A must, must-read post on the origins of money and debt; its connections to social relations, violence and the state; and what that means when thinking about the current unpleasantness. While you’re waiting for Hurricane Irene to hit, take some time to read this.

(Hat tip to Chris Hayes for the link.)

5:45 pm  •  August 26, 2011  •  View comments

A surprisingly fair-minded piece, while still acknowledging the fundamental battiness of the gold standard:

Historically, societies attracted to using gold as legal tender have dealt with this problem by empowering their governments to fix its price in domestic-currency terms (in the U.S. case, in dollars). But the idea that government should legislate the price of a particular commodity, be it gold, milk or gasoline, sits uneasily with conservative Republicanism’s commitment to letting market forces work, much less with Tea Party-esque libertarianism. Surely a believer in the free market would argue that if there is an increase in the demand for gold, whatever the reason, then the price should be allowed to rise, giving the gold-mining industry an incentive to produce more, eventually bringing that price back down. Thus, the notion that the U.S. government should peg the price, as in gold standards past, is curious at the least. More curious still is the belief that putting the United States on a gold standard would somehow guarantee balanced budgets, low taxes, small government and a healthy economy. Most curious of all is the contention that under twenty-first-century circumstances going back to the gold standard is even possible.

10:41 am  •  August 26, 2011  •  View comments

What exactly is the point of having an independent central bank that won’t exercise its independence? Time was, Paul Volcker could single-handedly induce a recession in order to stamp out high inflation, and neither Jimmy Carter nor Ronald Reagan, to my knowledge, suggested that his actions were “almost treasonous”, in Rick Perry’s words. Or is it only treasonous when the Fed uses its powers to spur recovery?

This isn’t to say that there aren’t risks associated the various actions that the Fed could take, not least spurring more commodity price inflation that could impede recovery before it can get underway. But it’s rather apparent that whatever firewalls are supposed to exist between the Fed and the political system have been compromised.

11:59 pm  •  August 25, 2011  •  View comments

Good points from Mark Thoma, especially this one:

But the clincher is the fear that if they do end up creating inflation, the Fed could lose its independence, particularly if there is little to show for it in terms of stimulating the economy. If they lose their independence, the response to every future recession would be less effective. This makes recessions more costly, and when the higher costs are tallied across all future recessions, the total cost of losing its independence is very high. Thus, this is a major stumbling block.

Which is to say, we have less an economic dilemma at the Fed than a political one.

8:04 pm  •  August 25, 2011  •  View comments

“In the late 1970s and ’80s, that might have been true — but today, it’s hard to argue that Apple’s expensive products are egalitarian. Its personal computers are user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing, but there are plenty of cheaper more practical alternatives out there. And as this XKCD cartoon points out, as more and more of what we want from computers moves online, the actual device you’re using is going become far less important. As for the iPhone, it’s great. I love mine. But is it improving the world in some tangible way? If there’s a phone driving innovation among the global masses it’s the exceedingly generic Nokia 1100, not anything with a touch screen. Even the upwardly-mobile in the developing world tend to favor the open membership plans and free messaging service provided by BlackBerry.”

— It’s hard to deny that Steve Jobs has been enormously influential on the development of both desktop and mobile computing, but influence isn’t everything. In other news, the Linux kernel turns 20 years old today.

(Source: blog.foreignpolicy.com)

1:58 pm  •  August 25, 2011  •  1 note  •  View comments

“To me, Apple exists in the spirit of the people that work there, and the sort of philosophies and purpose by which they go about their business. So if Apple just becomes a place where computers are a commodity item and where the romance is gone, and where people forget that computers are the most incredible invention that man has ever invented, then I’ll feel I have lost Apple. But if I’m a million miles away and all those people still feel those things and they’re still working to make the next great personal computer, then I will feel that my genes are still in there.”

— Steve Jobs, 1985 (via onethingwell)

(Reblogged from onethingwell)

10:10 am  •  August 25, 2011  •  26 notes  •  View comments

That word does not mean what conservatives think it means:

Have you ever been pissed off at the fact that your neighborhood school doesn’t teach any of the stuff you want and it feels like you kid is just wasting her valuable time going to all of these pointless classes for no reason. THAT, is what socialism feels like. That is what the lack of value creation feels like.

Its not that you are afraid of losing what you have or that budget constraints are pinching. Its that the stuff which is available to you sucks. It – in extreme cases – is a world where everyone has a job but where no grocery store has fresh milk. It’s a world where every gets a pay check but no one can find shoes that fit.

That is what socialism feels like. That is what government getting in the way of the market feels like. In many ways it’s the exact opposite of the way this feels.

Mass unemployment, on the other hand, is a bitter, bitter pill to take. Let me recommend the Down But Not Out tumblr for more on that.

6:06 pm  •  August 23, 2011  •  View comments