an absolute must-read from @jamesmeek.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk. it illuminates the cultural, political, and economic cross-currents that define the present more clearly than anything else I've read this year. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4....

Miran: inflation is at 2% if you take out everything above 2% www.ft.com/content/7d37...

the AI bubble popping will also be a reckoning for passive investing, index funds and ETFs. there are a lot of people out there with no idea that market cap-weighting means 8% of their 401k is in NVDA.

Now unpaywalled: Fred Block on remaking finance. Can the millions held in bank deposits, corporate equities, and bonds be used instead to provide for society’s most pressing needs? www.dissentmagazine.org/article/can-...

The California Legislature passed a state budget today that relies more on borrowing than spending cuts to close a projected $12 billion deficit, aiming to push off difficult decisions about priorities even as that gap is only expected to grow in future years. cal.news/4la8P7A 📸 Fred Greaves

If the problem is capitalism, then the solution is to assert democratic control over the economy. If the problem is liberalism, then the problem is the possibility of democratic control itself. Very humbled to be reviewed by Fred Block alongside @itsmccarthy.bsky.social in @dissentmag.bsky.social!