Very sharp guy who really helped me concretize my thoughts/writing about ‘Global Finance Capitals’ (GFCs, the fusing of production and finance capitals, their internal contradictions but moreso those between these entities and national states).

Unless economists wake up and protect the integrity of their data by rejecting constant rejiggering and readjustment, they will never be able to draw any accurate conclusions. If you look at traditional measurements of unemployment, we have been over 9% for a long period. Some measures have us at over 12% using traditional techniques.

We are like a frog in a boiling pot of water who believes that it cannot be very hot if the thermometer is broken, or short of mercury.

Economists as a profession face the total loss of credibility if they lack the character to demand accurate and consistent data, otherwise they are analyzing tea leaves.

The cultural issue speaks to a question of core values, which too often economists do not adequately recognize in their assumptions, and merely assume that progress toward maximal utility occurs.

However, progress requires learning, which is awfully difficult for our species…

Milken and company are right to fear unfortunate consequences of the backlash — but naturally fail to see how their own arrogance and simple-minded “government is always bad” ideology makes such backlash dramatically more likely. (Funny, they don’t seem to object to government when they need the cops to evict someone they have foreclosed on …)

Financial reform is too important to be left entirely to “Wall Street’s Finest”. They’re paid not to understand the problem. But it doesn’t follow that “shutting down the big casino” is a sensible policy either.

This can be a sign of sociopathic personality disorder.

Evil bastards, indeed.