Sooo....I'm reading "The Shock Doctrine" right now, and...

:wow:

This book is blowing my mind, and I've barely started it!

Mind you, I'm an Econ undergrad, and probably the loudest critic of the field, as well as its real world applications, in my Dept (I wear a shirt to classes that says "Neoclassical Econ is for Suckers"), but this is so much worse than I really imagined.

Where's Milton Friedman buried? I'd like to go spit on his grave. x(

Wait until you get to the chapter on Yeltsin's rise in Russia.

about Jeffrey Sachs. I just love his book "The End of Poverty", damnit. x(

:hi:

Russia and Eastern Europe. Here's his take on Thatcher's guru, Hayek's bullshit - the road to Serfdom.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-social-welfare-state
<snip>
The results for the households at the bottom of the income distribution are astoundingly good, especially in contrast to the mean-spirited neglect that now passes for American social policy. The U.S. spends less than almost all rich countries on social services for the poor and disabled, and it gets what it pays for: the highest poverty rate among the rich countries and an exploding prison population. Actually, by shunning public spending on health, the U.S. gets much less than it pays for, because its dependence on private health care has led to a ramshackle system that yields mediocre results at very high costs.

Von Hayek was wrong. In strong and vibrant democracies, a generous social-welfare state is not a road to serfdom but rather to fairness, economic equality and international competitiveness.

America will not be on the way to being made right until The University of Chicago School of Economics is razed to the ground, carted away and buried in a secret location and the ground it stood upon salted with plutonium.

:thumbsup:

from the Austrian school starting with Friedrich August von Hayek's Road to Serfdom.

Honestly one of the troubling parts for me is realizing that some of the people I thought were "good guys" (George Soros?) were actually involved in destroying the economies of other countries. It has me questioning a lot of what I thought I knew, and very very worried for the future of our country.

I had some idea about Soros, but not very detailed.

Yeah, it's painful reading. And I applaud Naomi Klein for her magnificent scholarship in this book. She's incredible.

is Clinton.

On what issue, specifically?

Just in case you aren't livid enough.

Aren't we all thankful that the BCCI report and all its matters were deep-sixed throughout the 90s? It was just great for this country, eh?

And can I say, THANK YOU, for your tireless advocacy on BCCI!!! I really need to read up more on that. Help?

:pals:

The sad thing is that Naomi Wolf wouldn't have had to write that book if all the matters in BCCI had been fully vetted and revealed for the American people at the time.

And I'm sure that you are correct about that. Sigh.

economist that ended up doing terrible wrongs..








Allen Greenspan with his wife and Political NBC pundit Andrea Mitchell

Even moreso after recent events. Grrrrr.

You might try reading Unequal Protection by Thom Hartman.

Love Hartman. :)

:grr:

All around the world.

Sachs seems to at least value his own membership in the human race, unlike some of these folks. The book is masterfully written.

The whole market and exchange system is a SCAM, that hurts people, it really is.
And it has destroyed so many lives.My anger knows no end for this culture of make believe and the diseased exchange/market that is killing us all on the inside out.
Not all economies are based on maximizing personal gain
- some are founded on giving...


It is not because of a fatal flaw in human nature that we act so inhumanely to one another, but because of a complex tangle of gift-thread logics and strategies which become contradictory and promote adversarial behaviors. The tangle can be unraveled and understood, not within the exchange paradigm itself but by starting over, putting gift giving first as a theme for understanding the world.
t-economy.com/theory.html
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC41/PinchotG.htm
http://futurepositive.synearth.net/stories/storyReader$223

As an econ/business student, you may find these links interesting and maybe,useful.

While I don't agree that the system as it *should* be is a scam, the system as it currently is definitely is, in many respects. :pals:

I'll respond again later. :)

Take care OK?

:bounce:

And frankly, after wearing that shirt to my classes all last week, I'm kinda surprised that my Dept Chair (also one of my current Profs), chose me to represent the Dept at Welcome Day for newly accepted students next month! :D

Not that *I* am one of them. Or something.

I remember a lecture on Utility theory (which imho is total crap) in Microeconomic Theory, and hearing my Prof say to the Prof coming in for the next class "It's hard to teach a theory that you know is total bullshit"

No lie. That stuck with me. :)

I may listen to it again pretty soon (now that you've remind me). But I will NEVER listen to it again while washing dishes!!

pnorman

Do NOT listen to the Audible version of that book while operating moving machinery (such as driving an automobile), or anything of that sort! (ie: "Shock And Awe On The Highway"). It's that INFURIATING!

I also have that "Confessions Of an Economic Hitman" in Audible.com format. But I never finished listening to more than the first 20~30 minutes of it. The thesis is well established elsewhere, but the "proof" seemed to me to have been less than compelling. Much of it seemed to be based on his word alone. I may be wrong here, and may give it another try later on.

pnorman

Yesterday I saw a great lecture she gave on You tube.

And I'm having the same reaction.

everyone. Open your eyes.

to live--at least, according to his own "economics"

Really disturbing book. I'm on the part about South Africa now so I haven't got to Yeltsin and Russia yet.

What I've drawn from this is that all these laissez-faire people who say with free markets "everything will just even itself out in the end" is that that is complete BS. That has never actually happened in real life and yet these people are still considered to be reputable economists. That said I think capitalism is better than communism but I strongly believe that it should be regulated.

This is a great book though and I'm probably going to want to read Naomi Klein's other books after this. I was watching some of her youtube stuff today as well.

Thats like saying a meth head can regulate their addiction. It is not possible. Anyone saying different is either trying to sell you something, get in your pants or both.

:(