Put-Our-Rich-Criminals-in-Check Global Emporium

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Recently, I’ve read the kindle preview of

so this bit struck me as interesting:

The story is a similar one in Chile. Hayek visited Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship twice and met with Pinochet once. During his second visit, Hayek told a Chilean newspaper that it was possible for a “dictator to govern in a liberal way,” and that he preferred a “liberal dictator to a democratic government lacking liberalism.” Given the widespread use of torture by Pinochet’s government, this has often been seen by critics of neoliberalism as a link between the intellectual architect of neoliberalism and authoritarian repression, while Hayek’s defenders have seen it as an aberration. In fact, it was simply consistent with the way that he saw the world: The socialism of Salvador Allende, whom Pinochet had overthrown, was democracy gone wrong. Restoring a market economy took priority over human rights and social justice. A dictatorship was not desirable, but he objected more to those who protested its abuses.

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Rich people are so desperate to avoid paying taxes that they’ll buy into storage facilities that promise to dodge taxes that don’t actually exist:

ETA: backpfeifengesicht is a German word meaning roughly “a face that is in need of a slap.” This idea of a tax-free shelter for rich people’s luxury assets makes me wonder if there’s a similar German word for “a building that is in need of a fire.”

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I think insurance fraud might be what the place was actually built for. As far as I am aware, the only value to collecting artwork as an investment is in destroying it.

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It’s also kind of useful as a money laundering tactic:

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Answer: yes. Why do we even have to ask the question? Is water not wet all of a sudden?

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I think the question is about the “unwitting” part.

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So I googled dry water.
Because…

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Damn that is deep. Hits exactly what the issue is.

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Now they’re coming for the meat of Europe’s remaining social democracies.

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Private-sector Potemkins:

https://thebaffler.com/latest/shark-tankification-riederer

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Blockchain is for chumps?

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The photos and captions in this article are priceless.

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Pretty much, yeah. Partly because so many enthusiasts are totally clueless about what it actually is, and think it’s the solution to everything. “Ouch! I cut my finger!” “You should use blockchain to fix that!”

It is an interesting concept, but it strikes me as the precursor to a really good and actually useful one.

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The company I work for has jumped into this. I’m surprised we haven’t done our own version of Bitcoin as well.

edit: good article and addresses issues with blockchain I hadn’t thought about.

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Kai Stinchcombe coined the terms “crypto-medieval” “futuristic integrity wand” and “smart mango.” Please use freely: coining terms makes you a futurist.

Best Medium bio ever.

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