The Fluffy Economist

Political Economy

2010-05-04T22:15:00.005+01:00

Goodness me it's been a while since I've dusted off the fluffbooks and made it over here. I've been writing for sometime as Arjuna's Octupus which you are welcome to take a look at, but I thought it was time to get back into the Econo-back seat and deliver my take on the economics of the last years.First, Labour did not ruin the economy. In some respects they made it more broadly-based. Look at

and on...

2009-12-01T12:39:00.002Z

there's something of contribution in it - the quality of measurement that makes it meaningful, and valuableIt needs to contain the totality of human contribution in it.It needs to be more than a physical object, or not reduced to that either by sloppy mathematical handling.It needs to represent value - my will and how it is associated with the entirety of all wills.Objects will then follow, but

The definition of a values-based economy

2009-12-01T11:25:00.002Z

Interesting - as one thought follows another - that the measurement of value question should bring back into the fold another concept I have toyed with: the values-based economy.It seems to me, in these times of unfolding consciousness worldwide - that we are better able to appreciate our place in the world; the objects we use day to day and their place in the world ; the relationships we have;

Measuring value

2009-12-01T11:12:00.004Z

It's been quite a time away from these walls since I last professed an aim to weave together that will produce the economic models.This is not surprising, I get easily distracted and have found a variety of projects with which to busy myself.The ideas, however, are flowing again: much inspired by chance events and the reading of the Economics of Happiness by Mark AnielskiIt seems vitally

The new Europe

2009-11-22T14:17:00.003Z

Hear well, good people of Earth - the EU has now shifted decisively out of the hands of the its people. We demand a fully elected commission, president, foreign minister and Parliament before matters are taken out of our hands.Here - the people have spoken. This is what is happening.The European Union formally appointed Herman Van Rempuy and Baroness Cathy Ashton as respectively president and

Hollywood, my love

2009-10-06T09:05:00.001+01:00

Hollywood, my loveFor you to weepIs the tragedy of forgotten wishingMy love, my loveFor you to weepIs the sorrow of Civilisation dying.The better for tomorrow

A letter to the tragic man

2009-09-24T17:36:00.005+01:00

Dear Gordon Brown,Thank you.You have displayed vanity and carelessness in dealing with the press, not great sins by any measure, but ones punishable by a great deal of booing.I like you. Your policies have been fair and well thought out except for the bit when you kept spending during boom time, mortgaged off our public services and introduced redistributive policies that buried more than they

Narrowness of Greenspan

2009-09-09T13:03:00.002+01:00

I find Greenspan's view so narrow. The idea of regulation is to admit human nature and guard against it with appropriate systems, doing this well and with balance is of course not easy, but he's essentially putting his hands up and saying "We're all greedy bastards so let's go fuck ourselves again. With chainsaws. And why not up the ass?"One aspect of regulation is that it limits the role of

An article by Naomi Klein

2009-07-31T09:32:00.002+01:00

John Bricks was the slipper on the lap dog of a puppy when economic ruin came and savaged his last gasp of heper winter. $250 billion dollars have caught this last gasp of chumzy weasle and left a hapless sergeant with choking gasp of pain.Governmental corporations built the sway side and no one was left to breath in Tanzania, Frurtania and other classless objectifiers given by society, the Queen

A BIG deal

2009-05-08T17:08:00.002+01:00

In time of economic, social and environmental disintegration the openness for exploring new ideas has never been more fertile. One of these, the basic income guarantee (BIG), has yet to make an impact on public stage and this article is an attempt to bring it and its benefits to a greater light. My own experience with BIG was as an undergraduate, where it formed the basis of my thesis in

Carbon capitualtion

2009-04-24T12:38:00.003+01:00

This is no new victory.We see a repeated retreat from wrong-headed thinking and advance again with more wrong-headed thinking.The Earth is being plundered, we've dug too much of it up so now we think it's a fantastic idea to bury our carbon. A solution, certainly, a postponement of tough decisions, though in itself something of great damage.To pump gas into disused oil and gas fields. Has anyone

A sober post

2009-04-22T15:13:00.001+01:00

There was funny time when Britain was doing really well, the economy was singing and Public Borrowing was still at 3.5%. This was about 2 years ago.I would like to see some figures on how much of the deficit is going where. A lot must be from falling tax receipts and rising benefits and there are some job creation schemes but a huge chunk of the rest must be from bank subsidies.This is entirely

Genius!

2009-04-08T14:35:00.001+01:00

"The G20 agreed to allow the IMF to create $250bn of Special Drawing Rights, its own currency, comprising dollars, euros, yen and sterling, boosting the foreign exchange reserves of every country. Most of this will go to the big economies, but poorer countries facing budgetary strains will gain new cash." [link]From the same article:"Only about $80bn will be going to all the middle-income and

Fluffy's take on the financial descent

2009-03-26T12:12:00.001Z

We're really falling now - yet to hit the bottom and this frightens the life out of policy makers.SURELY they must do something. SURELY!!!!They scream and so do the followers and counter-arguers and media. Oh the media! Whipping up a storm over a single gilt bond auction that was only slightly undersold and THEN the UK government reacts and backs away. Timid and uncertain.It's no problem being

Dear Dr Greenspan

2009-02-21T13:28:00.002Z

Dear Dr Greenspan,Thank you so much for your sincere and elegant autobiography, or rather your autobiography that shows you to be so elegant and sincere.Having studied Economics I had read a lot about you and drawn a number of conclusions, some of them perhaps not altogether savoury due to idealistic bias. Reading your book has taught me how often we project onto prominent characters those

Brown moaning

2009-01-19T14:27:00.002Z

This is strangeIn the same press conference Gordon Brown paints the consumer as the victim of irresponsible usury and the next as a desperate suckling in need of banks aid.Opening up the books is a punishment for previous naughtiness.Do banks operate in a vacuum?Or are the actions and desperate grabbing hands also to blame for the current crisis.Credit cards don't spend themselves.The banks greed

2008-12-15T12:14:00.003Z

The financial crisis is only one aspect of a much bigger systemic crisis that encompasses the social, financial and ecological crises, says Susan George and suggests radical reforms that would create more just wealth distribution while saving the economy and the environment: an environmental Keynesianism.Could Susan George and I be talking about the same thing?My point was from a slightly

Mathematics - the inelegant fool

2008-12-14T17:30:00.005Z

You'll notice that conceiving of economies as informational flows exposes the limits of mathematical procedure.To do so requires the fencing off of a proportion of the informational flow and then asking it to operate in a particular way (by means of a function).To be accurate the model needs to be correct in two ways.1) By describing the area of information fenced off - this can be done in very

Cones not castles

2008-12-14T12:17:00.005Z

Heyo - I'm playing around these days new conceptions of the economy.For the macro, micro and meso economy it's more important than ever to clear out the junk and set our ideas of how the world works with greater boldness and fortitude than we have hitherto.The time demands it. I can't call myself a brilliant theorist but use what intelligence I have to get heads thinking in a certain way to

The Environmental Shoe Horn

2008-12-09T23:20:00.003Z

A quick point before I shuffle off to bed.Climate change is such a stick thin end of the environmental debate. The ecological devastation wrought by the way we live - essentially because of the divoroce of demand from its consequences - is so much wider than carbon emissions.No doubt dumping billions of tonnes into the atmosphere hasn't helped Mother Gaia sustain her elegant balance but the way

Fluffy's World in 2025

2008-11-28T13:20:00.003Z

I've remembered where the last post started, but ended up somewhere quite different. To save you trawling through it - it argued that the necessary next step is a world federation, in order to avoid the clashing of rising world tensions.It's a truism that behind the most intense tension, lies the greatest possibility for peace.On a micro level, I'm arguing that the shift to increasingly

If this is the new era of state control, it will have a very different edge

2008-11-28T12:29:00.002Z

Could you have imagined the changes that are afoot, six or twelve months ago?Such is the scale of the collapse that the government has been forced to take an ever increasing role in the economy. Banks are no longer economic automatons but dealers in public interest. We'd gotten cocky about credit and it turns out it's a lifeline we cannot do without.It was always Keynes' argument that the state

The UK cultural revolution

2008-10-26T13:31:00.003Z

There are many who accuse the UK of being culturally in a slumber. Music produced is tired, post-modern rehashing of 80s, 60s, 70s or otherwise imported hip hop so violent and mysogonistic – in some misconceived version of a power display – it would make a suffragette blush. In art we relish the same rehashing – lauding puerile conconctions that resemble scientific propositions rather than

"Spending on productivity"

2008-10-23T13:56:00.003+01:00

"The peer said public spending that did not enhance productivity would push up inflation"Yo - spending has no relation to productivity. What matters is the structures and institutions this spending is channelled through AND their ability to change should the needs arise. Indeed sometimes we'd prefer them not to change.Education - doesn't need more spending, just more sensibly so - community-based

In need of a new Keynes

2008-10-23T12:26:00.002+01:00

Thanks to Anglefish for the ensuing flurry of opinion.He's been reading about Gordon Brown's "return" to Keynesianism. Without having read the article and basing the following on pure jingo I splutter:PPPPPPPPPHHHHHHWHAAAT!!!!!! (---tea --- biscuits - - - hitting your shirt).Let's get this clear. Keynesianism is the doctrine that one reigns in spending in good times and plumps it up in the bad.

Writing elsewhere

2008-10-23T00:32:00.001+01:00

Hi folks - you can see my freelance work here.It has an attached blog here.And the rest of my creative output is here.Soon to be here.End of plug.S

Fluffy's verdict on the financial crisis

2008-10-13T00:10:00.000+01:00

...it's going to get a whole lot worse for the better.The flee from capital invested in stocks and dodgy derivatives is not a temporary slip in trust - this is a systemic shift in how people use their money. With banks nationalised, hitherto profligate highly leveraged practics will no longer be possible, politicians will remind banks just how much they owe them (ie the public) their lives.Why

Reagan's acolytes

2008-09-30T10:50:00.002+01:00

Peter Morici, professor of business at the University of Maryland, said: "Things are going to get so bad something will have to be done in the next few weeks. Banks will sink, credit markets will seize, the economy will go into something much worse than a recession."The GuardianThe above article suggests that the Republicans rejected the bailout because it riled their beliefs in Reaganesque

Working in fair trade agriculture

2008-09-28T19:07:00.005+01:00

Thanks to Simon for inviting me to contribute some thoughts to his excellent blog. As my first post I'd like to share some thoughts on my experiences to date working with the Association of Organic Producers of Sangria (AOPS)*:For the uninitiated, Fair trade is an increasingly popular form of exchange, especially for buyers in Europe. It is managed by the Fair Trade Labelling Organization (FLO),

Lunchtime rambler

2008-09-26T13:06:00.004+01:00

I like this.It appears that when leaving a country it heightens the desire to give greater scrutiny to its politics. I never gave an election closer attention that that in 2005 when I lived in Canada and now newly arrived in Amsterdam, the blood is boiling again for some good old labour/tory swing around.David Edgar in the Guardian links the Tories 'broken society' campaign strategy with a long

Fiat Healing

2008-09-25T20:26:00.001+01:00

"The economy is not healing itself." *

It's the economy stupid

2008-09-23T23:30:00.000+01:00

"A recent study showed that more than 90 per cent of recent conflicts were resolved by mediation, not victory on the battlefield. And of course failure to generate durable peace agreements leads to a resumption, all too often, of war. Conflict costs Africa an estimated 18 billion dollars a year - a figure it can obviously ill afford as a region."Lord Malloch Brown, UK Foreign Office Minister,

FE kicks back

2008-09-13T01:29:00.003+01:00

In anticipation of a reboot of FE and the mouthwatering prospect of Anglefish joining the team. I thought I'd write a little on what FE is about.Erm......1) Economics means people dammit- Economics has a disastrous propensity to shred any and all humanity from its theorising. This is especially evident when using ita tools to make conclusions about people subjects. Cf Steven 'Freakonomics' Levitt

Social Enterprise

2006-10-13T12:35:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a long hop but finally I'm doing something vaguely computer-based that allows me a few moments on the old blog. One segment of my wonderfully whimsical graduate lifestyle is an internship for the Scottish Green Party and Edinburgh Cyrenians, looking into social enterprise and how charities can make the transition to social enterprise.For the uninitiated - which I was until most

Non-intervention would be nice...

2006-07-25T14:28:00.000+01:00

As Condi's heart-aching sympathies for "innocent people" - gloriously backed up by tacit support for the Israeli action - ring out around the world, Simon Jenkins has been calling for non-intervention as the way forward. He has peddled the same line on Iraq, and it's certainly persuasive. Constant meddling in Middle East affairs seems to have averted little and perhaps prolonged the crisis.I

Lebanon

2006-07-21T11:45:00.000+01:00

I cannot remember being surrounded in such a cloud of depression caused a world event as I am currently over the Lebanon situation. Israel's actions and rhetoric have been frightening, no less so than yesterday's comment from Amir Peretz: "Let no terror organisation feel we would cower from any operation," he said. "We have no intention of conquering Lebanon but... we will do it without thinking

How MDMA and Polanyi taught me the same thing

2006-06-15T21:30:00.000+01:00

Wow, it's been a fair time I've been away but it has not been spent idly. Not only was it too much to sit inside while the sun has been shining so heroically in the past weeks but I decided it was time for a few ideas to settle and develop. For those interested in the Edinburgh Festival, I have also been working like a badass with DK to get publicity up and running for the Bedlam Theatre. The

Round about

2006-06-14T19:27:00.000+01:00

Watching the World Cup, a friend wondered aloud just how much these kind of events cost industry. After a moment, I realised what was wrong with this, the standard view.People do not exist to provide human resources to industry. Leisure, culture and family are not, in the wide view, costs to business. Society is not something that should be hammered and bent until it accords to the shape of

Animal testing

2006-05-17T10:07:00.000+01:00

Blair supports Animal Testing, uses 'crisis' to tighten powers.I've got no more to comment on the issue. If you want my opinion go here, here and here. This will simply serve as a record for me and anyone who forgets just how many opportunities the man will take to deprive us of our liberties.

Constructing new men

2006-05-16T18:16:00.000+01:00

As a new writer for the Fluffy Economist, I thought I ought to set out some of the basics of my thinking, though it might help to know that my political co-ordinates are: -9.00, -7.54. You can read more of me at Bartlett’s Bizzare Bazaar, and, coming soon, The Sharpener.+++++“[W]hen we act, we create our own reality”; unnamed aide to President Bush, 2004.Like giants, ogres and gnomes, Homo

Andrew Bartlett on FE

2006-05-16T18:10:00.000+01:00

Hooray!A new writer hits the Fluffy Economist in the form of Andrew Bartlett of Bartlett's Bizarre Bazaar fame. His debut post is a cracker and should be up sooooooooon!

Carnival of Socialism #2

2006-05-16T14:51:00.000+01:00

Scrawled across the door of a much neglected toilet cubicle on the fourth floor of the Edinburgh University Library, nestling amongst "The English are all gay" and "The Scots are tight as Nun's etc." is a placid non-bigoted plea: "So, who's up for Socialism then?"Well this lot certainly are. I've been picked up by them for a post I wrote recently on the US democratic mission. There's some well

If only this were boring

2006-05-15T16:05:00.001+01:00

The carpet bombing of civil liberties and human rights continues with Blair calling for a 'rebalancing of the civil liberties debate'. I swear the man has go it in for me. The last exam of my university career is on Thursday and he has to make it his mission to destroy what I hold most dear before then. I've said all I can on the subject, felt enough grief to last beyond my exam. Here are some

Just what is that fucker's problem?

2006-05-14T21:47:00.000+01:00

RightsRt Hon TonyBlair has left human rights activists gasping with his latest pronouncement that the human rights act needs a 'radical overhaul'. Civil liberties campaigners were also delivered a round house when Blair criticised a judge's ruling as 'barmy'.TwatMr Blair, you are a twat. An extremely dangerous twat, but a twat you remain. Does it not strike you when you propose to harry, hassle

Leg Reg vote this week

2006-05-13T19:31:00.000+01:00

Amendments to the the Abolition of Parliament Bill get a reading on Monday and Tuesday (15th and 16th) of this week, but they're pretty much a mixed bag. Despite making a concession to maintain a veto in both the Commons and the Lords, Save the Parliament is not happy, arguing that the amendments still leave loopholes to allow Ministers to change legislation without recourse to Parliament.Over at

What let the terrorists through the net

2006-05-11T14:20:00.000+01:00

Inadequate resources have been blamed for the failure of the intelligence services to pursue the threat to the UK. The full report is notable for its complete absence of reference to the role of legislation in preventing the terrorist threat. This may have been outside their brief, but surely an important question is whether such legislation (e.g. Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, Terrorism Act

DK on oil and innovation

2006-05-09T23:13:00.000+01:00

I've got a few gems lined up for when I finish exams and the ensuing wallow in gallons of Harviston's Best. For now, head on to Devil's Kitchen which has some interesting thoughts on oil and its ability to constrain innovation in the countries that possess it. It was nice to be deflected from the Cochrane-Orcutt iterative procedure for a few moments. Best get back to it!

Just call him Giovanni

2006-05-07T23:08:00.000+01:00

As the Premiership season ends, and inquests into the outrageous Spurs food-poisoning incident begin, John Terry reminds us all of the benefits of cultural exchange (my emphasis):I think Luca Vialli was the first man to bring in [a focus on diets] at Chelsea. He brought in an Italian chef who's still there now - Nick. First of all the players were all, 'Oh, I can't eat this pasta - what's this

More on reshuffle

2006-05-05T12:27:00.000+01:00

'Mr Reid was said by No 10 to be "the right man to take over" from Mr Clarke'...who was the right man to finish the job. Hmmm.

Reshuffle: complete. Government: finished

2006-05-05T11:22:00.000+01:00

A cabinet reshuffle then, hot off the press, just 30 mins ago. So what's the news?LosersClarke's off to the backbenches - hooray!Prescott - "stripped of his brief" - a sad day for the 'true left'Straw - now Leader of the Commons - the traditional resting place for a weary foreign secretary, especially one with a point to prove vis-a-vis Iran.Kelly - quietly goes away.Brown, G - not consulted (and

Golden Colbert

2006-05-03T17:39:00.000+01:00

I was a little slow to pick on this, but, via Sonia's new blog, comes an absolute gem from the Daily Show's Steven Colbert, who used the annual White House Correspondent's Dinner to slam Dubya's regime and its subservient press. From the outset, Colbert was sparkling:Wow, wow, what an honor. The White House Correspondents' Dinner. To just sit here, at the same table with my hero, George W. Bush,

The Sharpener - know what they like!

2006-05-03T15:00:00.000+01:00

The Sharpener was relaunched on May 1st, and will undoubtedly be a valuable resource in the battle against ignorance we wage each day. It has an excellent team of writers and has already shown its erudite discernment and superb credentials even in this short space of time.PS This has nothing, absolutely nothing, to them linking to me in their sidebar.

Ahahahahahahaha

2006-05-03T14:34:00.000+01:00

hahahahahahahahahahaha! (via Bondwoman)

Six degrees of blogging

2006-05-03T12:10:00.000+01:00

Coffee and PC is attempting to get to Oscar Wildebeest in no more than six blog links. However, the bloggers had to have met in the flesh. The route has gone through Tim Worstall to Devils Kitchen with whom I am well acquainted. I can get you to: Fire On the Lifeboat, Trashbat and via Hesq you can get to Inthecompanyofus.If Myspace counts, I can get you to Charlie Calleja - which I suggest you

Clarke - fuckwit

2006-05-03T11:37:00.000+01:00

Pssst...Jug-ears, you tried the tougher law thing before. Didn't work out too good did it? So what do you propose to solve you shambles of an office? Hmm? More tough laws! Genius, that way we won't think it failed in the first place.

AUT latest

2006-05-03T11:19:00.000+01:00

The AUT 'action short of a strike' at St. Andrews looks like it is drawing to a close. It is reported that the union and the University have agreed to a new pay deal which is being put to members this week.Something also seems to be stirring in Edinburgh with 'further guidance to be issued at the end of this week'. It does not seem like a resolution is close, however, with merely the promise of

Name your coordinates!

2006-05-02T21:03:00.000+01:00

There is much on the blogosphere on the inadequacy of the right/left labels, which is odd because us bloggers throw the terms around like a rubber cock at a hen party.One solution to this dilemma comes from Phil Edwards (hat tip: Charlie Whitaker) who proposes an ingenious scale which brands me a Pelagian Digger Right-Hegelian Whig - a PDRHW, although I've a tendency to be PDLHW at times.Another

Heidi hits the blogosphere

2006-05-02T20:57:00.000+01:00

If Heidi's blog is as good as its first post suggests, we're in for a treat.

Fluffballs #1

2006-05-02T20:16:00.002+01:00

We say:"The notion of the Economy has become so abstract that we cannot conceive of what it means for it to grow, shrink or stagnate - only follow programmed responses to each of these outcomes."They say:"[Benjamin] Friedman makes a powerful argument that—-politically and sociologically-—modern societies are like bicycles. As we all know, the laws of physics (specifically the conservation of

Save The Parliament!

2006-05-02T20:06:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Fourth Place for giving me the shiny button for SaveTheParliament.co.uk. It's a campaign dedicated to informing us about the Abolition of Parliament Bill, a frequent topic of this blog.If you want one for yourself, here's the code: