Where to begin?

There's so much interesting stuff in this zero hedge post, that you should just go ahead and read the whole thing. I'll wait.

OK! Well, where to begin. The blurb that got me to read the whole article was this one, quoted from the State Department website (click on 'economic'):

Economic conspiracy theories are often based on the false, but popular, idea that powerful individuals are motivated overwhelmingly by their desire for wealth, rather than the wide variety of human motivations we all experience. (This one-dimensional, cartoonish view of human nature is at the heart of Marxist ideology, which once held hundreds of millions under its sway.)

Clash between cops and students at University of Puerto Rico

In my Inbox this morning, from Ian Seda-Irizarry:


Keep track on the twitters: #LuchaUPR.
Since yesterday, Professors have announced a strike in support of the students. Nice. And police presence is being maintained throughout the campus. Some news articles:
Global Voices Online
Huffington Post
Washington Post
Monthly Review

Need sources for Egyptian revolution?

Al Jazeera English, the Guardian and the NY Times all have live blogs (descending order of quality, IMO). Thanks, Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing!

Google unveiled a plan to allow Egyptians to tweet voicemails: Official Google Blog: Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard. If you speak Arabic (all of the messages I listened to were in Arabic), search #egypt on twitter (though that will obviously get you lots more than just the voice tweets from Egypt), or go to speak2tweet.

Lord Skidelsky looks beyond capitalism

In a post on Project Syndicate, Robert Skidelsky speculates that capitalism might well have had its day, at least in so far as it has provided a level of well-being at which more stuff isn't making people happier. Capitalism:

. . . inspired the American way of life, where money always talks. The end of capitalism means simply the end of the urge to listen to it. People would start to enjoy what they have, instead of always wanting more. One can imagine a society of private wealth holders, whose main objective is to lead good lives, not to turn their wealth into “capital.”

His argument isn't quite that the forces of production have outgrown the relations of production, but that the forces of production have outgrown the actual needs of people in most places.

Housing still looking for the bottom

Calculated Risk reports a new record low in housing completions last year, predicting new record lows for 5+ units for this year as well. This year might mark the bottom of the housing crash.

Pakistan finally pissed enough to do something?

Well yes, now that a NATO helicopter air strike has killed three of it's soldiers rather than mere citizens, Pakistan is blocking a NATO supply route, according to the Guardian. Enough is enough?

I am not shocked

by the news that income inequality is worse than it's been in a looooong time.