[NUKELIES]

I attended a discussion at the Metropolitan Museum in New York just now. Paul Krugman, Edmund Phelps, Jeffrey Sachs, and George Soros talked about the state of the economy in the U.S., Europe, China, and the world. They said basically nothing of any value, save for a double mention by Sachs of the fraudulence and corruption of "Wall Street" and the banks - although he did mention the banks by name - Bank of America, Citibank, etc.

Perhaps ironically - the best commentary was by Thomas Campbell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_P._Campbell - the young (50) British (probably American by now) Director of the Met. He gave a broad but concise, highly intelligent overview of the historical relationship between economy and art patronage.

I didn't record the panel discussion - and frankly it would have been a waste of iPhone disk space to have done so - but it was broadcast on C-Span. Nobody mentioned nukes or nuclear bombs or atomic bombs. And I could not for the life of me imagine why the two "economists" present received Nobel Prizes. What exactly is an economist anyways? - other than a paid liar? They might as well be talking about global warming for all the rubbish they spew.

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Krugman Phelps Silbers Sachs Soros.PNG (369.54 KiB) Viewed 134 times

[rerevisionist]

They don't mean the 'economic' system, do they. They mean the 'financial' system.

I can't decide whether these more-or-less fake, one-way panel discussions are cheering, or worrying. It's nice to be reminded these people are just old fools, with power precariously reliant on a whole pyramid of subordinates, and only there because predecessors had a run of luck - from their point of view. On the other hand, they are so glaringly dishonest, but buoyed up by their fellow inbreds and their mutually-exchanged flattery, that they probably would be genuinely unable to understand critical comments. It would be a foreign language to them, literally. And that's terrifying.

[NUKELIES]

They don't mean the 'economic' system, do they. They mean the 'financial' system.

I can't decide whether these more-or-less fake, one-way panel discussions are cheering, or worrying. It's nice to be reminded these people are just old fools, with power precariously reliant on a whole pyramid of subordinates, and only there because predecessors had a run of luck - from their point of view. On the other hand, they are so glaringly dishonest, but buoyed up by their fellow inbreds and their mutually-exchanged flattery, that they probably would be genuinely unable to understand critical comments. It would be a foreign language to them, literally. And that's terrifying.

Rerevisionist - Absolutely right on the money. You expressed perfectly the gnawing but mild frustration I felt while listening to their running words. Financial system indeed - they're there to discuss the best way to harvest mass labour - that's all. The most pathetic part is when the people go up to ask questions at the microphones after the talk. The audience are like a bunch of school girls trying to impress teacher. I didn't feel at all inclined to participate because I was dumbfounded by the thickness of the ignorance in the room - the collective ivory tower, the champagne socialism, the bleeding-heart sympathy for "poor out-of-work school teachers." Soros apparently had lauded the Occupy bullshit last year. It's like watching Hollywood movies which cause one to feel desperate that anyone could be that ignorant to make or believe obvious propaganda.

It's all such a chaos of ignorance - and even tried and true conspiracy theorists will call us kooks for questioning the existence of nuclear bombs.