The Attack of the Animal Spirits.

Well, it would seem the Animal Spirits of many "average business men" (or "keyneses", for short) are currently (4:45 AM Tuesday, 30 June 2015, AEST, GMT+10) rather subdued:

(Right-click to open another tab with a larger image. source)

(Right-click to open another tab with a larger image. source)

Spare a thought for the laundry operators dealing with the underwear of the "keyneses" …

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M. Hollande and Frau Merkel reach out to Tsipras; while M. Juncker, barely suppressing a tear, feels "betrayed" (poor, poor thing).

Aussie markets: "$36 billion wiped off Australian stocks" (like, ouch!)

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And today's the day! One step closer

Greece: Bailout Referendum Announced.

It seemed inevitable (see here and here) and it's one very important step closer:



The Sydney Morning Herald:

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras calls for referendum on aid package
Date June 27, 2015 - 9:09AM
Birgit Jennen, Nikos Chrysoloras and Rebecca Christie



The BBC:

Greece debt crisis: Tsipras announces bailout referendum
22 minutes ago

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This should be a test for the powers of Keynes' mythical Animal Spirits/Confidence Fairy.

"LOL-Fallacy" Fallacy Down Under.

Just when you thought it was safe to read online opinion, Patrick Carvalho -- from the clearly self-desinterested propertarian think tank Centre for Independent Studies -- demonstrates that Aussie pundits have nothing to envy their foreign counterparts:

Free Trade Deals and the Lump of Labour Fallacy

Yes, that's right: the LOL Fallacy fallacy arrived to Oz. I feel so proud: "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi".

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I blame you, Sandwichman, for that.

Furtwängler and the End of History.

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
"Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes." (Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels, "The Communist Manifesto")

"[I]f the whole of modern society is not to perish, a revolution in the mode of production and distribution must take place, a revolution which will put an end to all class distinctions. (…) [O]n this fact, and not on the conceptions of justice and injustice held by any armchair philosopher, is modern socialism's confidence in victory founded." (Friedrich Engels, "Anti-Dühring")

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To me, there is something epically tragic in this recording. Wilhelm Furtwängler conduces Siegfried's Funeral March, Third Act, Götterdämmerung:



If we lose our fight, that could be the closing titles to human history.

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Your call.