More evidence that the crisis in the NHS engineered by the Tories is another act of economic self-harm.... having wrecked our external economic relations with Brexit, they undermined our internal (domestic) economic activity by producing a massive health-related expansion in the economically inactive.
This is what the Tories' disaster capitalists chums wanted & got!
[to be clear the NHS crisis should not only be measured by its significant economic impact]
#economics
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/17/uk-ill-health-economic-growth-ippr
Given the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) sector is already under suspicion of pushing debts onto people who do not realise (until too late) that BNPL can include punitive penalty clauses if payments not made at the appropriate 'later' time, the news that Klarna is aiming to half its human workforce by utilising AI, will not fill anyone with hope that things will get better....
#artificialintelligence #AI #debt #workers
h/t FT
Irony klaxon:
What's shaping up to be the biggest impediment to the role out of Artificial Intelligence (and the linked replacement of human roles by learning machines)?
A shortage of skilled labour in the chip manufacturing sector... looks like you can 'easily' build chip fabrication capacity but finding the skilled workforce(s)to run it is proving more difficult (for now, putting a ceiling on chip supplies).
A temporary irony but an irony nonetheless!
#AI #technology #workers
h/t FT
Playing a gig this afternoon for friends' 50th wedding anniversary, spun this for them & had forgotten just how brilliant it is....
These boots are made for stamping on fascists.... or walkin' if you prefer!
I don't know about you but I'm sick to death of commentators on wages looking at the last two or three quarters & claiming that because wages are now often growing above inflation that all is much better for workers....
NO NO NO - look at the longer term to see how real wages remain in many cases BELOW those enjoyed in 2007/8.
Just because pay rises are above inflation now does not undo over a decade of falling real wages....
[grinding of teeth]
#workers #inflation #economics
it now seems clear that GB Energy, to be set up in the next few months by the Labour Govt. will focus on expanding the provision of off-shore wind power generation, by working closely with the Crown Estates (already doing well from the sector) and seeking to de-risk investment in the sector.
Of course, off-shore wind in many ways is more expensive than its onshore version, but does side-step the planning friction(s) often encountered... but interconnection issues remain!
#energy #wind
h/t FT
We know universities are in crisis, driven by the increasingly problems in their current mode of funding. However, its not always clear how this is playing out across the sector.
So here's a UCU, university by university, list of actions managers have been taking to balance the books & its not a pretty sight.
Whether we will see failure, merge & restructuring is not yet completely clear, but its become a lot more likely in the last five years.
#universities #austerity
Not sure its a anonymous Observer sub-editor or Carole Cadwalladr )or someone else), who coined the term but its is brilliant. The article Cadwalladr has written on the Tech Bros' support for Trump contains this in its heading & will be the term I use from know on, as it sums up so much:
'the tech broligarchs'
#technology
#AI
#techbroligarchs
The case for Universal Basic Income is growing in the face of the AI 'revolution'.
In the past technological change has (eventually) produced new/different jobs, but as history has shown, this leaves workers impoverished during the (sometimes decades long) transition.
Now capitalism is so dependent on consumer spending the Tech Bro's & others are rediscovering the Keynsian idea of 'effective demand';
money has to be in the hands of people who will spend it, hence UBI!.
#economics #AI #UBI
As it becomes ever clearer (and documented) that artificial intelligence is highly dependent on exploiting human labour - from creatives whose content is stolen, to the low-paid staff who help sort & train AI programmes - once again we can see that a 'new economy' promised by the Tee-shirted 'revolutionaries' of Silicon Valley is nothing other than a reboot of C19th exploitative economic practice....
So, one important Q. for modern society is how to bring these new robber barons to heel!
#AI
If you think the virtual economy (including the innovations around AI) are going to be helpful to a green transition - think again.
Google's green house gas emissions have grown by 48% in the last five years, off the back of vast increases in computing capacity (and the cooling required)...
The only hope is that the industries devastated by AI emit even more greenhouse gases.... a hope that contains doom for so many workers as to make it not really a 'hope' at all!
#AI #green #climate
My two (far from original) initial take-aways from last night:
While Starmer & Labour now have a chance to show that there is an alternative to Tory chaos, their honeymoon might be pretty short & if fears of them being 'continuity Tory' are fulfilled then they may have no game-changing answers in any case....
and, given the election has been a story of a split on the Right, if Starmer fails to (quickly) convince, then a resurgent & merging Right looks like a real danger in 2029....
#politics
Other good news:
Jacob Rees Mogg has lost his seat... hurrah
Not so good news:
Jeremy Hunt has retained his... so we can expect more self-righteous commentary on the NHS crisis from one of the people who caused it in the first place....
#Election2024
You'll recall either from the original Frost interview (or from its dramatisation in Frost/Nixon) that Richard Nixon, declared: 'Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal'.... effectively placing the President above the law.
Well, finally the US Supreme Court seems to have caught up with President Nixon.
The declaration that for official acts the President is immune from prosecution, not only looks like a major dilution of the rule of law, its just dangerous!
#law
A not completely implausible scenario to fear:
Nigel Farage wins Clacton & becomes MP.
In post election Tory chaos, Reform suggest merger with Right-Tory rump.
Tory party splits with Reform uniting with ultra Right Tories & manage to retain party name.
Tory/Reform form 'official' opposition.
Leadership election which Farage wins.
Election 2025 between exhausted Labour party unable to fix the wreckage bequeathed to them by Tories vs. Farage 'the people's savour'!
unthinkable? God I hope so
nostr:npub1r737ywltvd6zas4zzdw34ykejg7epl9pt340pu6mj7jt7uq0tt9svx9ysd
Yes, I think it will be interesting to see how turnout plays out... possibly, low in 'safe' seats, higher in marginals were tactical voting can shift result(s)?
nostr:npub1nsajfd6tyx27culxk4svk0a44tja6aexragmd6xzpnm4mv2dkatsepsm8n
Yes the map in the article also highlighted some inland examples.... its all about the 'picturesque'
If you're in Lancaster (UK) tonight & fancy a bit more Motown (either because you enjoyed ProfDJ's Motown night last week, or missed it), its happening again, this time at Runner Duck Wine Room (King St.) - as before Motown all night - Marvin, Diana, Stevie, The Four Tops, The Temptations and more....
see you there from 8.30.
#Lancaster #ProfDJ #motown #soul #vinyl #music
nostr:npub14n9l05agu2yv709lw7d309u6h0y9puehm8zwahltrrdteqhm8amqcn9ykn
yes, I rather suspected that was the case....
nostr:npub1v5x3hxyj04vflzpxttc3f4exsjkl65u0daufjys86md8zdexdjnqskfmhy
Ha ha, yes... its ironic isn't it.... at least in the FT the houses are so expensive as to be outside the normal residential market(s)