Charting a course to the next Renaissance

Why didn't economists predict the crisis? from Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen

Raghu Rajan nails it: “I would argue that three factors largely explain our collective failure: specialization, the difficulty of forecasting, and the disengagement of much of the profession from the real world.” Read the whole thing, hat tip to Mark Thoma.

Thomas Friedman weighs in by doctorzamalek (Graham Harman)

Here’s his new OPINION PIECE about Tahrir Square, in which he grasps what much American media seems not to be grasping: this is something new. Friedman’s piece will probably make you feel happy, so read it immediately.

Indian Constitution and Hindutva - A comment by B.A.Desai from Communalism Watch by c-info

by B.A. Desai (Senior Advocate Fmr. Minister Fmr. Add. Solicitor General of India)

Indian constitution is both a Legal and Social Document. The unique Freedom Struggle based on “Truth and Non Violence” took in its fold all sections of the Society, the Rich and The Poor Man and Women, Youth all Religious Communities, be it Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsis, Sikh, Jain in fact all castes and …

Hitler as Darwinian Word Made Flesh from One Cosmos by Gagdad Bob - Feb 4, 2011

As Van Vrekhem writes, Hitler believed he "had been sent, and was constantly guided, to change the conscience and morality of man into something like the opposite of Christianity." This would be "a new system of values based on brutality and violence." Hitler actually saw Christ as his precursor, in that he would be the "link," so to speak, between the Volk and their most primitive instincts. Again, it was very much as if he were "word made flesh," except that in this case, the word was the primordial lie from below…

Hitler wrote that "the life of the individual should not be given such high value. A fly lays a million eggs, they all die. But flies survive." As Van Vrekhem notes, "the perspectives this opens reveal something of the real dimension of the evil to be discovered behind all the destruction and slaughter caused by this German Messiah."