The rise of consumer capitalism

An utterly fascinating article in Orion Magazine about the origins of consumer capitalism in the United States in the 20's and 30's.

CEO: Corporate Europe Observatory

CEO is a neat organization monitoring corporate activities in Europe.  They recently sued the Union over providing copies of trade agreement to lobbying groups while censoring the same documents when providing them to public-interest groups.

Hyperinflation in Diablo 3

Interesting breakdown by the Mises Institute.

Michael O Church

Michael O Church has some pretty insightful essays about the structure of contemporary corporate capitalism and society.

• The Call for a Rational Economy
• Open allocation in tech companies
• The 3-ladder system of United States social class - very fascinating.
• The Daily Beast: America's new oligarchs
• His Twitter feed

Fifty Shades as a view of the 1%'s consumer life

Wow.  Nicely framed.  The title says "late capitalism", which is optimistic to say the least.

The rent-seeking economy

Good article about rent-seeking behavior and how destructive it is.

None of the world's top industries are actually profitable

If the world's top industries were charged for the costs they socialize (let the rest of society cover for them), they would largely fail.  In other words, a lot of our economy crucially depends on moving money from the poor to the rich, not actually creating things.  (I guess that's not really news.)

Anti-authoritarians diagnosed as mentally ill

Because you can't make it through med school without being very authoritarian.  Makes sense.