How to disagree

May 25, 2013

I just saw this graphic on “How to disagree” that is a perfect explication of the majority of intellectual exchange I see on the Internet: To truly be accurate, the base of the pyramid would flare out much more, and the top three points would be much, much sharper. Regardless, you can now refer people [...]

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The uselessness of the austerity wrestling match

May 23, 2013

There is very little in this world as useless as the endless hair-pulling between two factions of the neoclassical economics world, The Keynesians and The “Austerians.” For those of you who correctly sense this to be too boring to follow, allow me to get you quickly and painfully up to date so that we can [...]

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One billion dollars of paint

April 29, 2013

This past weekend I drove from Saint Louis to Oklahoma City on the original Route 66 – “The Mother Road.” A friend of mine wanted to attend a meetup of Saab owners using the classic highway, so I road shotgun to provide company and observe what remains of the roadway that was the primary route [...]

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Why Mike & Ike’s gay divorce is part of the future of branding

April 23, 2013

When my friend Doug Stephens, retail futurist par excellence with a great new book out, told me about this, I almost thought that it was satire of the marketing profession. And yet, it’s a real thing – selling candy through the lens of the gay rights movement - and a signpost that tells us about the [...]

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If media covered America the way we cover foreign cultures

April 22, 2013

You really need to be following the writing of Sarah Kendzior this week as she rips the major media outlets for their utter incompetence in understanding the role of race, ethnicity and nationality in the Boston Marathon bombing. The fact is: we don’t know what motivated these men. There will be a trial – and [...]

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The mayor of Bristol takes his whole salary in the local currency

April 21, 2013

The uproar about Bitcoin in the last couple weeks has obscured the much larger global trend toward local currency and new forms of economic integration. That’s reasonable enough – smaller communities creating their own monetary systems appears to be somewhere between a lark and a joke for the conventional mind. But while the financial media [...]

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Why Congress sucks

April 17, 2013

A couple hours ago, as my Twitter feed began its predictable digital outrage against Congress’ inability to pass any legal measure that might reduce the unfettered flow of guns around our psychically unstable nation, I was moved to spew forth one of my patented Twitter Rants. Strap in. Oh, by the way – you’re partly [...]

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The beast at the gates of civilization

April 16, 2013

Nobody plants a bomb in LaPlatte, Nebraska. The terrorists of the world pick London, Madrid, New York, Tokyo, Washington and Boston as the target of their rage. This is where we house the world’s art and science, build iconic structures and hold leadership summits. In these cities you are usually walking distance from greatness, be [...]

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Breaking through the American media bubble

April 12, 2013

The United States is the only country in the world that treats other nations as completely optional. Obviously, I don’t mean when it comes to manufacturing our critical goods or providing us with tankers full of light sweet crude, but culturally, America acts as if Other Countries are places that exist only in text books [...]

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The glorious Bitcoin freakout of 2013

April 5, 2013

The world’s Very Serious Financial Media had an amusing freakout yesterday about the relative importance of the rise in value of a novel digital currency scheme called Bitcoin. Their message is very clear: Look you monkeys, stop paying attention to this Bitcoin thing which is a big joke and also not significant of anything, and [...]

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