“In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert warn against trusting bureaucrats bearing false economy as ‘shocking austerity’ and ‘bed blocking costs more than is allegedly saved. In the second half, Max interviews Daniel Hassan of the Robin Hood Minor Asset Management hedge fund which rides the wave of trading whales… Continue reading
Date archives "March 2015"
Video: Daniel Hassan of the Robin Hood Minor Asset Management Commons-Supporting Hedge Fund
Civil Power and the Partner State
– Keynote Address, Good Economy Conference, Zagreb 2015 I want to speak today about a crisis that has gripped Europe, and the western democracies, over the last 30 years. I describe the crisis as the inability of our governments to protect the interests of their citizens. It is a crisis of legitimacy that is undermining… Continue reading
Free Commons-Based Peer Production Posters
P2Pvalue have produced a series of about Commons-Based Peer Production, designed by Laura Recio. The first poster which can be downloaded below (click on image to go to the downloads page on Wikimedia Commons) & used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license, explains the history of Commons-Based Peer Production communities . The posters are currently… Continue reading
Eco-agricultural food sovereignty vs. seed-enclosing neocolonial paternalistic benevolence: a tale of two meetings
Republished from Morten Thaysen: “This week the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID hosted a meeting in London with big agribusinesses to discuss strategies to increase corporate control over seeds in Africa. The location of the meeting was secret. So was the agenda. Attendance was strictly invite-only and nobody who even came close to… Continue reading
The real nature of the on-demand economy: “NEVER LEAVE HOME AGAIN.”
“The on-demand world isn’t about sharing at all. It’s about being served. This is an economy of shut-ins“. Shutting people out is an important part of being a shut-in: When signing up, customers can choose the option of not seeing their Alfred, who will come in when they’re at work. Alfred’s messaging is aimed at… Continue reading
MOOC’s are not doing well for racial, gender and class equity
From an essay that critiques the uncritical enthusiasm for MOOC’s: (Audrey Watters and Sara Goldrick-Rab critique Kevin Carey who has written a book called The End of College ) Excerpt: “This vision of the University of Everywhere is endowed with such grandeur that it can leave one breathless; it is so hopeful about the future… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Multitude, Assemblies, and a New Politics of the Common
* Essay: A Common Assembly: Multitude, Assemblies, and a New Politics of the Common. Elise Danielle Thorburn. Interface: a journal for and about social movements, Volume 4 (2): 254 – 279 (November 2012) From the Abstract: “Contemporary experiments in organising the “multitude” have proliferated of late – from the encampments of Occupy to the Quebec… Continue reading
Greenstone, a powerful mesh extender for FireChat
Fire Chat has already been mentioned here in the context of enabling peer-to-peer networking during the recent protests in Hong Kong, now I am glad to see that they are planning to produce a device which will further empower this mesh networking concept: “Open Garden, the company behind FireChat, is taking mesh networking beyond our… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Proposals For A Democratic Economy
* eBook: Alternatives To Capitalism: Proposals For A Democratic Economy. by Robin Hahnel, Erik Olin Wright. New Left Project, 2014 URL=http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/alternatives_to_capitalism_proposals_for_a_democratic_economy Description “New Left Project’s new e-book, Alternatives to Capitalism: Proposals for a Democratic Economy, is now available for download. In it the leading radical thinkers Robin Hahnel and Erik Olin Wright take on the… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: Kick It Over, these insane neoclassical economics
Jeff Guo explained the project to the Washington Post: “Harrington now runs a campaign called Kick it Over, which aims to combat what it describes as “the fantasy world of neoclassical economics — a faith-based religion of perfect markets, enlightened consumers and infinite growth that shapes the fates of billions.” The project is connected with… Continue reading
Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the #Commons Part 4 #Spain
Spain: Taking back the city Source: Doc Next Network – http://www.docnextnetwork.org/radical-democracy-reclaiming-commons/ For the last several years, Spain has been a laboratory for bottom-up organisation and empowerment. The 15M movement that began in 2011 not only managed to set the political agenda by framing the euro crisis and austerity as contrary to democratic principles, but… Continue reading
You Must Always Looks for Those Sparks of Life
By Christopher Alexander. Original text here. Whenever you start a project, or whenever you begin to take action, you must always looks for those sparks of life, among the buildings, or in the open land — places that, just very slightly, have a quality that make you feel fractionally a little more alive and a little… Continue reading
The Emergence of Peerist Synergism
by Layne Hartsell There are any number of areas where emergence is occurring such as in nanotechnology, micromanufacturing (not to be confused with molecular manufacturing which is about 15 years away), economics, politics, and thus the term emergence takes on near metaphysical force, though I do not intend something on the order of the dialectical materialism which… Continue reading
Rojava Secret Revolution
The Middle East’s newest territory is called «Rojava». Out of the chaos of Syria’s civil war, mainly Kurdish leftists have forged a radical, egalitarian, multi-ethnic mini-state run on communal lines. But with Daesh Jihadists attacking them at every opportunity – especially around the beleaguered city of Kobane, how long can this idealistic social experiment last?… Continue reading
Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the #Commons Part 3 #UK
United Kingdom: Finding a home in the city Source: Doc Next Network – http://www.docnextnetwork.org/radical-democracy-reclaiming-commons/ In London, urbanisation is pricing citizens further and further away from the places they called home. Housing prices have soared recently by up to 20% from one year to another, yet nearly 12% of residents have too few rooms in… Continue reading