Author: shyam

Could hangovers soon be a thing of the past?

Imagine an alcohol substitute that removes all negative effects associated with drinking, intoxication, and even the dreaded morning after. “So in theory we can make an alcohol surrogate that makes people feel relaxed and sociable and remove the unwanted effects, such as aggression and addictiveness.”

The wet cure

Has democracy actually done more harm than good?

Meet the neoreactionaries: mostly former libertarians who decided that freedom and democracy were incompatible. “Demotist systems, that is, systems ruled by the ‘People,’ such as Democracy and Communism, are predictably less financially stable than aristocratic systems. On average, they undergo more recessions and hold more debt. They are more susceptible to market crashes. They waste more resources. Each dollar goes further towards improving standard of living for the average person in an aristocratic system than in a Democratic one.”

Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries

Kill The Aid Industry

Donated clothes decimate local textile industries. Shells of buildings, silted dams, and unfinished “pilot projects” dot the African landscape. Young white people flock to expensive hotels for useless “conferences” that amount to paid exotic vacations. Peace Corps yahoos are flown out at great cost to teach Western hairdressing […] But aid’s worst consequence is the continuation, and amplification, of the attitude that change must always come from outside.

Let’s Kill The Aid Industry

The basic income movement

With globalisation, the share going to labour has withered everywhere, in countries as diverse as China, India, the UK, USA and Norway. In the future, the only way those relying on labour could raise their living standards will be by sharing the rental income gained by finance and capital investment in the global economy. We must imagine a new system of distribution, in which the whole of society receives a share of the rental income currently being taken wholly by financial capital.

The precariat needs a basic income

Are markets ever rational?

For markets to be efficient, we need to enable all 3 types of market participants:

1. Fundamental/value investors
2. Relative value investors or arbitrageurs
3. Speculators

Each of these investor type plays a different and necessary role in ensuring that a well-functioning market is able keep the cost of capital low, absorb financial risks, and allocate capital efficiently to its more productive use. A well-balanced market is relatively stable and allocates capital in an efficient way that maximizes long-term economic growth.

When are markets ‘rational’?