Category Archives: Economics

The monetary value of biodiversity

Posted on August 16, 2021 by odeboyz

Swiss bee colonies, for example, have been shown to ensure “a yearly agricultural production worth about US$ 213 million by providing pollination,” and the value of an improved microclimate from 400,000 trees planted by local authorities in Canberra [Australia] has … Continue reading →

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Victor Hugo on Sewage

Posted on August 2, 2021 by odeboyz

Violating every rule of narrative, Hugo interrupts the climax of his great novel Les Misérables (1862) to hector the reader for fifteen pages about the Parisian sewer system. The city’s sewers discharged vast quantities of excrement into rivers, which carried … Continue reading →

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Immigration: Conservative Hypocrisy 1903, 1938, 2021

Posted on July 29, 2021 by odeboyz

1903 IMMIGRATION OF DESTITUTE ALIENS. HC Deb 26 February 1903 vol 118 cc938-77 Sir Howard Vincent (Conservative)1 In the first place, I should like to say most emphatically that this motion has nothing whatever to do with any religious question. … Continue reading →

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An Italian economic boycott, 1848

Posted on July 12, 2021 by odeboyz

….the inhabitants of Milan, under Austrian rule, followed the principle of the Boston Tea Party by giving up smoking in order to stop the Austrians obtaining revenue from a tax on tobacco. Richard Evans The pursuit of power p189

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Costco: the value of decent wages

Posted on July 5, 2021 by odeboyz

“Unusually for a retailer, Costco invests in its employees….The average retail employee in the USA makes $12 (£8.51) an hour whereas Costco pays its employees around $24 (£17.02) an hour…..Paying a living wage benefits the business – Costco has an … Continue reading →

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Mathematical Knowledge is power

Posted on July 1, 2021 by odeboyz

A supposedly wise ruler asked a servant what he’d like as a reward for an act of bravery. The servant said he’d like a grain of rice on the first of the 64 squares on the emperor’s chessboard, two on … Continue reading →

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Ben Bradley MP (In a previous life a workhouse manager)

Posted on June 21, 2021 by odeboyz

“…..[Mansfield] Tory MP Ben Bradley has claimed that free school meals vouchers are “effectively” a handout to a crack den and brothel. Even if this is true – and the evidence for it is less than overwhelming – so what? … Continue reading →

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Why did so many Germans support Hitler?

Posted on May 10, 2021 by odeboyz

A well-respected German historian has a radical new theory to explain a nagging question: Why did average Germans so heartily support the Nazis and Third Reich? Hitler, says Goetz Aly, was a “feel good dictator,” a leader who not only … Continue reading →

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The Gaza Strip and Israel, 2014

Posted on February 18, 2021 by odeboyz

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the blockade of the Gaza Strip, describing the territory as a “prison camp”.1 Israel controls Gaza’s territorial waters and maintains exclusive control in the air space…[It] controls the entire ….border including the Erez … Continue reading →

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Two West Point* Speeches and American Foreign Policy

Posted on October 1, 2020 by odeboyz

The USA is the self-selected ‘policeman’ of the world. This has led to it being involved in conflicts every year since 2000. Consequently a significant part of the annual budget is devoted to military spending. Symbolic of this are two … Continue reading →

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