, you guessed it, the pretty and mischievous face belongs to Penélope Cruz.

Ojalá la vida fuera como las canciones; pero a veces no hay final feliz.

A Fable, Fabulous, of Oesophagus.

Or, a Nightmare on Arden Street.

[A]

You finished your lunch. On the table, a plate with the remains of your meal and a crumbled paper napkin on top; next to it, lie a cup of black coffee and a little plastic tray, with a tip for the friendly young waitress. It's a sunny day; across the road lies the park and beyond it, the beach, full of people.

For you, a modest man of modest means, that's as close as bliss as it gets.

Your bliss, however, is cut short when a fashionably unshaven, twenty-something man suddenly takes one empty chair and sits next to you, an intense gaze in his eyes: the kind of expression one finds on street preachers Friday nights, corner of George and Park, opposite Town Hall, zealously announcing the Good News of Jesus to uninterested pedestrians.

Before you say a word, your unexpected companion, short-breathed, excitedly starts: "I've proved it! I did! The Pythagorean Theorem is false!"

Startled, you barely suppress an emerging "Whadda!?" And maybe it was a good thing: truth is, you don't know what to say. Again, you try to open your mouth as he grabs the napkin from your plate, but are impatiently shushed by your new friend, anyway. After a quick attempt to smooth its surface, he draws a square with a pencil that came apparently from nowhere.

While the youth, in a trance-like state, is distracted scribbling feverishly, you try to leave. No luck: unexpectedly, he grabs your arm, forcing you to sit back.

After a few seconds, evidently satisfied with his work, the young chap finally looks up from the napkin.

As he shoves it in your direction, stopping an inch from your nose, he quickly says, his voice full of passionate contempt, pointing to half a green pea stuck in the middle of the drawing: "If you add the square of the 4 sides of this triangle, there's no way you can get the square root of the hypothalamus. See? See? See?" he asks, stabbing repeatedly the napkin with his index finger. "Pythagoras, that old fool, was a shabby Hegelian!"

Somewhat recovered from your surprise, for a moment you pretend to study the doodles on the gravy-stained napkin, while desperately trying to figure a way out of the ordeal.

Nothing comes to mind, however; so, you give up trying. You say to your unblinking companion, defiantly staring back at you:

"Mate, I am no mathematician, but I believe the Pythagorean Theorem is about right triangles. That's not a right triangle; that's not even a triangle! That's a square."

Unexpectedly, your companion, suddenly frozen, says nothing; you could almost hear the half green pea, which fell from the napkin, hit the table.

Choosing your words ever more carefully, you add hesitantly:

"If memory serves, the theorem states that the square of the hypotenuse…" you say, pausing for emphasis, "…is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two…", again, a pause, "…sides. So, before discussing the theorem, maybe it would be best to understand the basics…"

At the middle of that sentence, it dawns on you: the young fellow may be momentarily silent, but he isn't listening. Instead, he is getting livid by the second; livid as in "ka-boom livid".

The moment he slaps the table, you jump to your feet, suddenly free from his grip; the precious napkin falls to the floor, and you leave hurriedly, every head in the pub turning your way in alarm.

As you hastily walk to the nearest bus stop, the last thing you hear is the young man shrieking angrily behind you:

"But, but… You people never listen to your critics. Circular reasoning!!! Listen to me! … Fuck you, Pythagoras! … Metaphysics… The Mahatma Gandhi this, Nietzsche that… Epistemologically correct asshole… Lacan and Roth's Kòjeve's Hegel all agree: E=m*c^2 is a sexed equation… Wet fish… Veblen… Veblen! VEBLEN!!!"

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It may not be the open gates of Heaven Friday night street preachers say Jesus promised, but for you, right now, that bus with its front door open, just waiting there, comes a close second.

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The story, characters and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons, bloggers, places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Image Credits:
[A] "Poster promoting Bondi Beach circa 1930". Source: Booth, D. "Australian Beach Cultures", Author: Unknown. Image in the public domain. Wikipedia.

The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel

(Paul Simon's complete lyrics)

Monday!

"Ever had the feeling that your job might be made up? That the world would keep on turning if you weren't doing that thing you do 9-5?"

A bit over a year ago David Graeber wrote about the phenomenon of bullshit jobs. You remember, don't you? The article about the crappy, boring, soul-destroying, unfulfilling jobs people do, because they have bills to pay, in the process making some rich bastard richer?

(Something like our own jobs, come to think.)

Well, in that piece Graeber had many things right, some very, very wrong. But I won't discuss that.

I'll say this, though. He totally forgot something: the phenomenon of bullshit Mondays!

So, I decided to welcome you to your brand new week, reminding you that today is Monday -- like, yay!! --  with this old Supertramp song:

And, like that great Tasmanian philosopher said: "Don't complain, at least you still have a job".

Have an awesome week!

... And This is Oz's Next Treasurer!

Overseas readers already met the next Australian Prime Minister.

And this was Joe Hockey, the next Aussie treasurer ("conservative, centre-right, libertarian"), a few years ago, when he wanted to sell the image of a nice guy:

Since then he shed both some kilos and the image of nice guy, replacing them with the persona of Very Serious Person, as befitting the father of Australian austerity.

----------

Each and every one of these guys is furiously anti-socialist, pro-capitalist and fan of entrepreneurs.

Cloudspotting.

[A]

I don't know about you, but Cloud Atlas seemed to me the kind of DVD to rent only if no better alternative was available. Luckily, the day I rented it, there was nothing else.

Moreover, I had not read anything about it -- which was fortunate, too -- or indeed the 2004 novel by David Mitchell which inspired the film. So I can say I watched the movie without prejudices.

It is an ambitious film. You can tell by details such as its length (165 minutes), cast (including Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant) and by having three directors (Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer).

Its ambition, however, goes much further: the plot spans over four centuries, starting in an unidentified Pacific island in 1849 to end in another (apparently Hawaii). Indeed, counting a brief prologue and epilogue, the story both starts and ends beyond our planet.

The narrative is divided into six apparently separate episodes, developed in a highly non-linear fashion. In a particular case, for instance, the story of the fast-food restaurant slave-worker Sonmi 451 is told by her, while awaiting execution and presented in flashbacks, interspersed with fragments from the other stories.

[B]

Visual and verbal cues, often subtle, appear, in order to link these episodes, resulting in a larger continuity. Sometimes these cues work flawlessly; sometimes the result is less smooth.

In particular, the more well-known actors, which often play more than one role in the overall story, performed adequately. However, as their roles vary in age, race and gender, many very familiar faces end up wearing make-up, at times to a dubious effect.

In any case, the narrative contains references ranging from the mystical to the materialist and should provide reason for reflection to viewers of a more thoughtful nature.

This brings us to what must be one of the highlights of the film: the performance of South Korean actress Bae Doona, who plays the above-mentioned Sonmi-451, in a dystopian 2144 Seoul.

In spite of the limited screen time allocated to her story, 33-yo Bae's character metamorphosed from a mass-produced worker, indoctrinated to obey, serve and fear her oppressors -- literally a well-behaved child by design -- into a heroic figure of rebellion and serenity in tragedy, displaying at equal parts dignity and courage; the kind of character who deservedly becomes a legend.

This may sound silly, but I could not avoid being misty-eyed with Bae's unforgettable performance, nothing short of exceptional.

While this is a visually impressive film, to me its visual aspect comes only fourth, after the script itself, Bae's outstanding work, and the movie's very inspired soundtrack.

Composed by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil, the soundtrack deserves special reference. Directed by Kristjan Jarvi and performed by the Leipzig Radio Symphony and Choir, the soundtrack, on the basis of a shared motive, incorporates layers corresponding to the different epochs covered by the story, providing a musical link unifying the narrative, without overdoing the basic motive.

It's not surprising Cloud Atlas has attracted polarized reviews. As my description may suggest, this is not an easy film and it shall demand the viewers' attention.

Cloud Atlas is well worth it. 

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While we still can, maybe we should try cloud spotting.


Image Credits:
[A] Source: Cloud Shapes in Blue Sky - Italian Sonnet.
[B] Source: Book review: Cloud Atlas, by Karen Tay.
[C] Source: Cloud Atlas, by Michelle McCue

John Aziz on Subjectivism: Das Mudpie!

John Aziz (associate editor, Pieria: profile) on the subjective theory of value (STV) and why it, in his estimation, is "the greatest idea in the history of economics". (Like... wow!)

Aziz:

"This [i.e. individually differentiated needs] leads to variations in price - different people are prepared to pay different prices for the same good or service based on their own need or want for it. While open markets and free exchange give a level of order to this process - quote prices, and moving averages - ultimately markets are moved by individuals' subjective valuation process, and the negotiation process." (See here)

So, in Aziz's estimation, two main things determine prices: individuals' subjective valuations, mediated by markets.

Having established his initial position, Aziz proceeds then to compare the STV to its theoretical rival: "The subjective theory of value's chief rival - the labour theory of value [i.e. LTV] advocated by David Ricardo, Adam Smith and Karl Marx - is deeply problematic".

And what are those deep problems? "The great trouble with this is the notion of a real (or fundamental, or intrinsic) price. Prices are just functions of market participants' decisions."

That is, for Azziz, the LTV is "deeply problematic" because in it prices are not determined by individuals' subjective valuation, mediated by markets, as in the STV.

In other words the LTV is deeply problematic because it is not the STV. Case closed. Aziz advances no other reason. For instance, doesn't claim the STV to be more empirically accurate.

So, one could be tempted to ask why the rather obvious fact that the LTV is not the STV is such a troublesome thing?

The only reason Aziz hints at is this: in Aziz's estimation "the subjective theory of value is the greatest idea in the history of economics"! Starting with the premise, the conclusion is the premise itself: the cycle is complete! No more reason is required.

Aziz's personal estimation is the rule to decide whether something is problematic or not. Take that, Ricardo, Smith and Marx!

----------

While I myself find the invention of sliced bread a greater thing than the subjective theory of value, even among rabid anti-LTV people, particularly among some PKers, the notion that "individuals' subjective valuation, mediated by markets" determine prices is considered bogus.

----------

I'll be honest: I have nothing personal against John (somehow, at this moment, to address him by his first name sounds friendlier, and I am trying to be nice: you hear me, Chris?); and I have no wish to antagonize yet another young, up-and-coming, philosophically-minded writer, interested-in-economics, UK blogger, so, I'll leave things at that.

In particular I will not comment on his (to me, already strangely familiar) rather vague reference to Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. Moreover, I will not comment on the "counter examples" he proposed (particularly the extremely unfortunate Mudpie one), even at the risk of disappointing the good folks of Kapitalism101!

Meet the Next Aussie PM.

I haven't written much about Australia, lately.

So, dear overseas readers, meet the incoming "conservative, centre-right, libertarian" Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott:

See also.

The best possible example of meritocracy in action!

Update:
16-08-2013. It didn't take long for an update! Australia will give the flick to 32 thousand asylum seekers already here.

As we are in a budget deficit crisis (OMG, OMG), to solve it, Abbott will cut corporate taxes, for the common good. Yes, dear reader, believe it or not, Abbott re-discovered that wonder of economics: the "trickle down".

Although Abbott said the Goods and Services Tax will remain unchanged, he also announced a tax reform commission whose job is to recommend what taxes should be changed. Among the taxes to be evaluated is the GST.

And however dead, cremated and buried, a WorkChoices by any other name would smell like shit. And something definitely smells bad.

PoMo-PoKe? LOL!

"I think that any­one who has the abil­ity to do junior high-school level math or above knows exactly what I’m talk­ing about"

An image is worth a thousand words:

Or check Glenn Stehle's 2 comments and don't forget the non-answer!

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For more PoMo PoKe fun (poor Kalecki!), check "Playing Profit with the Stock Market".

----------

But, seriously, what's with Marx's critics? Are they deliberately chosen according to a profile and a job-description, or are they self-selected?

European Languages Quiz.

Do you proudly represent the European Union? Do you speak European languages?

Test your language skills here!

European politician? [A]

How do you say "chicken" (a.k.a. Gallus gallus domesticatus):

In French
(a)    François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande, or
(b)    Poulet?

In Portuguese
(a)    Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho, or
(b)    Galinha?

In Spanish
(a)    Mariano Rajoy Brey, or
(b)    Gallina?

In Italian
(a)    Enrico Letta, or
(b)    Pollo?

In German
(a)    Werner Faymann, or
(b)    Huhn?

Answers: Both ways. Update: that was a trick question: (a) = (b).

Optional question for extra credit: A person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker, is called a
(a)    bully,
(b)    Nelson Muntz, or
(c)    Barack Hussein Obama?

Answer: Make a wild guess.

Image Credits:
[A] Gallus gallus domesticatus. File licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Wikipedia. Author: Ronald Duncan. My use of the file does not in any way suggests its author endorses me or my use of the work.

The Coolest Guy in Outer Space.

I'm always writing about crappy, depressing stuff.

Not today.

Chris Hadfield, commander of the 35th ISS Expedition:

Really cool.

Chris Hadfield's YouTube channel

Herndon, Colbert and Abbott.

or, the Recession we Didn't Have to Have

h/t Mike Norman Economics
link to the same video 

These guys may have spoken about Reinhart and Rogoff, but I'll have to admit, they never said a word about the Grattan report in the Colbert Report...

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One who never fails to mention the important things is the next Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott.

Speaking last night with Leigh Sales (7.30 Report, ABC), the Liberal/National Coalition leader (conservative, centre-right, libertarian) made sure the viewers understood his stance about the surplus and that he is up-to-date with S&P expert assessments of the Australian economy:

"Our triple A credit rating is at risk if there's not a path back to surplus, and frankly, everything right now, Leigh, has to be tested against that framework: how is it going to help us get back to surplus? How is it gonna make our economy more productive?" (See here, my translation from Australian)

In a 13 minute interview, Abbott mentioned "SORE-plus" eight times... Phew! I feel better now that I know "good" economic management is on its way...

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Incidentally, according to this site, the Moon is currently 99% full.

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Are we heading to the recession we didn't have to have? The Abbott Recession?

Update:
05-05-2013 As the video originally linked to here was removed by its poster, I added a link to the same video, but posted under a different account.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold (IV)

Or, "it's in their DNA"

Paul Ryan (left, physical only); Tony Abbott (extreme right) [A],[B]

U.S. Representative Paul Ryan (Republican) and Australian MP Tony Abbott (Coalition) have many things in common, apart from their ears.

For instance, both are arch-conservative Roman Catholic; both of them share the same "core values":



(h/t David Ruccio)

But it would be mistaken to carry the comparison too far. For one, Ryan is younger than Abbott.

More importantly, Ryan did not become Vice-President of the U.S. of A. in 2013. Abbott, on the other hand...

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Aw, crap. We're so screwed.

Image Credits:
[A] "Opposition Leader Tony Abbott addresses a forum". File licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence. Wikipedia. Author: Djackmanson. My use of the file does not in any way suggests its author endorses me or my use of the work.
[B] "Congressman Paul Ryan after being introduced by Mitt Romney". File licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. Wikipedia. Author: Tony Alter
(derivative work: Gobonobo). My use of the file does not in any way suggests its author(s) endorse(s) me or my use of the work.

Burn it Down.

"His trust was with th' Eternal to be deemed
Equal in strength, and rather than be less
Cared not to be at all; with that care lost
Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worse"

Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin produced Burn it Down, lead single from Living Things. Shinoda on the meaning of that song:

"You know, to be honest, we get the songs to a certain point, and once we put out our record, it's up to the fans to decide how the song gets finished. In other words, we lead you to a certain point in the road and we say, 'Okay, the rest of it is your call. You bring your own interpretation to the song'."

To me, it tells an epic and tragic tale. But that's me.

Not much more to say, really. In my opinion, by far the single best video of 2012: