A Case For Blogs Such as These

I am busy with the final volume of Speculative Capital. The book has been a long time coming; I lost track of the number of times entire chapters were rewritten because Nasser was not happy with them. But he is in the in home stretch now and an end-of-year publication date is a possibility. I think when you read it you will agree that it is different from anything that has come before.

The book has a chapter on theory of knowledge which made me think. How do we know what we know? I am not concerned with the epistemological/philosophical issues. I will leave them to Nasser to explain. My interest is in the more mundane aspects of knowledge. How do I know, for example, that the President of Ireland is precipitously close to violating his constitutional authority?

Why, I read it in the Financial Times. Here is the May 3 story under the heading Dublin defends president over call for ‘radical reform’

The Irish government has defended critical comments made by the country’s ceremonial president about EU leaders’ response to the economic crisis after questions were raised about whether he may have overstepped the mandate of his office.

President Michael D. Higgins called for a “radical rethink” of how the EU leaders tackled the crisis ...

Davie Gwynn Morgan, a constitutional lawyer ... told Irish radio the president may have exceeded the limits allowed under the Irish constitution. “It seems to be we are in unprecedented waters,” he said. “People feel that we are in a time of great stress and they should speak out even though it may be inappropriate for their office. It doesn’t seem to me like a good thing to do.”

The president of Ireland did not plan a coup. He did not interfere with the official function of the prime minister. Nor did he negotiate secret trade agreements. He merely criticized the EU for imposing austerity. The FT reported that as the Irish government being on the defensive about the president's insolent comments.

Note that the story is generated by one, single, solitary, half-literate pissant who says 'unprecedented' when he means 'unchartered'. Even he is not sure. He says it seems and may be what the president said was 'inappropriate'.

No matter. A scandal is whipped up and the Irish government is forced to formally defend the president. The point is to keep him on his toes; next time he will be more careful when he has an urge to criticize austerity.

That is why blogs like Dialectics of Finance are necessary. They act as an antidote to lies. Without them, the good guys are at a disadvantage.