The Friday lay day comes around again. I am at present working on a paper on European unemployment clustering (a spatial econometric analysis commissioned by a leading academic journal). When we have finished I will post results in a layperson’s type of blog. I also am working on the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) book (a collection) for Edward Elgar which will come out early in 2015 (as well as my other Eurozone Groupthink book). So I need more time and hence the easier Friday. But I was watching a program on the plane yesterday about the number of people being displaced from Syria and the crisis that nations such as Turkey are now facing trying to house and feed them. Guess what? They lack basic resources because the governments claim they haven’t enough money. Austerity strikes again and as winter approaches in that region, many people including children are going to die through lack of basic care that could be at the fingertips of any number of government officials if they cared escape the neo-liberal world they are locked up within.

Its Friday lay day for me. I am up in Northern Australia until later today finalising my involvement in some projects that I have been part of. I was watching the TV in my hotel this morning after a run in the early morning humidity. There was a program on the Ebola crisis and how medical teams in Western Africa are so short of basic resources that the virus is spreading and becoming uncontrollable. The world is facing a major health crisis at present that is currently centred on the impoverished nations of West Africa. The struggle to combat the spread of the Ebola virus is being seriously hampered, if not imperiled by a lack of resources – simple things like disinfectants, drugs, staff etc. You might be wondering how the world could envision cutting the budget of the World Health Organisation, which is the prime institution charged with dealing with these sorts of crises. Well – fiscal austerity – take a bow! A class act.

Its my Friday lay day, which means a relative blog rest day. Relative is relative. This week saw the ramping up of the so-called ‘War on Terror’, which was a smokescreen George Bush and his conservative allies used to illegally invade countries that they didn’t like or who had strategic assets (such as oil) and who they knew couldn’t defend themselves. The pretext was to make the world safer but the reality is that it has made the world more dangerous. If we are to believe the press, yesterday’s raids in Sydney and Brisbane and subsequent press reporting suggests that some random citizens were about to be dragged off the street, beheaded with a nasty looking sword inscribed with Arabic characters, and then paraded on YouTube for the whole world to see. I think the whole ‘western’ response to all this is unwise.

Its Friday lay day, where I don’t really write a blog anymore. Whatever! Over the last few weeks, I have written a few blogs that have examined the state of affairs in France – for example, Germany contracts as the French suggest defiance and French government in tatters and the financial markets want growth. I recall that earlier this year (January 28, 2014), the French President Francois Hollande told the press that unemployment in France had “finally peaked” (Source). Every month since he made that prediction, unemployment has risen.

Its Friday and my blog lay day – which might mean anything. That is, I might write no blog or just a small blog. Its what I call freedom. A big week has gone. Edward Elgar will publish the English-version of my Euro book – more details later. The Treasurer has turned his nonsensical fiscal statement into a ‘trainwreck’, we learn that the world is actually in danger of ‘global cooling’ and more NSW conservative politicians bit the dust as the corruption scandal widens. Next stop – the Federal Liberal Party administration. It is lots of fun watching the conservatives meltdown.

Its Friday blog lay day – which might mean anything. But today I provide some commentary on the scientific acumen of our federal government and a recipe to soothe souls torn by neo-liberal economic policies.

It is Friday and so a short blog only. It has been a terrible week for Australian government abuse of human rights. I have dealt with the treatment of the unemployed already this week. Yesterday, it was revealed that the federal government is exhibiting the same behaviour that characterises totalitarian regimes. We often get moralising lectures from so-called liberals about abuses in, say North Korea, including the suppression of information which helps the regime sustain activities that would not be tolerated by the public if they were aware. Welcome to Australia.