Wednesday, August 24, 2016

LOONY TUNES no 164

1
Shankar Tharoor (India) posts (22 August) in The Good Men Project (‘the conversation no one else is having’)
Financial wealth and muscle power play a vital role today in how candidates are selected to represent the rest of us in Parliament. We seldom know who funds them, and so, we are unaware of the invisible hand that governs us.”
2
Wanga Gwede  posts (24 August) in NYASA TIMES (MALAWI)
HERE 
MCP deputy secretary-general Eisenhower Mkaka said the party received intelligence reports that there was a plot to petrol bomb its headquarters, saying political competitors are creating divisions and wants to attribute violence to internal squabbles.
He said within the rank and file of MCP, there was no problem but those being bribed to cause confusion.
“We know pretty well of  an external ‘invisible hand’ that is fuelling the squabbles in MCP,” said Mkaka.
3
LORETTA SORENSON posts in TODAYS PRODUCER (‘National Association of Wheat Growers’) HERE 
Former NAWG president sees wheat a key part of global diet
“Kansas was given the nickname “Wheat State” for good reason. The state’s wheat history goes back to 1839, which pre-dates their 1861 Statehood. For decades Kansas led the nation in annual wheat production.
But even with a projected 2016 harvest of 393.6 million bushels of wheat, Kansas wheat acres — like wheat acres in every other U.S. state — are on a downward trend.
John Thaemert, former National Association of Wheat Growers president, says low wheat prices and tight agricultural profit margins are pushing farmers toward greater corn and soybean production. While some farmers grow small amounts of wheat, it’s no longer a dominant Kansas crop.
“The invisible hand of capitalism works well,” Thaemert said. “Money goes where it’s treated best. Because of the current low wheat prices and lower returns per acre, demand for wheat acres isn’t as strong as it used to be. Record high global wheat supply has also put pressure on wheat prices.”
COMMENT
Yet another example of a description of a market where visible prices of different elements of the production process are described, summarised by a wholly redundant reference to the “invisible hand of capitalism”, the role of which remains obscure. Markets work by VISIBLE prices and do not/cannot work without them.
Loretta tells us that ”Record high global wheat supply has also put pressure on wheat prices”. What else does she expect - even ECON 101 covers that phenomenon before the "invisible hand" nonsense obscures it.
4
Notice from Berkeley (23 August) of a Coloquium Events  HERE
The Invisible Hand of Homophily” Colloquium on August 31Tolman Hall
Speaker: Drew Jacoby-Senghor, Assistant Professor, Haas School of Business. Event Contact: ipsr@berkeley.edu, 510-642-5050

Despite the best intentions of both individuals and institutions, homogeneity within social networks stubbornly persists, profoundly shaping individuals’ social realities, from the interactions one has to the opportunities one is afforded. I explore how unconscious intergroup biases act as an invisible hand perpetuating homogeneous networks that, in turn, threaten to reify these biases.”

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