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Listed below are comments made by Hawkeye_Pierce between Thursday, 12th November 2009 and Tuesday, 24th November 2009.

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Information: Have you ever paid for it? 2:41pm on 24 Nov 2009 Paul,

How fortuitous that you should be blogging about media and journalism. I've just skim-read the conclusions of a (whopping, but free!) thesis on the internet, in my continuing exploration into the real meaning of money and wealth (the Minsky, Marx and Soddy axis):

"Global mass media, especially television penetrate with their information into the public's subconscious creating a kind of hypnosis. The art of 'treating' the broad public is largely automated." Meanwhile "Decision makers in today's global economy are mislead by false theoretical conceptions"
(For source, search in Google: money upside down haas ddb)

The author declares that this hypnosis has led to "information overload, which makes critical pausing and reflecting impossible". The modern phenomena of paralysis by analysis – as the current climate change fiasco reveals all too well.

All this fuss about the price (and therefore profit!) of media provision is another distraction from what the media should really be doing and that is challenging the theoretical underpinnings of those in power.

The key problem is that our society has truly got the concept of money upside down. This means that we are all too anaesthetised to notice the difference between real wealth creation and fraudulent wealth manipulation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2009/08/qe_more_to_do.html#P84968196
Rare earth: The New Great Game 11:51am on 22 Nov 2009 Eureka!

In my efforts to fully unearth the underlying intellectual dogma that has created this financial mess, it seems that all roads seem to lead to the following assumption of Neoclassical economics:

- "There is only one true measure of wealth, and that is the exchange value. From this proposition it is assumed that price reflects the reality of an assets real value."

The crux of Marx's dissent was against this very assumption (unfortunately the subsequent focus on the labour theory of value was an obfuscation by Marx and many of his followers). This article rewards careful reading:

http://sociologias-com.blogspot.com/2009/11/paradox-of-wealth-capitalism-and.html

Clearly Steve Keen was well on his way to fully establishing this, until the early 1990s when he instead followed the Minsky trail instead:

http://www.debunkingeconomics.com/Marx/index.htm

The modern construct of money serves purely as a medium of exchange, and therefore we have lost touch with its far more portentous manifestations: as a store of value, and a reliable measure of value.

Until we can again accept that exchange value (i.e. money) is capable of diverging wildly from real (intrinsic) value we have learned nothing from this crisis:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2009/05/welcome_to_shizuishan_city.html#P80355007
Rare earth: The New Great Game 3:05pm on 20 Nov 2009 #15 Paul,

Thanks for explaining the confusion on rare earth.

The intention of my original post was to draw focus on mass scale energy production itself, rather than small scale storage items (such as batteries). A battery is absolutely no use whatsoever without the energy to put into it in the first place.

Therefore you should take a look at what the Chinese have been doing in terms of hydro-electric power generation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam

"It is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind."

Not sure if you came across it on your recent trip to China. But I attended a presentation in the UK by one of the project directors a few years back. After blowing us all away with the sheer scale & efficiency with which they had built this, he then completely knocked our socks off by saying that this was just a practice run for the next 10 (!!) dams they plan to make on this scale!

As you state the Chinese have completely blindsided the West, but would add to that they have also quite shrewdly been using the finite supplies of oil & gas energy (which is stupendously cheap & efficient at the moment) to invest in renewable energy production infra-structure.

Rather than fret about whether we in the West will all get over-charged on the cost of mobile phone batteries, or worst still have to forgo some of our car usage, we should be far more concerned about our mass-scale domestic & industrial energy production needs (essential for food, heating, waste disposal, clean running water, medical facilities etc.).

The pinch we might feel on luxury items will pale into insignificance compared with when we get squeezed on our energy needs for essentials.
Rare earth: The New Great Game 6:12pm on 18 Nov 2009 Paul,

I certainly think you are on to something. But you seem misled in your reference to these rare metals as part of the green technology. There is nothing green about a load of very rare metals that require mountains to be excavated or lakes to be dredged, only to be bolted into non-essential highly energy intensive mass produced consumer items. Batteries only store electricity - they do not create it!

Yes indeed, China will be the economic victors of the 21st Century. Alas they will preside over the broken wreckage of international Industrialised collapse. Not so much "Rare Earth" but more "Scorched Earth"!
Three-way on the MPC 4:01pm on 18 Nov 2009 Stephanie,

Two things struck me about your article. Firstly "Should we be worried about a new asset price bubble? The current answer - at the Federal Reserve and at the Bank - is no."

Is this the same Fed that won't let anyone audit what they are ACTUALLY holding in terms of assets and liabilities?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/17/audit-the-fed-effort-unde_n_361389.html

And secondly, you quite correctly state that "In theory, it's only the credit-fuelled binges you have to worry about". But what makes you think that there hasn't been a credit-fuelled binge in the West for the last 20 years?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sobering-dose-reality-economist-steve-keen

At best you are fixated with the wrong economic models (another victim of the pandemic of Stockholm Syndrome among mainstream economists), and at worst you are in complete denial of our underlying economic woes.
When and how to squeeze the budget 7:50pm on 17 Nov 2009 When will the UK public (and perhaps some mainstream journalists) finally wake up and smell the coffee:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sobering-dose-reality-economist-steve-keen

It's not just about balancing the books, it's about that whopping great credit card bill we have:

"Steve Keen is a straight shooter who pulls no punches in his criticisms of other economists, political leaders, and central bankers all over the globe. The reason it is important to listen to him now is that he is still pounding the table about the debt overhang that is plaguing the Anglo-Saxon world."

And a Carbon Tax is NOT the solution to our problems. I repeat NOT the answer. This is nothing more than free market fundamentalism that deceives every one of us into thinking we have freedom, when in fact most of us will get stripped of any fair allowance as we sell our carbon credits off at rock bottom prices to the greedy corporate controlled world in order that we can pay our monstrous personal taxes - those introduced to claw back the hideous debt burden of our post 1970s fictitious boom time, whilst the corporate tax world and private profiteers benefit from their tax immunity and enjoy a hyper-concentration of both money and authorisation to jet themselves around the world - all acquired legitimately and above board, of course!!
New name for a new economy? 4:00pm on 13 Nov 2009 In deference to the late JJ, I guess this blog wouldn't be complete without the accusation of:

Anarcho-capitalism: anarchistic/Trotskyite free market capitalism

As you suggest Stephanie, this is not the free market envisaged by Adam Smith:

What we have is "exactly the opposite of what Adam Smith, and Ricardo and the classical economists defined as a free market. Classical economics defined a free market as one that is free of overhead charges, free of unnecessary charges of production, free of watered stock. Today a free market means that predators are free to extort any price from the public, they are free to deregulate, free to lie to consumers, free to exploit, free to load any company they want down with debt, and basically lead (us) to a world of debt peonage." Michael Hudson.

Indeed Galbraith was all too vocal in pointing out Smith's warnings of separating (stock) ownership with (enterprise) management.

It'll all end in tears.
New name for a new economy? 3:14pm on 13 Nov 2009
Errr... how about:

1) "The Fictious economy"
2) "The privatised profits and socialsed risk model"
3) "The economic kleptocracy"
4) "The pointless treadmill of consumerist boredom through debt peonage economy"
5) "The State sponsored wealth disparity creation model"
6) "The Stockholm Syndrome model of economic serfdom"
Cautious good cheer 10:30am on 12 Nov 2009 At 09:47am on 12 Nov 2009, stanilic wrote:

"However, this does not help the young folk who are just starting out. They have my sympathy: there will be a bitter price we will all have to pay for this failure."

What really confused me about yesterday's Newsnight, was the fact that the young people leaving University are finding it hard to get jobs, probably have large student debts, yet there is no sign of a growing frustration among them.

Have we neutered them with iPods, mobile phones and Nintendos?
Cautious good cheer 09:09am on 12 Nov 2009 Get ready for our nation's "renegotiation" of its debts:

http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/thebearslairview?art_id=10307

"So which major country, the United States, Japan or Britain, will default first on its foreign debt?"

"The worst budget balance of the three deficit countries is in Britain, where the forecast budget deficit for calendar 2009 is a staggering 14.5% of GDP. Furthermore, the Bank of England has been slightly more irresponsible in its financing mechanisms."

"Default (doubtless disguised as with Argentina as 'renegotiation') would in that case inevitably follow."

So when our country financially capitulates in the not too distant future, our leaders will revel in the glory of being the ones who negotiated an economic truce, rather than a surrender!

Ahh, makes you proud to be British.

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