Banking printing money from interest rate hikes. The extractive energy sector struck a money gusher after Russia invaded Ukraine. Now the Tories are working assiduously to promote the interests of these sectors, which were shrewd enough I guess to direct some of the free money the Tories’ way.
Ethical banking
This piece on Farage’s crusade against NatWest on Richard Murphy’s Funding the Future blog is interesting.
Three comments:
- Regarding banks and banking in the modern economy, neoliberalism is ideologically, philosophically, and practically incompetent.
- In a free market, the seller as much as the buyer is free to choose, and sometimes (whisper it) the seller has the freer choice.
- Libertarians and the hard neoliberal right are tilting against KYC, which prevents them doing profitable business with Russian oligarchs at the moment.
Pigeon Tribes
Based on their colouring, local pigeons are different tribes. From Terry Spinks Place in Canning Town north to Three Mills in Bow, there are many birds with “Skeletor” patterns (white-to-speckled-white heads, feathering to dark colouring). At Canary Wharf, there are many “Cappuccino” pigeons. You see neither Skeletors nor Cappuccinos in Poplar: most are darker urban pigeons, though there are some classic rock-dove greys. There’s the odd stand-out red pigeon, and some albino birds, too - but very few.
I occasionally see a dilapidated ice cream van around Hackney that looks like a horror movie prop. Surely a spoof, it’s emblazoned with the company name “NAZ Ice”.
I’m not sure why a public transport service whose exhortations fail to get people to do self-interested things like “keep to the left” or “let the passengers off first” thinks that a few posters will be effective in combating the harassment of women on the network.
The choice in British politics is between weak, unprincipled invertebrates and weak, unprincipled invertebrates who try to make themselves look strong by kicking migrants and transgender people.
What electoral constituency is Starmer trying to appeal to?
Twenty is plenty
So, I am posting in greyscale from an eInk device.
Does “elite overproduction” explain all the mess the UK and the US are in? I don’t think so, but it sure is an important factor.