J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 114

Notice anybody missing from this list of Nazi victims?: U...

Notice anybody missing from this list of Nazi victims?: UK University and College Union: Holocaust Memorial Day https://ucu.org.uk/hmd: "UCU commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) observed annually on 27 January. It does so in memory of the millions who were murdered in the Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda in order to challenge hatred and persecution in the UK today. The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 is 'Stand Together'. It explores how genocidal regimes throughout history have deliberately fractured societies by marginalising certain groups, and how these tactics can be challenged by individuals standing together with their neighbours, and speaking out against oppression.... Trade unions, including social democrats and communists, were the first among many groups who were persecuted by the Nazi following Hitler's rise to power in 1933. Other groups persecuted included:

Europe's Roma and Sinti people
'asocials' which included beggars, alcoholics, drug addicts,
prostitutes and pacifists
black people
disabled people-those with physical as well as mental illness
freemasons
gay and lesbian people
Jehovah's Witnesses
non-Jewish Poles and Slavic POWs.

Please continue to let us know how your branch will be commemorating the day by emailing us at eqadmin@ucu.org.uk. Below we outline a few ideas for planning an event and please do use our resources...

#noted

Kevin Drum: Remember What Ukrainegate Is About https://ww...

Kevin Drum: Remember What Ukrainegate Is About https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/09/remember-what-ukrainegate-is-about/: "Ukrainegate is about Donald Trump holding military assistance hostage unless a foreign leader agreed to help him win an election. To the best of anyone���s knowledge, this has never happened before.... Nothing that was said���or yelled or tweeted���over the weekend has changed this...

#noted

Very Briefly Noted 2019-09-30:Natalie Abrams: Xena: Wa...

Very Briefly Noted 2019-09-30:

Natalie Abrams: Xena: Warrior Princess: An Oral Herstory: "How Xena went from sword-wielding heroine to feminist icon...

Supreme Court of Missouri (1998): Janice Ann DeLong v. Fredrick Joseph DeLong, Case No. 80637 (Sup. Ct. Mo. 1998)

Wikipedia: Anicius Manlius Severinus Bo��thius

Wikipedia: Theodoric the Great

Wikipedia: Amal Dynasty

Michelle Robertson: Here's the deal with that giant housing complex that sprung up near MacArthur BART https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/macarthur-commons-bart-housing-new-apartment-lease-13825997.php: "385 units... 59 studios, 241 one-bedroom apartments and 78 two-bedroom apartments, Hines said... pool and hot tub, indoor/outdoor 'Skydeck', bike repair station and a 'pedestrian plaza'. The building is distinct largely due to its location: just steps from MacArthur BART and situated within the Temescal corridor, where walkable restaurants and hip bars and breweries abound...

PhysicsMatt: Blog http://www.physicsmatt.com/blog

Scholastic: Immigrants by Country and Decade http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/pdfs/by_region/region_table.pdf

[The Case for Mexico's Rescue https://delong.typepad.com/the-case-for-mexicos-rescue.pdf

Tren Giffin and Russell Daggatt: The Global Negotiator https://delong.typepad.com/the_global_negotiator.pdf

Josiah Ober: The Greeks and the Rational https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jiqa9d9x3brvogu/AACQs2icHAN5_qMbS7cCvw8xa?dl=0

Wikipedia: Atossa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atossa

Fawlty Towers: Don't Mention the War! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0

Michael Barr http://fordschool.umich.edu/faculty/michael-barr

#noted

Abraham Gutman: When Moving to Opportunity Offers No Oppo...

Abraham Gutman: When Moving to Opportunity Offers No Opportunity at All: A Lesson from the Great Migration: "Ellora Derenoncourt.... Historically, Northern cities offered much more upward mobility to both white and black children.... But at some point something changed. 'That pattern [of upward mobility] persists for white families', Derenoncourt says, '[but] it���s completely not true for black families anymore'. For black children, growing up in Northern cities like Philadelphia doesn���t offer any more opportunity in terms of upward mobility than growing up in the South...

#noted

Ana Lucia Araujo: No, Confederate Monuments Don't Preserv...

Ana Lucia Araujo: No, Confederate Monuments Don't Preserve History. They Manipulate It: "Fort Monroe.... The creation of Jefferson Davis Memorial Park and installation of the controversial archway bearing his name did not occur until the 1950s���not coincidentally when African Americans were fighting for equal legal and civil rights...

#noted

Barry Eichengreen: The Populist Temptation: Economic Grie...

Barry Eichengreen: The Populist Temptation: Economic Grievance and Political Reaction in the Modern Era http://books.google.com/?isbn=0190866284: "In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe... the reaction of voters against the political establishment, nationalist and racialist sentiment directed against foreigners and minorities, and a yearning for forceful, charismatic leadership, this something, whatever we call it, is not new...

...The characteristic economic policies of populist leaders are damaging and destructive, and the impact of populists on political institutions is corrosive. The attitudes they animate bring out the worst in their followers. Populism arrays the people against the intelligentsia, natives against foreigners, and dominant ethnic, religious, and racial groups against minorities. It is divisive by nature. It can be dangerously conducive to bellicose nationalism...

Populism is activated by the combination of economic insecurity, threats to national identity, and an unresponsive political system, but... can be quelled by economic and political reforms that address the concerns of the disaffected... reinvigorate economic growth... hope that their lives will be as good as those of their parents... that their lifetime of labor is respected and rewarded. Populist revolts rarely arise in good economic times...

Equally important is that the fruits of that growth be widely shared and that individuals displaced by technological progress and international competition are assured that they have social support and assistance on which to fall back.... This is not a novel formula. But if its elements are commonplace, they are no less important for that..

Modern societies show disturbingly little capacity to respond... struggle to develop a political consensus around the desirability of implementing and, no less important, adequately financing programs that compensate the displaced and help them adjust to new circumstances...

The United States glorifies income disparities. With a culture that celebrates the entrepreneur and decries government intervention, it does little to restrain market forces. But at the same time as it encourages creative destruction, it provides little assistance to the casualties of what is destroyed. It insists that workers displaced by globalization and technical change should fend for themselves and leave government out of it. When times are tough, this mix of policies and attitudes is all but guaranteed to produce high anxiety about income security, discomfort about prevailing levels of inequality, and anger at the political class. In part these attitudes are a product of the distinctive American ideology of individualism and market fundamentalism...

Resistance to federal government intervention also reflected the country���s historic division between black and white and between North and South. From Reconstruction through the civil rights movement, southern businessmen and farmers opposed federal government involvement in the economy for fear that it would compromise control of their black labor force. In the 1930s they opposed New Deal programs out of concern that these would interfere with their established way of doing business and the prevailing social order. White southerners were not opposed to the decentralization of social programs or to receiving federal matching funds so long as the design or at least the administration of those programs devolved to the states. Such devolution was consequently a legacy of the New Deal, one that endures even today, for example in the power of states to decide whether to expand Medicaid to cover low-income households under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare...

The contradictory nature of populism in the United States is no anomaly. People displaced by globalization and technical change are distressed about not sharing in the benefits of an expanding economy and by their government���s failure to do more about it, leaving them susceptible to the siren song of populism. But their views are also informed by an ideology that tells them government is the problem, not the solution. One can���t help but think of the constituent who allegedly warned Representative Robert Inglis of South Carolina, at a town hall meeting, to ���keep your government hands off my Medicare,��� not realizing that Medicare was a government program. Herein lies the appeal of Donald Trump, who gives voice to the anger of the masses over their economic condition and the failure of government to address their problems, all in the manner of a populist, but who also opposes more spending on social insurance, more trade adjustment assistance, and higher taxes on the rich, all in the manner of a committed Randian. This is not a combination that bodes a happy ending...

This idea that the fundamental goal of policy is to regulate the economy in order to correct its visible defects and alter the distribution of income in ways that make for solidarity and social justice is not something that is spoken out loud by the leaders of either U.S. political party, much less by their more Randian followers. It developed in Europe as an alternative to more radical working-class movements hostile to the market economy and to representative democracy, notably revolutionary Marxism���movements that never gained the same foothold in the United States. It was an effort to get European societies to pull together in order to avoid splintering apart...

#noted

Weekend Reading: Herodotus: De��okes's Ultimatum

Herodotus: The Histories: De��okes's Ultimatum http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2707/2707-h/2707-h.htm: "The Mede... returned again to despotic rule as follows:...

...There appeared among the Medes a man of great ability whose name was De��okes, and this man was the son of Phraortes. This De��okes, having formed a desire for despotic power, did thus:���whereas the Medes dwelt in separate villages, he, being even before that time of great repute in his own village, set himself to practise just dealing much more and with greater zeal than before; and this he did although there was much lawlessness throughout the whole of Media, and although he knew that injustice is ever at feud with justice. And the Medes of the same village, seeing his manners, chose him for their judge. So he, since he was aiming at power, was upright and just, and doing thus he had no little praise from his fellow-citizens, insomuch that those of the other villages learning that De��okes was a man who more than all others gave decision rightly, whereas before this they had been wont to suffer from unjust judgments, themselves also when they heard it came gladly to De��okes to have their causes determined, and at last they trusted the business to no one else.

Then, as more and more continually kept coming to him, because men learnt that his decisions proved to be according to the truth, De��okes perceiving that everything was referred to himself would no longer sit in the place where he used formerly to sit in public to determine causes, and said that he would determine causes no more, for it was not profitable for him to neglect his own affairs and to determine causes for his neighbours all through the day. So then, since robbery and lawlessness prevailed even much more in the villages than they did before, the Medes having assembled together in one place considered with one another and spoke about the state in which they were: and I suppose the friends of De��okes spoke much to this effect: "Seeing that we are not able to dwell in the land under the present order of things, let us set up a king from among ourselves, and thus the land will be well governed and we ourselves shall turn to labour, and shall not be ruined by lawlessness." By some such words as these they persuaded themselves to have a king.

And when they straightway proposed the question whom they should set up to be king, De��okes was much put forward and commended by every one, until at last they agreed that he should be their king. And he bade them build for him a palace worthy of the royal dignity and strengthen him with a guard of spearmen. And the Medes did so: for they built him a large and strong palace in that part of the land which he told them, and they allowed him to select spearmen from all the Medes. And when he had obtained the rule over them, he compelled the Medes to make one fortified city and pay chief attention to this, having less regard to the other cities. And as the Medes obeyed him in this also, he built large and strong walls, those which are now called Agbatana, standing in circles one within the other. And this wall is so contrived that one circle is higher than the next by the height of the battlements alone. And to some extent, I suppose, the nature of the ground, seeing that it is on a hill, assists towards this end; but much more was it produced by art, since the circles are in all seven in number. 111 And within the last circle are the royal palace and the treasure-houses. The largest of these walls is in size about equal to the circuit of the wall round Athens; and of the first circle the battlements are white, of the second black, of the third crimson, of the fourth blue, of the fifth red: thus are the battlements of all the circles coloured with various tints, and the two last have their battlements one of them overlaid with silver and the other with gold.

These walls then De��okes built for himself and round his own palace, and the people he commanded to dwell round about the wall. And after all was built, De��okes established the rule, which he was the first to establish, ordaining that none should enter into the presence of the king, but that they deal with him always through messengers; and that the king should be seen by no one; and moreover that to laugh or to spit in presence is unseemly, and this last for every one without exception. 112 Now he surrounded himself with this state 113 to the end that his fellows, who had been brought up with him and were of no meaner family nor behind him in manly virtue, might not be grieved by seeing him and make plots against him, but that being unseen by them he might be thought to be of different mould.

Having set these things in order and strengthened himself in his despotism, he was severe in preserving justice; and the people used to write down their causes and send them in to his presence, and he determined the questions which were brought in to him and sent them out again. Thus he used to do about the judgment of causes; and he also took order for this, that is to say, if he heard that any one was behaving in an unruly manner, he sent for him and punished him according as each act of wrong deserved, and he had watchers and listeners about all the land over which he ruled.

De��okes then united the Median race alone, and was ruler of this: and of the Medes there are the tribes which here follow, namely, Busai, Paretakenians, Struchates, Arizantians, Budians, Magians: the tribes of the Medes are so many in number... king for three-and-fifty years...

#history #politics #weekendreading

Podcast: Trump's Impact on the Economy

Cotto/Gottfried: What Happens to America's Economy If Trump Is Reelected? Brad DeLong Explains https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZZEI4jRqEo&feature=youtu.be: "Donald Trump... if he manages to secure a second term, what would four more years of his presidency mean for America's economy? Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Brad DeLong, who now is an economics professor at UC Berkeley, addresses this hugely important question�����and much more���on 'Cotto/Gottfried.'... See more episodes here: https://wtcgcottogottfried.blogspot.com/. San Francisco Review of Books main page: http://www.sanfranciscoreviewofbooks.com...

#economics #forecastinng #highlighted #orangehariedbaboons #podcast #politicaleconomy

For the Weekend: The New Colossus

Emma Lazarus: The New Colossus: "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"...

#globalization #immigration #orangehairedbaboons #weekendreading

Berkeley Social Science: Authors Meet Critics: The Populi...

Berkeley Social Science: Authors Meet Critics: The Populist Temptation _ http://matrix.berkeley.edu/event/authors-meet-critics-populist-temptation: "Please join us on October 3, 2019 at 4pm for a book talk featuring: Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics & Political Science, UC Berkeley; Paul Pierson, Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley; Brad DeLong, Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley. Barry Eichengreen���s book, _The Populist Temptation: Economic Grievance and Political Reaction in the Modern Era, places the global resurgence of populism in a deep historical context. It argues that populists tend to thrive in the wake of economic downturns, when it is easy to convince the masses of elite malfeasance. While bankers, financiers, and ���bought��� politicians are partly responsible, populists��� own solutions tend to be simplistic and economically counterproductive. By arguing that ordinary people are at the mercy of extra-national forces beyond their control, populists often degenerate into demagoguery and xenophobia. Eichengreen posits that interventions must begin with shoring up and improving the welfare state so that it is better able to act as a buffer for those who suffer most during economic slumps. In discussing his book, Eichengreen will be engaging two eminent colleagues: Paul Pierson, a renowned specialist in populism, social theory, and political economy, and Brad DeLong, a distinguished economist who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Clinton Administration and is currently a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. This talk is presented as part of Social Science Matrix's new "Authors Meet Critics" book series, which features lively discussions about recently published books by social scientists at UC Berkeley...

#berkeley #fascism #noted