{"id":3058,"date":"2009-03-24T04:00:02","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T04:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=3058"},"modified":"2009-03-24T04:08:17","modified_gmt":"2009-03-24T04:08:17","slug":"recommended-reading-54","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=3058","title":{"rendered":"Recommended Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Blling! Dr. Steven Metz <\/strong>at SWJ Blog<\/strong> – Trends, Threats, and Expectations<\/a><\/p>\n

Big Steve sets off a robust discussion after his participation in a Pentagon conference on strategic futurism and a SWJ Blog post.<\/p>\n

Chicago Boyz (David Foster)<\/strong> – Indoctrination at U-Delaware<\/a><\/p>\n

The heavy, taxpayer-subsidized, propaganda\u00a0hand of the multiculturalist-critical race theorist Left at the University of Delaware.<\/p>\n

FT.com<\/strong> – China calls for new reserve currency<\/a><\/p>\n

I see this more of serious\u00a0signal to the American elite from their nervous Chinese counterparts that the moves by the Fed to counter a deflationary spiral by running the printing press\u00a0are viewed in Beijing\u00a0as a serious threat to Chinese national interests.\u00a0In a world of fiat currencies, a “supra-fiat currency” backed by the IMF that depends heavily on the U.S. is a hollow threat to the dollar except as a technical toy for tweaking currency fluctuations. The IMF has no economy, no vital resources, no global stockpile of gold and no ability to project military power\u00a0to back such a supra-currency and give the paper value. The dollar only matters because of global faith in the power and standing of the United States – a quality swiftly being discounted due to the policies of Bernancke and the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

Other views on this or a related\u00a0topic: John Robb<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0, The Newshoggers.com<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0, naked capitalism<\/strong> <\/a>\u00a0, The Moderate Voice<\/strong> <\/a>( Ironically, I checked out sites by actual economists tonight, including Brad DeLong<\/strong> and they didn’t have anything up on this yet. Weird. Kinda like me ignoring a new\u00a0war)<\/p>\n

Fabius Maximus<\/strong> – All you need to know about Ayn Rand, savior of modern\u00a0conservatism<\/a><\/p>\n

FM opens up a can of worms by posting on radical free marketerr philosopher-novelist\u00a0Ayn Rand<\/strong>, who in point of\u00a0fact\u00a0bitterly repudiated conservativism\u00a0 (William F. Buckley<\/strong> and Whittaker Chambers<\/strong> returned the compliment by savaging Rand in a hysterical review of Atlas Shrugged<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>in National Review<\/em><\/strong>). Interestingly, some of FM’s anti-Rand commenters link Atlas Shrugged<\/em><\/strong> with The Lord of the Rings<\/em><\/strong>. Amusingly, they are correct in the sense that both J.R.R. Tolkien and Ayn Rand were believers in the rebirth of the\u00a0romantic epic.<\/p>\n

Soob<\/strong> – Mexico’s Middle Class Head North<\/a><\/p>\n

A really bad sign. Which makes me wonder in another domain if capital flight from the U.S. has begun yet?<\/p>\n

Red Team Journal<\/em> (Elkus)<\/strong> – Military Futurism<\/a><\/p>\n

Heavy on the Futurism aspect.<\/p>\n

CTLab Review<\/strong> – CTlab Symposium on P.W. Singer’s Wired For\u00a0War<\/a><\/p>\n

This is great! I have a copy of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/strong>but I doubt I will get it read in time. Here’s the details:<\/p>\n

CTlab’s second symposium in its <\/strong>2009 series<\/strong><\/a> starts next week, on Monday, 30 March, and will run for four days, until 2 April (or until participants run out of steam, which might take longer). The subject: Peter Singer’s new book, <\/strong>Wired For War: The Robotics Revolution and\u00a0 Conflict in the 21st Century<\/strong><\/a> (Penguin Press: 2009).<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is going to be an exciting booklab, on a work that’s been getting broad exposure, in an out of the blogosphere. Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution <\/strong>Senior Fellow for Foreign Policy<\/strong><\/a>, and Director of its <\/strong>21st Century Defense Initiative<\/strong><\/a>, will be participating on day 1. Proceedings will be compiled and indexed on a separate page for ease of reference, <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Confirmed participants include:<\/strong><\/p>\n