Reading

Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 07:30
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump predictably does the best analysis of this “both sides” excuses for the “classified documents” story: Look, when there’s no need for your rhetoric not to be lazy, you land on lazy rhetoric. If you can carry the day — at least with those who you’re most worried about convincing — with little effort or logical consistency, why bother putting in the effort or assembling that consistency? If your target audience hasn’t even heard the nuances that undercut your point, why bother rebutting those nuances? So it is that we enter our second (third? Who can keep track) week of apologists for former president Donald Trump seeking to equate his effort to retain documents sought by the government with a clutch of documents with classification markings found at President Biden’s home and an office he used.
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 07:08
It’s Wednesday and I have several items to discuss or provide information about today. Today, I discuss the future of the EU-bonds that were issued as part of two main emergency interventions in 2020 as policy makers feared the worse from the pandemic. The question is whether these assets can ever become ‘safe’ in the same way that Japanese government bonds or US treasury bonds are clearly ‘safe’. The answer is that they cannot and the reason goes to the heart of the problem besetting Europe – the fundamental monetary architecture is flawed in the most elemental way. I also provide some updates for MMTed and a great new book. And, of course, this week, I have to remember Jeff Beck in the music segment....
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
EU bonds will not become a ‘safe asset’ – Germany and Co won’t let that happen
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 06:52
Banking and money is an area of ancient debates between post-Keynesians (and their fore-runners) and mainstream economists. Many of these showed up in my earlier book Abolish Money (From Economics)!, with the theme more focussed on money. Although I believe I need to touch on this topic, I want to keep it short. Partly because it appeared in another book, and partly because I am less and less convinced that these debates are that useful for discussing banking.

Note: Once again, this is a draft of a manuscript section from my banking book. It will be in a chapter on modelling banking.

Excellent summary of "exogenous" and "endogenous" as applied to "money." This is important for understanding the relationship of finance and economics, and it underlies a good part of MMT, The descriptive aspect of which involves modeling this relationship conceptually. That is to say, MMT as a theory provides an explanation of the relationship of finance and economics in terms of institutional arrangements. One could say that the mathematical aspect of the modeling  involved is provided by the accounting.

Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 06:44
Earlier today,  after I tweeted out that “Proposals to mint $1tn platinum coin are designed to circumvent the US constitution’s “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts,” I got lectured by Nathan Tankus for “not grasping the most elementary legal issues in the topic […]
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 06:05

New year, new Drupal for Nonprofits chat! Join us TOMORROW, Thursday, January 19 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)

This month, frequent chat participant Stephen Musgrave of Capellic will be giving us our long-awaited demonstration of visual regression testing, using tools like Diffy. (Thank you, Stephen!) Got thoughts/questions/concerns? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google doc: https://nten.org/drupal/notes!

All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.

Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 05:48

Intro

We are already past two weeks into the new year, and I wanted to start it with optimizing my new brushes, clean the thumbnails and remove the double. I collected this way this pack of 38 brushes. I'm sharing them today.

You might find that some of these brushes are similar to official default brush of Krita: their aspect, their usability and their thumbnail design. That's because I designed the default brush of Krita and even if my taste evolves a bit, my classic and way to solve problems remains the same.

Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 05:30
On social media, anyway Feel the magic: Mounting a comeback for the White House, Donald Trump is looking to regain control over his powerful social media accounts. With access to his Twitter account back, Trump’s campaign is formally petitioning Facebook’s parent company to unblock his account there after it was locked in response to the U.S. Capitol riot two years ago. […] “Trump is probably coming back to Twitter. It’s just a question of how and when,” said a Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with Trump about returning to the platform. “He’s been talking about it for weeks, but Trump speaks for Trump, so it’s anyone’s guess what he’ll do or say or when.” Another Trump confidant who also didn’t want to be identified speaking about conversations with him said that Trump has sought input for weeks about hopping back on Twitter and that his campaign advisers have also workshopped ideas for his first tweet. I’ll never get over the fact that they actually “workshop” tweets.
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 05:00

The Diamond Anniversary celebrations continue with a range of merchandise devoted to Tom Baker Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary year is officially here! And Forbidden Planet’s celebrations are continuing as their Diamond Collection adds the Fourth Doctor to its range. Each month this year will feature a host of merchandise for a different Doctor and February […]

The post Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Diamond Collection – The Fourth Doctor appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 05:00

Let’s be honest; we’ve been growing apart for a while now. I first noticed it three months ago, right around the time I started listening to five hours of science-based, life-optimizing podcasts per day, and you kept on being a normal person.

In that time, I’ve implemented a series of science-based tools and protocols to optimize every facet of my health, wellness, and longevity. I’ve brought synergistic balance to my hormones, boosted my synthetic happiness, and doubled my VO2 max, all while you’ve just … kept being Steve.

And that’s fine, really. You’ve got your music, your volunteer work, and your kickball team. I get it—you’d rather play KISS covers, house homeless vets, and kick cleanup Tuesday nights than dedicate your free time to marginally improving your already happy and healthy life.

But that’s not the direction an elite group of doctor-podcasters I’ve never met wants my life to be headed in. They want me to leverage molecule regimens to optimize sleep performance, harness nutritional biochemistry to maximize longevity, and maybe take a peek at what’s behind the paywall.

Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 04:56
With Japan just having taken over the presidency of the Group of 7 at the beginning of 2023, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has wound up a six-day visit to Britain, France, Italy, Canada and the United States. One of his main aims was to gain support for the rearmament of Japan, justifying it on the Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 04:54
The whole Health System – including patients – need to contribute to the important debate on primary care reform and the Health System of the Future. One of the important areas of primary care reform raised by the recent Grattan Report into Primary care is in relation to the health workforce and its makeup. Given Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 04:53
In cancelling its scheduled March series of three one-day matches against Afghanistan, Australian Cricket takes us into familiarly problematic territory. It brings to mind the battle, fought for two decades against South Africa’s apartheid regime, where cricket and rugby boycotts played a significant role. Back in the 1970s, Sir Donald Bradman was head of the Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 04:50
Data suggests that US dollar reserves in central banks are dwindling, as is the influence of the US on the world economy. This presents a unique opportunity for regional currencies and alternative payment systems to enter the vacuum. First published in The Cradle January 13 2023 The imposition of US trade restrictions and sanctions against a Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 04:30
We barely had time to catch our breath from the wild spectacle of the Republicans finally electing a speaker when their next spectacle started with a bang. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen abruptly announced that the U.S. will hit the so-called debt ceiling on Jan 19, putting the issue immediately on the front burner. The government can move money around to keep paying its bills until some time next summer, but this is  already shaping up to be an exhausting, months-long battle royale. It’s probably a good thing that they’re getting an early start since the MAGA House majority seems to need some serious remedial instruction on how the world works. That’s not to say that debt-ceiling standoffs are some core tactic of the MAGA movement. In fact, Republicans raised the debt ceiling three times during the Trump administration with no fuss at all. They never felt it necessary to try to persuade Trump to cut spending, and the Freedom Caucus didn’t utter a peep as he massively increased the deficit. These hostage situations are reserved for times when the GOP holds the House and a Democrat is in the White House. Shocking, I know.
Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 03:50

A Masterful three-hour narrated audiobook set in the 1970s Third Doctor era, Terror of the Master, is being re-released in March 2023 as a standalone download from Big Finish Productions. In January 2021, the special limited edition anthology release from The Worlds of Doctor Who: Masterful celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first TV appearance […]

The post BIG FINISH: ‘Terror of the Master’ returns for a standalone download appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Created
Thu, 19/01/2023 - 03:39

By Dorothee Benz / Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting A recent guest essay in the New York Times (12/28/22) concluded a searing takedown of “our technology overlords” with the sentence: We have a technologically driven shift of power to ideological individuals and organizations whose lack of appreciation for moral nuance and good governance puts us all at […]

The post NYT Worries Big Brother Is Not Watching You appeared first on scheerpost.com.