America used to be the land of opportunity and optimism. Now opportunity is seen as the preserve of the elite: two-thirds of Americans believe the economy is rigged in favour of vested interests. And optimism has turned to anger. Voters’ fury fuels the insurgencies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders and weakens insiders like Hillary Clinton.
The campaigns have found plenty of things to blame, from free-trade deals to the recklessness of Wall Street. But one problem with American capitalism has been overlooked: a corrosive lack of competition. The naughty secret of American firms is that life at home is much easier: their returns on equity are 40% higher in the United States than they are abroad. Aggregate domestic profits are at near-record levels relative to GDP. America is meant to be a temple of free enterprise. It isn’t.
By Clint Carpentier:We call them entertainment, we call them passions, we call them bad habits, we call them addictions. What we don’t call them, are distractions. I’ve had many arguments regarding them, but I’ve never pointed the finger at the cause of the problem. But what IS, the problem? First, I want to make it clear that I’m not attempting to silver bullet anything.
I’ve spent a large part of my life trying to reduce stress in my life; I can’t stand the shit. I’d gotten so far as to conclude, that stress and money are intimately entwined, increasing one always meant a reduction of the other; nothing else mattered outside of that paradigm. For this, I developed a deep-seated hatred for money. People like to throw around the cliche, “money can’t buy you happiness,” but what is happiness? Happiness is nothing more than a lack of misery, which translates to a lack of stress. By that reasoning, you could say that I hate happiness. You’d be right, but for the wrong reasons. I am a coward, and I am a pacifist, and for this, I’ve never been competitive. I am also extremely introverted, so I’ve never purposely been the center of attention; my boogeyman is an embarrassment. Finally, I’ve spent my life surrounded by impoverished people, leaving me with a dim view of whiny poor people; own your poverty for fuck sake. To be blunt, I’ve spent my decades people watching.
By Jonathan Wells:Spread the word: the much-maligned act of 'manspreading' could be key to dating success. When looking to impress prospective partners, new research has
suggested that appearing larger and stretching out can place you in a
position of dominance and make you seem like an alpha male. Tanya Vacharkulksemsuk, a post-doctoral research fellow at the
University of California, Berkeley, conducted a study by using speed
dating videos and a smartphone app similar to Tinder. She found that
those who presented themselves with arms spread wide, knees pushed apart
and puffed-out chests tended to see more 'matches' than those who
appeared reserved. • Ten dating mistakes that men always make
Dr. Kelly Starrett: In a world of industrial design that clearly doesn't respect a Gentleman's physiology, Man-spreading should be seen for what it really is, the body-struggle for life and death. It's a personal, yet very public battle for survival in a world that wasn't built with humble lumberjack-warrior-poet in mind. Man-spreading isn't just some trendy symptom of male obliviousness. It's not some Orwellian conspiracy to take over a man's resting Junk habitus. On the contrary, Man-spreading is an emergent, almost miraculous solution to the dystopia of public transportation seating. We should celebrate Man-Spreading and teach it to our children, and our children's children. Man-spreading is the body's calling card of everyday Heroes. It's the people's posture, and it's here to stay.
Max and Stacy discuss billions from heaven as more economists, banksters and pundits plead for helicopter money. They also look at three charts which show the 'fundamentals' are not, in fact, improving; only the illusion is getting bigger. In the second half, Max talks to Michael Betancourt about his new book, The Critique of Digital Capitalism in which all is about flow, not real trade and where wages are considered a cut into profits - so online ‘work’ no longer receives wages.
Submitted by Tyler Durden:While real estate is all about "location, location, location," it appears there are sometimes more prescient factors that any prospective buyer should pay attention to. Amid yet another government-fueled housing bubble, it seems in their haste to fulfil a rapacious demand for property in which to gamble their hard-grafted assets, Chinese construction companies have cut a few corners. As the following stunning video shows, a "newly constructed apartment" crumbles before the owners' eyes as the 'concrete'walls turn to sand... LiveLeak exposes, in the following video, just how poor the standards can be of so-called “new” properties. LiveLeak footage shows two men in a supposedly “new apartment building” in China where the concrete walls crumble like sand.
By Jessie Jay:That’s it. I’ve reached the boiling point. I do not care how many friends I lose, or how many feathers I ruffle over this, but I am making it one of my sole missions in life to illustrate exactly what modern day feminism has become, and to learn and do everything I can to prevent its infection of the intelligent minds of my generation and beyond. What was originally a just and noble cause has slowly, venomously turned into an ideology that at its core is hell bent on systematically destroying the reality of a free and open society. First of all, feminism prescribes to the belief that male-hood and masculinity in general, is some kind of problem that must be eradicated. Men are oppressors of women, now and throughout history, and that is the so-called Patriarchy. I encourage you to think long and hard about what this means. Not with your feelings, or perceived victim-hood, but with your rational thinking mind. What is this doing to the public perception of men? How is this changing the dynamic of healthy discussion and daily dialog? And what could the ultimate goal be? I witnessed a friend the other day absolutely ostracized by several of his peers on social media because he had the audacity to criticize the perceived motives behind a disagreement that was presumptuously based on gender.
America used to be the land of opportunity and optimism. Now opportunity is seen as the preserve of the elite: two-thirds of Americans believe the economy is rigged in favour of vested interests. And optimism has turned to anger. Voters’ fury fuels the insurgencies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders and weakens insiders like Hillary Clinton.
