A depressing read for someone who thinks libraries and other public goods, help strengthen communities. We'll publish a @whatworksgrowth.bsky.socialwww.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Deprived communities lost more libraries since 2016 than richer areas did, the BBC finds
I've not posted much on here before, because I've thought the site a little too grown-up for me. But anyway, here's something I wrote on why Labour talks so much rubbish about the economy: stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...
Many of us are frustrated by Labour's stupid economic talk of "black holes", spending "money we didn't have" and likening the public finances to those of a household; the latest idiocy (as I write) be...
In which I argue that you would achieve more if you spend a day doing a temp-job and donate the wages to a campaign than it would spending that day going on a demo in support of the same campaign. medium.com/@pauliewauli...
I few of my recent posts have danced around a minor heresy that I promote. I’ve never heard the logical arguments against it, and I have a…
It's memory-holed now, but reading archival, media or literary sources from the 1970s it is striking how US, EEC and Japanese societies sapped by stagflation, oil crisis, decaying cities and terrorism were not at all confident that they were outpacing the Brezhnev-era USSR.
I'm shocked, shocked, to learn that companies don't maximize profits, that they re not meritocracies, and that wages don't equal marginal product.
Have you read Martin Hagglund's This Life? (If not, do). He shows that once you ask how to spend your time you start to really resent having to work - which persuaded me to retire.
True. Silent Night shouldn't be played on an organ; it's too delicate for such a thumping instrument. It was written on a guitar, AFAIK one of the few carols to have been.
The best Christmas carol is Silent Night, and it's not even close. Worst is O Come All Ye Faithful - dirge of a tune with one of the worst lyrics ever (Lo he abhors not the virgin's womb).
TEACHING NOTE: E.P. Thompson & "The Making of the English Working Class" Alas! I am a.s. never going to assign Thompson again to students; so what should I do when I find myself running a background process that plots out a course-readings teaching note?... 1/
Alas! I am a.s. never going to assign Thompson again to students; so what should I do when I find myself running a background process that plots out a course-readings teaching note?...
One of Charlie Munger's many pieces of wisdom was the importance of knowing the edge of one's competency. This is lacking in many of the talking heads on current affairs shows. But then, as Munger also said, "show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome."