ISDS as an agency of Neo-colonialism

Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Tribunals are now starting to bite what used to be known as the first world, in the rear. Recently the threat of an Investor Suit in the World Trade court instigated Congress to rescind point of origin labeling laws. And another lawsuit was filed even more recently seeking damages for a ruling that the Keystone XL pipeline was too great a risk to the US water supply to be built. [see Washington Post: "TransCanada is suing the U.S. over Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. The U.S. might lose."]

Imminence

We live in this limited world,

where we can only march one way,

where each day that passes is lost.

And we can only progress at it's cost.

 

This is a world of bricks and stones,

Wood and rot,

Where every step forward is bought

with pain and loss.

 

But imminent in this world is a kind of transcendence:

a chance to participate in creation.

A choice between irrationality and reason;

Between tearing down and destruction or creating joy;

 

Those bricks and stones can build a prison,

Or raise a palace of the imagination.

In honor of Spinoza, Christopher H. Holte

We are not diminished

We are not diminished

Your love's beauty shines radiant like a sun.

She has shed a husk and is free to cavort and roam

Close to home,

yet far from this sad place under the loam.

 

In waves of imagination and the memory of loved ones.

There is a star that shines that should bear her name.

In this world, the world beyond we cannot know.

But If anything is transcendent, it is that loving glow.

Responding to a friend's loss, Christopher H. Holte 3/2/2016

The Hoodoo about Varieties of Voodoo

Varieties of Voodoo by Paul Krugman February 19 2016, he writes;

"America’s two big political parties are very different from each other, and one difference involves the willingness to indulge economic fantasies." [Krugman Voodoo]

No We Democrats indulge in self flagellation and let the Cons use their not so "innocent frauds" to bully us around. We also have a habit of eating our own -- and letting the Cons, Con us. So we do their work for them.

As James K. Galbraith notes in his own rebuke:

"For the record, in case you're curious, I'm not tied to Professor Friedman in any way. But the powerful – such as Paul and yourselves – should be careful where you step." [Galbraith]

And it looks like a lot of folks have stepped in it.

Murray Rothbard March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995

A Founder of the Modern Right Wing

In April of 2014 I wrote a blog entry on the Mt. Pelarin Society, but the figure who intrigued me at the moment was Murray Rothbard, who was tied to both Milton Friedman and Ludwig Von Mises, and who was a disciple of Ludwig Von Mises. Reading his various hagiographies I encountered narratives all over the place, but mostly they provided an image of a man who was incredibly influential with the right wing of this country.

Murray Rothbard from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard

 

The Trouble with the Revolving Door

Elizabeth Warren released her report:

Rigged Justice: How Weak Enforcement Lets Corporate Offenders Off Easy."

In it she notes:

"The report, the first in an annual series on enforcement, highlights 20 of the most egregious civil and criminal cases during the past year in which federal settlements failed to require meaningful accountability to deter future wrongdoing and to protect taxpayers and families."

The Trouble with Capitalism

http://web.stanford.edu/~chadj/piketty.pdf

The trouble with capitalism is that it tends to lump together "capital" with rental opportunities and create an aristocracy of wealth and power that has the ability to take the first cut on production and starve labor. This can't be good for anyone. Not all capital is the same, and when capitalists are disinvesting from actual production that increases inequality and eventually collapses the economy.

1. All Capital is not equal
2. Much of what is labeled capital is not "actual capital" but rental wealth.
3. Much capital results from converting public goods to club goods.
4. Or from converting common goods to private goods.
5. Who owns and controls capital matters.