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Problem solved!

Now that the Fed has cut interest rates as low as it dares and the economy is still in the tank, the Fed is going public with the strategy it’s been using for the last year: printing money. ‘Cause that worked so well for the Weimar Republic. The strategy led to Germany’s fall and Hitler’s rise. In the present case, it’ll probably delay a world economic collapse for a few weeks or months. But the long-term effects will be horrific. Not that any civilized government has ever cared about long-term effects.

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Gazing into My Crystal Ball

When you're on a cruise ship, and you have the only window, and you see a tsunami headed your way, what shall you do? "Good" scientists would plead for research to verify the existence of tsunamis. And they would be rewarded for this action with research funding from fellow scientists. The wonks at the Oil Drum, for example, will be trying to access the internet to argue about whether we've passed the oil peak long after the electrical grid fails. On the other hand, I believe informed people -- even scientists -- should sound the alarm when a threat appears on the horizon. I believe we have an obligation to work toward solutions for individuals and, when appropriate, for society. If that makes me a poor scientist, I can live with it, bearing in mind the famous words of Albert Einstein when he found out about Hiroshima: "If I had known they were going to do this, I would have become a shoemaker."
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Engaging collapse

Living in two worlds is quite the challenge, as I’ve indicated before (here, here, here, and here, for starters), and as everybody who’s given it a whirl can attest. The events of the last 24 hours have given me a trenchant reminder. Well, two, to be precise.

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Do the media get it, or not?

Here’s an interesting story, if only to me. I submitted the piece below as a guest commentary (i.e., op-ed piece) to the morning daily in this benighted town.
The editors found it absurd, as expected. Actually, the editor who responded wrote, “there are many facts and statements in your article that appear to be wildly exaggerated” (exaggerated facts?), and asked for evidence to support a few of the statements. So I provided him a handful of links from the mainstream media, at which point he ran away. No great surprise there, I suppose. If you’re addicted to economic growth, as required by newspapers, the truth is damned inconvenient.

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The Role of a Social Critic

The semester is steaming along, and steamrolling me. Wonderful discussions yesterday in two of my classes, both part of Poetry Inside/Out, contributed to the steamrollery and also inspired me to further consider the role of social critics and social criticism.

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