Recent Posts:
Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen
More Than a Structural Economic Problem Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen Patrick Deneen is Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame with a record of public service before academic life. His writing references ancient religion and classical studies,...
Lost Skills = Lost Hope
Lost Skills = Lost Hope by Michael Hall America in 1790 was a nation where most people were able to learn productive life skills by observation, mentorship, apprenticeship and human curiosity to seek and self-learn when rudimentary education was not available. Small...
A Purpose in Common
https://youtu.be/X0At-1dsBuw A New Normal (Video 5 Minutes) A Purpose in Common Our present economic system is not only driving nature to the brink, it appears to be driving us nuts. Instead of bending nature to keep our economy growing, we need to upend our economic...
Technofeudalism?
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, by Mark Fisher The initial promise of this book was a unique critique of economics. It is that. It is not a structural, fix-the-problems proposal, but an artful expression of anguish from a guy descending into depression...
Fear of Self-Organization: Kropotkin’s Ghosts
The Conquest of Bread, by Peter Kropotkin First written in 1892, this book was probably revised for 20 years or so afterward. It baldly asserts issues yet unresolved, not only why history evolved as it did then, but how it might evolve now, in the context of...
Fake Wealth
https://youtu.be/0e6kGskzb9M Wealth (Video 5 minutes) Fake Wealth Peek into Snopes, the fact-checking service, and some entries imply that a fake claim is so incoherent that its own illogic clearly refutes it. But people believe it anyway. Snopes is swamped by fake...
Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt
Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt: The Solution of the Economic Paradox by Frederick Soddy (1933) Frederick Soddy was a noted scientist of the early 20th century who won a Nobel Prize in 1921 for developing radioisotopes. By 1933, he was well aware, with Einstein and...
Kids These Days
Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials by Malcolm Harris Malcolm Harris is a 29-year old millennial and a good writer explaining Millennial malaise. The Millennial generation is the first to be pinched in large numbers in the bind of the American...
“Omnilog” and Deep Reflection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLlQnynlkig&feature=youtu.be Deep Reflection and Omnilog (Video 6 minutes) “Omnilog” and Deep Reflection Regular readers of this page know that the Compression Institute advocates radical change toward regenerating ecology. Progress...
How It Is, or How It Shouldn’t Be?
The 48 Laws of Power, by Robert Greene This book is 18 years off the press, but it was recommended by Lonnie Wilson as being highly popular with business readers, so I read it, or most of it. Robert Greene, the author, has made a career of writing power-oriented books...
Jackson Rising, by Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya
A Plan for a New Economy? Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi, by Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya This book drew interest because of rumors that Jackson, MS was a rapidly rising experiment in localized...
Preparing for the Unthinkable
https://youtu.be/gGsGm6TMpFc Preparing for the Unthinkable (Video 5 minutes) Can Compression Thinking help navigate a future limited by resource shortages and ecological degradation? Such foreboding seems unthinkable. How can we defy our human instincts and learn to...
Be Prepared
The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why by Amanda Ripley All the way through, Amanda Ripley’s book reminded this reviewer of the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared. And for what? For anything, of course. The expanded explanation is, “you are always in...
When Assumptions Fail Us
Ethical Asset Valuation and the Good Society (Kenneth J. Arrow Lecture Series) by Christian Gollier Christian Gollier is Vice President of the Toulouse School of Economics in France. He is a recognized scholar on the economics of climate change, having participated in...
Cycles of Evolution
https://youtu.be/wMQbzK5bpJE Cycles of Evolution (Video 9 minutes) Cycles of Evolution Do human societies evolve in cycles similar to Punctuated Equilibrium in the biological theory of evolution? Or are they different? Here “punctuated” means “puncture,” a huge...
Misled by the Models
J is for Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception by Michael Hudson Michael Hudson was a Wall Street analyst for years before turning academic – and turning against Wall Street. He’s lived in the dens of Wall Street and delved into economic history...
Can Radical Transformation be Peaceful?
Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History, by Peter Turchin Peter Turchin is Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut, and a founder of “Cliodynamics,” mathematical modeling of long-term social processes. You...
What Shall We Call Progress?
https://youtu.be/hG6_jhp5xGY Building a Railroad: What is Progress? (Video 5 minutes) What Shall We Call Progress? Anthropologists have long noted that indigenous tribes live much more in the now than moderns. Consequently, their sense of time is much less acute, and...
Commoditization in Crisis
A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet by Raj Patel and Jason Moore A three-minute video blaring the theme of this book is the first video scrolling down Raj Patel’s home page. On the faculty of the...
Addiction
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari Johann Hari’s book interested me for four reasons; the first is that the author is a very talented, but tarnished young British writer. He won a number of writing awards in his first job,...