real-world economics review
Issue no. 104 3 July 2023
The Dead Parrot of Mainstream Economics – by Steve Keen
Why Hedge Funds Matter: An interview with Jan Fichtner – by Jan Fichtner and Jamie Morgan
ETF shares as shadow money – by Alexandru-Stefan Goghie
The Dollar Centric Financial System and the Conflict in Ukraine – by Marcello Spanò
A Note on Teaching Economic Inequality – by Junaid B. Jahangir
Book Review: Muhammad Ali Nasir, Off the Target: The Stagnating Political Economy of Europe and Post-Pandemic Recovery – by Jamie Morgan
Book Review: Jon D. Wisman, The Origins and Dynamics of Inequality. Sex, Politics, and Ideology – by John Komlos
Book Review: Lars P. Syll, The Poverty of Fictional Storytelling in Mainstream Economics – by Jesper Jespersen
download whole issue – visit RWER Blog
hetero NEUE WIRTSCHAFT highlights
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scitechdaily.com 9-7-2023 Time Reversal Photonics Experiment Resolves Quantum Paradox – by University Of Twente
Photonics Experiment Resolves Quantum Paradox – A team of researchers from the University of Twente has successfully illustrated that quantum mechanics and thermodynamics can coexist by using an optical chip with photon channels. The channels individually showed disorder in line with thermodynamics, while the overall system complied with quantum mechanics due to the entanglement of subsystems, proving that information can be preserved and transferred. Credit: University of Twente
It seems quantum mechanics and thermodynamics cannot be true simultaneously. In a new publication, University of Twente researchers use photons in an optical chip to demonstrate how both theories can be true at the same time.
In quantum mechanics, time can be reversed and information is always preserved. That is, one can always find back the previous state of particles. It was long unknown how this could be true at the same time as thermodynamics. There, time has a direction and information can also be lost. “Just think of two photographs that you put in the sun for too long, after a while you can no longer distinguish them,” explains author Jelmer Renema.
There was already a theoretical solution to this quantum puzzle and even an experiment with atoms, but now the University of Twente (UT) researchers have also demonstrated it with photons. “Photons have the advantage that it is quite easy to reverse time with them,” explains Renema. In the experiment, the researchers used an optical chip with channels through which the photons could pass. At first, they could determine exactly how many photons there were in each channel, but after that, the photons shuffled positions.
Entanglement of subsystems – “When we looked at the individual channels, they obeyed the laws of thermodynamics and built up disorder. Based on measurements on one channel, we didn’t know how many photons were still in that channel, but the overall system was consistent with quantum mechanics,” says Renema. The various channels – also known as subsystems – were entangled. The missing information in one subsystem ‘disappears’ to the other subsystem. …
finance.yahoo.com 8-7-2023 Wharton professor says ‘things that took me weeks to master in my PhD’ take ‘seconds’ with new ChatGPT tool – By Stephen Pastis
Now, anyone with $20 can have a personal A.I. assistant skilled in data analysis. Code Interpreter—a new OpenAI tool for ChatGPT that can run code, work with uploaded files, analyze data, create charts, edit files, and perform math—was released Friday for all subscribers to the $20-per-month ChatGPT Plus service. For Ethan Mollick, an early adopter of A.I. and management professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, it might be the most useful, interesting application of the technology so far—and the strongest case yet for a future where artificial intelligence is a valuable companion for sophisticated knowledge work. “Things that took me weeks to master in my Ph.D. were completed in seconds by the AI, and there were generally fewer errors than I would expect from a human analyst. Human supervision is still vital, but I would not do a data project without Code Interpreter at this point,” Mollick writes in a blog post published Friday. …
psychologytoday.com 7-7-2023 Redefining Psychology in the Light of Quantum Physics – A Personal Perspective: Revolutionizing our understanding of consciousness. -0 ByAlan J. Steinberg
This post is in response to Quantum Effects In the Brain By Robert Lanza
- Psychology and physics each offer a unique and important perspective in our quest to comprehend consciousness.
- Dream theory, traditionally in the realm of psychology, may help quantum physics understand the Big Bang.
- Psychology and quantum physics can help each other move forward in their quests for answers and relevancy.
- Psychotherapy, when invigorated by the insights of quantum physics, may become even more healing.
Quantum physics, arguably our most sophisticated scientific method for understanding the universe, has been consistently challenging the traditional boundaries of various disciplines, including psychology. As quantum physics explores the perplexing realm of consciousness, it raises profound questions. Could physics and psychology become entwined in their quest to comprehend consciousness?
Three Pillars of Quantum Physics – To grasp the scope of this question, we should first examine three generally accepted principles of quantum physics. When taken together, I argue that these principles suggest a revolutionary perspective: everything in the universe is composed of a singular, unified consciousness. The first principle states that the collapse of an object’s wave function requires a conscious observer. Secondly, quantum physics contends that the universe is interconnected in its entirety and instantaneously, leaving no room for separateness. Lastly, it posits that our reality is observer dependent. …
telegraph.co.uk 1-7-2023 Bank of England ‘must stop creating money out of thin air’ – Leading economists pile pressure on Andrew Bailey and Jeremy Hunt to shake up monetary system and help savers – By Will Hazell
theatlantic.com 7-2023 THE COMING HUMANIST RENAISSANCE – We need a cultural and philosophical movement to meet the rise of artificial superintelligence. By Adrienne LaFrance
vanityfair.com 29-6-2023 “We Have Built a Giant Treadmill That We Can’t Get Off”: Sci-Fi Prophet Ted Chiang on How to Best Think About AI – Amid an explosion of panic about artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and runaway algos, the celebrated writer has entered the chat. FYI: A potential Terminator situation is the least of his concerns. – by By Delia Cai
Lately, Chiang has been thinking about this current reality: Via viral essays for The New Yorker, he’s been wading into this year’s public discourse to explain ChatGPT and generative AI in terms any smartphone-wielder can actually process. For a species forever at odds with our own imaginative powers, the sci-fi author has become the most lucid voice in the room—a credit as much to that compact Chiangian prose as much as it is to the utter chaos of the 2023 technological landscape. Some time in between Marc Andreessen blogging about how AI will save the world and the release of the new Black Mirror season, Chiang and I sat down over Zoom to discuss our current moment in tech and the metaphors we use to make sense of it all.
decrypt.co 27-6-2023 Bank of England Says ‘Britcoin’ CBDC Might Not Be on a Blockchain – The English Central Bank is looking at a plethora of options for a CBDC it has yet to determine is viable. – By André Beganski
nature.com 24-6-2023 Decades-long bet on consciousness ends — and it’s philosopher 1, neuroscientist 0
Christof Koch wagered David Chalmers 25 years ago that researchers would learn how the brain achieves consciousness by now. But the quest continues.
businessinsider.com 17-6-2023 ‘Fundamentals still matter’: A portfolio manager at a firm managing $17 billion warns stocks are due to sink 15% as AI hype fuels the current rally and drowns out recession alarm bells – William Edwards
crypto-news-flash.com 17-6-2023 Cardano Creator Charles Hoskinson: $7 Trillion BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Approval to Flood the Market with Fresh Money – BlackRock application for Bitcoin ETF can stir an imbalance in the crypto world. Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson believes BlackRock’s move is not worth celebrating. – By Godfrey Benjamin
medium.com 16-6-2023 Gaia And The Climate Emergency – On the need for a new consciousness – by John Pearce
psychologytoday.com 16-6-2023 You Can’t Explain Human Experience in Purely Physical Terms – Does the soul exist? Re-enchanting the world with an old idea – by Steve Taylor
positivenews.org 15-6-2023 Positive tipping points could save the climate – this man is showing us how – by Sarah LaBrecque Positive tipping points – Professor Tim Lenton was one of the scientists sounding the alarm on the climate crisis decades ago. Today, instead of focusing on what doom might lie ahead, he’s pioneering a new line of research on the positive tipping points that might actually save
fortune.com 13-6-2023 Forget the ChatGPT ‘doom-hype cycle.’ Evidence shows humans are just as unoriginal when it comes to language. BY Brendan H. O’Connor
popmatters.com 13 -6-2023 WE CAN ONLY IMAGINE: THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF PHYSICS – Physicist Ulf Danielsson’s The World Itself pins the powerful, slippery imagination and its impressive ideas about consciousness to matter’s messy, impermanent state. – By R.P. Finch
theguardian.com 13-6-2023 Whisper it, but the boom in plastic production could be about to come to a juddering halt – A plastics treaty is on the cards – and it could join the rescue of the ozone layer as a landmark success in environmental diplomacy – by Geoffrey Lean
dailynous.com 13-6-2023 The Rigor of Philosophy & the Complexity of the World – By Justin Weinberg
“Analytic philosophy gradually substitutes an ersatz conception of formalized ‘rigor’ in the stead of the close examination of applicational complexity.” In the following guest post, Mark Wilson, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, argues that a kind of rigor that helped philosophy serve a valuable role in scientific inquiry has, in a sense, gone wild, tempting philosophers to the fruitless task of trying to understand the world from the armchair.
fortune.com 8-6-2023 ‘ESG’ is dead. Long live E, S, and G. By Peter Vanham
The tale of ESG in corporate America is one of an extraordinary rise and an almost-as-extraordinary fall. Less than a decade ago, barely anyone outside the impact investing world used the term ESG. Today, the acronym is everywhere in corporate America. But almost as quickly as it came, ESG is bound to disappear again and be replaced by its constituent parts, having become politicized and polarized.
That is my conclusion from this week’s Fortune Impact Initiative call, which gathered over 40 ESG executives under the Chatham House rule. Few executives defended continuing to use the term. But rather than bury the acronym’s themes—environmental, social, and governance issues—most said they are doubling down on them in practice. Put another way: Nothing is changing about our plans, those on our call agreed. But they are increasingly avoiding using the term “ESG” per se because it’s become divisive and distracting.
“We don’t talk about ‘ESG,’ but about the specific actions we are taking,” one participant said, a sentiment echoed throughout the discussion. “Eliminating waste, reducing water consumption,…those are all good business decisions,” another participant said. “There is no arguing about that. But we are taking a step back to think about what [the term] ‘ESG’ was meant to do.” …
blog.daviskedrosky.com 8-6-2023 Jared Diamond: A Reply to His Critics – Rescuing Guns, Germs, and Steel from its worst detractors – by Davis Kedrosky
newscientist.com 7-6-2023 The uncomfortable reality of life on Earth after we breach 1.5°C – Passing 1.5°C of global warming isn’t just a political disaster, it will have dire consequences for us all, as those living on the front line already know – By Madeleine Cuff
thecollector.com 5-6-2023 Walter Benjamin on the Philosophy of History (and the End of it) – How does Walter Benjamin use the insights of Marxism and theology to conceptualize history and the future? – By Luke Dunne
elpais.com 1-6-2023 Seven of the nine thresholds that allow for human life on earth have already been crossed – A new report quantifies the climatic, natural and pollutant limits that ensure the safe and orderly maintenance of civilization
academia.edu pdf 2016 A wealth of possibilities: Alternatives to growth – by Aaron Vansintjan
Economics, Sustainable Development, Green Policy, Post-Growth – This study, commissioned by the Greens in the European Parliament and the Green European Foundation, catalogued post-growth practices and policies in six fields: 1. Job creation 2. Basic and maximum income and job guarantee 3. Tax collection 4. Financing the social safety net 5. Monetary system and banking 6. International equality