Mammon category archive
Dr. Consiglieri’s Cabinet 0
Once again, the Charlotte Observer observes:
Follow the link to find out what they made that observation.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
Thom and Richard Eskow discusses similarities between Donald Trump’s cabinet of deplorables and Republican cabinets of the 1920s.
Jen Sorenson has more. Here’s a snippet (emphasis added):
Trump’s version of a political and financial establishment, just forming, will be bound together by certain behavioral patterns born of relationships among those of similar status, background, social position, legacy connections, and an assumed allegiance to a dogma of self-aggrandizement that overshadows everything else. In the realm of politico-financial power and in Trump’s experience and ideology, the one with the most toys always wins. So it’s hardly a surprise that his money- and power-centric cabinet won’t be focused on public service or patriotism or civic duty, but on the consolidation of corporate and private gain at the expense of the citizenry.
Welcome to the kelptocracy.
That Pesky Dialectic of Materialism, It Just Won’t Go Away 0
At the Boston Review, Alex De Waal remembers Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation, which was written in 1944 and analyzed the events leading from the Napoleonic Wars to the World Wars from a social and economic perspective. De Waal applies that same analysis to the events since 1945. His conclusions do not give reason for optimism.
The article is long and densely reasoned and so depressing that it’s taken me three days to wade through it. I urge you to read the whole thing, even if it takes you three days . . . .
Here’s just a bit to either whet your appetite or scare you away (emphasis added).
(snip)
So now—a winning minority of the electorate having lodged its protest and voted for its own gravedigger—the logic of today’s political economy is laid bare. What then can we take from The Great Transformation to deepen our understanding of our predicament? Polanyi’s central conclusion is that unregulated capitalism promised a “stark Utopia” of great wealth but destroyed the social and material basis of a humane society. Just over a hundred years ago, nineteenth-century Western liberal civilization reached its apogee, which was also the moment at which it could no longer contain the forces of disorder that it had unleashed. The massive destruction of the world wars, the communist revolution, fascist imperialism, and the Great Depression followed. Capitalism was reprieved by the political dispensation that followed World War II. John Maynard Keynes provided the intellectual capital for managing the market, and the victors of the war recognized that full employment, social welfare, and a good measure of equality were necessary to save civilization. But capitalism’s dangerous tendencies remained and, once freed from the challenge of socialism, its utopian dogma was again ascendant. The inevitable crisis is now here.
Ryan’s Derp, If You Do Get Sick, Die Quickly Dept. 0
TPM tries to figure out how many persons will lose health coverage under Paul Ryan’s plan to repeal the ACA. It’s not pretty.
The Republican Party: The Party of Mean for the Sake of Mean.
“Running the Government like a Business” 0
Donald Trump has been making his “transition staff”* sign non-disclosure agreements because that’s how open government works. Or something.
I don’t think that is what the phrase quoted in the title of this post is supposed to mean. I do think it provides more evidence that dark days are ahead . . . .
_________________
*Cue the sound that television closed captions refer to as “scoff.”
The Plane Truth 0
The Seattle Times wonders how canceling the order for new planes creates jobs. Meanwhile, Noz points out that the reason for Trump’s dissatisfaction with plans for Boeing to design and build the new planes is obvious. Here’s the gist:
The Medicine Show 0
Have you had enough of commercials showing some old guy with a woman young enough to be his daughter white-water rafting the Colorado River in a bathtub on his way to zip-line across Bryce Canyon while hiking the Appalachian Trail in a kayak on water skis because he’s taking some dodgy prescription drug with a name created by shuffling Scrabble tiles and with more side effects than can be fitted in an intelligible disclaimer that takes up 45% of the ad?
Trumpling the Elites 0
Via Juanita Jean.
As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap 0
The Great Disillusionment begins (follow the link for more).
When Donald Trump named his Treasury secretary, Teena Colebrook felt her heart sink.
She had voted for the president-elect on the belief that he would knock the moneyed elites from their perch in Washington, D.C. And she knew Trump’s pick for Treasury_Steven Mnuchin_all too well.
OneWest, a bank formerly owned by a group of investors headed by Mnuchin, had foreclosed on her Los Angeles-area home in the aftermath of the Great Recession, stripping her of the two units she rented as a primary source of income.
“I just wish that I had not voted,” said Colebrook, 59. “I have no faith in our government anymore at all. They all promise you the world at the end of a stick and take it away once they get in.”
As Steven M. (q. v.), from whom I got the above link, posits, there will be many more sharing her disappointment as the Trump fairy dust clears and the Trump reality comes into view.
Cabinet of Horrors 0
Will Bunch opens the door and takes a peek.
Keeping Up with the Times 6
Catherine Rampell suggests that college students need to change with the times.
What skills and disciplines should workers-to-be master to succeed in the 21st-century economy?
My answer used to involve programming, data analysis, creativity, empathy. Basically, skills that are complementary to rising automation and that will help workers invent new products or support those who do.
Today, my answer must change. In light of the regulatory vision being laid out by President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers, I’d recommend college students bone up on hustling and swindling instead.
Mammas, make sure your babies grow up to be con men.
Follow the link to find out why she says that.