Why Private Equity Should Not Exist - by Matt Stoller
"PE is a political movement whose goal is extend deep managerial controls from a small group of financiers over the producers in the economy."
tag > Economics
-
-
Western society has nearly completely lost the infrastructure that could support complex thinking - thread by Samo Burja
- A culture open to voicing accurate observations about itself. Every capable thinker voices these early in life before they learn better, if this disqualifies them, the culture cannot support original thinkers.
- Viable economic niches. Academia is much too contested. Silicon Valley allows for some original thinking, but the thinking isn't what provides returns.
- Viable social niches. Trust fund kids don't have a leisured class that values thought they could join. The role of public intellectual is extinct, it is possible to be a popularizer. Comparable to say Polybius.
- Viable knowledge succession. Deep mentoring is considered unfair, threatening or cult-like. The assumption is always that the most recent experts have the best information in a field.
-
Non-fungible tokens (NFT) are Bullshit
This twitter thread by Jeff Jarvis nicely summarizes one line of criticism of the non-fungible token idea:
"Finally starting to understand NFTs--and what is wrong with them. The NFT doubles down on the worst of copyright, the property metaphor, & tries to impose old ideas of scarcity & exclusion on the digital realm, where both are obsolete.
Copyright, born w/1710's Statute of Anne, was supposed to support creators & learning. In truth, it made creation a tradable asset so creators could sell & publishers could own it. NFTs want to do that with digital: turn the ephemerality of digital into a market in permanence. BTW, news was not included in US or English copyright because it was ephemeral. Since then, from the AP's "hot news" doctrine to Murdoch's Oz law, news proprietors have tried to declare news as property. Doesn't work because news is knowledge.
NFTs & DAOs, like copyright, see creation as a product (which can be owned & kept from others & thus sold). Instead, look at creativity as an act, which may leave artifacts (stories, pictures) but can inspire more creation & collaboration, sharing & criticism -- if it's open.
If we shift from creativity as property (who owns it?) to activity (who joins in it?) then we see many acts to encourage: inspiring, creating, collaborating, performing, remixing, sharing/promoting.
In thinking how to replace copyright (and we should), let us start our thinking with benefit to the culture rather than with trying to recreate the worst of copyright. What the net enables is collaborative creativity. How do we support *that*?"
And Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are an absolute ecological disaster:
- Here is the article you can send to people when they say “but the environmental issues with cryptoart will be solved soon, right?”
- The Unreasonable Ecological Cost of CryptoArt
-
Astrology for People who don't like Astrology: The Fear & Greed Index
#SE #NeuroScience #Narrative #Culture #Magic #Economics #Comedy
-
Central banks of China and United Arab Emirates join digital currency project for cross-border payments (Bank for International Settlements)
The Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates join the Multiple CBDC (m-CBDC) Bridge, a cross-border payments project.
The m-CBDC Bridge is a co-creation initiative run in partnership with the BIS Innovation Hub, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Bank of Thailand.
The project aims to develop a proof-of-concept prototype to facilitate real-time cross-border foreign exchange payments on distributed ledger technology.
-
China Replaces US as India's Largest Trading Partner
China’s re-emergence as India’s biggest trading partner comes despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government efforts to draw down commercial ties with the eastern neighbour, which is been seen as New Delhi’s retaliation to the ongoing border standoff that began in May last year, as well as part of an effort to plug the ballooning trade deficit with the world’s second-biggest economy.
-
Marty the Robot - costs $35k and all it does is detect trash on the floor and yell an alarm for a wage worker to come and pick it up.
-
A judge unredacted parts of a Facebook lawsuit that claims executives knew an ad metric was inflated. Executives ignored employees' request to fix it to avoid a "significant" sales hit, the suit claims. Potential reach, the metric under question, shows advertisers a possible audience size.
-
The Post-American World; Crooke, Escobar, Blumenthal and Marandi lay it all out
Thirty years ago, the United States dominated the world politically, economically, and scientifically. But today? Watch this in-depth discussion with distinguished guests:
- Alastair Crooke - Former British Diplomat, the Founder, and Director of the Conflicts Form
- Pepe Escobar - Brazilian Political Analyst and Author
- Max Blumenthal - American Journalist and Author from Grayzone
- Chaired by Dr. Mohammad Marandi - Professor at University of Tehran
-
Pieter Hintjens (1962 - 2016) on Patents
"Patents are a medieval economic tool by which politicians attempt to stimulate trade and wealth by banning innovation and competition in crucial areas of technology"
"House prices fall and bad debt shakes the financial markets across the US and Europe. Bankers look nervously at their portfolios of consumer debt and mortgages. But some analysts say that it's patents, not houses or loans, that will tip the global financial market into crisis"
-
India proposes law to ban cryptocurrencies, create official digital currency (Reuters)
India plans to introduce a law to ban private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and put in place a framework for an official digital currency to be issued by the central bank, according to a legislative agenda listed by the government.
The law will “create a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” said the agenda, published on the lower house website on Friday. The legislation, listed for debate in the current parliamentary session, seeks “to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses,” the agenda said.
-
Solari Report 2020 Annual Wrap Up: News Trends & Stories, Part I with Dr. Joseph P. Farrell
-
This is a placeholder blog-post for the tsunami of horribly shocking and strangely interesting stories, currently screaming for our attention. Are they truly worth consuming and sharing? What is the effect and benefit of giving them attention (besides being permanently stressed)?
