Reading

Created
Sun, 13/03/2022 - 00:03

In 1989, as the Berlin Wall was breached and the political order of Europe was upended, two obscure people in their mid-thirties watched it happen from inside an imploding Communist state, the German Democratic Republic. In Dresden, Vladimir Putin, an agent of the KGB, burned secret files in a furnace at the intelligence agency’s headquarters. […]

The post The Last of Her Kind appeared first on The New York Review of Books.

Created
Sat, 12/03/2022 - 10:05
The Free Software Foundation (FSF), a Massachusetts 501(c)(3) charity with a worldwide mission to protect computer user freedom, seeks a motivated and talented Boston-based individual to provide bookkeeping and financial operations support. This is a temporary, part-time contract opportunity with potential for additional hours and/or extension.
Created
Fri, 11/03/2022 - 20:35
I’m halfway through a memo for work. I’m struggling a bit with the style, because it’s stuck between being broadly informative and terse, and rah-rah-inspiring, and I’m not sure which way to go with it. It’s also the first bit of writing I’ve done for a while (and certainly the first since my heavy flirtation […]
Created
Fri, 11/03/2022 - 02:08

Well, it's been over six months since I last added to this blog. Sorry if you've been waiting that long. I have tended to concentrate on my Twitter feed and adding a selection of material to the gallery on my Ko-fi page. I'm not the best writer of prose and the blog can be a bit of a chore at times. 

I'll be spending the next week or so bringing it up to date with my work so far. Most of this will be stuff that I've tweeted over the past six months but there will be some new things thrown in there too. I'll also try to give each piece some context where I can. 

Welcome back. 

Created
Wed, 09/03/2022 - 18:11

The West is arraying financial weapons never deployed before against a country of Russia’s size, forsaking some of the principles that have defined it.

Part of what has defined the West – and most of what has been the world’s engine of prosperity for the past century and a half – has been the free flow of goods across borders, a working banking system, and property rights.

There’s been an implicit understanding that no sizeable nation (Russia’s economy is about the size of Australia’s) would be denied access to these things. Otherwise the financial system wouldn’t be the financial system.

That seems to have been the understanding of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But ten days ago, the West did the unthinkable, and the global financial system may never be the same again.

Created
Wed, 09/03/2022 - 02:16
On Sunday, I was interviewed by Kai Wright on his excellent NPR show “The United States of Anxiety.” The other guest who came on after me was some musician named David Byrne. Wright and I talked about Biden, his State of the Union Address, and why his presidency hasn’t turned out to be an FDR-style transformational presidency. You can catch the show here. In other news, I’ve got some pieces in the hopper. Look for some mammoth essays on Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes, both of which I’ve been working on for about two years, and a shorter take on the idea of late capitalism. Will share them when they’re out.
Created
Sat, 05/03/2022 - 02:48
This paper examines the recent increase of the measured inflation rate to assess the degree to which the acceleration is due to problems created (largely on the supply side) by the pandemic versus pressures created on the demand side by pandemic relief. Some have attributed the inflation to excess demand, most notably Larry Summers, who had warned that the pandemic relief spending was too great.