Today, the critical shortage of prescription drugs reached the editorial page of the New York Times. Under the heading The Shortage of Vital Drugs, the paper said: A widespread shortage of prescription drugs is hampering the treatment of patients who have cancer, severe infections and other serious illnesses. The Food and Drug Administration says that …
What Is Behind the Critical Shortage of Prescription Drugs? Read More »
In one of the episodes of the old US TV series, The Twilight Zone, an alien ship lands on earth and a heated discussion ensues among the earthlings as to the aliens’ intentions: are they friends or foes? Some say the aliens are friendly. Others are skeptical. How is one to judge? The aliens have …
S&P downgrading the U.S. “credit” was a publicity stunt by the company for the company. The stunt had its share of bit players and company politics, but it took place within, and was ultimately driven by, a larger narrative that is slow growth in the U.S. and the finance-capital driven mandate of slashing public spending. …
Sometimes you can tell a book by its cover – or what’s written on it. Early this year, I got the 2011 edition of Best European Fiction. The idea of the best European fiction is inherently idiotic, like the best city, the best university or the best food. A few stories I read were sophomoric …
The Origin of the [crisis in the] European Union – 2: Where is Europe? Read More »
In the same article, there was this: Increasingly, they [HFT firms] are investing in technology that enables them to to try to predict where markets will move. Cameron Smith, general counsel at Quantlab, a proprietary trading firm says: “The reality is you need to have some sort of model that sees something that other don’t”. …
I formulated the Theory of Speculative Capital in 1998. An Internet search — I think even Google was around then — registered zero hits for the phrase “speculative capital”. There were several “speculative capital flows”, in which the flows were described as speculative, but nothing for speculative capital as a noun. The gist of the …
A comprehensive analysis of what is taking place in the EU requires a book-length treatise; a blog is not a suitable venue for it. What is more, in Vol. 4, I discuss the subject in some detail. That is why except for a few relatively short posts here and there, I have not written about …
The Origin of the [crisis in the] European Union – 1: When Tendency Becomes Actuality Read More »
Last month, while reacting to a New York Times article, I wrote about the Greenbergs and Zuckerbers dropping out of college and following each other to entrepreneurship. As I saw it, the story had two morals, not entirely unrelated. One was the corrput culture at Stanford – and, by extension, U.S. universities – which belittled …
A Late Epilogue to an Earlier Post on Greenbergs and Zuckerbergs Read More »
Last year, reading between the lines, I wrote that Europeans will be Europeans no more. This past Tuesday, the European Commission agreed. Its “reform recommendations” for the 27-member union said pretty much the same thing. The Financial Times succintly capture the spirit of the report under the heading “EU sees vision of new Europe which …
Europeans Not Being Europeans: Now It Is Official Read More »
Last October I wrote about the three stooges who were given the Nobel Prize in economics for their “work” on labor and employment. I did not mention it then, but one of those stooges was an MIT professor by the name of Peter Diamond. Before he became a Nobel laureate, President Obama had nominated him …