Saturday 15 February 2014

FROM BALANCE OF POWER 2 BALANCE OF INTEREST: SURFING THE INTERNATIONAL CYBER SEAS




(Reflections on re-reading The New Digital Age):



*Can we globalize ''positives'' and localize ''negatives''? 


As we move from a Balance of Power to a balance of interest, there will be a premium on -

    #Being geopolitically sensitive and technologically aware
   
In order to avoid Balkanization of the Internet (cf ''deep-packet inspection'', photonics and proxy DNS), cyber-communities will have to preserve/enhance -

     #Cyber-Comity and civility
     #Cyber-Cultural Discipline


so as to navigate the INTERNATIONAL CYBER SEAS.


HISTORY IS ONLY NOW ''UPLOADING'' - [The end of history is over..]

       #Virtual will complement physical space (and indeed override) in the search for intellectual meaning.

        #Hence humint signalling has the power to override or recharge historical narrative...

Within the Global Metanarrative (Cf Jean-Francois Lyotard), there will exist manifold mini-narratives.


Which does the species SUBSERVE, SUBVERT or SUBSUME in the quest for Cyber-Destiny?






Sunday 9 February 2014

LORD SKIDELSKY AND HOW WE JUST-ABOUT AVOIDED ECONOMIC IMPLOSION




When I re-read Skidelsky's Keynes: Return of the Master, I just thought wow! Or, more like, gasp...



Here's why (note, the statistics, data drawn from econometric series, IMF reports etc are inside):


*The UK and US economies were geared toward fixed-assets such as property beyond any figure imaginable historically

*The GFC, post-Lehman, saw a devastating run on money-markets globally

*Banks were up to their eyeballs in securitised, mortgage-backed ''subprime'' security debt

*Banks, in their Universal guise, were holding this debt as Tier 1 equivalent capital

*Economists - at least the ones markets listened to - said that business cycles were largely a thing of the past

*Under the Rational Expectations Hypothesis, subject to exogenous ''shocks'', markets supposedly cleared now and inter-temporally

*Given wage and price adjustments, commodity prices would apparently remain stable

*Despite the above, none of this was true! 

*The global economy almost experienced a complete meltdown of commodity, property and financial market assets in a period of days



Rereading this book, the asset destruction throughout the GFC was 'eye-watering', as Skidelsky put it.
According to Skidelsky, we assume - that is, policymakers, many economists etc - that recovery will follow slowly - perhaps agonisingly so.

Keynes, however, might suggest that we are about to suffer a long-term demand slump without productive investment in the real economy.

What's the answer????

I hope a ''relapse in confidence'' lol!!!

 

Friday 7 February 2014

Monday 3 February 2014

INTER-GENERATIONAL WAR & PEACE

I confess, I'm writing this piece in anger.. I have a very tense relationship with my parents: I always have. In many respects, they represent, to me, the ultimate Bourgeois lifestyle.

And I see now, from a certain perspective, they're an instance of inter-generational enmity.

From as far back as I can remember, they have represented the commandment, ''Thou shan't''; ''Thou canst'': I've never been good enough to achieve anything for them.

~
You're not good at law; you can't talk about economics, you haven't studied it; you're not special; you're not a nice person. Followed by the good cop routine, ''We care'', "We'll spend money on it''.

The world has changed since 197-? Mom and pop don't have all the answers. They never did. I just wish they could accept that I know that, and build from there..