Category: Government

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Kevin Carson: How Much of the Economy is Friction?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Kevin Carson

How Much of the Economy is Friction?

Charles Hugh Smith raises the question of how much of the U.S. economy consists of the actual output of goods and services, versus the friction entailed in producing them.  As a small example, he cites a physicians’ group that includes ten doctors — and twelve billing clerks.

That’s the general subject of a research paper I did for Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS), The Political Economy of Waste.

The larger and more hierarchical institutions become, and the more centralized the economic system, the larger the total share of production that will go to overhead, administration, waste, and the cost of doing business.  The reasons are structural and geometrical.

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Ronnie Reprise: Hard Reality – Lower Cost of Living!

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Public? What Public?

My ghost is here to tell Americans that we need to start tightening our belts and lowering the cost of living.

The Downside of Adversarial Approaches to Conflict

This is another example of how the two-party adversarial system prevents necessary change. Both parties make it impossible for the other party to talk common sense. Which ever party first brings up belt-tightening will be attacked by the other party for temporary advantage. There would be mantras like: “The other party wants you to believe the American dream is dead. They want you to start revising your dreams downward. That kind of pessimism can only lead America down the road to ruin.”

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Reference: French Take on CIA Open Source Center

07 Other Atrocities, Articles & Chapters, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

Note:  Use Google translate for a readable but ugly English version that in some cases flips meaning.  Where the French is translated as “bastard” the original English quote offered up “runt.”

Les espions s’ouvrent au public

OWNI France, 10 novembre 2011

Au début du mois et pour la première fois de son histoire, la CIA a ouvert les portes de son centre dédié à l’étude des sources ouvertes, localisé en Virginie. Seule invitée, la journaliste d’Associated Press, Kimberly Dozier. Elle a ainsi pu décrire [en] le fonctionnement de l’Open Source Center (OSC)[en], et de ses activités depuis 2005 consistant à analyser en profondeur “les sources ouvertes”.

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Mini-Me: ALL Candidates Fail Economics 101

Corruption, Government, Misinformation & Propaganda
Who? Mini-Me?

Are they stupid? Probably not. So this is a simple matter of lacking the integrity to do the homework, tell the truth, and be realistic. In other words, US politics as usual, all illusion and ideology, neither intelligence nor integrity.

Campaign promises they dismiss as either impossible or economically disastrous:
    • bringing back $2 a gallon gas.
    • sustained 5% GDP growth
    • balance the budget with lower tax revenues
    • returning to the gold standard
    • a trade war with China
    • a flat tax
    • Obama's green jobs initiative (unlikely to create jobs)

2012 candidates slip on Econ 101

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Every 2012 contender attended college. They all graduated. They went to schools like the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Texas A&M, Morehouse, Penn State and Emory.

But decades have passed since these Presidential candidates first stepped onto campus as freshmen. Is it time for an Econ 101 refresher course?

America's Econ 101 professors say yes. In their view, the candidates continue to offer ideas and policies that wouldn't pass muster in their classes — populated by 18 year-old college students.

“There are so many economic ‘misstatements' being made,” said Jonathan Lanning, a professor at Bryn Mawr who is teaching two introductory economics classes this semester. “And it isn't confined to any one candidate.”

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