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YouTube -- Praxeology: Episode 20 - Entrepreneurship

'Workers accept lower wages for certainty. Entrepreneurs accept uncertainty for the opportunity to make higher wages (profits).'

praxeology humanaction entrepreneurship markets "capitalism"
8 weeks ago by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Praxgirl: Praxeology - Episode 18: The Market
praxeology humanaction voluntaryism markets "capitalism"
february 2012 by adamcrowe

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The Rational Optimist -- The market as the antidote to capitalism / The Times -- Yes, capitalism has failed

'The political divide between the champions of the public sector and the private sector misses the point; the key divide is between those who support the monopolistic tendencies of both capitalism and government, and those who support the competitive effects of markets. As Adam Smith, who championed the market but not capitalism, put it: “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” The market is where these conspiracies get exposed. To win in it, you don’t lobby, you innovate. Wherever free markets have been even tentatively tried, from Ancient Greece to modern Hong Kong, they have produced not just rising living standards, but net moves towards peace, tolerance, freedom and equality. Capitalism represents the interests of the rich, whereas the market represents the interests of the poor. Let’s hear it for the market as the antidote to capitalism.'

markets "capitalism" rentseeking mercantilism statism discourse
december 2011 by adamcrowe

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Foreign Policy -- The Shadow Superpower by Robert Neuwirth

'You probably have never heard of System D. Neither had I until I started visiting street markets and unlicensed bazaars around the globe. It used to be that System D was small -- a handful of market women selling a handful of shriveled carrots to earn a handful of pennies. It was the economy of desperation. But as trade has expanded and globalized, System D has scaled up too. Today, System D is the economy of aspiration. It is where the jobs are. By 2020, the OECD projects, two-thirds of the workers of the world will be employed in System D. There's no multinational, no Daddy Warbucks or Bill Gates, no government that can rival that level of job creation. Given its size, it makes no sense to talk of development, growth, sustainability, or globalization without reckoning with System D. The total value of System D as a global phenomenon is close to $10 trillion. Which makes for another astonishing revelation. If System D were an independent nation, united in a single political structure -- call it the United Street Sellers Republic (USSR) or, perhaps, Bazaaristan -- it would be an economic superpower, the second-largest economy in the world (the United States, with a GDP of $14 trillion, is numero uno). In other words, System D looks a lot like the future of the global economy.'

daemon agorism markets resilience retribalization
november 2011 by adamcrowe

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Excerpts from an Oral History: Interview with Steve Jobs (1995)

'I'm a very big believer in equal opportunity as opposed to equal outcome. I don't believe in equal outcome because unfortunately life's not like that. The market competition model seems to indicate that where there is a need there is a lot of providers willing to tailor their products to fit that need and a lot of competition which forces them to get better and better. I used to think when I was in my twenties that technology was the solution to most of the world's problems, but unfortunately it just ain't so. The majority of people in this country want to turn on a television and turn off their brain, and that’s what they get. That’s far more depressing than a conspiracy. Conspiracies are much more fun than the truth of the matter, which is that the vast majority of the public are pretty mindless most of the time. It is so much more hopeful to think that technology can solve the problems that are more human and more organizational and more political in nature, and it ain't so. We need to attack these things at the root, which is people and how much freedom we give people, the competition that will attract the best people. Unfortunately, there are side effects, like pushing out a lot of 46 year old teachers who lost their spirit fifteen years ago and shouldn't be teaching anymore. I feel very strongly about this.'

SteveJobs markets competition
october 2011 by adamcrowe

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Dynamic Hedge -- How To Time A Market Crash

'The worst part of trading in a small office filled with good traders, is you don’t have any good tells on crash days. When I traded in a larger office with more 20 or more guys, days like this were easier. You’d just watch the Urkels. Let me explain. When the market is crashing, you basically have to throw every indicator or fundamental piece of data, save short interest and debt ratios, out the window. The market is running on pure emotion. The only thing that can help you time your trades is focusing on the sentiment of those around you. The only clue of a potential change in market direction comes from watching real-time capitulation of those with skin in the game. If you think it’s morally wrong to use others as a sentiment indicator just remember they’re doing the same thing to you. The sounds and body language of others is the only indicator available to you in times of market dislocation. Use it.'

information markets sentiment trading slipstreaming from delicious
september 2011 by adamcrowe

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Wikipedia -- Guanxi

'...guanxi describes a personal connection between two people in which one is able to prevail upon another to perform a favor or service, or be prevailed upon. The two people need not be of equal social status. Someone is described as having good guanxi if their particular network of influence could assist in the resolution of the problem currently being spoken about. ...guanxi can describe a state of general understanding between two people: "he/she is aware of my wants/needs and will take them into account when deciding her/his course of future actions which concern or could concern me without any specific discussion or request". It is custom for Chinese people to cultivate an intricate web of guanxi relationships, which may expand in a huge number of directions, and includes lifelong relationships. Reciprocal favors are the key factor to maintaining one’s guanxi web, failure to reciprocate is considered an unforgivable offense. The more you ask of someone the more you owe them.'

guanxi status reputation trust assurance markets relationships from delicious
june 2011 by adamcrowe

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GCiS -- China Characteristics: Regarding Guanxi

'Guanxi operates as essentially a private favor exchange. If I can organize a chain of value exchange among my web threads that results in getting something that I want, then I can execute a Guanxi transaction (or chain transaction). The system is lubricated by the concept of a Guanxi Debt. I can utilize the system for short-term needs certainly, and that is a very common aspect of the system. But I can also incur or accrue Guanxi that (if managed wisely) can be utilized for larger purposes at a later time. Naturally, such favors often have financial components. Even the outright sale of Guanxi is common. ...Guanxi is like your brain, or your muscles. It must be used in order to grow strong or stay sharp. Since everybody is operating within the same system, if I develop some particularly important Guanxi thread, but then don’t use it, I will lose it. This is because the Guanxi thread is established by mutual agreement. The opposite party has also made his or her calculations...'

guanxi status reputation trust assurance markets relationships from delicious
june 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: True News: Bitcoin, Free Markets and Economics 101

'Why we would be better off without seat belts -- everything in the free market balances out...'

economics markets bitcoin StefanMolyneux from delicious
june 2011 by adamcrowe

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Bitcoin Wiki: Trade - Bitcoin-accepting sites

'Here's a list of sites that accept Bitcoin. New service providers are very much appreciated as they help establish the currency!'

digitalmoney bitcoin cryptoanarchism agorism markets trade from delicious
april 2011 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Where are the Baby-Boomer Nest Eggs?

'Dominant Social Theme: Invest wisely and well. – Let's try to put this long-running power elite promotion into perspective. We don't agree with the LA Time's perspective (see article excerpt above). It's not nest-egg versus Social Security (which the US cannot afford, especially because there are no SS funds, only fancy IOUs). There is a third way, which is to get rid of central banking entirely and let tortured Western economies gradually deflate. As economies undistort without the endless goad of monetary stimulation, people would gradually begin to be self-sufficient again. Nuclear families would collapse and extended families would reappear; this is the logical solution to old age, not frantic investing leading to the selection of an old-age home where one is likely to be abused before dying. ...the dollar-reserve system died in 2008, along with the popular belief that one could count on "investing" for retirement. It was never a reality; it was fiction.'

economics centralbanking businesscycle bubble delusion "capitalism" investing malinvestment stocks speculation specflation markets manipulation grifting casinogulag cartel kleptocracy greatestdepression babyboomers collapse correction from delicious
february 2011 by adamcrowe

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confused of calcutta -- The new new telco

'New new telcos provided multimedia services across multiple types of device using multiple modalities of communication. And they did everything “over the top”. No infrastructure costs. No on-premise software. And to top it all new new telcos had new new assets, information about relationships and flows. What Facebook call the Friend Graph. -- ...businesses used to be hierarchies of business units whose assets were called customers and products; that they are changing into networks of business units whose assets were called relationships and capabilities. New new assets. Relationships and capabilities. Social capital. Human capital. Assets we have carefully avoided learning how to value. Assets we have refused to value, however much we speak of the importance of talent and knowledge and collaboration. That’s where the new new value is. All just in time for a generation who have rediscovered community.'

retribalization socialgraph socialcapital reputation directory rentseeking markets from delicious
february 2011 by adamcrowe

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Git Hacking

'Oh by the way, businesses rely on open source, your open source. Git Hacking gives you a platform for resolving issues and getting paid for your contribution. Fork + Commit + Push == $$$'

markets opensource github
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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Wikipedia -- Reputation system

'The role of reputation systems is to facilitate trust by making reputation more visible. Reputation systems may also be coupled with an incentive system to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. For instance, users with high reputation may be granted special privileges, whereas users with low or unestablished reputation may have limited privileges. -- Rheingold inclines that [online reputation systems] arose as a result of the need for Internet users to gain trust in the individuals they transact with online. The innate trait he makes note of in humans is that functions of society such as gossip 'keeps us up to date on who to trust, who other people trust, who is important, and who decides who is important'. Internet sites such as eBay and Amazon he argues seek to service this consumer trait and are 'built around the contributions of millions of customers, enhanced by reputation systems that police the quality of the content and transactions exchanged through the site'.'

reputation markets communities trust disputeresolution assurance anarchism civility crowdsourcing gossip immunesystem from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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NYTimes.com -- Electronic Trading Creates a New Financial Landscape

'...in October, a company called Hibernia Atlantic announced plans for a new fiber-optic link beneath the Atlantic from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Somerset, England that will be able to send shares from London to New York and back in 60 milliseconds. Bjarni Thorvardarson, chief executive of Hibernia Atlantic, says the link, due to open in 2012, is primarily intended to meet the needs of high-frequency algorithmic traders and will cost “hundreds of millions of dollars.” “People are going over the lake and through the church, whatever it takes,” he says.'

internet latency trading proximity markets from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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Psychology Today -- 15 Techno-Cultural Trends for 2011

'#6. Shifting Psychology = Shifting Power: 2011 will bring a psychological shift in individuals and groups. Social media, social networks, and mobile technologies have caused a fundamental change in the core assumptions about how the world works. People are more publicly expressive and vocal. Expectations of having voice don't exist in a vacuum. If you speak, you want to be heard. This will redefine relationships at all levels of society: between business and consumers, governments and people, teachers and students, and social and cultural groups. #11. Creative Problem-Solving: Low technological hurdles, collective information pools, global access and real-time information inspire creative solutions to problems. Empowerment, agency, and technological competence and the belief that individuals can make a difference will fuel a massive flood of Do-It-Yourself solutions to everything from job creation to philanthropy.'

technology temes darknets #socialization markets humanaction voluntaryism cognitivesurplus flood from delicious
december 2010 by adamcrowe

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Farmann Magazine -- Transcript of interview with Julian Assange (April 26. 2010)

JA: 'Who is the actual audience of the material that we release? Is it the general public? Is it actually the organization that it comes from? The sort of dissenters of that organization? The whole organization can become incredibly paranoid. If it is a closed secretive organization and information starts leaking out, it can become incredibly paranoid about who is doing some of this on the inside. No one trust insides anymore in the organization, they stop communication, with each other, they don’t trust their telephone lines, they don’t trust their computers. It can not think anymore as a group or as an organization. It can no longer out think its competitors. [...they fall in on themselves] ....they are no longer competitive as an organization compared to all those organizations that are more open than their opponents. So the power of these organizations start to shrink. And the market gap is then taken up by the more open organization that does not have the problem of secrecy.'

information leaky transparency "transparency" competition markets trust JulianAssange from delicious
december 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- VPRO - Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street

"It's a combination of the sublime and the ridiculous." -- Numbers numb -- Praxeological epiphany at 28:22: "I don't think you can use quantitative methods to explain markets... history doesn't repeat itself."

praxeology markets numbers finance financialization simulation algorithms blackboxes opacity simulacra virtuality documentaries from delicious
december 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- What Kind of Gold Standard?

'Dominant Social Theme: Gold provides hope for the world. Let the government get out of the way. The proper function for the authorities is merely to set the standard and then leave it alone. -- Money is being argued about again, which is a good thing. But as usual (it seems to us) the argument is being framed in terms of what "ought" to be done. This is a kind of promotion, a dominant social theme, whether or not one wishes to admit it. Of course in the current day, government is a given—a necessary reality that until recently has been accepted with the same stuporous acquiescence as one tolerates bodily functions. But we will predict that acceptance of this most fundamental of all memes is beginning to shift. As the truth-telling of the Internet continues to have an impact, government mendacity is increasingly exposed and its logical fallacies are revealed, along with its false promotions. No, nothing SHOULD be done. That's the whole point. Money is private! Let the market work.'

* collectivism statism government stockholmsyndrome learnedhelplessness freedom markets money gold from delicious
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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Exchange Currency -- Exchange PayPal to Liberty Reserve Buy Liberty Reserve from PayPal Sell PayPal to Liberty Reserve

'Here you can buy and sell Liberty Reserve. Most of the credit cards are accepted. Also we works with PayPal, MoneyBookers payment. Our commission 3% only!'

digitalmoney markets
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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Bitcoin Watch

'1 US dollar is worth 5.33 BTC. / 1 Russian ruble is worth 0.17 BTC. / 1 gram of gold is worth 478.47 BTC.'

digitalmoney markets
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- RenegadeEconomist: Vanquishing the Middle Men

'This is the future of banking. Like during the 16th Reformation you either evolve or die.' -- Uh-oh. The internet is here.

oligarchy internet renaissance information #complexity #ubiquity #socialization money digitalmoney markets from delicious
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Police State Is Doomed by Gary North

'To run a really successful tyranny, the leaders must have increasing wealth as well as more reliable data. They need wealth to hire the programmers, the data collectors, and the police. Computer costs keep falling, but they fall much faster in the private sector (microcomputers) than the government sector (mainframes). Yes, governments have access to ever-growing quantities of data. But the public has far greater access to low-cost information that it uses to increase the overall complexity of society. The task of monitoring what is going on becomes ever-more utopian. The government is always falling behind... The greater the complexity of society, the less able the State is to monitor it, assess it, and use the data to control it. The police State is doomed. It cannot possibly keep up with the constant innovation of society. It cannot gain access to enough resources to maintain control. It wastes the resources it commandeers. The free market is winning.'

2+2=5 socialism statism government surveillance stasi tyranny information internet cognitivesurplus markets #complexity #ubiquity #socialization voluntaryism freedom 2+2=4 from delicious
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Automatic Earth presents: Stoneleigh's A Century of Challenges

Pay-walled. Recommended. -- When a pyramid scheme nears its inevitable end... "...the public insist on being handed the empty bag because they think they're going to make money, they want in on the game, everyone else has been making money, they feel left out so they insist on buying these things at the peak, and they are the ones who lose everything."

* civilization plutocracy wealth money economics oil energy finance reflexivity markets herd consensusreality pyramid ponzi bubble greaterfool peakoil credit inflation realestate speculation debt hologram deflation biflation negativeequity crackupboom greatestdepression collapse systems resilience communities localisation socialnetworking darknets NicoleFoss retribalization from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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If We Quit Voting by Frank Chodorov

'...the now-sovereign individual will have to meet the dictum of the marketplace: produce or you do not eat; no law will help you. In his public behavior he must be decent or suffer the sentence of social ostracism, with no recourse to legal exoneration. From a law-abiding citizen he will be transmuted into a self-respecting man. If we should quit voting for parties and candidates, we would individually reassume responsibility for our acts and, therefore, responsibility for the common good. There would be no way of dodging the verdict of the marketplace; we would take back only in proportion to our contribution. Any attempt to profit at the expense of a neighbor or the community would be quickly spotted and as quickly squelched, for everybody would recognize a threat to himself in the slightest indulgence of injustice. Since nobody would have the power to enforce monopoly conditions, none would obtain. Order would be maintained by the rules of existence, the natural laws of economics.'

voluntaryism markets commons ostracism civility from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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P2P Foundation -- The Future of Money video

'What are young adults thinking about money and value? How can we create new systems of wealth generation and abundance? What does the future hold for banks and other financial institutions in the wake of massive peer to peer exchange?'

money digitalmoney currency p2p cryptoanarchism darknets markets retribalization from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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Mises Institute -- Evolutionary Psychology and the Antimarket Bias by Toban Wiebe

'The point of reciprocal exchange is to help those in need so that they will help you when you are in need. In a market exchange, the market price is charged whether or not the buyer is in need. As a result, our economic intuitions favor reciprocal exchange—market exchange is uncaring and cold-hearted toward people when they are in need! This is why so many people are unwilling to allow free markets in anything involving the poor and needy: it simply feels wrong to charge poor people for necessities. In such situations, market exchange runs against our altruistic feelings, which form the basis of reciprocal exchange. ...there are many more examples of folk economics ..we are a highly social species, and social organization has been a very important factor in our evolution—much of the brain is dedicated to dealing with the social environment. A free society cannot exist where folk economics runs rampant ...just as everyone is born ignorant of math, so everyone is born a folk economist.'

evolutionarypsychology groups collectivism socialism egalitarianism emotionalism illiberalism fallacy bias economics markets from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Copyright and Private Markets

'...the more that people can get back to individual problem solving with or without third-party negotiators the better off civil society will be. We would argue that people have a right to enforce private copyright and patent claims IF THEY CAN. Ultimately we would suggest that people have a right to try to attach invisible strings to their IP. Who is to stop them after all? The enforcement, within the framework we are suggesting, would amount to a kind of intense market competition. Reducing, or even eliminating, the resources and involvement of the state in judicial and civil matters as much as possible, would put the onus of enforcement on the individual. Much of what passes for "justice" today might suddenly be seen as too expensive to insist upon, once it was up to the individual. For us, issues of private justice, a return to common law and even pre-common law problem solving, even regarding so-called criminal issues, is part of creating a freer and more market-oriented society.'

statism mercantilism legalese law commonlaw disputeresolution property intellectualproperty markets
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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King World News -- Interview: Hugh Hendry, Tuesday, September 28, 2010
economics markets investing
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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Broader Perspective -- Real-time economy feeds and ambient economics

'Just as social media ‘likes’ and status update commentary can be used to infer consumer values and preferences with a sentiment engine for anticipatory demand, this data too can be aggregated. While many dismiss ‘I ate a hotdog’ as meaningless social media drivel, when aggregated at the macro level, it could be more broadly meaningful as a leading indicator of pork consumption. Connecting social economic networks with real-time location through mobile networks and smartphone applications could be another significant step in shifting economics as buyers and sellers connect seamlessly in an ongoing process of ambient supply and demand interaction and automatic markets.'

economics markets location intention predictionmarkets
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Atlantic -- Market Data Firm Spots the Tracks of Bizarre Robot Traders

'Unknown entities for unknown reasons are sending thousands of orders a second through the electronic stock exchanges with no intent to actually trade. Often, the buy or sell prices that they are offering are so far from the market price that there's no way they'd ever be part of a trade. The bots sketch out odd patterns with their orders, leaving patterns in the data that are largely invisible to market participants. In fact, it's hard to figure out exactly what they're up to or gauge their impact. Are they doing something illicit? If so, what? Or do the patterns emerge spontaneously, a kind of mechanical accident? If so, why? No matter what the answers to these questions turn out to be, we're witnessing a market phenomenon that is not easily explained. And it's really bizarre. -- ...if trading firms aren't sending out these orders, how are they getting into the market? ...the consensus on the patterns seemed to be that they simply just emerged.'

algorithms bots markets manipulation blackboxes signalvsnoise standalonecomplex
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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Nanex -- Market Crop Circle Of The Day

'As we continue to monitor the markets for evidence of Quote Stuffing and Strange Sequences (Crop Circles), we find that there are dozens if not hundreds of examples to choose from on any given day. As such, this page will be updated often with charts demonstrating this activity. '

visualization algorithms bots data markets manipulation
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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Ripplepay

'Ripple is a monetary system that makes simple obligations between friends as useful for making payments as regular money. -- You create a profile on the system and indicate who you know and how much you trust them by connecting to people by email address and giving them credit limits. Then whenever you want to make a payment to another Ripple user using only friendly obligations, the system finds a chain of intermediaries connecting you to the person you want to pay, and records the payment in each intermediary's account all the way down the chain. You end up owing one of your "neighbours" on the system, and the payment recipient ends up being owed by one of her neighbours.' -- Clever, but not anonymous or untraceable.

economics p2p LETS trust credit markets tools
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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Broader Perspective -- Social economic networks and the new intangibles

'The new currencies have new measurement metrics for monetization such as awareness, influence, authenticity, reach, action, engagement, impact, spread, connectedness, velocity, participation, shared values, and presence. As market principles become the norm for intangible resource allocation and exchange, all market agents are starting to have a more intuitive and pervasive concept of exchange and reciprocity. Reputation has always been an important intangible asset, and was one of the first alternative currencies cited; however it was not really monetizable other than as an attribute of labor capital. Now, there are more alternative currencies, such as social currency, that are directly monetizable through social economic networks.'

networks markets economics currency reputation whuffie
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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Seth's Blog -- The secret of the Roush effect

'When Gerald Roush died in late May, he left behind the Ferrari Market Letter. This newsletter, which he started and ran, had nearly 5,000 subscribers, paying him $130 a year for a subscription. Do the math! It's a good living--even without a fancy website. The Roush effect involves extraordinary domain knowledge, a market small enough to understand and diligently earning the role of data middleman. The players in the market want there to be one clearinghouse, one authority who can connect the data, see the trends and publish the conventional wisdom. Just about every tribe needs a Gerald Roush. And in many markets, they can afford to pay someone like him very handsomely.'

business businessmodels data aggregation markets
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- The Market Ticker: Nanex - Rigged Markets

'Gee, you think the market is crooked? This is a video that should go VIRAL and be posted EVERYWHERE.' -- A bot-mediated reality.

economics markets manipulation algorithms blackboxes bots KarlDenninger from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe

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PeerIndex

'Who are the authorities on the web? PeerIndex helps you discover the authorities and opinion formers on a given topic.'

opinion attention markets whuffie reputation
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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3 Quarks Daily -- How Supermodels Are like Toxic Assets by Ashley Mears

'In the language of economic sociology, options are performative; they create what they putatively just describe. In other words, the models have agency (that’s market models we’re talking about, not the fashion models, heaven’s no!). Options enable investors to anticipate other investors’ actions, which spurs herding behavior, where actors decide to disregard their own information (i.e., “That Coco Rocha, urgh!”) and imitate instead the decisions taken by others before them (but Russell Marsh optioned her). Herding and cascades are rather problematic to financial markets; they leads investors to artificially bid up asset values... because investors, like fashionistas, react to each other as well as to the aggregate traces of fellow investors’ actions (captured well in signaling instruments like options), they exacerbate systemic risk. Essentially, valuing financial goods is a matter of trying to be in fashion, which is a gamble.'

economics markets options signalling reflexivity fashion success feedback mimesis herd consenus consensusreality trends consensus from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Karl Denninger: Market Manipulation On Display

'It's unlawful to enter an order into a securities market for the purpose of attempting to manipulate the price - that is, to express other than a genuine intent to buy or sell. It happens every day. But tonight, it's especially blatant, so I captured it and present it here for you.'

economics markets manipulation blackboxes algorithms KarlDenninger bots from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- James Burke: Connections E03: "Distant Voices"

'Distant Voices suggests that telecommunications exist because Normans had stirrups for horse riding which in turn led them to further advancements in warfare.'

documentaries technology war stirrup longbow agriculture plough villages horseshoe markets towns tax bureaucracy china gunpowder taoism irrigation communism stasis silver mining companies vacuum barometer electricity telegraph electromagnetism telephone history from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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Johann Hari -- How Goldman Sachs gambled on starving the world's poor - and won

"If we don't re-regulate..." and then re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then?

agriculture markets manipulation fraud regulatorycapture regulation government pricefixing delusion 2+2=5 from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Karl Denninger: "Here It Comes"

'Hope you're ready... the market is rhyming with the 2007 top. Beware.' -- ALGORITHMIC TRADING IS ALGORITHMIC

markets blackboxes algorithms KarlDenninger economics manipulation bots from delicious
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- SEC to Rule All Trades All the Time

'So it has come to this. In America, anyway, and surely in Europe too, regulatory authorities wish to be empowered to look at every click, every number, every trading strategy of ANYONE in order to detect fraud and make sure that markets are fair, open and transparent. This is the same SEC that did not bother Bernie Madoff, that did not anticipate any part of the mortgage meltdown, that idled its people so that they had nothing to do but sit around all day watching pornography. None of it means anything, in fact – or not to the average market participant. The very money stuff itself – debt-based fiat money – is seemingly guaranteed to bring the markets down hard once every decade or so, costing the middle class whatever prosperity it has temporarily gained during the interim bubble. It is impossible to make markets "fair." Buying and selling is inherently an adversarial art. Let the buyer beware, etc.'

economics markets regulation hubris mercantilism
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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Freedomain Radio -- #97 Concepts Part 3: The Effects (MP3)

Gisted -- Human beings have differences of opinion and so the question is, how do we resolve differences of opinion in ways that are objective and non-violent? Scientists resolve their disputes using the scientific method: objective verification, reproducibility, etc. In the free-market, we settle on the economic value of something by finding its price. In the business world, contracts are another way of objectively resolving disputes with appeal to empirical and verifiable external facts. The wonderful thing about facts is they eliminate conflict. And that's why it is so important to reason. But if you are a Platonist, you have this problem that 'the truth' is completely personal, it is completely non-objective, and it can be subject to no empirical tests or rational analysis. So how are you going to resolve disputes? Violence is the only methodology of resolving human disputes in the absence of objective and logical criteria of measuring who's right and who's wrong.

philosophy science law economics markets empircism disputeresolution StefanMolyneux
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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Wikipedia -- Dispute resolution organization

'A dispute resolution organization, or DRO, is a conceptualized organization providing services such as mediation and arbitration through the private sector. A perceived advantage of dispute resolution organizations over governmental court systems is that the former can exist in a competitive marketplace in which entrepreneurs on the lookout for profits seek to outdo their rivals in providing good service, low prices, and other features valued by their clientele. #Enforceability of verdicts: Murray Rothbard opines that court decisions need not be enforced by the government in order to be effective. Even before the decisions of dispute resolution organizations were considered legally enforceable in government courts, merchants obeyed them to avoid the risk of ostracism and boycotts. A merchant who refused to abide by the verdict would be blacklisted and thus become unable to avail himself of an arbitrator's services in the future.'

anarchism voluntaryism disputeresolution reputation contempt ostracism contracts law markets
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- TEDxBrussels: Michel Bauwens

"We are seeing the seeds of a new society within the old and this is what I call 'open everything'. Peer-production, peer-governance, and peer-property are the new modalities that are emerging from this open world." -- Models: #Commons (strong-ties, production), #Share (weak-ties, aggregation), #Crowdsourced (seek sustainable collaboration). -- Tensions: Institutions vs Communities -- Solutions: Community Charters (GPL, CC, etc) that embed the principles of peer production in cultural value systems.

economics networks markets communities collaboration businessmodels socialproduction peerproduction p2p resilience retribalization
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- More Trading Curbs for NYSE

'...at what point do observers finally say "enough" when it comes to regulatory democracy and its ever-evolving attempts to "fix" elements of industry that have been broken by previous regulations. Modern economics (neo-classical and post marginal utility) tells us that every regulation is a price fix inevitably resulting in a queue, a misappropriation of resources, a scarcity, etc. Imagine, now, the amount of regulations that have been passed by such entities as the US Congress and the regulatory mavens at the EU. The mainstream press tends to criticize "do nothing" legislatures, but unfortunately anything a legislature does distorts economic freedom and interferes with the marketplace. Of course it will be argued that only legislatures and regulators can rectify by market failures – but what exactly are those? Inevitably, when market failures are examined, one finds that the failure is the result of previous rules enacted to supposedly fix a different market failure. And on it goes.'

economics markets regulation pricefixing mercantilism
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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zero hedge -- MUST HEAR: Panic And Loathing From The S&P 500 Pits

'"Guys this is probably the craziest I have seen it down here ever." Here it is, memorialized for the generations and away from the now openly ridiculous disinformation propaganda of the mainstream media, just what a full market meltdown panic sounds like: straight from the epicenter, the S&P 500 pits. Luckily open ouctry still exists, if at least for shock value. Click here for a first hand account of the most shocking 15 minutes in recent market history. Fat finger my ass.' -- Attachment: Market Crash.mp3

economics america markets panic selling mp3
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- NYSE Plunge From Market Fragmentation?

'Again, the hypnotic clarion call for more centralization is launched. We were startled when we read (we can't remember where) that it was lack of a centralized market that caused the recent trillion-dollar drop in the NYSE's share values last week. But when we read the Reuters article excerpted above there was no doubt in our modest-sized collective minds that once again a crisis was being used for the benefit of an underlying dominant social theme: Centralization good, separate power centers bad. [M]arkets must be further linked and centralized into one GIGANTIC worldwide market. It is not enough to manipulate the markets of nation-states. The manipulation must be generated WORLDWIDE. Such unscrupulous and insatiable greed has no boundaries. Regulation, of course, will be the weapon of choice to further consolidate markets. The dominant social theme: "Disparate markets around the world don't allow for the necessary coordinated action to stop ruinous crashes." Oh, please.'

economics markets regulation pricefixing centralization racketeering oligarchy forcedmemes
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Market Ticker -- Hmmmm.... A Crack In The Dam?

'The "mainstream media" is known for not telling the truth. But once in a while, they slip..... or they get scared enough and believe that perhaps – just perhaps – it will be their neck in the notch. "The world has no money, and the Emperor has no clothes."'

markets correction collapse
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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Umair Haque -- The Efficient Community Hypothesis

'People, truth, identity, reputation, values are the five elements of an efficient community. Efficient communities sort good information from bad by inducing people to reveal their true expectations and preferences — whether managers, customers, or investors. When people are bound together, they develop shared values — which destroys the incentive to dissemble in the first place. Markets need communities. When we put markets and communities together, efficient communities filter the best information (about reputable buyers, sellers, products, services, etc) and weed out the bad information. Efficient communities send this filtered info to markets, who soak it up and yield more efficient prices. The results of market exchanges create new info that feeds back into the community — driving a more sustainable, smarter kind of growth.'

economics information feedback markets communities mutualism UmairHaque
april 2010 by adamcrowe

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tinypay.me - the easiest way to sell

'Wouldn’t it be beautiful to start selling something within 60 seconds and share it across the world?'

ecommerce paypal micropayments markets fundraising
april 2010 by adamcrowe

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NYTimes.com -- MasterCard Set to Open An Online Shopping Mall

'MasterCard is getting into the predictive online marketing business. Next Jump converts one in every 11 browsers into buyers, a rate that far exceeds the industry norm. Joseph Turow, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said that hiding the identity of customers from merchants was not enough. The type of profiling done by sites like MasterCard Marketplace, he said, often leads to “social discrimination,” in which people are lumped into categories they may find objectionable. He said companies rarely explained to people how they were categorized. “People might be happy with a Dell 30 percent off, but why did my neighbor get one deal and me another?” he said. “We are accepting this notion that companies have a right to do this.”' -- Just another opaque price-fixing scheme?

datamining markets algorithms blackboxes darkmarkets pricefixing circumscription
april 2010 by adamcrowe

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FT.com -- FT Trading Room: Data centres - the new financial centres?

'When we think of financial centres we think of the City of London and Wall Street. But as Lilia Severine, head of business strategy at Interxion explains, the vast data centres that house traders' algorithmic "black boxes" are the financial centres of the future.' (People will go where the exchange-proximal data centres are. Stockholm, Zurich, and Madrid are growth areas.) -- Video inside

markets trading proximity latency arbitrage algorithms blackboxes virtuality thematrix huntergatherer bots retribalization
april 2010 by adamcrowe

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CNN.com -- Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market (2003)

'Facing an outcry on Capitol Hill, the Pentagon on Tuesday killed a program that would have had investors betting on the likelihood of terrorist attacks and assassinations. "I can't believe that anybody would seriously propose that we trade in death ... How long would it be before you saw traders investing in a way that would bring about the desired result?"'

weapons markets predictionmarkets reflexivity realityprogramming thegamingofeverydaylife
march 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Punish Wall Street?

'So now we have a poll showing that many individuals dislike Wall Street and want bankers punished. But we would like to know how this poll was prefaced. Did the individuals doing the polling explain that the financial crisis was caused by easy interest rates? Did they create a scenario in which the mercantilist Federal Reserve, created in secrecy, has cloaked its actions in the color of government while doing the bidding of a small group from the private sector. To place additional regulation under the Federal Reserve as has been suggested, means that one private party (the Fed) regulates other private participants (firms and banks). Not only that, but these entities are familiar to each other, with individuals easily shuttling from regulatory authority to the private market and back again. The regulatory authorities should be concentrating on dismantling the existing structure – and letting the free-market penalize players – not adding to it.'

economics markets regulation fallacy statism mercantilism cronyism
march 2010 by adamcrowe

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Global Guerrillas -- STANDING ORDER 5: Coopetition not Competition

'Coopetition is a term that encompasses how rivals can compete for market share but cooperate to grow the market and speed up combined growth. In commercial coopetition, this is done by rivals sharing common platforms (a very important concept) that enable them to reduce costs (as in firms that share suppliers), widen variety, increase flexibility, etc. For example, coopetition is the basis for Internet standards and the Web. Vertical integration is an anathema to successful coopetition.'

strategy markets cooperation competition mutualism
march 2010 by adamcrowe

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Global Guerrillas -- STANDING ORDER 2: Grow Black Economies

'The second standing order of modern insurgencies is to generate economic connectivity in order to manufacture allies and increase the ability of the insurgency to fund itself. It's simple: Grow Black Economies. This requires cooperation with existing criminal organizations within "illegal" economies. This requires a variant on how the nation-state grew via becoming a protection racket -- protection at a rate worth that is worth the value provided and the willingness to expand the business potential of those being protected. Induced shortages, through network disruption, expand business opportunity. Further, broken "legal" economies, generate a plethora of free lancers...'

strategy networks markets blackmarkets protectionrackets
march 2010 by adamcrowe

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Telegraph -- Hugh Hendry: We hedge fund managers are on your side

'Hedge funds are not seeking to dictate economic affairs. Rather we are preoccupied by price. A market-based economy requires a pricing mechanism to allocate resources and ensure that we all prosper. [W]e believe that recurring and periodic recessions reveal the economy's winners and losers. And through our endeavours, hedge funds attempt to discover the identity and inadequacies of the poor businesses. Fearing that the huge scale of reckless bets within the banking system threatened another depression, our politicians have used public funds to bail out the economy's losers. [I]n doing so they run the danger of creating a plutocracy: a society ruled by the wealthy. We need to stop this socialisation of risk taking. [T]hose in power would rather use the subterfuge of inflation to hide the enormous public subsidy. But we are intelligent, well-funded and willing to vociferously challenge public decisions. Most importantly, we are on your side.' -- The parasite on my parasite is my friend?

uk economics hedgefunds markets businesscycle parasitism
march 2010 by adamcrowe

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Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog -- A typology of crowds

'#Social production crowd: consists of a large group of individuals who lend their distinct talents to the creation of some product like Wikipedia or Linux. #Averaging crowd: acts essentially as a survey group, providing an average judgment about some complex matter that, in some cases, is more accurate than the judgment of any one individual. #Data mine crowd: a large group that, through its actions but usually without the explicit knowledge of its members, produces a set of behavioral data that can be collected and analyzed in order to gain insight into behavioral or market patterns. #Networking crowd: a group that trades information through a shared communication system such as the phone network or Facebook or Twitter. #Transactional crowd: a group used to instigate and coordinate what are mainly or solely point-to-point transactions, such as the type of crowd gathered by Match.com. -- Some crowds become more useful as they get bigger; others work best when kept to a small scale.'

internet web groups communities networks markets socialnetworking socialproduction crowdsourcing p2p collectiveintelligence datamining sharecropping
march 2010 by adamcrowe

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TechCrunch -- Hollywood Stock Exchange Is Becoming A Real Money Exchange In April. Seriously.

'Investors wishing to participate in the exchange will buy “contracts” priced at one one-millionth of a film’s projected boxoffice... Everyone starts with 10,000 “virtual dollars” in a Cantor Exchange practice account, and at the end of the practice period Cantor Exchange will convert each 1,000 virtual dollars of profit you earn into $10 cash and deposit it into your real-money trading account (maximum $100 per trader). So if you earn 10,000 virtual dollars in profit while practicing on Cantor Exchange, you get $100! There is no cost to participate in this program.'

hollywood markets predictionmarkets gambling grinding subsistenceclicking
february 2010 by adamcrowe

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Mises Institute -- By the Way, Free Markets Are Free by George F. Smith

'A free economy is one that is — how to say this? — free. It is free of cronyism, favoritism, handout-ism, protectionism, or anything else that amounts to using the state as a means of living at the expense of others. If paupers or billionaires need help, they're required to get it without picking the pockets of others. -- In a free economy the only role for force is the enforcement of property rights. Using force for other means is a violation of the natural freedom of individuals. This is what classical liberals meant by laissez-faire. A free-market ideology is one that calls for a free market, not the massaging of one or two regulations out of a constellation of a million.'

economics markets commonsense
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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Wikipedia -- Dominant Assurance Contracts

'Dominant Assurance Contracts, created by Alex Tabarrok, involve an entrepreneur who profits when the quorum is reached and pays the signors extra if it's not. If the quorum is not formed, the signors do not pay their share, and indeed, actively profit from having participated since they keep [a fail payoff] the entrepreneur paid them. Conversely, if the quorum succeeds, the entrepreneur is compensated for taking the risk of the quorum failing. So, [an agent] will benefit whether or not the quorum succeeds; if it fails he reaps a monetary return, and if it succeeds he pays only a small amount more than under an assurance contract, and the public good will be provided. Tabarrok asserts that this creates a dominant strategy of participation for all [agents]. Because all [agents] will calculate that it is in their best interests to participate, the contract will succeed, and the entrepreneur will be rewarded.' -- The math: http://bit.ly/ambkNK

economics commons crowdfunding pledging assurance risk markets
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Market Ticker -- Financial Terrorism? You Decide

OBVIOUS FRAUD IS OBVIOUS

economics fraud markets manipulation extortion federalreserve BenBernanke KarlDenninger
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Max Keiser talks to Stacy Herbert: Should America file for bankruptcy?

"There's a war on. The war is being fought in the currency pits, in the Forex pits, in the commodity markets, on the exchanges, where people are throwing derivative bombs at each other to try to unsetlle these markets. The bankers want to win this war on behalf of the speculators and they're going to keep the market under pressure to see how much pain Obama can take."

economics america markets manipulation
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Max Keiser talks to Stacy Herbert: How Wall Street runs politics

Push-button markets. "It's a game of chicken."

economics markets manipulation GoldmanSachs
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Jim Puplava talks to Brian Pretti: Implosion of the monetary system expected by fund managers

Also on Goldman Sachs' price manipulation of crude oil just before the Obama election. Expect similar in November 2010.

economics markets manipulation GoldmanSachs
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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Wired -- Artwork selling itself on eBay

'A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, 2009, is a black, acrylic box that places itself for sale on eBay every seven days thanks to an internet connection, which, according to the artist's conditions of sale, must be live at all times. Disconnections are only allowed during transportation, says the creator. -- Here's how it works. The purchaser can set a new value for the artwork, which must be based on "current market expectations" of Larsen's work, and which could be considerably more than the price they paid. When A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter decides it wants to be sold again, bidders will start their battle at the value set by the current owner. This is where the art collector could make money. However they must first pay any fees to eBay and give Larsen 15 percent of any increase in value of the artwork.'

* art net.art markets dematerialization financialization blackboxes commodityfetishism transaction interaction replication liminalobjects objects
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: Fractional Banking, Private Currencies and Humble Freedom

Nobody knows.

criticism statism economics humility money currency markets libertarianism freedom philosophy StefanMolyneux
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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LiberaLaw -- Can a Libertarian Also Be a [Marketeer]?

'The marketeer will often resist interference with the current distribution of property rights in a given society, whatever its origin; but the libertarian will be much more likely to favor potentially radical measures designed to rectify past injustices. In addition, the libertarian has no particular reason to endorse the marketeer’s moralizing about market conditions; and the libertarian who [holds] the libertarian ideal ... will surely want to emphasize that some economic conditions [authority/hierarchy/tradition/culture/conformity/etc] that do not involve the misuse of force are nonetheless objectionable because they minimize freedom and reduce people’s effective capacities for responsible action. The libertarian will sometimes find the marketeer a useful ally; but the libertarian should not, I think, want to be a marketeer except when being a marketeer does not involve accepting naïve beliefs about the origin or dynamics of actually existing markets.'

* markets marketing advertising rhetoric persuasion propaganda conformity coercion violence ethics morality freedom libertarianism
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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FT.com -- Funding and the patriotism test

'In recent months, some of the brightest minds at Moody’s rating agency have been mulling a fascinating question: should they introduce a formal rating of “social cohesion” into sovereign debt indices, when they judge whether a government is likely to default on its debt – or not? What will be equally crucial in the coming years is not the sheer scale of debt, but whether governments can implement a rational and effective way of cutting it – and potentially allocating pain – without unleashing (at best) political instability, or (at worst) full blown revolution. Does a country, in other words, have enough political and social “cohesion” to take truly tough choices [like steal/squander/confiscate more tax-slave money], or even rewrite the social contract? So will UK politicians be able to implement radical reforms with a spirit of shared sacrifice?' -- I Love Big Brother Index

economics uk debt risk markets patriotism nationalism 1984
january 2010 by adamcrowe

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Freedomain -- The Stateless Society: An Examination of Alternatives

'...while most people are comfortable with the idea of reducing the size and power of the State, they become distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of getting rid of it completely. A central lesson of history is that States are parasites which always expand until they destroy their host population. Because the State uses violence to achieve its ends – and there is no rational end to the expansion of violence – States grow until they destroy civilized interaction through the corruption of money, contracts, honesty, family, and self-reliance. People who believe that the State can somehow be contained have not accepted the fact that no State in history has ever been contained. Why, then, do most people believe that a society will crumble without a coercive and monopolistic social agency at its core? There are a number of answers to this question, but generally they tend to revolve around three central points: #dispute resolution; #collective services; and, #pollution.' -- Solved.

* economics crime pollution risk insurance assurance disputeresolution information transparency civility commons markets emergentism voluntaryism anarchism commonsense StefanMolyneux
december 2009 by adamcrowe

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TED Blog -- Q&A with Loretta Napoleoni: The ever-changing face of terrrorism

'The second step is to look at where the funds are coming from, and for sure narcotics today is one of, if not the most important source of revenue. So, I would legalize drugs. I know that this is never going to happen. I sit on so many committees on this issue and I can tell you that the world’s experts on narcotics, every single one, in private will tell you, “Yes, that’s the solution. We legalize drugs, we control the drugs, we tax them and we make sure that those who are being supported by drug revenue don’t get that money anymore.” But, the real issue is the moral issue. Which government is going to tell its citizens that it’s going to legalize drugs because this is the only way to create a safer world? They’ve used the argument that drugs destroy society for so long. This would require a completely different worldview and approach to politics. However, it would cut out a lot of these illegal revenues and therefore a lot of crime.'

criminology terrorism economics markets blackmarkets greymarkets networks finance credit crime moneylaundering drugs corruption
december 2009 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- TED: Loretta Napoleoni: The intricate economics of terrorism

'Loretta Napoleoni details her rare opportunity to talk to the secretive Italian Red Brigades -- an experience that sparked a lifelong interest in terrorism. She gives a behind-the-scenes look at its complex economics, revealing a surprising connection between money laundering and the US Patriot Act.' -- "I wanted to know what turned my best friend into a terrorist and why she didn't try to recruit me."

criminology terrorism economics markets blackmarkets greymarkets networks finance credit crime drugs moneylaundering
december 2009 by adamcrowe

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Virtual Goods Insider -- Maximizing Virtual Goods Through Dynamic Pricing

'...dynamic pricing models can be utilized to encourage gamers toward a particular business goal for virtual goods companies. Perhaps that goal is to increase per customer sales growth, broaden sales diversification or extend visitation to virtual retail environments. Whatever the focus may be, dynamic pricing is capable of generating tremendously improved results over static pricing. -- To understand the benefit of dynamic pricing, it’s critical to understand that the virtual economy is based solely on demand – not supply and demand. While supply may not be a constraint for a game developer there is the potential to leverage supply constraints as a strategic factor to increase demand and ultimately, profits. -- It is also important to note that many online games have secondary markets that heavily influence demand in the primary markets.'

economics virtualworlds virtualgoods markets prices selling micropayments RMT
december 2009 by adamcrowe

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Reuters -- Somali sea gangs lure investors at pirate lair

'"Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 'maritime companies' and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking," Mohammed said. "The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials ... we've made piracy a community activity." -- Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel. "I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation," she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony. "I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the 'company'."'

economics piracy activism markets guerrilla collaboration
december 2009 by adamcrowe

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The Economist -- Iraq's mobile-phone revolution: Better than freedom?

'Reluctant to risk their lives by visiting a bank, many subscribers transferred money to each other by passing on the serial numbers of scratch cards charged with credit, like gift vouchers. Recipients simply add the credit to their account or sell it on to shops that sell the numbers at a slight discount from the original. This impromptu market has turned mobile-phone credit into a quasi-currency, undermining the traditional informal hawala banking system. -- Criminal rings are among the parallel currency’s busiest users. Kidnap gangs ask for ransom to be paid by text messages listing a hundred or more numbers of high-value phone cards. Prostitutes get regular customers to send monthly retainers to their phones, earning them the nickname “scratch-card concubines”, while corrupt government officials ask citizens for $50 in phone credit to perform minor tasks.'

mobile banking credit money currency markets networks decentralisation iraq #bandwidth #socialization decentralization retribalization
december 2009 by adamcrowe

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Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert -- [1083] The Truth About Markets – 28 November 2009

Max's Casino Gulag / Subsistence Clicking Model: predicts Facebook will become a casino; will give heavy users the ability to buy shares in its IPO whilst regular users play 'social gulag' games for FB's virtual gulag currency, spending it on real world survival items, always dreaming of earning enough to buy shares in 'the house'.

economics socialmedia thegamingofeverydaylife virtualworlds virtualmoney facebook attention markets ponzi whuffie grinding subsistenceclicking casinogulag
november 2009 by adamcrowe

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Sp!ked -- Review of books: The rise of the Carbon Fat Cats

'The ‘carbon market’ – trading in an invisible gas which cannot be used – has involved the redistribution of resources to unproductive green pursuits and the creation of a vast bureacracy. Let’s bring it down before it gets any bigger. -- Carbon dioxide is an invisible gas and a naturally occurring substance. It cannot be used. How on earth could it have a value and be subject to exchange? How could it become the gaseous analogue to money or gold, an atmospheric ‘universal equivalent’ into which other gases can be converted? -- Carbon credits act as a tax or check on industrial activity – but by the same accounts, they are a compensation for economic stasis. They in effect invert the laws of economics, and make growth appear as a cost, and slowdown as a gain. In this topsy-turvy world of the carbon market, the EU’s industrial weaknesses miraculously appear as strengths.' -- Here comes the European Empire with its Carbon Rent-Seeking Warfare Model. *rolls eyes*

economics carbon rationing scams markets prices pricefixing europe
november 2009 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- RussiaToday: Keiser Report #2: Markets! Finance! Scandal!

On 'euthanasia for profit' and war on terror creative accounting.

economics euthanasia markets afghanistan
november 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

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