Economic Wisdom

And the Nobel prize (and 1.2 million dollars) goes to economists who showed " the importance of how real-world behavior impacts policy and why it must be taken into account alongside broad economic variables like inflation and production. A critical aspect of their models rests on the idea that households and businesses make decisions based on what they believe will happen in the future. So when governments and policymakers communicate their economic plans, they can influence people’s expectations. That in itself can help steer the economy." Brilliant indeed! It's all about what we believe. For instance, we believe we can have infinite growth on a finite planet. We believe we can run off the cliff as long as we don't look down. We believe smart people will figure everything out, that new technology will solve everything. And yes, we can be influenced. By influencers. There is a reason they call economics "the dismal science". Do these people have to give the money back if the economy crashes? Will they just say oops? Not a word anywhere of criticism. This is capitalist realism at it's apex, market logic so dominant it becomes the ambient atmosphere. As riots break out in Albania and France and elsewhere we get this drivel from economists, "explaining behavior" in the Age of Anxiety. As for the riots in France, the peaceful demonstators are "stunned" that the black-clad anarchists destroyed property. Stunned, really? They hijack demonstrations/protests everytime, causing a violent reaction which favors the far Right. So why would the lifestyle "anarchists" still be described as "far left" in the press? I suspect they are split between morons and right-wing provacateurs. They are the politics of smash, which feels good for a moment. But they are not the Rupture they believe themselves to be. Don't be stunned.

"Billionaire Class"

Some dweeb in the NYTimes: “I would be nervous if we started using the focus on billionaires as a license to ignore the many other ways the tax code preferences the wealthy and high income over everyone else,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s really happening.” So he believes equity is a salient issue with "the masses"? I would argue they perversly enjoy their own humiliation and debasement. Enjoy as joisance. They are assurred that at least the Big Other cares enough about them to make them miserable. This is where we run into definitional issues around class. Left populists have focused their ire on billionaires, because sure, yeah, who needs a billion dollars? But what about the multi-millionaires? And yada yada on down the line. Everyone chants in unison: tax the rich, feed the poor, till there are no rich no more. Trouble is, there is no set definition of "rich". The old guard still talks about "the ruling class" but that's almost as fuzzy. Who rules what? The one thing we do know is if you want to build solidarity in the "ruling class/ rich" just try taking some of their wealth. Workers used to fight with "whatever means necessary", including guns and bombs, but those days are long gone. Now you just threaten to raise the interest rate on their Master Card and they roll over like puppies. RIP David Cobb. On the climate front: Elise Otten, a spokeswoman for Exxon. “We firmly believe climate change is a real and pressing issue, and that’s why we need sound policy at the federal level to reduce emissions and keep affordability top of mind.” We all know that affordability is drill baby drill so I can fill up my Humvee. When she says "at the federal level" she means not at the state level, where some accountability could actually take place. Because unlike Congress, state legisltures have not all been bought. Elise knows this but her job is to act AS IF she doesn't. Last bit of news of the day: Lula vs Bolsanaro? Really? Do we need any more proof that electoralism is all shit theatre? Oh, maybe I should vote for Putin, or Modi, or Trump. Or Netahyahu or whatever. I can't believe people still buy into this idiocy. Why not coyote vs roadrunner? Elmer Fudd vs Bugs Bunny?

Collective Action Problem

Isn't this problem of out of control AI rooted in the same capitalist contradiction as climate change? This dilemma of "alignment", trying to make sure the technology is in humanities best interest, is the same one we face with fossil energy. The Market, it shpould be obvious by now, is useless. And government is controlled by Capital. So a good liberal like Ezra Klein sees these labs competing with each other to achieve "recursive self-improvement", AI agents who take over their own training, and he calls for social "control". He asks why aren't their permits and regulations and governance working to serve the publics general interest? Well, why are we still burning fossil fuels: the collective action problem. With so much wealth and power at stake, no one actor is going to stop (building RSI, burning fossil fuel) unless everyone does. Kind of like a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Give up your nukes and get crushed by the other nuclear powers (see Libya). Does Ezra Klein expect the United Nations to enforce a ban on AI development? He claims this development should face the same constraints as building a new high-rise in San Francisco. But this is apples and telephone poles: wholly separate categories. I would love it if these liberals would just admit market failure in both pollution and AI development and begin advocating for democratic planning. Tearing down these corporations and putting ownership of production in the hands of the people who make and consume. Then you would be able to exert genuine "control". You can't have it both ways. If you stick with Capital you face the growth imperative and therefore are doomed to competition and the collective action problem. The only way out is planning, not for profit, but for sufficiency. We all know perfectly well that infinite growth leads to doom but we act as if we don't know it. One day just leads to the next as we slowly crumble around the edges. Not unlike a melting glacier.

Ministry of Culture

The U.S. needs a culture minister. Like Israel's. The actual title is Minister of Culture and Sports and what an important job it is! Israel has an important role in the culture of Germany and we are seeing that played out as the Far Right regains power. “The AfD understands that through culture, they can get into people’s heads, into their mind-sets.” One important part of the job is distraction: keep people focused on things other than genocide and expansionist goals. AfD leaders say as much. “An AfD state government will trigger an overall cultural renewal,” Mr. Tillschneider said in an interview this spring. As in Israel, and the U.S., this is code for anti- Muslim. Then there are the young conservatives in Spain, dressed in their slacks and loafers and dress shirts. they are concerned with the overreaches of feminism, multiculturalism and woke politics as a threat to Spain’s traditional identity. If any of this sounds like the re-kindling of fascism it's because it is, and of course it is trending all across Europe and India and the Americas. "They say that they are on the front lines of a battle for Europe’s cultural and political reversion, with a renewed adherence to religious institutions, traditional gender roles and, for many, the politics of nationalism." In other words, history provides no lessons and it is an important part of the Minister of Culture's job to make sure we learn nothing as a species. Mark Fisher said we should be especially worried when the young stop being full of surprises. What if the surprise is total conformism? Learning to accept conditions as they are so as to get "ahead"?

Running In Place

Some totally new, unorthodox, out-of-the-box thinking: the treasury secretary says economic expansion can get the US out of debt! How original. Wow. Elite thinking at its best. The problem isn't that a drone like Bessent would spout such idiocy. It's that the Wall Street Journal would print it. It's that the WSJ readers would nod and say yeah, that could work. All we would have to do is burn more fossil fuels, extract more productivity out of workers and gut the social safety net. Joila! And right on point we have the EPA removing greenhouse gas regulations from power plants. Remember Obama telling us we could "de-couple" economic growth from emissions? Not so. We can have capitalism or we can have robust ecosystems but we can't have both. Elites understand this perfectly. Guys like Robinson Meyer, founding executive editor of Heatmap, doesn't get it. In a piece in today's Times he says Democrats must embrace fossil fuels if they expect to win elections. Because in a capitalist "democracy", voting will save us eventually. Yes, according to the latest UN report we are blowing past 1.5 degrees, yes, the tech oligarchs are fuelling all their AI compute with methane ( remember how "natural gas" was the "transition fuel" that would wean us from coal?) But Alaskans vote for whoever supports oil so Democrats should support oil. Duh. Robinson will never use the word capitalism because somehow Markets and price and innovation yada yada. The woman running for Senate in Alaska is indigenous, adding even more contradiction to the equation. Water Is Life, right? Seven generations, right? Capitalist realism colonizes everyone equally, regardless of race or religion. Naomi Kein and Astra Taylor are calling out what they term "End Times Fascism". This is a sect or cult which has fused Christian millenialism with tech-utopian/dystopian futurism into a hyper-capitalist nationalism. Basically a genocidal attack on the poor and Nature. These are the same Christians which support the Zionist project because of the prophesy that Jesus will return and bring about the End Times. Therefore the more dead Palestinians (and Jews) the better.

Drill Baby Addendum

Nobody else is willing to sacrifice so why should I? To wit, drilling in the North Sea: "Now applications for two new offshore drilling projects — a lifeline for the region — could be decided by the government in the coming days or weeks. Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, faces a choice with complex economic and political ramifications, no matter what he does. He could approve the projects — known as Rosebank and Jackdaw — and face a potential revolt from powerful clean energy constituencies that strongly oppose more drilling." Canada and America keep drilling, (including in our new protectorate Venezuela) South America keeps drilling, Russia keeps drilling. We just blew past 1.5 and no one cares, So what the heck?

Drill Baby Drill

Oil boom in Argentina. More drilling being proposed for the North Sea. All the big tech corporations walking away from their emission goals. In my novel Oblivions Cross there is a scene where protesters drag a guillotine to the headquarters of the evil fossil fuel inve4stment corporation. Today I saw this headline in the WAPO: Guillotine parked next to the Supreme Court leads to arrest Good on em! There is lots of concern about social media induced "brain rot", especially among youth. An opinion piece in todays Times argues that kids understand perfectly well what is being done to their minds by idiotic content yet prefer it to more covertly manipulative content: "when simulation admits it is simulation, it becomes more trustworthy than content that pretends to be real." This post-post modern affect is what explains Trump's appeal. In a totally corrupt, transactional system, the clown who proudly announces he is a fraud gains trust. Yes it is all Spectacle, and I'm here to entertain. It's all you can expect at this stage of late capitalism. Something like this occurred in the inter-war period in Europe with the art/culture movemnent called Dada. Part nihilism, part burlesque. Interestingly, it was Thoreau who coined the term in his book Walden as he observed the pop culture of his time. The Times article insisted it wasn't that youth were getting stupider but in fact there are some metrics pointing in that direction: " the share of American teenagers who failed to reach even a basic level of proficiency in reading and math, considered the minimum needed to read a utility bill, for example, has risen over the last decade." Asian students, on the other hand, ace these tests. This would be worrying if there wasn't already so much to worry about. For instance, the level of water in Colorado River reservoirs? Super El Nino? Shipping through the Bering Sea? AI bots hacking my bank account?