EconoSpeak

 On Dec. 21 I posted on "Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble."  Mostly things have not changed too much.  Oil is still running around $50 per barrel, stocks are not too different from where they were then.  I have no new data on real estate.  Gold is up a bit, now over $1900 again and scraping all time highs, but that is not too much higher than it was on 12.21/20.What has been shooting up again, quite dramatically in the last few days, have been the cryptocurrencies again, especially bitcoin...

The pronoun wars show no sign of abating.  How to replace the use of “him” and “his” to refer to people who are not male or whose gender is unknown?  For a while I used “him and her” or “his and hers”, but it is much too clunky, especially if repeated over the course of several sentences.  Then I switched to alternating genders, first using her/hers and then when the next opportunity arose him/his and so on.  But this is unsatisfactory as well, since it doesn’t distinguish clearly between...

Are there limits to the accumulation of capital?Under what condition is there a limit to the accumulation of capital?If there are limits to the accumulation of capital, what defines those limits?

What is capital?What power does capital have when invested in machinery, lands, agricultural improvements, etc.?What happens to individuals when they have experienced the accumulative power of money?

What objections are there to the proposition that wealth consists of reserved surplus labour?How may one answer objections to the proposition that wealth consists of reserved surplus labour?What is the difference between value in use and value in exchange of goods?Why should calculation of the wealth of a nation exclude (or include) its usual and necessary consumption?

What constitutes the wealth of a nation?What is the source of all wealth and revenue?Does the method by which one receives income -- whether wage, rent, profit or interest -- indicate the ultimate source of the value represented by it? Do stores of money, machinery, manufactured goods or produce represent reserved surplus labour?

...from 200 years ago:"The increase of trade and commerce opened a boundless extent to luxury:—the splendour of luxurious enjoyment in a few excited a worthless, and debasing, and selfish emulation in all:—The attainment of wealth became the ultimate purpose of life:—the selfishness of nature was pampered up by trickery and art:—pride and ambition were made subservient to this vicious purpose:—their appetite was corrupted in their infancy, that it might leave its natural and wholesome...

Why then is it that no existing society, nor society that ever had existence, has arrived at this point of time, considering that in all times, and in all societies, excepting only the very barbarous, a few years would naturally have led to it?How is it too, it might be added, that notwithstanding the unbounded extent of our capital, the progressive improvement and wonderful perfection of our machinery, our canals, roads, and of all other things that can either facilitate labour, or increase...

In 1995 I launched the TimeWork Web, which was a "research site" for investigating the history, theory, desirability, practicality, and feasibility of reducing the hours of work. The fruits of that endeavor included my history and critique of the "lump of labor" fallacy claim, rediscovery of Sydney Chapman's once canonical "Hours of Labour" analysis, and the rediscovery and transcription of Charles Wentworth Dilke's The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties deduced from principles...

 Where I am the Third Day of Christmas is just finishing with the news that Grinch Trump has ended his own brief War on Christmas and is signing the Covid-19 relief bill, thereby reinstating unemployment benefits for 14 million people although they'll miss a week of payments, as well as preventing millions more from being evicted from their rental housing units, along with the Omnibus spending bill so the government will not shut down after tomorrow.  There has been less noise this year...