11 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2022
    1. The Kremlin says it is fighting a "special military operation" to defend Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine and casts it as a conflict with an "absolutist" West led by the United States which wants to destroy Russia and its culture.Kyiv and its Western backers note that many Russian speakers have fled the Russian invasion, which they say is an imperial-style land grab that has given the biggest boost to Ukrainian nationalism in a century.

      Why not both?

  2. Mar 2022
    1. Two centuries ago, long before there even was a nation state called Germany, romantic philosophers such as Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Gottlieb Fichte espied German exceptionalism in the unique spirit or soul of the “Volk” — the people or tribe. These ideas led to the rise of nationalism in Europe.

      Maybe? But “cuis regio, eius religio” and Westphalia?

    1. The GOP also defeated Democratic efforts to allow taxpayer funding for abortions, legalize marijuana in the District of Columbia and extend the wider eligibility for free school lunches instituted during the pandemic. 

      prolife vs. antiabortion.

  3. Feb 2022
    1. Within five years, I believe that almost every form of organized social behavior will be fully abstracted into a speculation layer made up of 1) objects: a set of symbols representing real world entities formerly at the heart of those organized behaviors, 2) protocols: a government-sanctioned and oligarchy-established set of rules for a virtual betting market in those symbols, and 3) tokens: a similarly sanctioned and established set of casino chips providing liquidity for the betting market in those symbols.

      This is what Web3 evangelists are already doing.

    1. Many American employers continue to make their job offers contingent on fine-print conditions, such as noncompete clauses and forced arbitration, that can make it almost impossible to jump to a better workplace or hold management accountable when things go wrong. They seek out foreign workers who often, in theory or practice, lack the legal protections of U.S. citizens. They argue that they aren’t liable for any mistreatment of their subcontracted staff by the companies that technically employ those workers. And they charge staff for equipment or training essential to their duties, establishing a cycle of debt that, in conjunction with low wages, tends to build on itself
    1. many of the forces driving rent inflation are either beyond the reach of or not immediately responsive to monetary policy. Among them is household formation, which initially dipped during the Covid-19 recession, but came roaring back soon thereafter as employment rebounded along with the economy.

      Effect of hedge funds and investment companies hoovering up residential real estate?

    1. When the downturn hit, the Federal Reserve loosened monetary policy aggressively, while the Treasury engaged in an unprecedented level of income replacement for workers who had lost their jobs.

      Hundreds & thousands for households, billions & trillions for banks.

  4. Jan 2022
    1. Anyone who expects the Fed to blink, as it did after the last pre-pandemic selloff in late 2018, is misreading the economy, Jensen said. Things were different then. Inflation was below the Fed’s 2% target and big companies were buying back shares instead of adding capacity, stockpiling supplies and raising wages.

      You can't manage "the economy" by managing "the money". Financial tools have financial results. Regulatory/legal/cultural environment creates the framework. If you want rising wages and an expanding middle class, you need the rules, laws, & customs that encourage those results.

  5. Oct 2021
    1. Propaganda—communication designed to manipulate thought or behavior—is the opposite of persuasion. It’s running amok, juiced by social media clicks, dopamine hits, cable TV, and, as always, advertising.

      Advertising.

  6. May 2021
    1. Two planks in a political platform for a party I could support:

      1. 1 Representative for every 60,000 people, and
      2. This: broadband equality.