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Created
Thu, 11/05/2023 - 22:39

There are several lights now flashing red on the dashboard: the gap between income and inflation, growing household borrowing and the rising cost of that borrowing.   There is a relationship between these developments, but it isn’t the one you have most likely heard about, the so-called ‘wage-price spiral’. The wage-price spiral is the bogus idea […]

Created
Thu, 11/05/2023 - 22:00

Thanks for coming, everyone. We all know why we’re here: our counterfeit money operation is in danger of going belly up. Now, I don’t want to come down on anyone—this is just about seeing what we can do better.

First off, our “superbill” project has been a disaster. In retrospect, it was misguided to think that a bill would be worth more simply because it is larger. Several bankers pointed this out when we asked them, but we figured they were just jealous because their bills were so tiny. In any case, we’ll have to shutter the initiative because last night a stack of twenties the size of doors fell on Hugo and crushed his spine.

The crane we bought to lift the bills also set us back.

Created
Thu, 11/05/2023 - 22:00

Last week I was walking back from the subway after a day in the office, chastising myself for yet again not thinking in good time about how I would feed myself that evening when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted some stoop bounty. Vegan, bunny-backed bounty to be precise: ten or so cartons of something called Annie’s Vegan Mac Shells & Sweet Potato Pumpkin stacked inside a big cardboard box marked TAKE ME!

I picked up one of the cartons to investigate, and my stomach was encouraged. A cartoon rabbit smiled back at me, languorously draping its paws over the lower part of a circle banded with the words BUNNY OF APPROVAL. The whole color scheme was soft yellows and purples, and there was a sun and a leaf motif—so I figured it must be wholesome and good. Piled high on a spoon in the center-front of the carton was a photo of the mac shells. I will admit they did look like a really constipated, beige shit, but being both curious and lazy, I remained positive and took just one carton, waving it toward the house in a gesture of gratitude.

Created
Thu, 11/05/2023 - 21:10
The campaign group, Republic have called for an investigation into the arrest of eight of their members, including Chief Executive Graham Smith, ahead of the organisation’s planned protest of the King’s coronation. This demonstrates the effects of the government’s anti-democractic legislation in practice, from the Public Order Act to the Online Safety Bill, our ability […]
Created
Thu, 11/05/2023 - 20:12
In the latest in a series of damning testimonies from voters across England, Byline Times reveals how the new mandatory voter ID requirements have created confusion, frustration - and potentially a real risk of discrimination. Josiah Mortimer reports.
Created
Thu, 11/05/2023 - 19:53

‘Class struggle,’ Bob Gillespie was fond of saying, ‘is 24 hours a day, seven days a week.’ It was a lesson he learned in his poverty-stricken childhood, during national service as a bombardier in Hong Kong, and as a printshop labourer fighting for a somewhat shorter week of 40 hours. And he held to it […]

Created
Thu, 11/05/2023 - 12:27
In Tuesday’s fiscal statement, the Australian government made a lot of noise about dealing with the climate emergency that the nation faces but in terms of hard fiscal outlays or initiatives it did very little, deferring action again, while ‘the place burns’. The Climate Council assessment was that the government “still seems to be on…