‘Lazy’ British workers catch up with Liz Truss once again

August 18, 2022August 18, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Analysis: comments made while at the Treasury suggesting some workers are not grafters confirm what seems to be a long-held view
‘Lazy’ British workers catch up with Liz Truss once again

H/T: Rollins France

Calling a recession and blaming it on interest rates

July 31, 2022July 31, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The latest US GDP figures for second quarter of 2022 renewed the debate about whether the US economy was in a recession or not. Real GDP contracted in the second quarter of this year by a 0.9% annualised rate (or by 0.2% quarter over quarter). That meant the US economy had contracted for two successive quarters, and so ‘technically’ (by that definition) was in a recession. Real GDP is now up only 1.6% from Q2 2021. And business investment is slowing, up only 3.5% from this time last year, the slowest rate since the end of the COVID slump in 2020.
Calling a recession and blaming it on interest rates

BS: Vaccines help reduce COVID-19 transmission and hospitalization, but they may have important secondary benefits

January 3, 2022January 3, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Vaccines help reduce COVID-19 transmission and hospitalization, but they may have important secondary benefits

A new paper by researchers at the University of Southern California and RAND Corporation sheds light on lesser-known advantages of being vaccinated
…
“We estimate that COVID-19 vaccination reduces anxiety and depression symptoms by nearly 30%,” they concluded. Fear of testing positive among frontline workers and social isolation has taken an emotional toll on millions of people.

Rand Corporation claims that the jab reduces anxiety and depression by only 30% (Is this like the efficacy rate of the vaccines against transmission of the ‘rona)?! 🙄 Sorry, RAND, not buying it! Must be some BS way to market the jab!

A Litany of Horrors

Marx on technology

May 10, 2021May 10, 2021 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The longest chapter in Capital is the fifteenth, on “Machinery and Large-Scale Industry.” At almost 150-pages, it’s really a book in itself, a staggeringly dense and expansive discussion that could easily standalone—not only as a brilliant exegesis of capitalist machinery, but also as a sweeping social history of technology. At its broadest reach, the chapter is a vivid demonstration of historical materialism in action, of Marx’s method put through its dialectical paces. As ever with Marx, his footnotes aren’t to be passed over glibly: they’re worth studying, pondering over for the nuggets of insight they contain.
Marx on technology