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Missive #314

44. NASRUDDIN THE PROUD FATHER

Nasruddin was running through the town square.

A friend noticed him and said, “Nasruddin! Wait a moment and talk! I haven’t seen you in such a long time.”

“I really don’t have time to stop and talk,” Nasruddin explained. “I went out to do the shopping, and now I need to hurry home.”

“Why the rush?”

“My wife just had a baby!” Nasruddin said proudly.

“What wonderful news!” replied his friend. “I’m very glad for you. And is it a boy or a girl?”

Nasruddin stared at him in amazement. “Yes, it is!” he answered. “But how did you know?”

This Tale is from “Tiny Tales of Nasruddin” by Laura Gibbs. The book is licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. © 2019-2022 Laura Gibbs.

Michael Hudson discusses his work

Robinson: Michael, I read in your book, Killing the Host, that you decided to become an economist after meeting one named Terrence McCarthy, who explained to you why financial crises tend to occur in the autumn after crops are harvested. And this was an interesting question. What’s the story and why was it so compelling for you?

Michael: Well, most economies used to be agricultural economies. That was the center and there was something called the autumnal drain. In other words, when it was time to move the crops, banks needed to provide the credit for the wholesale buyers of grain to pay the farmers for their crop, to buy the crop. That would drain money out of the banking system and if banks were too highly leveraged, if they didn’t have enough backing and reserves, they would go insolvent. Sometimes the debt tended to build up, but there was a kind of rhythm. And I was entranced by the fact that there was a regular rhythm to all of this, almost a calendrical rhythm, not only to the timing of the crashes, but the fact that the crashes got bigger and bigger and bigger as the debt burden grew, until finally the whole system crashed and a lot of debts were wiped out by bankruptcy. — Economics As A form Of Art by Michael Hudson

These same questions are being asked by people all over the world. Assuming Trump become president again, how will the assassination attempt influence foreign affairs?

What was striking, however, was the lightning response of the secret service snipers. They opened fire with at least two rifles in just over three seconds. This is an excellent result. And it would be even in a shooting competition where the target and distances are known, and the command ‘fire’ is given.

So, it’s clear that Special Forces [sic] snipers had Crooks in their crosshairs by the time the shots were fired.

So why didn’t they open fire sooner? And why did they let the shooter get so close and not respond to eyewitness reports of a strange man with a gun? — Alexander Pochuev, Vice President of the Long Range Shooting Federation of Russia

I think I have seen this movie before.

Do you remember that on October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada from his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel. There was a FBI investigation which released conflicting press statements for a couple of weeks then it all went away. The motive for the shooting remains officially undetermined.

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