Category: Economics
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The Marathon and the Sprint
I don’t make best-of lists at the end of the year, but the song I spent the most time listening to in 2019 was B-Movie by Gil Scott Heron: It’s not as well known as his most famous song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, and I can see why because it’s clear which song…
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Durham City Workers Event for locals
Are you living in the Triangle area? Consider attending an even this Thursday at 6 pm organized by the Durham City Workers, local branch of the UE150 NC Public Service Workers Union. Their description from this Facebook event page, which has time and location info: City workers are tired of getting passed over for promotion…
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Affiche > Quiche
Really looking forward to being part of this festival in southern France hosted by Arbouse Recordings, who will be releasing our new CD in September. I especially like the dramatic tension evoked by the proximity of the wood-cut phallus to a node of barbed wire. The title, Au-delà du spectacle, has to do with the…
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Is the Maple Leaf a Fig Leaf?
Canada often has a reputation as a kinder, gentler kind of first-world nation, due to socialized medicine, a relatively open immigration policy, 19th century haven for travelers on the Underground Railroad, etc. Oh yeah, and also the contrast of being next door neighbors to the world’s lone remaining superpower, y’know, the one who spends 600…
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Bacon Sheds Light on Pork
One of the ironies of teaching students to read on their own initiative outside of school is that the heavy work load of teaching can make it hard for teachers to do just that themselves. This is something I try and resist as much as possible, and it gets easier when I have some time…
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Pretty Bubbles Turning Into Grime
Michael Hudson has a new book out so I thought it was high time I posted some thoughts I’ve been meaning to write up about his last one, The Bubble and Beyond. I’ve posted before about Hudson’s 1973 classic Superimperialism, whose analysis of the economic strategy of American Empire was followed by a terrific 1977…
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Organize 2020 and Durham’s Tipping Point
I’m posting today to ask folks to consider supporting an Indie Go Go campaign currently heading into its final week by Organize 2020, the social justice caucus of the North Carolina Association of Educators. As an active member of this group, I have been impressed by the commitment, vision and integrity of people involved in this…
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Algebra: The Root of All Evil?
As the deadline for my current Kickstarter campaign draws near, math is on my mind. We’ve got until noon on Tuesday to raise another $650. Math has also been on my mind as the school year has started up in my work as a teacher. Two weeks ago, I attended a workshop for teachers who…
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The Battle of the Basket
Sometimes magazines surpass your expectations. I click on a lot of links that my friends post about social issues on Facebook, but I can’t say a lot of them lead to Esquire magazine. Yet the other day, I followed a link posted by a former teaching colleague of mine to an excellent article Esquire ran by…
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Corporate Welfare.9: Markets and Chains
Today I’m posting a link to an article from the blog CivilEats.com by Adrien Schless-Meier called “Why Grocery Store Workers Are Making Less While Big Chains Make More.” It’s a topic on my mind because one of the songs on the record I’m working on is about the economics of supermarkets. The song is called “King Piggly…
johnhdavis / inundation records 