Episode 21: From GIGO To MEGO

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With Episode 21: From GIGO To MEGO, I finally wrap up all this political economy non-sense and reveal what happens when assumptions—hiding ideological biases from even those who hold those assumptions—leak into the real world, causing otherwise intelligent people to make suggestions without realizing exactly how disastrous or horrendous those decisions might be. Why? Because they haven't been told the facts by those blinded by a history of denial and ideological assumption.

In the episode, we hear the suggestion so fraught with peril in the real world, one made seriously by journalists from Planet Money in their episode #543, "A World Without Banks." Both Ellen Brown from her podcast and the Bank of England from one of their videos give evidence to why in our reality-based world a world without banks would be calamitous without significant changes made first.

Non-music organ crap in the beginning from me, banging almost randomly on my keyboard with a simulated musical instrument. Music from et, "Don't Think Twice" and the "Don't Think Twice Reprise."

Episode 20: Non-Heterodox Scientificity

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Episode 20: Non-Heterodox Scientificity continues the primer on neoclassical economics, focusing on a few prime examples where the purity of the discipline was threatened, and on a few structural buffers that protect that orthodoxy from the heterodox threats that occasionally develop. I do hope this deep look at what happened in education in general and economic academic life in specific can be taken as I intend it, as a look at what lengths monied interests will go to protect their privileged positions in society, just as they do as advertisers to the media in which their ads appear.

I read from several books and online sources in this episode. In order of appearance, they are: Brian Czech, "Supply Shock", New Society Publishers, 2013, p. 54 and p. 79; A.C. Pigou, "Economics in Practice", Macmillan & Co., 1935, p. 2; Nassim Nicholas Taleb, "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable", Random House, 2007, pp. 260-261, p. 270; Yves Smith, "EConned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism", St. Martin's Press, 2010, p. 81; Steve Keen, "Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor Dethroned?", Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p. 163; the Last Will and Testament of Alfred Nobel (taken from the Official Nobel Prize Website); Ha-Joon Chang, "Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism", Bloomsbury Press, 2008, p. 154; and Thomas Piketty, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century", President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2014, p. 32.

You also heard from Richard Wolff being interviewed by Ellen H. Brown on the October 8, 2014 episode of her podcast "It's Our Money With Ellen Brown."

Music—in keeping with the gentle primer theme established in Episode 19—was exclusively Podington Bear. You hear "Black Eyed Susan," "Gentle Heart," "Really Real," and "Towl," all from the album Tender.

Episode 19: By George!

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If you thought the last episode, Interlocking Directorates of Control, was a departure from my usual rant on advertising, then strap in for more divergence from the norm! Today I present Part I of a primer concerning the history of economics as an academic discipline in Episode 19: By George! And just like the last episode, I feel the need to focus on how money and monied interests distort academic curricula in ways that suit the money more than the pursuit of Truth . . . whatever that might be.

In this episode, I read from Henry George's "Progress and Poverty", an 1879 book that had far more of an impact on policy here in the United States and abroad than most people realize. I also read from Mason Gaffney's extended investigation of George and those that rallied against him, "Neo-classical Economics as a Stratagem against Henry George". NB: The link takes the clicker to a PDF version of that work.

Music is more homogenous than usual: in keeping with the Primer Format, I chose four pieces from Podington Bear's album "Tender"—"Dreamliner," "Like Brigade," "Pink Blossoms," and "Wellness." His music so often evokes images of a children's music box and toys that I felt it keeping with the upbeat and direct Dick and Jane reading I (mostly) managed to maintain throughout the episode.

I opened with a scene from the too-short-lived cartoon version of "Dilbert," the scene where the pointy-haired boss causes a busload of nobel prize winners to die horribly in a bus/train collision. I hope to elucidate why I felt this was a good intro in Part II of this Primer.

Addendum: I do hope a reader can give me a hand. I realize I've been too assuming by putting a simple hot link to the episode only once on each episode page. I should put in something a bit more direct. Hence the "Play now!" at the top. I would like to have perhaps a flash player so those who wish could get it to play directly from their web browser, and perhaps a similar command to enable quick downloads; I am, though, technically proficient only to simply link the mp3.

If anyone out there can share a simple script along with instructions to install it on this Blogspot page, I would be ever so grateful.