Wide, But Not Deep

T. S. Eliot wrote "The Hollow Men" way back in 1925.  Now we have, courtesy of Nick Carr, the Shallow Men.  Whilst reading my dead trees NY Times on Sunday, I skimmed an article which mentioned, not pleasantly, Carr's writing.  It was just now that I visited, and found that he had seen it too.  As he says, it's horseshit.

Saturday Night Social

The first rule of capitalism:  seek to socialize cost and privatize profit.  On further refraction, that's the only rule; all other behaviours are in furtherance of it.

So, over the last week, we find that FDA is listening to some part of the country and takes a draw a line in the sand stance with regard to the alcohol/caffeine drinks.  But no good deed goes unpunished.  The Redneck Tea Baggers go have a shit fit.  The Gummint is telling us what we can do!!!!!!

Fine.  Do what you want, but the new rule:  if your behaviour leads to costs, you don't get the service.  Doesn't matter if you have "insurance", you don't get medical aid, since doing so raises the price for everybody.  You bad, you die.  If you down a six pack of Four Loko, wipe out your Pinto, and wind up in a coma, you don't get any further medical service.  If you can't eat, you die.  If you can't breathe, you die.  And so forth.  If the makers of Four Loko decide to pay for some medical aid, well they should, shouldn't they?  You ended up in the hospital because of their shit. 

Same goes for idiots ride motorcycles without a helmet.  Crash, and you get left by the side of the road.  Take care of yourself.  Odd, but the Tea Baggers never seem to make the connection, from Dot A to Dot B. 

[UPDATE]: Dee Feat is in Dee Flation, Part 8

For those who are following along on the guitar, here's the latest.  As before, deflation is what's happenin' baby!!!

The quote:
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the so-called core index fell by 0.6 percent, the most in more than four years.

"there was little sign of inflation in the report" means, which this article didn't print, the inflation number for October was 0.  That's right a goose egg.  Nada.  Nuthin'.

So, all you righteous Right Wingnuts who want the Fed to clamp down on runaway inflation:  shut the hell up.

[UPDATE]
The CPI number is out:  core = 0%.  (Here's a Reuters feed).

Down the chute we go.  OK, Tea Baggers, what you got to say about this?

A Capital Idea, Again

As the Limeys would say, "such a capital idea".  The subtitle of this endeavor is an allusion to the fact that Capitalism has no theory of distribution, only one of acquisition:  winner takes all.  As Marx wrote more than 100 years ago, such a state of affairs cannot sustain.  I have written a few times, somewhat less famously, as have BOKO, especially his series on Zombie Capitalism.

Now, the Mainstream Media, in the form of my beloved NY Times (even though they can't manage to deliver it with anything like regularity) has written that entire countries have figured out that Capitalism, the unfettered, virulent variety, is a problem.

My favorite quote:
"The world has learned about the perils of free market finance -- global financial liberalization just does not work as advertised," said Dani Rodrik, a political economy professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. "Just as John Maynard Keynes said in 1945 -- capital controls are now orthodox."

I commend both BOKO and the Times to y'all.

Post Mortem

My message to the fools who voted with their sphincters yesterday.

Yeah, and the Right Wingnuts from Reagan to the BushBoys did so well by the country?????  The top 1% went from 8% of national income to 25%.  That's a banana republic, not a democracy.  Invading countries that didn't attack us.  That's fascism.  Historically (Clinton, last) the economy does better with Democrats in charge.  Short sighted idiots never manage to figure that out, of course.  The Second Great Depression now begins.  I hope you're really, really happy.

Dee Feat is in Dee Flation, Part 7

For those who are following along on the guitar, here's the latest.  As before, deflation is what's happenin' baby!!!

The quote:
The Fed is expected to inject more money into the economy through bond purchases, and that view was bolstered by the consumer data, which showed no inflation pressure in the economy.


"No inflation pressure" means, which this article didn't print, the inflation number for September was 0.  That's right a goose egg.  Nada.  Nuthin'.

So, all you righteous Right Wingnuts who want the Fed to clamp down on runaway inflation:  shut the hell up.