Lord Keynes — Trump versus the Neoconservatives

Finally, this point is crucial: the victory of Trump (even with his gung-ho, loud-mouth views on some aspects of foreign policy such as Iran or Ukraine) is a savage blow to Neoconservatism. Trump will return to a more traditional, realist US foreign policy. As bad as that might be, it is not as bad as the unhinged Neoconservative policy agenda that has been highly influential in the US government since 2001.

Social Democracy For The 21St Century: A Post Keynesian Perspective
Trump versus the Neoconservatives
Lord Keynes

The downside:

The US Republican Front Runners: All in Favour of Torture!

Fiona Macdonald — Russian Researcher Illegally Shares Millions of Science Papers Free Online

Welcome to the Pirate Bay of science

A researcher in Russia has made more than 48 million journal articles - almost every single peer-reviewed paper every published - freely available online. And she's now refusing to shut the site down, despite a court injunction and a lawsuit from Elsevier, one of the world's biggest publishers.

For those of you who aren't already using it, the site in question is Sci-Hub, and it's sort of like a Pirate Bay of the science world. It was established in 2011 by neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan, who was frustrated that she couldn't afford to access the articles needed for her research, and it's since gone viral, with hundreds of thousands of papers being downloaded daily. But at the end of last year, the site was ordered to be taken down by a New York district court - a ruling that Elbakyan has decided to fight, triggering a debate over who really owns science.

"Payment of $32 is just insane when you need to skim or read tens or hundreds of these papers to do research. I obtained these papers by pirating them,"Elbakyan told Torrent Freak last year. "Everyone should have access to knowledge regardless of their income or affiliation. And that’s absolutely legal. 

Russia Insider

Russian Researcher Illegally Shares Millions of Science Papers Free Online
Fiona Macdonald

David F. Ruccio — What do capitalists earn?

Yesterday, I asked the question, who are the capitalists? My answer was, they’re the tiny group of people (4500 or so individuals) who sit on the boards of directors of the nation’s largest corporations.

I also argued, capitalists appropriate, but don’t keep, the surplus. Instead, as members of corporate boards, they receive a small fee for attending meetings. They distribute the surplus to others, both inside and outside the enterprise.

Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, that seems to be changing. More and more capitalists are distributing to themselves shares of the surplus.…

Occasional Links & Commentary
What do capitalists earn?
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Joe Mellor — VIDEO – “Put on a proper suit!” PM Chooses to Abuse Corbyn at PMQs

David Cameron pulls (class) rank, talks to Jeremy Corbyn like a school boy about his dress.

The London Economic 

VIDEO – “Put on a proper suit!” PM Chooses to Abuse Corbyn at PMQs
Joe Mellor

Why Minsky Matters and Boom Bust Boom

Brian Romanchuk — Money As Debt: A Visual Post-Script

Bond Economics
Money As Debt: A Visual Post-Script
Brian Romanchuk

Bill Mitchell — The British Monetarist infestation

I have been on the search for historical turning points again today. The famous Mitterand austerity turn in 198Z is one of these points. Another, which I will consider today, was the British Labour Prime Minster James Callaghan’s speech to Labour Party Conference held at Blackpool on September 28, 1976 was laced with pro-Monetarist assertions that have been used by many on the Left as being defining points in the decline of the state to run independent domestic policy aimed at maintaining full employment. This is a further instalment of my next book on globalisation and the capacities of the nation-state, which I am working on with Italian journalist Thomas Fazi. We expect to finalise the manuscript in May 2016. Today, I am writing about the background events that turned Britain on to Monetarism. Margaret Thatcher was, in fact, a ‘johnny-come-lately’ in this respect. The British Labour Party were infested with the Monetarist virus in the late 1960s and Callaghan’s 1976 Speech just consolidated what had been happening over the decade prior. Further, it was not the oil crisis in the early 1970s that provided the open door for governments to reject Keynesian policy. In Britain, the Treasury and Bank of England were captivated by the ideas of Milton Friedman some years prior to the OPEC price push.…

Uncle Miltie again. And, no, that's not Milton Berle.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The British Monetarist infestation
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Trump's Commitment to Israel

Because Trump will not accept their munnie, they will never trust Trump's commitment. Many remaining ignorant of the concept of unmerited favor (as likewise 'debt-free money').

Sheldon Adelson―who distrusts Trump's commitment to Israel―nonetheless rejected appeals from anti-Trump super PACs. https://t.co/3NHLpzOShd

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) February 24, 2016

Never will they be able to just take Trump at his mere word as here:

TRUMP'S PROMISE: "But if I win, Israel WILL be protected. That I can tell you." https://t.co/wHejf50DYa pic.twitter.com/cCKoxiPBz2

— slone (@slone) February 21, 2016

Manifest ignorance of grace being illustrated within mankind.

Good Sign

Not bad news at least:

"Pat Robertson discussed Simpson-Bowles w/Trump. @realDonaldTrump had no idea what he was talking about.Kept pivoting to jobs @cherokeesher2

— Joseph L. Jefferson (@joselouis4077) February 24, 2016

Trump allegedly ignorant on Simpleton-Bowels... er, I mean Simpson-Bowles; and instead focused on domestic employment.

telesur — Podemos Walks Away from 'Incompatible' Deal with Socialists

Spain could go without a government for several more months after talks broke down when Podemos, or We Can, canceled negotiations with the Socialist Party on Wednesday.…

telesur
Podemos Walks Away from 'Incompatible' Deal with Socialists

BBC News — IMF warns the global economy is "highly vulnerable"

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the global economy has weakened further and warned it was "highly vulnerable to adverse shocks".

It said the weakening had come "amid increasing financial turbulence and falling asset prices".

BBC News
IMF warns the global economy is "highly vulnerable"

Is Donald Trump a Populist? Or is he just popular? — Isaac Chotiner Interviews Michael Kazin

Backgrounder.

Slate
Is Donald Trump a Populist? Or is he just popular?
Isaac Chotiner Interviews Michael Kazin

Brendan Gauthier — Sanders vs. the CIA: In 1974, Bernie called the agency “a dangerous institution that has got to go”

Bernie Sanders, during a 1974 speech in Vermont as candidate for U.S. Senate on the anti-Vietnam War Liberty Union Party ticket, called the CIA “a dangerous institution that has got to go,” according to a Politico report.

Sanders’ criticism stemmed from the CIA-sponsored 1953 coup to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. Mosaddeq’s ouster followed his efforts to nationalize what’s now British Petroleum — in direct conflict with British and U.S. economic interests.

According to the report:

“[Sanders] described the agency as a tool of American corporate interests that repeatedly toppled democratically elected leaders — including, he said, Iran’s Mosaddegh. The agency was accountable to no one, he fumed, ‘except right-wing lunatics who use it to prop up fascist dictatorships.'”

As Politico notes, Sanders’ even-more-radical early (he was 33 years old in 1974) political stances are ripe for mudslinging (in the primary against a center-left establishment Democrat and, even more so, in a general election against any one of the trash-talking GOP-ers).

Indeed, the Clinton camp is already running with the soundbite.

“Abolishing the CIA in the 1970s would have unilaterally disarmed America during the height of the Cold War and at a time when terrorist networks across the Middle East were gaining strength,” said Clinton adviser Jeremy Bash. “If this is a window into Sanders’ thinking, it reinforces the conclusion that he’s not qualified to be commander in chief.”

"The CIA has got to go" are the magic words. It's Clinton who is not qualified to be the commander-in-chief if she disagrees with Bernie on that. abolishing the CIA bank then would have spared the world the debacle it has wrought ever since. Millions would not have died, been maimed, and displaced.

Salon
Sanders vs. the CIA: In 1974, Bernie called the agency “a dangerous institution that has got to go”
Brendan Gauthier

Libby Nelson — Nearly 20 percent of Trump’s supporters disapprove of Lincoln freeing the slaves

I don't think that this is necessarily a reflection on Trump as on the collective mindset of the US.

The New York Times took a dive into whether Donald Trump's supporters are unusually racist — or, in the newspaper's delicate phrasing, "responsive to religious, social and racial intolerance." And they came up with a stunning statistic: Nearly one in five Trump supporters didn't approve of freeing slaves in the Confederacy.

A YouGov/Economist poll in January asked respondents if they approved or disapproved of "the executive order that freed all slaves in the states that were in rebellion against the federal government."

That executive order is better known as the Emancipation Proclamation. Thirteen percent of respondents — and "nearly 20 percent of Trump supporters," the Times reports, compared with 5 percent of Marco Rubio's — said they disapproved of it.

It gets even worse. An additional 17 percent of respondents said they weren't sure.…

VOX
Nearly 20 percent of Trump’s supporters disapprove of Lincoln freeing the slaves

Libby Nelson

What Is Calculus and Why do we Study it?

From an MIT site. Its all important but some is bold for emphasis.

1.2 What Is Calculus and Why do we Study it? 

Calculus is the study of how things change. It provides a framework for modeling systems in which there is change, and a way to deduce the predictions of such models. 

I have been around for a while, and know how things change, more or less. What can calculus add to that? 

I am sure you know lots about how things change. And you have a qualitative notion of calculus. For example the concept of speed of motion is a notion straight from calculus, though it surely existed long before calculus did and you know lots about it. 

So what does calculus add for me? 

It provides a way for us to construct relatively simple quantitative models of change, and to deduce their consequences. 

To what end? 

With this you get the ability to find the effects of changing conditions on the system being investigated. By studying these, you can learn how to control the system to do make it do what you want it to do. Calculus, by giving engineers and you the ability to model and control systems gives them (and potentially you) extraordinary power over the material world. The development of calculus and its applications to physics and engineering is probably the most significant factor in the development of modern science beyond where it was in the days of Archimedes. And this was responsible for the industrial revolution and everything that has followed from it including almost all the major advances of the last few centuries. 

Are you trying to claim that I will know enough about calculus to model systems and deduce enough to control them? 

If you had asked me this question ten years ago I would have said no. Now it is within the realm of possibility, for some non-trivial systems, with your use of your laptop or desk computer. 

OK, but how does calculus models change? What is calculus like? 

The fundamental idea of calculus is to study change by studying "instantaneous" change, by which we mean changes over tiny intervals of time.

It appears none of these principles are followed by the academe of economics.

For instance, so how is the idea of creating a variable T, which is in itself an ex post accounting result as it is "taxes net of xfers" in consonance with the fundamental idea of calculus which is to study INSTANTANEOUS change?

Philip Kirby — Leading People 2016 [UK]

In the UK, class status and privilege begins in networks formed in schools that only the children of the privileged attend. Only 7% of the population attends these select school and it is disproportionally represented in the professions.

The Sutton Trust
Leading People 2016
Philip Kirby

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria

Must-read. A tale of intrigue and perfidy necessary to understand the background of the situation in the Middle East post WWII.

Revealing. How Washington, beginning in 1949, plotted to overthrow governments and create jihadism — Ike actually used the term "holy war"— to exclude Soviet influence and gain control of petroleum resources.

A choice piece:

A charismatic young murderer named Saddam Hussein was one of the distinguished leaders of the CIA’s Ba’athist team. The Ba’ath Party’s Secretary, Ali Saleh Sa’adi, who took office alongside Saddam Hussein, would later say, “We came to power on a CIA train,” according to A Brutal Friendship: The West and the Arab Elite, by Said Aburish, a journalist and author. Aburish recounted that the CIA supplied Saddam and his cronies a murder list of people who “had to be eliminated immediately in order to ensure success.” Tim Weiner writes that Critchfield later acknowledged that the CIA had, in essence, “created Saddam Hussein.”…

At the same time, the CIA was illegally supplying Saddam’s enemy, Iran, with thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to fight Iraq, a crime made famous during the Iran-Contra scandal.…

Fast forward:

…our war against Bashar Assad did not begin with the peaceful civil protests of the Arab Spring in 2011. Instead it began in 2000, when Qatar proposed to construct a $10 billion, 1,500 kilometer pipeline through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Qatar shares with Iran the South Pars/North Dome gas field, the world’s richest natural gas repository. The international trade embargo until recently prohibited Iran from selling gas abroad. Meanwhile, Qatar’s gas can reach European markets only if it is liquefied and shipped by sea, a route that restricts volume and dramatically raises costs. The proposed pipeline would have linked Qatar directly to European energy markets via distribution terminals in Turkey, which would pocket rich transit fees. The Qatar/Turkey pipeline would give the Sunni kingdoms of the Persian Gulf decisive domination of world natural gas markets and strengthen Qatar, America’s closest ally in the Arab world. Qatar hosts two massive American military bases and the U.S. Central Command’s Mideast headquarters.…

Of course, the Russians, who sell 70 percent of their gas exports to Europe, viewed the Qatar/Turkey pipeline as an existential threat. In Putin’s view, the Qatar pipeline is a NATO plot to change the status quo, deprive Russia of its only foothold in the Middle East, strangle the Russian economy and end Russian leverage in the European energy market. In 2009, Assad announced that he would refuse to sign the agreement to allow the pipeline to run through Syria “to protect the interests of our Russian ally.”
Assad further enraged the Gulf’s Sunni monarchs by endorsing a Russian-approved “Islamic pipeline” running from Iran’s side of the gas field through Syria and to the ports of Lebanon. The Islamic pipeline would make Shiite Iran, not Sunni Qatar, the principal supplier to the European energy market and dramatically increase Tehran’s influence in the Middke East and the world. Israel also was understandably determined to derail the Islamic pipeline, which would enrich Iran and Syria and presumably strengthen their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria.…

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Read the whole thing.

The conclusion:

But, if we are to have an effective foreign policy, we must recognize the Syrian conflict is a war over control of resources indistinguishable from the myriad clandestine and undeclared oil wars we have been fighting in the Mideast for 65 years. And only when we see this conflict as a proxy war over a pipeline do events become comprehensible. It’s the only paradigm that explains why the GOP on Capitol Hill and the Obama administration are still fixated on regime change rather than regional stability, why the Obama administration can find no Syrian moderates to fight the war, why ISIL blew up a Russian passenger plane, why the Saudis just executed a powerful Shiite cleric only to have their embassy burned in Tehran, why Russia is bombing non-ISIL fighters and why Turkey went out of its way to shoot down a Russian jet. The million refugees now flooding into Europe are refugees of a pipeline war and CIA blundering.…

Politico.eu
Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Sputnik — Socialism 'More Popular Than Capitalism' With Brits, Germans, US Youth

One is home to Europe's financial services hub, one was split between economic ideologies for decades, while the other is known as the capitalist beacon of the world, however a new poll has found Britons, Germans and young Americans view socialism more favorably than capitalism.…

Sputnik

Socialism 'More Popular Than Capitalism' With Brits, Germans, US Youth

Sputnik — All About Russia After All: Washington’s Vow of No New Arms Race Exposed

While the Obama administration insists that its $1 trillion plan to upgrade America’s nuclear weapon stockpiles is not in any way aimed at deterring Russian “aggression,” language in the new defense budget proves otherwise….

Sputnik
All About Russia After All: Washington’s Vow of No New Arms Race Exposed

Sputnik — Top Secret: New WikiLeaks Release Exposes Most Highly Classified Intel Yet

In what they are calling “the most classified documents ever released by a news organization,” WikiLeaks announced the publication of cables marked “Top Secret” on Tuesday, detailing National Security Agency surveillance of foreign leaders.…

Sputnik
Top Secret: New WikiLeaks Release Exposes Most Highly Classified Intel Yet

Spiegel — Lying Press? Germans Lose Faith in the Fourth Estate

Germans are losing faith in their media. Nowhere is this more apparent than in mistrust of refugee crisis media coverage. Where did journalists go wrong? And how much of this skepticism reflects a preference for rumors over facts?

Spiegel Online
Lying Press? Germans Lose Faith in the Fourth Estate
Staff

Reuters — Obama considering Nevada’s Republican governor for Supreme Court

WTF

Raw Story
Obama considering Nevada’s Republican governor for Supreme Court
Reuters

Robert Parry — Sanders the ‘Realist’; Hillary the ‘Neocon’

Sen. Sanders finds himself on the defensive in his uphill primary fight against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in part because he shies away from defining himself as a “realist” and asking if she is a “neocon,” writes Robert Parry.

If Bernie Sanders doesn't do this, Donald Trump will.

Consortium News
Sanders the ‘Realist’; Hillary the ‘Neocon’

Robert Parry

The Saker — Week twenty of the Russian military intervention in Syria: a ceasefire and yet another huge victory for Russia

The recent agreement between the USA and Russia really solves nothing, it does not even end the war, and both sides are expressing a great deal of caution about its future implementation. And yet, this is a huge victory for Russia. While it is too early to say that “the Russian won in Syria”, I think that it is now fair to say that the Russian position on Syria has won. Here is why:….

The Vineyard of the Saker
Week twenty of the Russian military intervention in Syria: a ceasefire and yet another huge victory for Russia
The Saker

Jon Schwarz — Top GOP Pollster Frank Lunz: Young Americans Are Terrifyingly Liberal

According to new polling by right-wing political consultant Frank Luntz, Americans 18 to 26 are extremely liberal — so liberal that “the hostility of young Americans to the underpinnings of the American economy and the American government” should “frighten every business and political leader” and “excite activists for Sanders and, to a lesser degree, Clinton activists.”

Luntz’s poll found that young Americans are optimistic about both the country’s future and their own: 61% say the best days of the United States are still ahead of us rather than behind us, and 88% are somewhat, very or extremely optimistic about their economic prospects. But they have concerns, too. Their biggest, in order, are “corruption,” “greed” and “inequality.”…

The Intercept 

Top GOP Pollster: Young Americans Are Terrifyingly Liberal
Jon Schwarz

Progrowth Liberal — The Sanders Fiscal Stimulus and Verdoon’s Law

I have been saying Team Bernie needs to hire economists to model out the economic effects of his policy proposals. This Verdoon effect might be something worth exploring.

Econospeak
The Sanders Fiscal Stimulus and Verdoon’s Law

Progrowth Liberal

John Helmer — MH17 – DUTCH PROSECUTOR OPENS DOUBT ON MH17 EVIDENCE

Dutch government prosecutors investigating the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 have reported that secret US satellite intelligence they have been shown cannot be used in evidence in a prosecution in an international or Dutch court, and that no evidence is currently available to charge anyone for the crime of firing on the aircraft, killing the 298 passengers and crew on board. The report, in the form of a 5-page letter addressed to families of the victims was signed by Fred Westerbeke, the Dutch official in charge of the investigation, and mailed last week.

Yesterday the Australian government, whose federal police are participating with the Dutch in the criminal investigation, dissociated itself from the contents and conclusions of the Dutch government letter, despite the claim on the signature line by Westerbeke that he was reporting “on behalf of the Joint Investigation Team [comprising] Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine and Netherlands”.

The Dutch letter has not been sent to Denise Kenke, daughter of Willem Grootscholten, one of the Dutch passengers killed on MH17. To date, she is the only MH17 family member to launch a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights or in any other court in Europe. She is charging the Ukraine Government with culpable negligence. The court has placed a secrecy order on the Kenke case; reassigned the judges on the case; and refused to hear evidence on the charges against Ukraine.

Westerbeke has told the selected recipients of his report there is “no video or film footage available from launch or trajectory of the missile”. He implies the investigators have now concluded that widely published photographs of the launch and the missile contrail in the sky are unreliable or false….

Dances with Bears
MH17 – DUTCH PROSECUTOR OPENS DOUBT ON MH17 EVIDENCE

John Helmer

James Allworth — How the Apple/FBI Fight Risks the Whole U.S. Tech Industry

Trust.

Harvard Business Review — HBR Blog Network
How the Apple/FBI Fight Risks the Whole U.S. Tech Industry

James Allworth | Director of Strategy for Medallia, Inc

Gerald Friedman — Black Students Matter: Why Sanders Is Winning Young Voters

Horace Mann and John Dewey understood that universal public education is essential for a functioning democracy. Their successors built public university systems open to all to promote democracy and an efficient and fair economy. But this vision has been forgotten, and crushing fees and tuition now close public higher education to far too many. African Americans, especially, suffer because centuries of slavery and discrimination have denied them the family wealth to send children to college. We risk losing another generation to poverty by denying young people the education to compete for the productive and high paying jobs in a rapidly changing, high tech economy.…

The D&S Blog
Black Students Matter: Why Sanders Is Winning Young Voters
Gerald Friedman, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Mark Paul, a graduate student in Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Marc Chandler — What is Fair in Today's Global Economy?

There are many meanings of "fairness," leading to yet another paradox of liberalism.

Economy Watch
What is Fair in Today's Global Economy?
Marc Chandler | Head of Global Currency Strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman