It's Wednesday and there are a few topics that caught my attention this week as…
Still on holidays
The blog is on holiday until Monday, December 30, 2018 although the usual Weekend Quiz will appear. There might be an existential question or two about Santa given the video that Norad has published. All the best from my local beach (Bar Beach today). Music to follow …
Woodford Festival, Queensland, December 28, 2019
I am talking at the Woodford Folk Festival on MMT and Green Transition this Saturday, at 11:10 in the GREENhouse as part of the Festival’s Talks Program.
If you are attending the Festival, then it would be great if you stopped and joined the audience.
For – Further details.
Apparently, Santa managed to get to Australia this year, after missing us last year
Last year, I consulted the – Norad Santa Tracker – which is compiled by the US North American Aerospace Defence Command and found that Santa had missed Australia.
Being an evidence-based sort of person, I produced a screen shot recorded at 18:37 December 25, 2018 which documents his progress throughout the day. Conclusion: Santa missed Australia.
I wondered how all the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) kids in Australia aged below 7 would cope given the scam had been blown.
Anyway, I wrote to Santa during the year and was reliably informed that the NORAD facility was probably encountering a glitch when he came down our way.
And this year, that seems to have been the case. Here he is, flying over Sydney Harbour. Kids are at peace again. That is, until they reach adulthood and find their world has been trashed by neoliberal governments pursuing austerity and not dealing with climate change quickly enough.
Broken Wings – John Mayall
This short song – Broken Wings – was Track 5, side B on the The Blues Alone album, which John Mayall released in November 1967 on the Ace of Clubs Records label.
This was the first album I ever bought in my early teenage years with my paper round money. The Ace of Clubs label was great because they were (from memory) $1.99 instead of the usual price for a long playing disk of $4.95.
The album followed pretty well straight after he released Crusade, his third studio effort which marked the appearance of Mick Taylor (just before he took up with the Rolling Stones).
Mayall had a habit of falling out with his guitar players or bassists – Eric Clapton left the Bluesbreakers, then his replacement, the mighty Peter Green left, bass player John McVie left, and then Mick Taylor. Quite a lineup. Fortunately the dissidents (Green and McVie) formed the first version of Fleetwood Mac and we know what that produced before the band turned to pop.
On this album, John Mayall played all the instruments barring the drums, which were provided by the magnificent Keef Hartley whose own recording career is worth getting acquainted with.
Not only did John Mayall play most of the instruments, he also designed the sleeve notes and cover art for the album, which featured himself playing what I believe was a home made guitar.
So on The Blues Alone he could only really argue with himself.
I loved this track (still do) and fell in love with Hammond B3 organs and always wanted one except I never had a place big enough to store it and guitars took my attention away.
Anyway, mellow out and enjoy the artistry.
My blog will resume Monday (December 30, 2018), although the Weekend Quiz will appear as usual.
That is enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2019 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.
And you believed NORAD? They were clearly concealing a plot against Australia. A glitch. Do they expect anyone to believe this? ;-D Do have a good break, if you can.
An ideologue on a right wing blog shouted this at me.
” Deficits can NOT “help us fight a myriad of problems that plague our economy-inequality, poverty and unemployment, climate change, housing, health care, and more.”
“we can’t use deficits to solve problems if we continue to think of the deficit itself as a problem.” Deficits are ALWAYS the problem. Period. End of discussion.
Deficits are wrong in personal finance and more so in government budgets.
A deficit is the equivalent to a HIGHER tax. Think about it. All debts must be paid either by the debtors or the creditor. In the case of a deficit the taxpayer is BOTH. And who pays the taxes that pay off the deficits that pay for the wages of all those “helpful” government employees? Not the lazy SOBs that sit on their arses in council housing, but the productive hard workers who are trying to save so they can pay for their OWN housing and necessities.
Government deficits is NEVER the answer. FREEDOM always is. ”
So I calmly ( well not really more like a bull in a China shop with an Uzi ) showed him the real data graph that Stephanie uses that shows the budget deficit = The private sector surplus to the penny. Then replaced some words using the other side of the balance sheet.
It looked looked like this……
” A private sector surplus can NOT “help us fight a myriad of problems that plague our economy-inequality, poverty and unemployment, climate change, housing, health care, and more.”
we can’t use private sector surpluses to solve problems if we continue to think of the private sector surplus itself as a problem.” Private sector surpluses are ALWAYS the problem. Period. End of discussion.
Private sector surpluses are wrong in personal finance and more so in government budgets.
A private sector surplus is the equivalent to a HIGHER tax. Think about it. All debts must be paid either by the debtors or the creditor. In the case of a private sector surplus the taxpayer is BOTH. And who pays the taxes that pay off the private sector surplus that pay for the wages of all those “helpful” government employees? Not the lazy SOBs that sit on their arses in council housing, but the productive hard workers who are trying to save so they can pay for their OWN housing and necessities.
Private sector surpluses are NEVER the answer. FREEDOM always is.
🙂
Then I realised you could do this on any ideologue/ GROUPTHINK blog and it would work and oh boy what fun you could have with it.
I could have some serious fun on blogs in Scotland. Just by replacing words with the other side of the balance sheet. They are gold mines ready to be mined.
You could even do it on some ” big names” economist blogs quite easily. Certainly with many news paper articles.
I’m thinking of starting a blog and calling it Cyclops the son of Uranus and his one bad eye on the balance sheet. Or regular posters can give me a name for the blog and the winner wins a weekend holiday getaway in Damascus. Then Pick out various blogs and media articles and replacing the ideology with the accounting facts throughout the article.
It would be hilarious ! With the added bonus You would win the debate because of how absurd they sound.
A new year resolution maybe. The MMT version of Private Eye.
Just think of the fun we could have had with this from Phillip Inman of the Guardian.
UK budget deficit narrows to lowest September level since 2007
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/20/uk-budget-deficit-narrows-philip-hammond-obr-brexit
By replacing 30 words in the article with the actual accounting of the real world. Leaving the rest in place.
We could have turned Phillips article into a Monty Python sketch rolled into the who shot JR episode from Dallas. Add a brush stroke of drama from Downton Abbey for the middle classes and where’s Wally for the kids. We would be onto a winner. Patrick Duffy waking up from a dream wouldn’t have seemed that bad for little Toto too, as Dorothy recovers from the mushroom tea from the night before.
I do wonder if we poked fun at these jokers by doing this via a blog and then handing it to them via their social media feeds private eye style. If they would actually start to report the other side of the balance sheet ?
After reading for themselves the absurdity of their own journalism.
“the winner wins a weekend holiday getaway in Damascus”.
… and the runner-up wins a whole week …?