This drivel is taught in universities all over the West. It was taught to me during my post-grade studies, and I keep seeing it repeated, over and over. It's usually paired with the even more preposterous idea that the gold standard was responsible too for the Great Depression. Facts: 1. The Federal Reserve came into existence in 1913. That's 16 years before the 1929 collapse. In case anyone is missing the point: the Fed is the CENTRAL PLANNING agent in charge of monetary policy. Thus, by the time the great Depression hit, the "laissez faire" had long been gone from the money and financial markets, and we had entered the UNFREE market phase. 2. Immediately after the creation of the FEd, oh surprise, WW1 begins in Europe and the Gold Standard is suspended. Again, that's more than a decade before the 1929 events. That was precisely HOW the powers at war were able to escalate and sustain the war to the levels of unprecedented devastation that they did. That's also what caused the subsequent hyperinflation, instability and chaos in the economies of all developed nations during the 20's. 3. Every single case of "successful" "social welfare system" in the developed world can be traced back to the spoils of a time when there was a limited government and a small state, with increased levels of economic freedom that allowed for massive capital accumulation. The "social programs" that socialist apologists love to talk about, like those of the 70's and 80's in Scandinavia, are indisputably all under that category. The "welfare state"programs were paid for and kept alive with the accumulated progress and wealth from the previous "program-less" era, and invariably squandered during the "program-on" one. Most of those countries if not all have in fact corrected course during the past couple of decades. Again, see Sweden for instance. View quoted note →

The fact that this is news, blows my mind.

In most major metro areas in the West, we have achieved peak Kafka in the sense that people pay monthly rentals that are lower than what a bank loan would cost, but they can't access the loan to begin with because the banks require downpayments that are impossible to gather. So, you can see people who religiously pay their monthly rental, without fail, for years, and years, but they still don't qualify for a loan. View quoted note →

More about this, specific to stable coins as reserve assets in banks, and what makes a cryptoasset eligible to be considered "hedged" and thus receive a different treatment from "non hedged" ones. Spoiler: having ETFs and being traded in "regulated exchanges" are requirements (and this is why, and now you know). https://www.bis.org/bcbs/publ/d567.pdf View quoted note →

So my friend sent me the link to this bloody AI video generator Hailuo AI thing. It is obviously and totally just a scam to steal our pictures and shit, but I can't help myself and stop using it to produce stupid amounts of 5 second videos of us transforming into a bunch of Dungeons & Dragons orcs fighting in a tavern.

I have been quoting Gramsci to people for two decades now. It's not like the guy didn't clearly state what the strategy and the plan was. His thesis was that because the well-to-do industrialized West was NOT like Czarist Russia, and people lived in relative comfort, violent revolution wasn't possible, as seen in Germany, Italy, the UK, etc. Since the mechanism by which the bourgeoisie controls society and keeps "workers" in check and docile is "cultural hegemony", that is, ideology imposed and spread by cultural and political institutions, that's what the Marxists had to do to bring about the changes they want. Specifically, Gramsci perfectly identified education and academia at large, and universities and media specifically, as the priority target for infiltration. He wrote all this in the 1910 and 20's! They've been at it for 100 years, and probably in earnest since the 60's, especially in Europe where they have achieved basically total and absolute hegemony, as he wished. I always remark on this fact: it's taken them 100 years, and they've done it. Even if we all become aware of it, and we decided to undo it, how long do you think it's going to take? No "democratic mandate" completely conditioned by the 4 year electoral cycle can ever be enough. This is a much deeper and longer process that must be undertaken. View quoted note →

It's fuckin incredible how even today, I go to the YT website having logged off, click on the "trending" tab (I think it's the first time in my life I do it), and the first result is still Kamala.

Exactly what I was saying yesterday. These people don't seem to learn. They're going with the "racist country", "cultural resentment" narrative, and that Kamala was Jesus come again and the dirty hateful deplorables just refused to accept her Word as Mixed Race Woman Of Color, and that of her Apostles the Swifties.

It's really mind-boggling to see the US fascist media coping and seething by saying that it's incredible that "a flawlessly run campaign" like Harris's has failed to get her elected. And that it is all the fault of the voters, who couldn't bring themselves to elect a "woman of color". "Voters racist" seems to be their conclusion. Let's hope that they don't ever correct it and that they persist and once again next time they hand pick the candidate that loses the primaries but ticks all the right boxes to get maximum victim brownie points. So they lose again.

It's the other victories behind the curtains, like getting that piece of shit Sherrod Brown (even his name sounds like turd splattering on the floor) ousted, that really mark the difference.

Crypto Is a Clear Winner With Trump as GOP Takes Senate, Sherrod Brown Loses and Gensler Likely Heading for Door

Having $169 million to spend on U.S. congressional elections can produce fast results in Washington, as the crypto sector's campaign-finance blitz ...

BTW, gently reminder, because it's been a while since the last one: Effective Jan 1, 2025, all BIS member central banks (that's ALL of them that matter worldwide, including the Fed, the ECB, Japan's, China's, Russia, Emirates, Singapore...) will be allowed to have "exposure to cryptoassets" (tokenized RWA, stables AND "unbacked cryptoassets" i.e., BTC, ETH, etc).

Prudential treatment of cryptoasset exposures – Executive Summary

The rapid evolution of cryptoassets and their growing interaction with mainstream finance could raise financial stability concerns and accentuate t...

OK chill please. My stack is insufficient. Give me a few more months, FFS. View quoted note →

Unironically, I have pondered some times about the fact that 40 years ago, in the 80's, we were a lot more free in the West, globally speaking. The caveat is: there were a lot of people in our societies that were objectively less free. A good example are homosexuals. So, as time passed, such collectives or groups of people who were less free than the majority, gained more freedom, while as a whole, we all lost it. The problem is that this has been presented as correlated and inevitable: in the Marxist mindset, everything is a zero sum game, so homosexuals (to stick to the example) can only progress if the rights of heterosexuals are infringed upon. This mindset has an obvious counterpart in the corresponding right wing reaction, that appropriates the same rhetoric and frame of the zero sum game. Both are glaringly and dangerously WRONG, obviously. That's the true cultural war that must be won. View quoted note →