What We Read Today 22 March 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

• How USPS Could Save the Economy, Change Your Life (David Dayen, The Progressive Populist) Dayen describes ten different applications for postal banking in the U.S. This idea will be fought tooth and nail by some who will say it is a ‘slippery slope to socialism’. Some of these think the USPS shouldn’t be allowed to remain a non-profit corporation with government sponsorship (but no government financial support). But others are on the same page as Dayen – See for example GEI Opinion by Ellen Brown (here and here and here) and by John Lounsbury (here).

• The BoE’s sharp shock to monetary illusions (Steve Keen, Business Spectator) Steve Keen contributes to Global Economic Intersection. Steve administers a “lashing” to Paul Krugman with a challenge for a reversal of a 2012 position that banking is exogenous to macroeconomic activity. See also Philip Pilkington’s discussion of the Bank of England paper at GEI Analysis and David Graeber (Debt: The First 5,000 Years – Amazon.com) article in The Guardian.

• ”If you’re poor, stop being poor.” A must-see video. (Rodger Malcolm Mitchell, Monetary Sovereignty) Rodger Malcolm Mitchell has contributed to Global Economic Intersection. Presented here without comment – watch the video from The Daily Show that Rodger links and writes about.

• Here is a map of all the countries with territorial disputes (Annalisa Merelli, Quartz) A better title would be a “map showing the few countries not involved in a territorial dispute”.

Click on map for larger image.

Today 13 additional articles are discussed ‘behind the wall’.

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