The State, the Deep State, and the Wall Street Overworld In the last decade it has become more and more obvious that we have in America today what the journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin have called two governments: the one its citizens were familiar with, operated more or less in the open: the other a parallel top secret government whose parts had mushroomed in less than a decade into a gigantic, sprawling universe of its own, visible to only a carefully vetted cadre – and its entirety…visible only to God.1 And in 2013, particularly after the military return to power in Egypt, more and more authors referred to this second level as America’s “deep state.”2 Here for example is the Republican analyst Mike Lofgren: There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. DEEP STATE n. The Deep State, The Shadow Government and the Wall Street Overworld Thereafter
Freedom to Tinker — Research and expert commentary on digital technologies in public life Job security is a thing of the past - so millions need a better welfare system | Guy Standing | Comment is free So, millions of British workers are anxious and frustrated. Is anybody surprised at the precariousness revealed by the latest Skills and Employment Survey, published on Monday? The national survey, carried out every six years, shows that more employees feel insecure than at any time in 20 years; that work is being intensified, with people being asked to do more and work longer; and that for the first time people working in the public sector feel more insecure than those in the private sector. The reasons for this are clear. All governments since Margaret Thatcher's have promoted flexible labour markets as the right response to globalisation, without radically altering the social protection system in order to cushion workers against the inevitable insecurities that arise. As long as this consensus prevails, more and more people will join the ranks of the "precariat", and the insecurities confronting people will continue to multiply and intensify. Britain is not alone, of course.
The Rise of Anti-Capitalism Photo WE are beginning to witness a paradox at the heart of capitalism, one that has propelled it to greatness but is now threatening its future: The inherent dynamism of competitive markets is bringing costs so far down that many goods and services are becoming nearly free, abundant, and no longer subject to market forces. While economists have always welcomed a reduction in marginal cost, they never anticipated the possibility of a technological revolution that might bring those costs to near zero. The first inkling of the paradox came in 1999 when Napster, the music service, developed a network enabling millions of people to share music without paying the producers and artists, wreaking havoc on the music industry. The huge reduction in marginal cost shook those industries and is now beginning to reshape energy, manufacturing and education. Now the phenomenon is about to affect the whole economy.
Los sociólogos defienden la pulcritud de sus métodos frente a la lectura periodística de las encuestas Cualquier manipulación en una encuesta tiene su origen en la elaboración de las preguntas. La lectura de los datos depende de “cómo se vea la botella, medio vacía o medio llena”. Si a usted le preguntan “¿Quién debería liderar un pacto de Estado?”, tendrá X opciones para responder; pero si le preguntan “¿Qué le parece que el Rey propicie un pacto de Estado?” “El 74% quiere que el colchón del déficit sea para bajar impuestos”, es otro ejemplo más reciente del mismo diario. ¿Se puede hablar de objetividad? “Hay medios que tienen años de experiencia en elaborar, a partir de los datos, lo que se lee finalmente en prensa; los hay -incluso- que plantean las preguntas”, explica José Luis Rojo , sociólogo de Sigma-Dos , la empresa de opinión que trabaja para El Mundo . Ferrándiz (Metroscopia): “Cualquier manipulación en una encuesta comienza en la elaboración de las preguntas” Resultados parecidos, titulares opuestos No es, sin embargo, así. Lo extraño: las coincidencias Tu voto: i 1 Vote Me gusta:
Young, qualified and jobless: plight of Europe's best-educated generation | World news "All your life," says Argyro Paraskeva, "you've been told you're a golden prince. The future awaits: it's bright, it's yours. You have a degree! You'll have a good job, a fine life. Or not so suddenly. Over cold tea in a sunlit cafe in Greece's second city, Paraskeva says she has written "literally hundreds of letters". So would countless other young Europeans. European leaders are rarely without a new initiative. Some commentators say the figures overstate the problem: young people in full-time education or training (a large proportion, obviously) are not considered "economically active" and so in some countries are counted as unemployed. But others point out Europe's "economically inactive" now include millions of young people (14 million, according to the French president, François Hollande) not in work, education or training but who, while technically not unemployed, are nonetheless jobless – and have all but given up looking, at least in their own country. He's not making money.
Stop Currency Manipulation and Create Millions of Jobs: With Gains across States and Congressional Districts Six years after the start of the Great Recession nearly 8 million jobs are still needed to return to prerecession labor market health (EPI 2013). Job creation should still be goal number one. Yet prospects for any fiscal policy action to boost jobs have disappeared under the weight of congressional dysfunction, and the Federal Reserve has begun to wind down monetary stimulus (Wall Street Journal 2013). Many of the new jobs would be in manufacturing, a sector devastated by rising trade deficits over the past 15 years. Currency manipulation, which distorts trade flows by artificially lowering the cost of U.S. imports and raising the cost of U.S. exports, is the primary cause of these growing trade deficits. This paper describes the positive effects of ending currency manipulation in three years by estimating the effects of reducing trade deficits on GDP, jobs, the federal budget deficit, and state and local budget deficits in 2015. Exchange rates Effects of exchange rates on trade
Las “Digital Humanities” y como pensamos en la era de la análitica cultural. 2da Parte Tecnogénesis y coevolución La propuesta de Katherine Hayles no se agota con la presunción de que pensamos distinto porque los medios con los que interactuamos son muy diferentes de los que predominaron durante los 500 años de hegemonía de la imprenta. Mas alla de este semitruismo mcluhaniamente plantea que estas diferencias son atribuibles a una tecnogénesis, dado que los humanos y la técnica hemos coevolucionado desde el fondo de la historia tal como se comprueba con la emergencia del bipedalismo junto con a manufactura de herramientas y al transporte en una causalidad recíproca continua. A ello debemos sumarle el efecto Baldwin según el cual cada vez que ocurre una mutación genética su dispersión a través de la población se acelera cuando la especie reingenieriza su entorno de modo tal que la mutación sea mas adaptativa. Tanto la materialidad como los propios objetos no son datos a priori sino procesos dinámicos que cambian a medida que se altera el punto de vista. Referencias
‘Bout to explode: a day in the life of a precarious worker As part of Shift Magazine's series on precarity, Juan Conatz describes a day in the work life of a sleep deprived day laborer. “Damn it, where’s this pinche thing?” Sometimes when I get real frustrated, a few Spanish curse words enter my vocabulary. My mom would probably be both amused and disappointed. “Jesus Christ, there ain’t nowhere in here for anything to get lost!” It’s 4:30 AM, and I’m frantically looking for both my house keys and bus pass. Insomnia pushes your tolerance for minor annoyances a lot lower. “Ah hah!” I finally find both my keys and bus pass hidden behind my suitcases, which I’ve been living out of for about a year now. This early in the morning is no time for a human being to be searching for a bus pass, but when you’re virtually unemployed, you’ve got to get on your grind. I think about this fact real briefly, then try to shove it out of my mind. Pretty awake now. I walk out the door and then down the street to the day labor place. Try to concentrate on my work.