Haha… this is personal… this book review is about a famous scientific conference held in Brussels in 1911 at the Grand Hotel Metropole, featuring Einstein and Marie Curie among others like Bohr and Rutherford (both at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge) and even Henri Poincaré, whose “Science and Hypothesis” I have used in my writings on methodology in economics.
The funny thing is that once I was planning to stay in Brussels from Cambridge on the way to Paris, Milano, Florence and Sicily, of course. So I booked … the Metropole, for two nights! Except I somewhat changed my mind when I saw the potential bill, and ended up not staying there…
Well, the Metropole sent me a bill, anyway… addressed to Darwin College. And they kept writing demanding payment and threatening pain and suffering each time! Haha… just a happy memory… I had no idea the Metropole was so famous! Might read the book!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-conference-that-brought-together-marie-curie-and-albert-einstein/2021/08/05/7aacab5a-ea19-11eb-97a0-a09d10181e36_story.html
Yet another example of complete anarchy, that is, absentee state decision-making, allowing the abominable criminals and their fraudulent cryptocurrency skulduggery to get away with much worse than blue murder… oh, well…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/08/07/cryptocurrency-infrastructure-bill-lobby-bitcoin
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/08/opinion/tiktok-facebook-youtube-transparency.html?smid=url-share
El-Erian on how the Fed is destabilising the US and consequently the world economy:
“There are five reasons why this might happen: First, the Fed’s policy tools are ill-suited to address what is hampering the economy. The primary problem is widespread supply-side disruptions, from dislocated supply chains and higher input costs to transportation bottlenecks and difficulties in hiring workers.
Second, with both private and public demand already surging, the Fed’s policy stance risks fueling inflation. Both the producer and consumer inflation mea- sures (PPI and CPI) are already flashing warning signs.
Third, its continued massive interven- tion in markets has distorted the price signaling mechanism, encouraging all sorts of inefficient resource allocations that will eat away at the U.S. economy’s productivity and dynamism.
Fourth, the ample and predictable injection of cash into the system contin- ues to encourage excessive risk-taking in financial markets while deepening the unhealthy conditioning among investors to always expect the Fed to boost asset prices regardless of how disconnected they are from economic and corporate fundamentals. In the process, wealth inequality worsens.
Finally, the $40 billion of mortgages that the Fed insists on buying each month is contributing to a red-hot hous- ing market that has been pricing out more and more Americans.”
“In contrast to the current ineffective- ness of Fed policy in generating genuine economic growth, the administration’s fiscal agenda holds the key to enhancing productivity, increasing labor force par- ticipation and providing greater oppor- tunities for advancement to more Ameri- cans. Indeed, the envisaged infrastruc- ture measures are essential if the U.S. economy is to decisively overcome its multiplying supply-side bottlenecks and better position both its human and physical assets for a future of greater and more sustainable prosperity. To reduce the risk of financial instability, the invest- ments need to be accompanied by en- hanced financial supervision and regula- tion, especially with respect to non-bank market intermediaries.
It is disappointing that the Fed’s insis- tence on maintaining emergency mea- sures, once needed and effective, now risks being increasingly counterproduc- tive for the economy and fuels excessive financial risk-taking. It would be tragic if it also ended up damaging a much- needed inclusive recovery and derailing this administration’s economic agenda.”
What central banks don’t understand is that once interest rates are at the zero bound, and real rates negative, prime pumping of the money supply does not create employment: it merely fuels inflation, speculation, and inequality. Fiscal policy is or can be more targeted. Central banks are using the wrong instrument for industrial recovery…
Pandemic plunges families into food poverty in world’s rich economies
First increase in food insecurity in Europe and North America since UN data began in 2014
A recipient carries bread distributed by a charity in front of Tiburtina railway station in Rome. Italy
A recipient carries bread distributed by a charity in front of Tiburtina railway station in Rome. The number of people living in poverty in Italy rose 22% year on year in 2020 © Giulio Napolitano/Bloomberg
August 9, 2021 4:00 am by Emiko Terazono in London and Davide Ghiglione in Rome
When the pandemic last year forced Mariassunta Seccia and her husband Rodolfo out of their jobs, they struggled to pay for food, rent and bills.
“It didn’t take long for all the money to run out,” said 36-year-old Seccia, who worked as a cleaner in a Milan hotel while her husband sold fruit at a market stall. “When our children opened the fridge and couldn’t even find a bottle of water . . . it was quite shocking for them, they had never experienced hunger in their lives before.”
The Seccia family are not the only ones from a developed wealthy country to have struggled. Across Europe and North America, the number of people to have gone hungry increased for the first time since the UN started collecting data in 2014, according to recently published figures. Nearly 9 per cent of people were moderately or severely food insecure in 2020, compared with 7.7 per cent the previous year.
Sometimes one has the impression that poverty does not exist in more developed countries, but it is right there
Isabella Catapano, Italian charity Albero della Vita
The figures are dwarfed by the levels in less wealthy economies; nearly a third of the world’s population did not have access to adequate nutrition in 2020, according to the UN. And unlike poorer countries that lack government protection, most developed countries have state-backed welfare safety nets.
Despite this, many vulnerable people in rich countries have been hit hard by the economic impact of Covid-19, said Arif Husain, chief economist at the UN World Food Programme.
“Even in the developed countries there are people not necessarily in the safety net schemes. They have suffered and they are suffering,” he said.
These include self-employed workers or those on temporary contracts, who are often not covered by insurance-based unemployment and sickness benefit schemes, and those working in the informal economy.
In Italy, the number of people living in poverty jumped 22 per cent in 2020 from the year before to 5.6m, equivalent to one in 10 Italians, according to the National Institute of Statistics.
Mariassunta Seccia and her children faced hunger after she lost her job in the pandemic © Albero della Vita
To address that, the role of non-governmental groups such as charities and food banks has grown during the pandemic, said Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.
According to the European Food Banks Federation (Feba), its members helped almost 13m people in 2020, up 35 per cent from the previous year. About 860,000 tonnes of food was distributed, an increase of 12 per cent, and the numbers have failed to come down in 2021, said Angela Frigo, Feba secretary-general. “Food demand remains elevated,” she said.
Column chart of Moderate or severe food insecurity in Northern America and Europe (% of population) showing Hunger is growing even in rich countries
Seccia turned to a charity, the Albero della Vita foundation, which aims to combat poverty by offering food, care and education to those in need. “If it hadn’t been for the help of the [foundation], I don’t know where we would have ended up,” she said.
Isabella Catapano, general director of Albero della Vita, said the number of families the charity helped quadrupled year on year in 2020 to just over 1,000.
“Sometimes one has the impression that poverty does not exist in more developed countries, but it is right there,” she said. “During the pandemic, the situation in many cases deteriorated all of a sudden, with many people left without anything.”
In particular, people who worked in Italy’s informal economy were “most fragile” she said, being “left out of the safety net of the state”.
Line chart of People in absolute poverty (millions) showing The pandemic pushed up poverty in Italy sharply
In the US, food banks were serving 55 per cent more people than before the pandemic, according to Feeding America, which runs a nationwide network of food banks. It said 45m people experienced food insecurity last year.
While the number was lower than after the financial crisis in 2008, when food insecurity affected 50m people, food price inflation was becoming more of a concern, said Craig Gundersen, professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois.
“I’m more concerned what happens after Covid than during Covid. All these stimulus packages lead to inflation that’s going to lead to higher food prices. Whenever inflation goes up, there is a huge burden on vulnerable households,” he said.
Church members pack bags for a food bank in New York. About 45m people in the US experienced food insecurity last year, according to Feeding America © Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Food Bank For New York
The price of food commodities traded on international markets has soared recently, driven by droughts in key exporting areas as well as stockpiling by some governments and companies.
Developing nations, which rely on agricultural imports and food that is less processed, have been acutely impacted, but rich countries would also soon feel the effects, according to economists.
Food producer prices have risen at the fastest pace since 2008 and this would play a stronger role in driving headline inflation statistics than in the recent past, said Christian Bogmans, economist at the IMF.
He and his colleagues expected consumer food prices in rich countries to rise on average by 4.5 percentage points by the end of 2022. The EU and US could face additional price pressures due to loose monetary and fiscal policies, he warned.
Line chart of Food price index (2014-2016=100) showing World food prices have soared
The dry weather conditions in parts of the US this year could increase consumer food price inflation further, although that was hard to quantify at this point, he added.
Aid experts were worried that elevated levels of poverty and hunger in rich countries would affect their ability to extend aid to poorer ones.
Husain at the UN World Food Programme was concerned that the world’s collective ability to respond to hunger and poverty was shrinking. “The needs are going up but rich countries have less resources to address those needs,” he said.
Back in Milan, Seccia and her husband have picked up odd jobs, mainly cleaning, for the past six months.
They hoped their situation would “slowly improve”, but the impact of the pandemic would linger, Seccia said: “We will spend the next few months, if not years, paying off the debts we accumulated.”
These brief notes on “decentralised finance” involving crypto currencies give you an immediate unmistakable sense of what kind of cataclysmic disaster we are headed for unless this nonsense is nipped in the bud … and the whole idea and practice declared illegal!
The catastrophic danger is so obvious, even blind Freddie would have a clear view of it. Once this sort of lending swells to a certain size - quite easily and rapidly - any fall in the “value” (assuming it has any!) of crypto will spread at the speed of… electronic transactions!… the speed of light. No central bank would even have the time to work out what precisely had hit it, let alone take immediate steps to stop “contagion” in other financial markets! As McCrann says, greed on Wall Street and rank stupidity or connivance in government institutions will open the gates to the Deluge…
This useful summary of the crypto currency problem from Bartholomewsz:
The nets are starting to close on the $2.6 trillion crypto industry
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
August 10, 2021 — 11.59am
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The regulatory and tax nets are starting to close on the $US1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) cryptocurrencies market.
On Monday in the US the Biden administration’s $US1 trillion infrastructure bill, which has sufficient bipartisan support to pass, was held up by a wrangle over the tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrencies.
The Biden administration says the measures, which sparked a frenzy of lobbying from the crypto industry, will raise $US28 billion over a decade. That’s probably conservative.
The Biden administration says the measures, which sparked a frenzy of lobbying from the crypto industry, will raise $US28 billion over a decade. That’s probably conservative.CREDIT:AP
After a weekend of intense negotiations over competing amendments to the bill, the effort to include the changes in legislation failed amidst a broader debate about whether amendments to the overall package should be allowed.
The weekend negotiations were over which participants in the cryptocurrencies sector should be exempt from the bill’s tax-reporting requirements, which impose an obligation on cryptocurrency brokers, and potentially others, to report transactions to the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS taxes profits on trading of crypto assets (those reported to it) as capital gains.
The Biden administration says the measures, which sparked a frenzy of lobbying from the crypto industry, will raise $US28 billion over a decade. That’s probably conservative.
The original language of the bill would have extended its coverage beyond brokers to other crypto-related businesses like miners and software developers, requiring them to collect and report data that they don’t – because the decentralised nature of the cryptocurrency system and blockchains are designed to deliver anonymity – have access to.
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Stephen Bartholomeusz
Stephen Bartholomeusz
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The proponents of one amendment wanted to exclude all participants other than those conducting transactions on exchanges where consumers buy, sell or trade digital assets. The supporters of the other – endorsed by the White House – would have included a wider range of participants in the reporting regime.
The compromise thrashed out at the weekend would have clarified the definition of a broker and ensured that software developers, transaction validators and other non-brokers weren’t included but it still could have captured a broader range of activities.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had endorsed the compromise, saying it would make meaningful progress on tackling tax evasion in the cryptocurrency market. The failure to reflect that compromise in the legislation, however, was a blow to the industry and its supporters.
Senator Ted Cruz, whose home state Texas is a major centre for cryptocurrency activity and stands to benefit from the exit of miners and others from China during a drastic crackdown on bitcoin in that country, said the Senate had, by failing to amend the bill, taken steps that would “obliterate” the industry in the US.
The legislation could still be amended in the House but is almost certain to be ratified in substance because there is cross-party support for regulation of a sector that falls through the cracks of the existing system and which has been characterised as facilitating tax evasion, money-laundering, drug dealing and ransomware attacks.
The biggest threat to crypto assets, their appeal and their value is a loss of anonymity. Taxation of transactions is one key aspect of the fallout from that loss.
The growth of the sectors and the extent to which retail and institutional investors now participate in it – along with a series of frauds, scandals and intense trading volatility – is also leading to increased efforts to impose traditional forms of regulation on the trading of cryptocurrencies.
The new Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Gary Gensler, has said he wants Congress to give the SEC more explicit authority to regulate cryptocurrencies, trading venues, stable coins, exchange-traded crypto asset funds and the decentralised finance sector.
At the moment the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission can’t even agree whether crypto assets are securities or commodities and therefore whose jurisdiction is responsible for them.
Yellen has foreshadowed specific new regulations on stablecoins – digital currencies backed by traditional currencies or commodities – which are regarded as more of a threat to fiat currencies, payment systems and financial stability than, say, bitcoins.
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Around the world, governments, regulators and central banks are paying closer attention to crypto assets. The US isn’t the only jurisdiction look to force cryptocurrencies into their tax nets or impose more regulation on their trading.
In Europe, there is a push to create a pan-European regulator of crypto assets within the European Securities and Markets Authority amid concerns about their growing role in illegal activity, the lack of consumer protections and the lack of regulation of crypto exchanges, clearing houses and brokers.
China, of course, is purging its system of cryptocurrency miners and traders and ordering its banks and fintechs not to provide any services related to cryptocurrency transactions.
Money laundering, the anonymous nature of the transactions and the extent of the role of the big fintechs like Alipay and Tencent in consumer transactions, which creates financial stability issues, provide the motivation for the crackdown, along with the extreme energy intensity of bitcoin mining and China’s own ambitions with its digital yuan.
The biggest threat to crypto assets, their appeal and their value is a loss of anonymity. Taxation of transactions is one key aspect of the fallout from that loss.
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While there are those in the sector who see the US legislation as a positive, by effectively providing the legislators’ endorsement of the credibility of crypto assets and therefor helping to make them just another form of investment or currency, transparency would rob crypto assets of the libertarian, anti-establishment flavour that has played a key role in their development.
Cross-border co-operation between governments, central banks (some of which have digital currency plans of their own) and securities regulators is almost inevitable as governments seek to impose controls and restrictions on a sector that has been allowed to grow almost uncontrolled.
Note this passage:
“China, of course, is purging its system of cryptocurrency miners and traders and ordering its banks and fintechs not to provide any services related to cryptocurrency transactions.”
Greed and corruption will allow China to devour the West…
The Chinese are more corrupt, perhaps,… but as a party-state dictatorship they have what we lack: - will to power.
The Chinese are more corrupt, perhaps,… but as a party-state dictatorship they have what we lack: - will to power.
Even in Taiwan, these people are like locusts… they move in packs, if not in clouds… their first instinct is not “humanity”… it is survival and expansion… I am entirely ignorant of Oriental religion or philosophy, but I have a hunch that the universal belief in…. “Reincarnation” has something to do with will to power…
In the West, death is final… for these maggots, to quote George Gershwin, “what you read in the Bible… ain’t necessarily so”!
“Money laundering, the anonymous nature of the transactions and the extent of the role of the big fintechs like Alipay and Tencent in consumer transactions, which creates financial stability issues, provide the motivation for the crackdown, along with the extreme energy intensity of bitcoin mining and China’s own ambitions with its digital yuan.”
That this should even be a matter of debate shows how totally removed from any sense of reality Western governments are! Once more, madness has very little to do with the adequacy of means to ends (Max Weber, much more qualified to judge than Einstein, called this “purposive rationality”, Zweck-rationalitat ). Madness is about the irrationality of the ends themselves (Weber’s Wert-rationalitat). Western governments have lost track of the very essence and purpose of government!
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/ruling-reverses-activism-on-casual-pay/news-story/09d637a75245f836d0f567edaddfd1f8
I agree with Judith Sloan that judicial activism has to be nipped in the bud… It is a symptom, not the cause, of political stalemate and paralysis. - Which is why governments have to be extremely careful in the appointment of judges! In the US, the decay of Congress, truly alarming, is the cause of the growing, perilous “ingerence” or interference of the Supreme Court in the legislative process: in effect, the Court has replaced Congress as legislator!
The broader problem in the instant area, however, is that once a significant proportion of workers become “contracted casuals”, then the “freedom” part of “freedom of contract” becomes a blatant and oppressive lie! Because the High Court is not and should never become a political body, its statement of freedom of contract becomes pure legal formalism, totally detached from the rapidly changing “relationship of force or power” obtaining on the ground of industrial relations - at least where these “poveri disgraziati” riding Uber taxis and food deliveries are concerned!…
This is yet another example of McCrann’s “Ponzi scheme” whereby wholly outdated, unrealistic standards and measures are foisted by the powers that be on the bulk of the population (90 per cent) to rationalise the rapid abysmal decline in their living standards, with ritual deceitful references to “world standards” or “best practices” which are drawn from China, if not Bangla Desh!
Look no further than the loose talk of “middle class” with reference to China itself, or Taiwan (are these people for real?)… or Swaziland!
The middle class family in Taiwan… rides a scooter… and I mean ONE scooter!
When Cherry saw what teachers get paid here… she immediately booked her flight back to Oz!
Reminds me of the Ronnie Corbett joke: he is in prison for theft. The warden asks him why on the census form he has ticked “middle class” for his status. “Well,” he replies, “I used to think I was working class…. Then I went to Glasgow!”
You can see just how topical governance is becoming from this in the NYT. Greg Weiner has written a book decrying the delegation of legislative power to the courts, in the US as in the West.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/opinion/biden-pelosi-congress-eviction-jan-6.html
!!
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