Category Archives: Economics

César Hidalgo, WHY INFORMATION GROWS

Posted on Monday 4 November 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies” (Basic Books, 2015, xxi + 232 pp, including 51pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index) A few weeks ago I sat down to read the new Yuval Noah Harari book, NEXUS, and … Continue reading →

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Capitulating: Obeying in Advance

Posted on Saturday 26 October 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Reactions to the withheld endorsements for president by LAT and WaPo from Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, and John Scalzi; John Kelly’s definition of fascism; How the working class is so concerned about inflation, focusing only on their own personal … Continue reading →

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The Real Trump Mystery, and My Explanation

Posted on Friday 27 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Thomas B. Edsall on The Real Trump Mystery, and how base human nature explains this; Fareed Zakaria on how Trump’s economic ideas would stunt growth and spur inflation; Because Trump doesn’t understand money; Short items about Roseanne Barr accusing Democrats … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Economics, Human Nature, Politics, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on The Real Trump Mystery, and My Explanation

Utopias, Dystopias, and Tribalism

Posted on Monday 23 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Follow-up to yesterday’s topic about utopias and dystopias, and Star Trek; How Trump and Vance have no idea about the reasons for Obamacare; Robert Reich on how Trump appeals to base hatefulness; Charles M. Blow on Trump’s bigger agenda; And … Continue reading →

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Alarmism About Culture

Posted on Thursday 19 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A disgruntled French intellectual on “deculturation” sounds a lot like MAGA; Shorter items about how a mother died due to Georgia’s abortion ban; how conservatives see everything they don’t like is a judgement from their God; how Trump supporters are … Continue reading →

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Stories Are Not Evidence

Posted on Wednesday 18 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How the right “creates stories” to support their worldview (i.e. they’re all about motivated reasoning); Paul Krugman on Trump, tariffs, Stalin, and Lysenko; Items about DeSantis cheating and which party is the party of violence; Items about a brain fever … Continue reading →

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The Need for a Fantasy Past

Posted on Sunday 28 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

There are two problems with MAGA. First, it’s regressive in that it’s trying to reimpose primitive tribal values onto a complex, global world. Second, more practically, it’s simply not possible to return to conditions of the past. Today’s items: Why … Continue reading →

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Inherent Ignorance; Juneteenth; Republican schemes about tariffs.

Posted on Wednesday 19 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Another three tracks for today. Are some people so ignorant that they believe the creation of the world (and the US) happened 2023 years ago? An example from Facebook. How Juneteenth suggests considering the relationship between MAGA and the Old … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Economics, History | Comments Off on Inherent Ignorance; Juneteenth; Republican schemes about tariffs.

How Humanity is Hobbled by Tribalism

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I do have a general scheme in work, for which all of these items are supporting evidence. (And how this really does relate to science fiction.) A rogue GOP congressman who spouts unsupported conspiracy theories; How RFK Jr. supporters rationalize … Continue reading →

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Necessary Stories, and Most of the Others

Posted on Tuesday 26 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

About this morning’s Baltimore bridge collapse, and the right-wing conspiracy-theory accusations about it; Paul Krugman on how Republicans want to bring down Obamacare to support their notion that the government can never do good things; And a Doonesbury cartoon about … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Economics, Lunacy, Narrative | Comments Off on Necessary Stories, and Most of the Others