Reading

 

I've been reading Walter Kempowski's 2006 novel All for Nothing, the last book in his monumental attempt to record the experience of German people during the Second World War. In a different genre, it has something of the same feel as W. G. Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction, about the effects of the British and American carpet-bombing of German cities. All for Nothing, however, is about what the Germans called the East Front.  Specifically it's about the final stages in East Prussia, when the Red Army at last reached the Reich and three-quarters of a million civilians fled westwards.

 

I made a new video about improvements, modifications, and tweaks I made to my tablets: overlay sheet (Photodon), keyboard tray (Cintweak), a real bug issue under the glasses, and a too-grainy overlay surface for the Intuos Pro Large.

• Ptb: https://peertube.touhoppai.moe/w/228kxHx41ngMKtVJDXhC9P
• Ytb: https://youtu.be/6F_JQeE7p4M

FAQ

I had many interesting question on the Youtube channel, and while answering to them, I thought it would be good to also copy/paste the questions here, as they were good additional information:

I made a new video about improvements, modifications, and tweaks I made to my tablets: overlay sheet (Photodon), keyboard tray (Cintweak), a real bug issue under the glasses, and a too-grainy overlay surface for the Intuos Pro Large.

• Ptb: https://peertube.touhoppai.moe/w/228kxHx41ngMKtVJDXhC9P
• Ytb: https://youtu.be/6F_JQeE7p4M

FAQ

I had many interesting question on the Youtube channel, and while answering to them, I thought it would be good to also copy/paste the questions here, as they were good additional information:

John Bezzini, author of Buzz’s Beatles Book Blog, recently brought to our attention a rare recording and book involving The Iveys, the Apple Records band that eventually was renamed Badfinger. The book was titled “Young London: Permissive Paradise,” a look … Continue reading →

Stephanie Kelton traces the problem to misunderstandings resulting from a poor choice of terms in which to talk about government finance, modeling it conceptually on household and firms finance, even when the former is the monopoly issuer of its currency and all that implies financially and economically, whereas firms and households are users of the currency that must obtain the currency, e.g, to pay taxes, since the government is the sole supplier. Consequently, it's a mess that those in a position to profit from can exploit. She suggests adopting a terminology that fits operational realities based on existing institutional arrangements instead of continuing to use terms that promote a fantasy.

The Lens

And mine too.

Brazil and Argentina are making plans for a Latin American currency called the Sur, to “boost regional trade and reduce reliance on the US dollar”. Lula had pledged it while running for president.

Geopolitical Economy
Brazil and Argentina preparing new Latin American currency to ‘reduce reliance on US dollar’

The legacy of retiring New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern must include sound economic management, but it probably won't. read now...

If 1988 or 2023 doesn’t matter — visiting Café Einstein Stammhaus is a must.

A new Twigs and Branches post, open for comments on any topic. Please take long side discussions on other posts here. The usual rules on civil discussion apply.

A new sandpit for long side discussions, conspiracy theories, idees fixes and so on. To be clear, the sandpit is for regular commenters to pursue points that distract from regular discussion, including conspiracy-theoretic takes on the issues at hand. It’s not meant as a forum for visiting conspiracy theorists, or trolls posing as such.

Another Message Board Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I’ve moved my irregular email news from Mailchimp to Substack. You can read it here. You can also follow me on Mastodon here I’m also trying out Substack as a blogging […]

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – January 22, 2023

by Tony Wikrent

 

Strategic Political Economy

How Much Income Do You Need to Be Rich? 

[Of Dollars And Data, The Big Picture 1-19-2023]

Based on the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, what are the top 10%, top 5%, and top 1% of household incomes in the U.S.? We take a high level overview of how much income the highest earning households make so that you can determine for yourself what it means to be rich…

A new book from Edward Elgar Publishing in association with GIMMS

The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies
Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

The right wing media is making a huge deal out of Chief of Staff Ron Klain’s resignation, insisting that it has something to do with the document pseudo-scandal. The mainstream media hasn’t gone there yet, merely juxtaposing the two events in ways that insinuate without saying it. As a matter of fact, Klain had said he was resigning some months back and then they agreed that he would stay on for a while longer. It has nothing to do with the documents. And let’s be clear about something, if we’re going to compare Biden and Trump, take a look at the turnover, particularly how many of his top staff resigned under pressure, in the first two years of his administration: Set out below is a list of the senior level departures from the executive office of the president since the beginning of the Trump administration (each of the 65 “A Team” positions is only counted once toward the turnover rate, thus, this chart only includes the first person to hold/depart a given position).

Contemporary Australia is not the wayward step-child of Britain. It was created in our own country. Is it time to establish an Australia Day freed from the dark shadows cast by the now discredited British Empire? Debate about Australia Day began early this year. The Albanese government rescinded the regulations which forced local government to Continue reading »

An extremist Israeli government insists that apartheid policies will be permanent, that the 2022 slaughter of Palestinians will be repeated, that settler stealing and violence will be ignored and international law derided. In these circumstances, surely no Australian citizen, let alone a politician, could justify such policies? Incredulity about Israeli army, police and settler impunity Continue reading »

In recent months, Sinophobia in the mainstream media in the West, in particular in the United States, has resulted in widespread condemnation of China for its undemocratic and repressive social credit system. Never mind America has something similar. There are also big dissimilarities between China and the U.S. in this realm that beg to be Continue reading »

It’s time for the Australian Republic Movement to move on from the minimalist campaign of the 1990s and embrace reform of our archaic constitution. In 1999 those who campaigned for a Republic during the 1990s were at pains to point out that nothing else would change. Only the Head of State would be an Australian Continue reading »

As some gather to honour the passing of Cardinal George Pell, I lament what the Church has become under clerics like him. When I was a priest (1975-1980), the Church had a credible voice, and priests were respected as pastoral leaders. With some hope for the future, my feelings lately are of sadness. The recent Continue reading »

The connection between economic integration and political security has long attracted attention. Integration through intensive trade and investment relations has led to greater interdependence and made conflict more costly, helping states to maintain peace and stability. But interdependence can also increase the risk that geopolitical tensions might turn into open conflict. The situation in East Continue reading »

For those of you who remember the embarrassment of the Times coverage of the “Whitewater” scandal, it must seem like déjà vu all over again. It does to me. The paper’s editors are trying, and I mean really trying, to make the Biden classified documents issue a thing. And I mean a grave thing. The stage was ably set by the subject line of the email I received blasting out their latest deep dive on the story: “Inside Biden’s 68 days of silence.” It’s this like a Gabriel García Márquez homage? I mean good lord. Are we really doing this again? Of course we are. It’s how they roll. I took the liberty of a short set of annotations. That’s from Josh Marshall who does an excellent job of analyzing the rapidly escalating hysteria around Joe Biden’s classified documents. I, of course, remember Whitewater as I’m sure quite a few of you do too.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I hate drawing crowds, but I love portraying humans as lemmings.

Today's News:

I know no reads this blog, but I just wanted to paste the shockingly positive reviews Bea Wolf has gotten so far. More are on the way, but are under wraps for now. Thanks unending to all of you for putting me in a position to have the intellectual time to develop the skills to create such a risky book, and for the financial and career stability to then actually take the risk.

The Stable Diffusion version of “The Death of Sardanapalus”

Remember the fuss over a different one? The twice-impeached, much-investigated instigator of the Jan. 6 insurrection was in North Carolina on Saturday for the memorial service of Ineitha Lynette Hardaway, a.k.a. “Diamond” of the right-wing political duo Diamond and Silk. The memorial service at Fayetteville’s Crown Theater was not the political rally for himself that Donald Trump had hoped. Size matters to him. He didn’t get it. The Fayetteville Observer reports that just over 150 people attended the event in the theater that holds 2,400. Donald Trump’s audience was smaller and the event took longer than he’d expected. Still, the memorial service did resemble a Trump rally. Yes, the pillow guy was at Hardaway’s funeral … to praise Donald Trump. Trump’s eulogy had plenty of his usual shtick. Those of a certain age will recall what a fuss Republicans and conservative pundits raised in 2002 over the memorial service for Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota.