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Created
Tue, 20/12/2022 - 08:03
from Lars Syll Post Keynesian authors have offered various classifications of uncertainty … A common distinction is that of epistemological versus ontological uncertainty, with the former depending on the limitations of human reasoning and the latter on the actual nature of social systems … Models of ontological uncertainty tend to hinge on the existence of information that is critical […]
Created
Tue, 20/12/2022 - 06:00

In 1993 the World Bank allowed people to seek recourse for harm resulting from the projects it finances in developing countries. Within a decade of the World Bank Inspection Panel, the other Multilateral Development Banks, including the World Bank Group, the Asian, African and Inter-American Development Banks and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development would create similar accountability mechanisms. These accountability mechanisms embody a norm of ‘accountability as justice’ that seeks to provide recourse for environmentally and socially damaging behaviour through a formal sanctioning process. The norm has now spread to other development financiers. Until now, no explanation has been provided for their creation, how they function, and whether they hold the Banks to account. My book The Good Hegemon: US Power, Accountability as Justice, and the Multilateral Development Banks answers these questions with three central arguments: the US pushed for the norm, the Banks tried to resist, but the norm has become entrenched as a corrective to Bank actions rather than pre-emptive justice norm.

Created
Tue, 20/12/2022 - 05:09
Patrick Lin, professor of philosophy at California Polytechnic State University and director of the university’s Ethics and Emerging Sciences Group, has been selected as a member of National Space Council’s Users Advisory Group (UAG). According to an announcement from the White House, the UAG “will provide the National Space Council advice and recommendations on matters related to space policy and strategy, including but not limited to, government policies, laws, regulations, treaties, international instruments, programs, and practices across the civil, commercial, international, and national security space sectors.” The National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, “is charged with providing objective advice to the President on the formulation and implementation of space policy and strategy.” The UAG includes people in the aerospace and defense industries, various researchers and educators, and others. It is headed by retired U.S. Air Force General Lester Lyles. You can see the full list of UAG members here.  
Created
Tue, 20/12/2022 - 03:00
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s November 2022 SCE Labor Market Survey shows a rise in the average reservation wage—the lowest wage respondents would be willing to accept for a new job—to $73,667, its highest level since the series began in 2014. Respondents’ satisfaction with wage compensation, non-wage benefits, and promotion opportunities at their current job all improved in November compared to July. Regarding expectations, the average expected wage offer (conditional on receiving one) also increased and reached a new high.
Created
Tue, 20/12/2022 - 02:23
According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), Wu Yanan, a philosophy lecturer at Nankai University in Tianjin, China, was taken by authorities under false pretenses and confined in a psychiatric institution for supporting anti-lockdown protestors. The officials reportedly claimed that they were taking Wu to get a COVID-19 test. However, RFA reports, she had on social media “accused the university authorities of betraying the ideals of its founder Zhang Boling by clamping down on the widespread protests” by students against strict, government-imposed lockdowns. RFA reports: Wang Qiang, a person familiar with the incident, said Wu had been a vocal supporter of the “white paper” protests. “There were some spontaneous memorials activities and blank paper protests on our university campus after the Urumqi fire [a fatal lockdown fire in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi whose victimes were unable to escape the blaze because they had been locked into their own apartment building] and students who took part were hauled in to ‘drink tea’,” a euphemism for being questioned by the authorities, Wang said.