CapitalistImperialistPig

...sounds to me like it should be part of a tobacco pitch, but apparently not. Some of you may recall that I'm something of a student of the Austro-Bahamian school of economics, as exemplified by the writings of its foremost exponent. Of course his works are occasionally a bit cryptic, even Derridesque , perhaps. Anyway, he recently trashed the famous IS/LM model , which made me think that if it's that bad, I really ought to at least try to understand it. It seems that the model is actually two curves, often drawn as straight lines, in a space that represents interest rates (vertical axis) and gross domestic product (horizontal axis), as above. Now if you suspect that econo-space might have more dimensions than two, just consider it a two-slice of that hyperspace. The two curves represent hypothetical equilibria, with the participants being S, the propensity to save; I, the demand for investment; L, the so-called liquidity preference; and M, the money supply. The worki...

The Palestinians have been rather slow to grasp how the world works these days. Partly this is due to the fact that it's convenient both for their leaders and Israel to nurture the myth that armed resistance is likely to aid their cause. Most of the problem is simply human nature, of course. If realistic goals are unachievable, then why not cling to the fantasy of throwing the Jews out by force? They haven't yet grasped the lesson of Gandhi, or if they have, how to use it. Jeffrey Goldberg explains to them the tactic they need to adopt: There is, however, a strategy the Palestinians could implement immediately that would help move them toward independence: They could give up their dream of independence. It’s a very simple idea. When Abbas goes before the UN, he shouldn’t ask for recognition of an independent state. Instead, he should say the following: “Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza 45 years ago, and shows no interest in letting go of the West Bank, in particular....

The quickest way to get rich is to occupy some valuable resource and collect a lot of rent for doing it. Wikipedia on Rent Seeking: In economics, rent-seeking is an attempt to obtain economic rent by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by creating new wealth. One example is spending money on political lobbying in order to be given a share of wealth that has already been created. A famous example of rent-seeking is the limiting of access to lucrative occupations, as by medieval guilds or modern state certifications and licensures. People accused of rent seeking typically argue that they are indeed creating new wealth (or preventing the reduction of old wealth) by improving quality controls, guaranteeing that charlatans do not prey on a gullible public, and preventing bubbles. Many current studies of rent-seeking focus on efforts to capture various monopoly privileges stemming from government regulation of a market. The term ...

NPR had a story this morning on the dark and bloody history of nutmeg. Along with some culinary commentary, it detailed how the Dutch committed a massive genocide in their pursuit of profit from this seemingly inoffensive seed. No cause, it seems, is to trivial to provide an excuse for genocide. When we create monsters for science fiction or fantasy, it's wise to remember that they are all images of ourselves - we really can't imagine anything worse. That said, there do seem to be a lot of admirable aspects to our character as well. So it's only logical, I say, to try to organize ourselves so as to maximize the "better angels of our nature" as Lincoln put it. So what do we know about how to do that? Capitalism and Republican government? Those Dutch merchants of death were pioneers in both. Socialism? Can we forget it's incomparably more bloody history in the last century? Appeals to magical realism in either flavor will hardly cut it. There are tr...

A TPM reader explains one reason Republicans lost - they disrespected too many Americans. I am sure that many people (like me) took the insults and disrespectful behavior towards President Obama in a very personal way. Many of us have experienced racism from “non-racists” all too frequently. As an Asian-American, the questioning of Obama’s American-ness really strikes a raw nerve... I would just add that not only ethnic minorities were offended by the Republican's tactics and rhetoric - though they had plenty of excuse to be. The disrespect shown to voters and the institution of the Presidency were also disgraceful, as was the general contempt of the democratic process.

Or maybe not. Catalonia is the wealthiest region of Spain, and they are tired of paying the bills. Call it the Germany of Spain. The voters have rather narrowly returned the main separatist party to power, with a smaller plurality than they held before, but a certain amount of separatist momentum. The incumbent regional president Artur Mas secured a second term and with it a mandate to seek secession from Spain in defiance of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. But his centre right Convergence and Union (CIU) party fell short of the absolute majority they hoped for, winning only 50 of the 62 seats they secured in the 135 seat assembly at the last election two years ago. The separatist left wing ERC party, which also strongly supports self-rule, doubled its share of the vote, securing 21 seats, however. Acknowledging that his support fell in favour of leftist parties, Mr Mas said alliances would have to be sought. If they are smart, they will take this opportunity to get a better deal fr...

In a way, the great polling debacle of 2012 worked out well for everybody. Usually only one side gets to celebrate their victory in an election, but this time everybody did. The Republicans celebrated before the vote, and the Democrats celebrated afterwards.