December 2009
64 posts
“In a child’s power to master the multiplication table, there is more...”
– Inherit the Wind
“[The creation of] the Milton Friedman Institute, in its name and essence, is...”
– Naomi Klein
“Most of the evidence is classified, but Hashmi is not allowed to see it. He is...”
– Jeanne Theoharis (via azspot)
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Deconstructing Neoliberalism, part I
note: This is the first in a series of posts, the idea for which I mentioned here. I am certain Sach’s arguments have been addressed by writers and thinkers far better than myself. However, I am writing this to deepen my own understanding of ideas to which I am relatively new. I hope it will also allow me to more readily address the points of mainstream economists.
The book jacket gives us...
“What mistakes are made by the piecemeal reformers, who either want to raise...”
– Karl Marx, Economic & Philosophical Manuscripts
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unburyingthelead:
BILL MOYERS: What do you think these characters from the past that we will see on the screen, what do they have to say to us today?
HOWARD ZINN: Well, I think what they have to say to us today is think for yourself. Don’t believe what the people up there tell you. Live your own life. Think your own ideas. And don’t depend on saviors. Don’t depend on the Founding Fathers, on...
If Wall Street Ran the Airlines →
Representatives of industry associations reacted negatively to the government action, warning that over-regulation would stifle innovation and harm the competitiveness of U.S. firms. “Requiring each plane to stock up on 0.5-ounce bags of pretzels and peanuts will only hurt passengers,” said Sam Tapscott of the Airline Roundtable. “Airlines will have no choice but to pass the higher costs on to...
A Proposal From Apple to Offer Online TV...
soupsoup:tanya77:
Broadband Internet subscriptions to TV networks could potentially destabilize the bedrock of the television business, which relies on subscribers paying for dozens of bundled channels.
But aren’t the actors and most of the people responsible for creating that content getting hosed on the profits?
And when aren’t they?
David Harvey: Reshaping Economic Geography →
While many elements were involved in the crisis that has rocked the world over the last two years, it should be clear from this description that urban processes played a key role. The so-called sub-prime foreclosure crisis was in fact an urban crisis. If, therefore, the roots of the crisis lie in urban malformation then the solutions must also surely lie, in part if not in whole, in urban...
Book Titles, if They Were Written Today →
fuckyeahkarlmarx:
Then: Das Kapital
Now: Labor Value: How Today’s Companies Get the Most out of Their Workforce
“… a political state can actually set out to build an effective and dynamic...”
– David Harvey, The New Imperialism, p. 107
“Conventional economics is inevitably destructive and unsustainable because it...”
– David Suzuki (via tsparks)
A Dangerous Dysfunction →
laissezfaireovr:
The difficulty of trying to pass health care reform shows how dysfunctional the Senate, and the U.S. government as a whole, has become.
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“Contradiction in the capitalist mode of production: the laborers as buyers of...”
– Karl Marx, Capital volume 2
M.T.A. Approves Big Service Cuts in Mass Transit →
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a punishing slate of service cuts on Wednesday that would amount to the most significant erosion of New York City’s transit system since its recovery from the ruinous days of the 1980s.
The cuts represent some of the first concrete consequences of a fiscal crisis in New York State that until now had mostly been restricted to ominous words from...
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“I suggested to him that this was precisely what they didn’t like - you...”
– Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade.
David Harvey: Organizing for the Anti-Capitalist... →
The historical geography of capitalist development is at a key inflexion point in which the geographical configurations of power are rapidly shifting at the very moment when the temporal dynamic is facing very serious constraints. Three percent compound growth (generally considered the minimum satisfactory growth rate for a healthy capitalist economy) is becoming less and less feasible to...
"And we really need to talk about changing the way... →
(via unburyingthelead)
“The corporatization and privatization of hitherto public assets (such as...”
– David Harvey, The New Imperialism, p. 148
Towards a Prospective Meta-Policy →
The pitfall of many amateur historians is to try and identify a “golden age” in the past, one that has supposedly universal or simply superior values and qualities to the present. To recognize the folly of this inquiry is merely to recognize that all societies have flaws, and the only way to fix these flaws is to focus on the future. By seeking to emulate the presumed benefits and structure of a...
WatchIndian Environmentalist Vandana Shiva: “It Is Time for the US to Stop Seeing Itself as a Donor and Recognizing Itself as a Polluter, a Polluter who Must Pay”
The world-renowned Indian environmental leader and thinker Vandana Shiva spoke before thousands. On Sunday, I spoke with her at Klimaforum, the People’s Climate Summit, and asked for her assessment of President Obama and what he represents...
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Commodification in the Information Age
The images and theme come from the popular YouTube video Did You Know? 3.0
The focus of videos like these on the quantitative aspects of information (measured in bytes) rather than the qualitative demonstrates the treatment of information as a commodity. This focus presents a view of information with value intrinsic to itself rather than use value in relation to other commodities. In addition...
“Think about the strangeness of today’s situation. Thirty, forty years ago,...”
– Slavoj Žižek
“As Howard Zinn has often pointed out, history told from above — from the...”
– Viggo Mortensen (via azspot)
“This is the critical point: ours is a culture saturated by commodities, a...”
– Henri Lefebvre
The Politics of Health
For the past few months, I’ve felt like something is wrong. I don’t have a lot of energy, I sometimes get nausea, I ache from time to time, and I just have the general sense that something isn’t right with my health. It could be anything from just an improper diet to some easily treatable condition. But my greatest fear is that it’s a relapse of cancer. This is a...
“If, as reported, the Democrats have dropped the public option, they have...”
– Some Assembly Required (via azspot)
“What we have to do is not be frightened of the word ‘class’. I think...”
– David Harvey
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Senate Democrats Reach Tentative Agreement on... →
Senate Democrats reached tentative agreement Tuesday to abandon the proposed government-run health insurance plan at the heart of the Senate’s sweeping health overhaul legislation, as part of a broader compromise aimed at speeding action on the White House-backed initiative.
Isn’t it wonderful how bipartisan and willing to compromise the Democrats are? They came together at this...
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“To paraphrase a judge’s comment on pornography, we are not able to define...”
– A finance textbook. Remind me again why neoclassical economics is considered a “science?”
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A conversation I had earlier today
RU Dem: You should join the Rutgers Democrats! We don't really subscribe to the whole party ideology thing.
Me: I'm a socialist.
RU Dem: Come on, we love socialists!
Me: I have all three volumes of Marx's Capital on my bookshelf.
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For those interested, here’s the audio...
Watchpieto:
Interview with David Harvey
via
David Harvey auto-reblog, all day every day