Tag: Economics

Pseudo Review – 2: How Deep Do The Unpeeled Layers Of Your Rotten Onion Go?

democracy in chains cover

Subtitle: “Democracy In Chains” By Nancy MacLean Goes Seriously Deep Into What Makes #Americant Stupider Not Greater.

She took me deeper, dear worst-reader. This historian, this professor-type person that writes books–and she can take you deep, too. That is, if you’re at all inclined to go deep. Especially the kind of deep that involves figuring out what made The Land of Free To Be Stupid. I mean, ain’t that where we’re at right now? Especially considering that such a claim is straight out of the worst-mouth of an expat–who jumped ship over twenty years ago on account he saw all this stupid coming? Then again, with the political situation in my beloved & missed #Americant–that I probably follow waaaaaay to much–I’d say we’re long past the old saying: going off the deep end. Yeah, we’re actually right there measuring how deep that deep-end goes as we fail-upwards and the ground can be seen below… I mean above. How’s the view for you?

I finished “Democracy in Chains” by Nancy MacLean the other day in the late morning. I’ve been telling myself that I need to let the book rest–as in, rest in my mind–a bit, especially considering I wrote this worst-post about it only two days ago. The thing is, two days ago, I couldn’t stop my typing fingers even though I was only half-way through the book. That’s what happens when you find a book that gets to your innards, eh, dear worst-reader? Indeed.

If you are at all into trying to figure out how something can get so fcuked up, especially politically and economically, MacLean has found a way to explain it to you. Of course, I’m always looking out for a good book to read. I’m specifically looking for a book that will get under my gander by teaching me a thing or three about this fcuked up world we’re all stuck with on account a bunch of greed-mongers run it. This book comes pretty close to doing just that. For example, who the fcuk is James M. Buchanan? Not even sure if I ever heard that he won the friggin Nobel Prize for economics. But before I get too much into all that, allow me to provide an analogy or two that might help you understand worst-writer and where I’m coming from.

Analogy 1 – Peel the onion

You know that old saying, don’t you dear worst-reader? But what does peeling the onion really mean? Well, for some, it’s about work. It’s also about slow work. Some even think it’s about how to get chicks. But let’s stick with work, shall we? You peel the onion and with every layer peeled you complete something. For worst-moi, Democracy in Chains, is the result of having completed a seriously cool onion peel. Layer after layer MacLean shows how the political right-wing of #Americant–and for you both-siderists out there, this really is a right-wing only problem–has a plan to fcuk you over all in the name of, to put it simply: old-money. Let me worst-write that again. Old money is fcuking you. And that’s not the best part about this book. The best part is that MacLean seems to have made a major discovery by…

  1. Peel a completely new onion
  2. With every layer peeled, blow worst-writer’s fcuking mind that kinda knew all this already. (Or maybe not.)

And so. If you want to understand what’s wrong with #Americant and how someone like #Trump can become President Stupid, have a look at what the right-wing has been doing since… Get this. The right-wing has been fcuking you since the fcuking civil fcuking war and they’ve been doing it like leeches, roaches, cockscukers, etc. But let me move on before I blow a gasket.

Analogy 2 – Inception, the movie

It’s been a while since watching the movie, so let me summarise it like this. (Spoiler Alert!) Leonardo DeCaprio is a kind of dream thief. Through some weird chemical and technical manipulation where two people are connected, a dream-state is induced between them. While in the dream-state Leonardo becomes part of the other persons dream–but they don’t know that. They just think he’s a character in their dream. The dreamer is then manipulated by Leonardo which leads to some form of criminal activity in the real world. And here’s the kicker about how I think this has something to do with what Nancy MacLean has done. Leonardo not only can go into one dream-state but he can also go deeper into a dream-state within a dream-state. You got that? I can’t remember how many levels of dreams he ultimately penetrates but he obviously goes pretty deep into various dream-states by the end of the movie.

If I understand MacLean correctly, #Americant republicans, libertarians, Neo-liberals and conservatives, for decades, have been working deep within the layers of the #Americant onion. With the help of Leonardo DeCaprio they’ve been peeling it away from within your dreams in order to screw you and…

Ok. Maybe not. At least forget the last DeCaprio reference. Let’s move on.

Up to now I really only thought republicanism had two levels. I thought these two levels pretty much controlled the whole show. One level is a particular form of economic ideology, you know, Milton Friedman & Co. The other, of course, is religious bat$hittery. You know, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, The 700 Club, weight-lifting, muscle-bound, gun-totting Jesus, etc. But I was wrong. Although the religious part is probably singular in its execution, there are multiple layers of economic ideology that have been stealing the show for decades. These multiple economic layers, though, are not just Keynesian or Austrian schools, among others. Instead there is something completely different going on here.

Seriously. If you thought things couldn’t get any worse because of $hitbags like Milton Friedman, think again. MacLean, in her book, reveals some pretty astonishing stuff about the players in the grand greed $hitshow–from a whole bunch of new layers (peeled away). For example. I had no idear someone other than Milton Friedman was part of what turned Chile, if not most of South America, into a bastion of old money Neo-feudal aristocracies–that right-wing extremists in #Americant adore. Another example. A rinky-dink college in the middle of Redneckville, Virginia, George Mason University, has played a huge role in some of the most dirty, rotten onion layers of republicanism. Seriously. Redneck school got one up on the infamous Chicago School (Milton Friedman)? Take that, Chicago!

If MacLean is right, the stuff she’s discovered in her research is not only scary, but people should probably start filling up their shelter-bunkers–cause it looks like the bat$hit greed-mongers have a long-term plan in place and they ain’t done yet. The upper middle-class schmucks should get on with filling their bunker’s first on account they ain’t part of the layer of republicanism that is doing all this–as they are beholden to the trickle down of the 1%. More on that in my worst-post about being ruled by the minority 30% here.) And, as I’ve worst-said before, the people that make up the #Americant political right-wing, especially the really, really rich and well-inherited dudes, if they can’t get their way with all their misconstrued economic ideology that is basically nothing but bigotry, greed and racism, they will fcuking burn the house down. And they are in pretty good position to do it, too. Speaking of…

Charles Koch

A name that has been creeping around the newz I read and listen to (podcast) for years. But to be honest, I’ve always thought he was just another lucky dude that inherited a krapp load of money from his father. According to the history of Koch Industries, since he inherited it, he’s done pretty well for himself. But has he done anything new, anything original? Of course not. Even though MacLean is very lenient about this man in her book and even praises him for having earned multiple academic credentials in whatever field of science or engineering from whatever bat$hit school, I haven’t fallen for any of that. This guy is nothing more than a second or third generation a$$hole that inherited inherited inherited–like so many others in #Americant. And because of his/her perverted, sexually repressed upbringing, mixed with Godzilla-like bigotry, he is nothing but a man who has never been able to face the fact that he’s never known an original thought. That’s how and only how his old inherited money has enabled him to “succeed”. If you can even call not having ever done anything original but instead buying other companies, bullying other business, blah, blah, blah, success. He and his ilk (very old money inheritors) hate the fact that the world is desperately trying to move on. Men like Koch would rather stop the world from turning. That, btw, is one of the main reasons why old-money is so ugly. Charles Koch, with the help of his favourite political ideology (Libertarianism)–that in its essence is nothing more than greed mongering galore–uses his wealth to manipulate politics for one thing and one thing only. For himself. The #Americant way!

James M. Buchanan

People like Charles Koch, as I said, are incapable of original thought. Therefore they need thinkers. But what do you do if the only people you can associate with (because of your innate prejudices) have even less original thinking than you? You find someone that doesn’t need original thinking. You find someone that can take unoriginal thought and dress it up in a suit and tie and a certain lapel flag-pin–and then sell it as something new. Enter a world full of pawns, academia and pawn-credentialed-academia. Seriously. I thought Milton Friedman was a jerk-off. But Nancy MacLean peeled that onion and found a jerk-off that tops Friedman.

James M. Buchanan, a man that should provide thinkers of this world enough ammunition to finally laugh-off the Nobel Prize–or at least reject it–turned out to be the perfect pawn bigoted a$$holes like Charles Koch could rely on. According to MacLean, Buchanan’s economic idears are perfect for despots of the modern age because they facilitate the writing of constitutions that almost literally put people in economic chains. Hence, the title of her book. And so, Buchanan was useful to Koch until the bitter end when eventually they had to break ranks due to, you guessed it, bigoted, rich-a$$hole infighting.

In worst-summary

Although I don’t want to spoil the book (or have I already), here’s what republicanism is up to according to Democracy in Chains: old money needs to be secured constitutionally–even more than it already is. That is, republicans–as they are guided by The Virginia School (Buchanan, Koch, etc.), the Chicago school and, of course, now #Trumpism, etc.–are in the process of making the system even more one sided and in favour of the rich and the privileged–and making all this akin to what things were like, lets say, between 1850 and 1913 (give or take a few decades). Btw, the term robber baron remind you of anything?

So there you have it. After reading this book I feel fulfilled and I’m happy–even though this book is at times utterly shocking. On the one hand, it has taught me something. On the other hand, I can go into the near future without questioning the contempt that burns inside me for everything #Americant, republican and conservative. Also, I am somewhat relieved that this book helps reassure me that the disease of both-siderism is nothing more than a layer in the right-wing onion. For real. #Americant is the way it is post 2016 presidential election because of republicans. And I think that’s cool. Reason? It makes me feel superior. It makes me feel tingly and giggly as I LMAO on this side of the Atlantic. It also reassures me that the choices I made in life, that were mostly because of the deep-seeded onion filth/rot I left so many years ago, was the right choice.

And boy do I miss America!

Good luck suckers.

-Rant on

T

Pork Bellies, Wives And The Real Fake Newz

capitalism_not_quite

Let us begin, dear worst-reader, with a worst-writer transcription from a great movie. Sometimes I get a kick out of doing this sort of thing. It has something to do with my love of typing. Here’s another one, if you dare. The reason I chose the movie Trading Places for this post, by-the-buy, is because, in these times of fake newz galore, is there really a difference between (comedic) fiction and all things fake newz? With that in mind, let’s get it on.

The worst-writer transcript below is from the movie Trading Places. For whatever worst-reason, the scene transcribed reminds me of the/a conversion between fiction (fake) and reality. Even though the dialogue reflects something that could actually happen in (real) life, the actors are able to cartoonize it not unlike what President Stupid has done with #Americant.

Disclaimer. I transcribed this by watching a clip on the #Interwebnets. I make no garantee of accuracy–especially since I’ve been drinking a bottle of Aldi Weissbegrunder  (Pinot Blanc) for most of this post creation. Indeed. Weissbegrunder and lots of ice is a great way to battle this #Eurowasteland heatwave I’ve never before experienced while living in this gold-cage life for almost a quarter century. Good luck.

Scene: Mortimer Duke, Randolph Duke and William Valentine are sitting in a luxurious, old-money, pseudo aristocratic #Americant office of a Philadelphia, PA, infamous commodities trading firm. They are all watching the commodities market on closed circuit CRT monitors.

Mortimer Duke picks up phone, connects to a commodities trader.

Mortimer: Mortimer here. Buy two-hundred pork-belly contracts at sixty-six point eight.

Valentine: You’re making a big mistake, man.

Mortimer: Valentine, something very important is going on here. Just watch.

Valentine: Alright. But you’all gonna get reemed on this one.

Randolph: Why shouldn’t we buy now, William?

Valentine: The price is going to keep going down.

Mortimer: Randolph, this isn’t Monopoly money we’re playing with.

Randolph picks up closed circuit phone and connects to commodities trader.

Randolph: This is Randolph Duke. Hold that belly order a moment.

Randolph hangs up phone and turns to Valentine.

Randolph: Tell me why you think the price of pork bellies is going down, William.

Valentine: It’s Christmas time. Everybody is uptight.

Valentine gets up out of his chair and walks around the room.

Mortimer: (to Randolph.) Could we please buy now, Randolph.

Valentine: You want to lose money, go ahead.

Randolph: What are you trying to say, William?

Valentine: Ok. Pork belly prices have been dropping all morning. Which means everybody has been sittin’ in their office waiting all morning for the prices to hit rock bottom so they can buy cheap and go long. So the people that own the pork belly contracts are goin’ batshit. They be thinking about losing all that damn money and Christmas is around the corner and I ain’t gonna be able to buy my son the G.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip. Ok. And my wife ain’t gonna want to f… And my wife ain’t gonna make love to me cause I ain’t got no money. So they sittn’ there and they panickin’ and sayin’ sell sell sell! Cause they don’t want to lose all their money, right? They out there panicking right now. I can feel it. They out there. They panickin’. Look at em.

Closed circuit CRT screens shows stats of pork-belly pricies on the commodities market incrementally falling.

Randolph: My God, Mortimer. Look at em.

Valentine: I’d wait till you get to about sixty-four, then I’d buy. You’ll have cleared out all the suckers by then.

Randolph is punching on a pocket calculator.

Randolph: (To Mortimer.) Do you realise how much money he just saved us?

Mortimer: Money isn’t everything, Randolph!

Randolph picks up closed-circuit phone and calls commodities trader.

Randolph: Advise our clients interested in bellies to buy at sixty-four. Mister Valentine has set the price.

Randolph hangs up phone and goes to Valentine and shakes his hand.

Randolph: Well done, William.

Mortimer: (Obviously frustrated. Getting up to join Randolph on way out.) Come on,

Randolph. We’re gonna be late.

Randolph and Mortimer exit and Valentines smiles–as only Eddie Murphy can!
-end-

And now on with the worst-post about #Trumpism run amok and all (the) things them #Deplorables will never know.

Why is it so hard to read certain newz stories? Can it have anything to do with the farce of #Deplorable facilitated #FakeNews? Seriously. “Fake news.” Who came up with that? Someone who’s never watched TV in the past thirty years? I mean, get a load of the article below, dear worst-reader. Can you believe that someone or some organisation in the journalist world is trying to sell anything #Trump–or #Americant for that matter–as positive–based on stats and stuff? Oh wait. We’re living in these times, eh. These times of all things fake. And so. If anybody thinks that President Stupid is gonna actually do anything positive for the world, stop thinking. (Not that you actually thought much in recent years.) It’s time for you and your cronies to pack it up, hide your junk, the only women-folk that is gonna fall for you is one that luvs to be grabbed by the…

But on a more worst-serious note: the Reuters article (link below) is really hard to swallow. (Wait. Did I actually just write that? Indeed, I did.) The hardest part about swallowing (it), though, ain’t the mess (left on your face)–but instead the unfake-newz (reality) that President Stupid is really there to wreck everything. The propaganda machine that he has behind him–thanks to Reagan, Rush and faux-newz–is doing a pretty good job of it. Does that mean that Reuters is part of it? Who knows. The unreal question is: considering the state of things, that is, how people are struggling, how the middle class has been decimated, the bar of Stupid has been lowered, this level of optimism and/or misinformation that contains no connection to that struggle, should be reason enough to grab your ankles and hope the inserter brought some lube.

If you’re in anyway invested or vested in what Reuters is reporting… Good luck suckers.

-Rant on

T

Link that motivated this post:

Does History Repeat Slowly, Panickly Or Trumply? Predicting Your Great Depression v2.0

crumpled currency

What is it that makes #Americant? I mean, what is the thing or things that enable and facilitate the race to the bottom empire that is my beloved and missed United Mistakes? Probably at the top of the list is war mongering. And not just any war mongering. The fact that perpetual war is being waged and not paid for should say everything about the dysfunction-junction that history’s greatest consume-to-survivors live (with)in. But that ain’t all.

The next thing that makes #Americant has to be the banking system. More importantly, it is a banking system that in its essence has become feudal. You know, as in neo-feudal. Or is it neo-liberal? Difference? Nomatter. Since the 1970s the reliance on credit as enabler of consumption is über-obvious. To hide this reality, though, at least two generations of #Americants have absolved themselves from resisting the grand delusion-illusion that is debt. Hence, it’s really not difficult understanding why/how words/concepts like fake-news, deep-state and Trump is President get their meaning via the mindset that says/believes them (has fallen for them).

Of course, this level of delusion-illusion has been faced before. You know, there was a time when spending candy-money had a payday. It is called The Great Depression. Obviously, worst-writer is no economist so there’s not much I can say about those times. But something has disturbed me over the past 30 or so years as I too consume-to-survive and superficially read about things that have already happened and are obviously destined to happen again, albeit with a different ugly wig atop its orange, disfigured mullet.

For example. The way money flows these days is fcuking scary. You would think, in a so-called free-market, something would be able to counter the blatant display of greed and hoarding that is taking place before (y)our very eyes. Yet there is nothing to counter what is going on. Or is there?

From a Wiki page here is a list of the causes of the The Great Depression.

  1. Debt liquidation and distress selling
  2. Contraction of the money supply as bank loans are paid off
  3. A fall in the level of asset prices
  4. A still greater fall in the net worths of business, precipitating bankruptcies
  5. A fall in profits
  6. A reduction in output, in trade and in employment
  7. Pessimism and loss of confidence
  8. Hoarding of money
  9. A fall in nominal interest rates and a rise in deflation adjusted interest rates

Now. Most of the list above says very little to me. With that in mind, it does say this: If the list is true and in anyway applicable to today, then there is one thing that connects the past to what is about to happen in the now. And so. Allow me to redo the list as only worst-writer (the über non-economist) can.

  1. Debt liquidation and distress selling – who owns all the debt and how does owner and seller of that debt mesh? (China v. #Americant; Petro-Dollar v. world, etc.)
  2. Contraction of the money supply as bank loans are paid off – consider current repeal of Dodd-Frank (see links below) and then ask: why would any valid economy need subprime mortgages in the first place? And if that is totally besides the point, why the hell, for the past few years, can I only withdraw 200,-€ in cash from an ATM?
  3. A fall in the level of asset prices – since the US economy is dependent on war-mongering and a rentier (feudal) system (based mostly real-estate manipulation), i.e. it’s manufacturing base has been decimated since the 1980s which means there’s nothing else to make money with/on, which of the two will fail first and where can the money come from to pay for the aftermath? Answer: the only people with money are the same people that caused all these economic problems in the first place!
  4. A still greater fall in the net worths of business, precipitating bankruptcies – considering how companies are valued these days, especially via a delusional if not artificially maintained stock market, this confuses the hell out of me; can you say stock-buy-back?
  5. A fall in profits – how many huuuuuge corporations in #Americant are in a perpetual state of bankruptcy in order to stay in business? Think: airlines, automobile maker bailouts, etc.
  6. A reduction in output, in trade and in employment – manufacturing base decimation, gig-economy, un and under-employment, nuff said.
  7. Pessimism and loss of confidence – #MAGA again again; election of President Stupid by an even stupider voting constituency.
  8. Hoarding of money – yeah, just try to get some cash (see #2 above); who and how is money supply manipulated?
  9. A fall in nominal interest rates and a rise in deflation adjusted interest rates – I have no idear what the fcuk this means but $hit is fcuking expensive.

As someone who may (or may not) inherit something someday, I’m often wondering about how the idear of value and how it has been slowly but surely manipulated–like everything else in our greed $hit show. I mean. Come on. Considering how this world turns, any rational person can tell you that there is basically no intrinsic value left in the system–unless you’re already rich. Reason? Everything is either outright owned, financed/indebted to the hilt, or in some kind of moneyed limbo that can only reflect a purgatory run by a Greed God–or two generations of greed-mongering middle-class morons. Or is it God of Greed? Nomatter.

With all that in mind, here’s the thing I’m really worried about and probably should be added to the/my (2nd) list above. I believe that President Stupid was elected for a reason. That reason is simple. The conservative wing of my beloved #Americant has seen the light regarding what they’ve done for the past (insert number post WW2 here) years. In fact, #Americant is so invested in the irrationality of what conservatives have done, that there literally is no turning back. That also means it’s full speed ahead in the realm of President Stupid.

What better shill could there be to cover up for what Conservatives have done than to elect the perfect numb-nut to head the $hit show as they let what they’ve done (naturally) burn down? And that’s the ticket, dear worst-reader. That’s what’s ahead right now as history repeats itself. Republicans, the arm of the old, greed-mongering white men that is #Americant, will burn the fcuking house down before they come clean regarding what they’ve done. Trump and those who voted for him are the trump-card to pull off the great burn down–i.e. The Great Depression v2.0.

Good luck suckers.

Link that motivated this post:

Rant on.

-T

Giving Marx A Try Or How I Found Solace In Failing Upwards And Enjoying Pseudo-Communist Poetry

Subtitle: The Body Of An Email Never Sent?

Exchanges with an old friend about the system we all must live in is getting brighter and brighter, dear worst-reader. Or maybe not. After attempting to part a few worst-words about Marx to my old friend who believes with all his heart that capitalism is alive and well, I started this response. My old friend seems to think that there is an underlying dynamic in capitalism I fail to grasp/understand because I never ran a business, I think economics is pseudo-science at best, and have not really participated in this system since the turn of the century. My first response is usually something like…

…I’ve never climbed Mt. Everest but I know it’s the highest mountain.

All platitudes aside.

The problem that I’m actually having with communicating with my old friend is not really about who knows this or who knows that (about whatever) but instead he has chosen a life of early retirement that is a rival to mine. I do not like rivalry. Where I married well and that enabled my early retirement, he worked his ass off as a retailer only so that he could finally sell his business and then live off of real-estate investments–indeed the modern #Americant dream. All in all, he’s an achieved fellow to my worst-writing lack of publication (other than this blog). On top of that my old friend is a hobby, armchair, maniacal economist who, like I said before, thinks the world economy is fine as long as you understand economics.

All I can say in response is: fcuk economics!

And here’s my latest response.

The only “underlying dynamics at play” is corruption and profitable manipulated ignorance on a mass scale. Corruption, cheating, status-quo and downright reactionary ignorance are truly the only things going on in our life-time. With that in mind, there doesn’t need to be a new Marx because the old one has never been tried in the first place. The reason for that is simple. If Marx’s theory would be somehow used then almost all holders of today’s wealth would have no say in the economy or politics. The reason for that wouldn’t be because the rich are evil but instead because the rich today are UN-EARNERS. Most of the richest people in the world today have their wealth because they have been able to wield a corrupt and bankrupt system that has been enabled post FDR, post 1970s. The old economy rules the $hitshow, dude. Anyone who derives so much wealth from the stock market, considering the state of the so-called economy and how labour has been transferred over the past three decades of globalisation, for example Warren Buffet, does so not because of any great productive ability but instead because he is able to play the system–which is ultimately the opposite of productive. It is a silly game considering how so many very capable people can have so little because they do not wish to play (this game). That you associate this in anyway with freedom is mind boggling to me—but understandable considering the world you grew up in or even worked in and are obviously dependent upon. By-the-buy. Communist states and dictatorships have hijacked Marx’s political theory to their own personal, group-think gain. This is starting to include the US. The ignorant masses—mostly lead by middle and upper-middle class morons who live for consumption—have yielded ALL political power to the un-earned rich. The irony here is that because of a Dollar Dictatorship, America is run by a politburo hegemony of war mongers and cheats—that simply enable those that ONLY inherit or game the system. It has never been more true/real than now how the US was never any different than the Soviet Union fifty or so years ago. The politburo states of America, baby. Btw, Marx isn’t an economist as much as he is a philosopher and the first and only person to have ever really put effort into codifying human (mis)behaviour in the context of labour and capital.

Rant on.

-T

Hey Comrade! My School Of Greed Is Gonna Kick Your School Of Greed’s A$$

capitalism crisis deepens richard wolff

In order to cope with the two Ms (monotony & mendacity) of growing up in Suburban Hell of my beloved #Americant, I participated–at the duress of my broken family–in two organised sport activities. One of those activities was tennis. And, if I recall correctly, I was actually ranked within the top-100 players of my state during the tennis season of which I participated. Of course, let it be known, I couldn’t serve worth a hoot. Yet I was “ranked”. Yea, that says a lot about organised sports back then–long before the inheriting, under-achieving classes came to be what they’ve become and thereby given us #Trump. But I digress.

The second sport I participated in was Football. And I don’t mean football of the round ball kind. I played American football–where the ball is the proper shape. The reason for the shape? When that ball flies through the air it is either a bullet or a duck–and you better know what you’re doing when it comes your way. And so… There is clarity in (some) sports, dear worst-reader. That clarity is in how a ball can fly like a bullet through the sky.

Although I did participate in a few other sports here and there, e.g., lacrosse, baseball, wrestling, fencing and girls, football is the one that stands out the most in my worst-memory. Ask me if I regret wasting my time on it, I do. Then again, the sport did teach me a bit about participating with others in a so-called “team”. It really is a shame how my beloved #Americant (sport) and her cult of the entrepreneur (the team) have warped the idear of the game in recent years. “Team” for me had a different meaning once. That was the only thing worthwhile about playing football. No a total waste, that is.

Now get this: I learned a few other things while playing American football. For example, my coach used to tell us when we were doing the cardio portion of our daily practice–and we watched those soccer guys in the field next to us run like gazelles all day–that soccer is a game for communists. Can you believe that, dear worst-reader? Here’s how you teach youngsters–back in the day:

Whaaaa’ da heel kaind ah spo’art is it anywho if’n you caint use yer damn hands? It’s a communist spo’art, I tail yee. Dats zackly wha’ it eezz. Damn darn communists! -My Coach

My coach added something about balls shouldn’t be perfectly round anyway. “Nothing is perfect. Check your own,” he said. Of course, being the prepubescent worst-writer I was, during the last two years of wasting mind and body playing football, I actually believed that soccer players were communists. Heck, when I approached some of the guys on the soccer team, I would even ask them:

Say, Comrade, hoist any sickle and spades lately?

But. Again. I digress.

All this worst-talk about communists brings me to my latest read. It is a book by Comrade Richard Wolff. Comrade Wolff is a “professor of economics”. Comrade Wolff has a somewhat interesting presence on the Interwebnets, too. Much of his work can be found at http://www.democracyatwork.info and he even has a monthly podcast called Economics Update where he talks about all things-worst (man to occupy my heart) in this world of capitalism run amok.

At first I didn’t think much about reading this book. There was/is enough of/from Comrade Wolff online already. But then something he said itched me. That itch was Wolff’s academic POV of all-things economic. Better put, he writes and talks a lot about economics as though… Now hold a sec. Get ready for it. Sit down if you got a weak ticker.

Comrade Wolff talks about economics as if it is science.

Now. Did you get that? Let me repeat it just in case, dear worst-reader. According to worst-writer, economics ain’t no science. Instead it is (should be) an academic field within The Arts. But let’s not get too far off the issue of what itches me.

There is one topic that Comrade Wolff keeps comping back to over and over: He is obsessed with the pseudo economic science of Greece and Germania. That’s the real reason I broke down and bought this book. It’s also the reason I read it over a two month period. It’s not that it is hard to read. It is. It’s just that it is boring, too. Boring as boring can be. Boring as wrongly placed academia can be. But then again, so too are all things that try to be scientific that should instead be artsy. And guess what happened after I finally finished the book? Comrade Wolff’s obsession with Greece and Germania is still a mystery to me. Gosh darn it! I hate it when I pick the wrong friggin book!

Allow me to summarise my issue (itch) with Comrade Wolff’s obsession. Comrade Wolff says that Germania is a locomotive. He also says that Greece is a caboose. In case you’re unaware, the caboose is at the back of a choo-choo-train. A caboose is a special, single car that in olden times served as a kind of housing facility for those who worked on the train as it crossed landscapes. And so… Germania is the front of the train and Greece… Well, ok, you get the metaphor.

Btw, if you were to ask me why I expatriated to the EU my third1 most important reason for doing so would be because of the fascination of witnessing the catastrophe that is an effort to unite something that should never be united as though it were a train crossing some heartily confused landscape. Either that or I am a freak for Schadenfreude?

In #Eurowasteland where the choo-choo-train metaphor can only go so far, that which determines everything… Is the fcuking caboose. -worst-moi after living in this Euro shithole for the last 25 yrs.

Now wait a sec. Comrade Wolff says it another way. Here, try this (pseudo-paraphrase):

The #Eurowasteland caboose is literally a fcuk machine that rides the train. The train is made up of voyeur, perverted nation-states that like gawking at the fcuk-car from the back. And who’s the biggest voyeur of them all? That’s right…

Fcuking Germans!

In his podcast Economic Update I’ve listened to Comrade Wolff lambast the Germans because Greece is an economic disaster. That is, Greece is a disaster, according to Wolff, because of the Germans. IMHO, Comrade Wolff is wrong. Greece’s problems have nothing to do with Germans. Greece has problems because of Greeks. Comrade Wolff likes to focus on banks and bankers and how they take advantage of European pions–all of which is lead by dastardly Germans.

Whaaaaaa?

Worst-writer’s explanation of the Greece problem is much simpler–and much clearer. To paraphrase the great oral tradition now being propagated by #Americants in the form of #Trump: Europe is a shithole and it’s full of shiteaters.

That’s Greece’s problem.

In order to understand Greece and thereby the entirety of #Eurowasteland, aka, Greedland, all one has to do is look at what Europe has given the world. From the Bronze Age to the Renaissance and beyond, we can all thank Europe for mass, systematic, unadulterated greed. Luckily, in recent times, there has been something done to try and mitigate this great gift.

Since WW2 (or maybe it was WW1–who the fcuk is counting?) Europe’s gift to the world has been split into two schools of thought. There is the Anglo-American school (of greed) and there is the Germanic school (of greed). If one looks at the social and political structures of the various confused nations that make up Greedland–from locomotives to the cabooses–it’s easy differentiating between these two schools of greed. It’s also easy to figure out who’s the bigger or biggest Schadenfreud-ist.

Let’s summarise, shall we?

Greece is, out of choice, part of the Anglo-American school (of greed). It is failing miserably as a nation-state because of this choices. Therefore it doesn’t matter if Greece were in the EU, off the coast of the UK or stuck somewhere between Alabama and Montana. Because of its choices, Greece is where it is today. More importantly it doesn’t matter who or what state bank leant money to whom. Greece would be where it is no matter where it was at the end of any train–considering how it has traversed the landscape. Btw, most of southern Europe is failing in the same way as Greece. Those countries too have chosen the Anglo-American greed $hitshow. Which begs the question: Is there enough space at the end of the shit-train for all these fcuking cabooses?

And now for the other school of greed.

Pause. Oh God. Brace Yourself. Here it comes.

Those fcuking Krauts.

The Germania school of greed is not about Germans of old. Can you imagine how things would be if they still wore those stupid, pointy helmets and everybody was named Gunter Leckmichamarsch? No. We’re dealing with new Germans here. And these new Germans got a few things up their slimy sleeves, don’t you know. That’s right. The slime is the one thing that was never defeated in any of those dumba$$ wars, don’t you know. In fact, most of northern Europe likes the slime that is in the German sleeve. Hence northern stoic Europe, compared to the lazy south, is doing just fine. With that in mind, what’s your favourite school of greed?

One shouldn’t look at the caboose to see how the $hitshow train is running. Also, Greece is too minuscule to use as an example of the failures of capitalism. The fact that old Greeks have hoarded everything and thereby practically choked the country to death doesn’t make it an example of what or what not to do. It might just be better (easier) to focus more on human nature–which transcends all of the above–even Comrade Wolff. Again: economics is not science.

Then again, Greece is a good example for something else. Capitalism is nature’s best system for dealing with greed. For Comrade Wolff and so many others like him, everything is easier to decipher when lumped together and thrown into one basket. I guess that’s why I prefer artsy over science (science being the basket). Even though I can sympathise with some of Comrade Wolff’s ranting and raving against capitalism–for I’ve given Marx’s Das Capital a glance or three–he doesn’t really offer any viable alternative other than what all others offer: scapegoating.

Anywho. As usual, I’m off subject. This was supposed to be a quick worst-post about Comrade Wolff’s book:

Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown.

Wanting to understand Comrade Wolff’s POV regarding Greece was the reason I decided to give this book a read. (Un)fortunately this book only substantiates my belief that economics is a pseudo-science.

And so…

Is there an alternatives to the greed $hitshow (capitalism) we’re all living in today? If so, it’s not in this collection of essays. And. NO! Coops and workers taking over the system isn’t an alternative–which is mostly what Comrade Wolff proposes. If, on the other hand, you’re still kind of suffering from the duck-and-cover trauma of the 60s and 70s and hard-up on avoiding all things communist, then you don’t need to read this book. With that in mind, I’m gonna continue checking the Interwebnets for whatever Comrade Wolff has to offer. Who knows. If he keeps at it, he might figure out an alternative someday.

Good luck with that, Comrades.

Rant on.

-T

  1. I’m sure the first and second can be found somewhere at worstwriter.com ↩︎

Maybe Put A Label On It Instead Of Enabling A Bimbo To Sing Put A Ring On The Heart Of Suckers Born Every Minute

sucker born every minute
“There is a sucker born every minute” -PT Barnum

How do you regulate consumption? The consumer is the backbone of the greed economy. No wonder we all have back pain, eh. Yet we also live in a system that has found a way to protect the riches of great-great grandparents. Indeed. Long dead stupid white people have inherited their wealth to offspring that are obviously less ingenious. It’s interesting how the careful consideration of wealth can have grave ramification for a society that only knows the power of suckling the teat of a really, really fat motherfcuker. But I digress.

The issue today, dear worst-reader, is how former president Obama takes sides in the debate of what to do with a society over flowing with Stupid. I mean, why else would it even be an issue–this whole fcuking fake newz thing–if there were just a few more smarts in the world? And so, even a pretty smart guy jumps the gun and blames, of course, the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. And so the disinformation show–which is something different than fake newz–goes on.

Btw, if Obama warns us about “irresponsible social media abuse” who is gonna warn us about all the greed abuse that got us to this dystopia place at all? Oh well.

Good luck suckers.

Rant on.

Link that motivated this post:

The Looking Mirror Avoided

“For example (and thanks to Doug Korty for this point), the total deficits of the federal government from 1950 to 2009 were $6.6 trillion. During those years, three Republican presidents (Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush) accounted for the vast majority of those deficits. All the other presidents (Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton) combined accounted for a small fraction only. The three deficit-happy Republican presidents were the most conservative and subservient to major capitalists interests. They all increased spending (chiefly for military and counter-crisis purposes) while cutting taxes (especially for corporations and the richest individuals). Such policies forced huge federal deficits and rapid national debt hikes. The Obama administration ran very large deficits and boosted the national debt through stimulus outlays and costly wars without offsetting tax increases.”

-From the chapter Capitalism, Democracy, and Elections (2013), Richard Wolff’s book: “Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens”

Keep that in mind the next time you vote for someone on account of your taxes, your debts, Her emails, your general nonsense of living as an #americant soothed by pharmaceuticals and/or Disney and/or the lie of the mind that is your hope and desire of exceptional-ism. And now. Go buy something.

Rant on. And. Good luck suckers.

-T