Socialdem. 21st Century

Nice, short interviews.[embedded content][embedded content][embedded content][embedded content][embedded content]

From the Guardian:Patrick Collinson, “I like the EU, but I’m voting out,” Guardian, 18 June 2016.It’s surprising to see something in the Guardian that is both pro-Brexit and anti-open borders, but times... well, they are a-changin’.Last year I pointed out that open borders is, traditionally, an unhinged anarcho-capitalist and laissez faire libertarian idea (here and here) and mass immigration is the last fraud of neoliberalism (see here and here). Of course, this is the elephant in the room....

Robert Skidelsky talks about Keynes’ life from his three volume biography, the last volume of which is John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Freedom, 1937–1946 (vol. 3; London, 2000). Skidelsky here, however, muddles up some of his economic theory and seems to identify neoclassical synthesis Keynesianism with Keynes’ economics.[embedded content]

In this rare film of him from October 1931 after the UK abandoned the interwar gold exchange standard (on September 19, 1931):[embedded content]The Eurozone and EU are the new “gold standard” and “gold cage” of today. If he were here today, I’d like to think Keynes would have been pro-Brexit.There is also an amusing footnote to this 1930s piece of history. Ludwig von Mises, prize buffoon of the Austrian school, made a prediction about what would happen after the UK abandoned the gold...

Nice interview of Steve Keen on the catastrophe of private debt and the rentier economy.[embedded content]

The University of Leipzig has recently carried out a survey of 2,240 German people, apparently in an attempt to understand why large numbers of Germans voted for the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the recent state elections back in March of this year.I am unclear whether this can be defended as a large enough and proper representative sample of general opinion, but see here, here, here, here, and here.Amongst their findings is: 50% of those surveyed complained that they...

Not bad, but pretty poor production values.[embedded content]And, finally, the left recognises that open borders are catastrophic. Unfortunately, Galloway confused budget deficits with current account deficits, however.

The science of genetics has been coming along by astonishing leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, and you can read some of the fascinating research findings in Gibbons (2014), Allentoft et al. (2015), Günther et al. (2015), Mathieson et al. (2015) and Hofmanová et al. (2016). Many of these studies are based on gene sequencing of ancient DNA in the remains of people who died thousands of years ago.In terms of its population movements and descent, the facts appear to be that modern Europeans...

Posed on Twitter here.It is this: Also, let us say – for the sake of argument – that the Soviet Union had much better GDP growth than it actually had, and was an attractive destination for Third World and First World immigrants. Should the Soviet Union have had an open borders policy that allowed a flood of people to overwhelm its welfare state, its public infrastructure, its housing capacity and social cohesion? Or should the government have allowed huge, unending, yearly mass immigration...

Sir Humphrey Appleby, from Yes, Minister, explains:[embedded content]And now the EU is a right cock-up, it’s time for Britain to leave!!* Therefore if you are British, vote Brexit on June 23.And, moreover, it looks like the “Leave” camp may have taken the lead in the polls.*P.S. for the blockheads this post is in a facetious spirit – though not the plea to vote Brexit.