Available DRM free here.

I've been hinting at and promising this book review for a while now, and so here it is.

In a recent workshop I ran on digital/'AI' literacy, I discussed the known phenomena of pareidolia, or the human trait of finding and ascribing meaning to patterns that do not actually exist. Part of the problem with discussing pareidolia as briefly as I will here, of course, is that proving whether or not an observed pattern...

Okay Essex, I'm gonna level with you. I don't really respect you, but Clacton has a real chance to mildly maybe change that tomorrow.

DOC TAYROC'S [UNSOLICITED] ECONOMICS HOT THOUGHT

Marx and the Death of the Author XIV: Services: The afterlife of manufacturing?

Most of my life has been spent in and around 'post-industrial' cities, they're a common sight in the UK, Europe, and the US. One of the many effects of neo-liberal capitalism has been the 'off shoring' of manufacturing jobs to China, leaving considerable parts of their former home nations behind with 'rust belts' full of industrial decay, because of course when...

DOC TAYROC'S [UNSOLICITED] ECONOMICS HOT THOUGHT

Marx and the Death of the Author XIII: Are factories the engine of progress?

This is part three of the 'sectoral analysis: Lewis style' series that I started here, and continued here. As I want to make clear here, an additional critique of Lewis' model I have here is the idea that one sector is more valuable, and therefore more desirable, than the others. The idea that the value of a sector is reducible to mere productivity relative to GDP...

Available here.

This one I have a hard time outright recommending because the publisher has taken a weird route that I can't really agree with, and frankly seem hostile to authors. But you know, there are many streams on the vast ocean of the internet. I'll say no more.

Regular readers are likely tired of hearing me bring up the 2007/08 financial crisis, but it was a fairly important moment in modern economic...

Once again, due to a busy week and weekend, this week's unsolicited book review will be delayed a day.

Of course, by the nature of it being an unsolicited book review, no one asked.

DOC TAYROC'S [UNSOLICITED] ECONOMICS HOT THOUGHT

Marx and the Death of the Author XII: Workers of the world includes farm labour too

Marx is buried in Highgate Cemetery, not too far from where I sit writing this, in the greater scheme of things at least. Those familiar with the biographical details of Marx's life know that he spent the bulk of his life in exile here in London, after the failed 1848 revolutions across the German states. In Marx's time, London was the largest city in the world....

This week's Marx and the Death of the Author will be delayed by a day due to a hectic work week...

Available DRM free here.

I've been quoting him, citing him, and letting him live 'rent free' in my head for the last few weeks, now it's time for you to be (re)introduced to one of the more influential pan-Africanists of the latter half of the 20th century.

Pan-Africanism is an odd beast of a political ideology, and that's unsurprising, as most pan-xyz ideologies often become weird 'big tent' monstrosities...

DOC TAYROC'S [UNSOLICITED] ECONOMICS HOT THOUGHT

Marx and the Death of the Author XI: Does losing the chains include supply chains?

The 1950s was a period of immense economic, technological, and political optimism. The bloody horrors of the Second World War had subsided, and the only countries experiencing the full paranoia of the Cold War were the United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, in that order. The rest of the world was rebuilding after the horrors of war or moving...

Available here.

This book crossed my mind whilst writing the recent two-part series on Marxist versus capitalist reality, but I could not figure out how to incorporate it fully, so I decided to give it its own little review. In the interest of full disclosure, I was at this book launch, and he is a coworker at the university I also work at.

I was very good at physics, had I not become a economist I would have gone...

DOC TAYROC'S [UNSOLICITED] ECONOMICS HOT THOUGHT

Marx and the Death of the Author X: What is reality? Part II

In the last post, I discussed the concept of capitalist hyper-realism. Rereading it earlier today, I realised that I quoted the late, great Walter Rodney, but never explicitly said that it was, in fact, Dr Rodney I was quoting, although I did link to the book I got the quote from, so partial marks.

I also, rereading my post on Stiglitz's Freefall from...

Available here.

In terms of chronology, this is kind of the opposite of my review of From the Clinic to the Streets, in that I both read this back when I was first getting started in economics, back in 2010, and it came out in 2009, so it's not 'hot off the presses', but I think still worth a read.

Of course, this might raise some eyebrows amongst those of you noting specifics within my writing, namely that back in 2010 I...

DOC TAYROC'S [UNSOLICITED] ECONOMICS HOT THOUGHT

Marx and the Death of the Author, Part IX: What is reality? (Part 1/2)

Pop psychology is often problematic, there's an entire podcast that inadvertently returns to this central argument, 'If Books Could Kill', since pop psychology often comes to us in the form of self-help books. Nonetheless, some pop psychology is born of a genuine desire to help, sometimes it really is one of those 'the road to hell is paved with good intention' things....

Further update for all those concerned, the family health emergency largely seems to have been resolved, there is one follow-up appointment on Thursday, with a blood test for the family member, here's hoping that gives the full clean-bill of health. Now, without further ado...

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In a recent book review, namely...

He's home, he's healthy. Prognosis is good.

This week's Marx and the Death of the Author is delayed a bit due to a family medical emergency.

Don't worry, prognosis is good, and we currently believe they're coming home today.

Thanks for the continued support!

This might be the first time I've reviewed a book so close to launch, but the topic she covers has been living 'rent free' in my head recently, and so this got pushed to the front of queue.

Available DRM-free here.

A little over two years ago, I was diagnosed as being neurodiverse. AuDHD is the specific flavour of neural spiciness, if you're curious. Upon hearing the diagnosis, some of my colleagues on the left were...

DOC TAYROC'S [UNSOLICITED] ECONOMICS HOT THOUGHT

What J.J. Abrams' Star Trek and Star Wars tells us about neo-liberalism, part 3: It's just vibes, man

I hate TED talks, and I hate what they did to academia. Let me open by saying that. TED Talks are what MBAs who coasted through their undergrad and postgrad think intellectual lectures are like. They're all flash, no substance. They're entertaining but only as deep as a single pint glass. The fact that so many of the losers that brought us...