And the Afternoon When It Came Back

I had almost resigned myself to a life without Facebook, which was not such a terrible thing after all, when I met our resident techie and told him about my vanishing News Feed. I turned around and followed me back to my office explaining potential solutions on the way. I logged in to my system and started Facebook to show what had happened, but quickly realized that something had changed. There was a new post at the top of my feed, and when I scrolled down, there was no annoying message at the bottom telling me that there  were no more posts to show. The problem had solved it self.

Don't worry! Procrastinate! Sometimes that all you need to do....

The Day When Facebook Stopped

I cannot see any of my new Facebook posts or any other than the four items that currently sit on my News Feed. At the bottom of the page, FB states that there are no more posts to display, which is obviously not true. Some people call it the "vanishing News Feed" others google desperately for a solution, and FB tells me that it will read my mail but not answer it. I never thought I would have FB withdrawal, but here I am, having just that.

And here is a popup I got when I tried to post a link to this blog post.

First Biography of Albert O. Hirschman

Princeton historian Jeremy Adelman talks about Albert O. Hirschman and his life. Adelman's biography over Hirschman will be published in April 2013.



Albert O. Hirschman (1915-2012) (Institute of Advanced Studies)

Albert Hirschman, Optimistic Economist, Dies at 97 (New York Times)

Albert O. Hirschman, 1915-2012, by Francis Fukuyama (The American Interest)

Wikipedia on Albert O. Hirschman

Albert O. Hirschman, influential social scientist, dies at 97 (Washington Post)

Albert O. Hirschman (Town Topics, Princeton, NJ)

Albert O. Hirschman: Life and Work (Marginal Revolution blog)

How the Rich and the Powerful Took It All and Left the Rest Of Us Behind

Bill Moyers interviews Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson on Engineered Inequality in his weekly show Moyers & Company. (From March 1, 2012).

 

Krugman On Technology, Capital and Labor

Squirrels on Valentine's Day

The Republican Confederacy of Dunces Has Spoken

G.O.P. Senators Block Vote on Defense Post for Hagel

"WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a vote to confirm former Senator Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, arguing that Democrats were trying to rush a choice that they needed more time to consider."
(..)

Mr. Reid took to the floor on Thursday to denounce Republicans for trying to use the confirmation process for political gain and accused them of undermining the nation’s national security.

“This isn’t a high school getting ready for a football game,” Mr. Reid said. “We’re trying to confirm somebody to run the defenses of our country, the military of our country.”

He added: “For the sake of our national security, we need to put aside this political theater, and that’s what it is. People are worried about primary elections. We know how the Tea Party goes after Republicans when they aren’t conservative enough. Is that something they need to have on their résumé? I filibustered one of the president’s nominees? Is that what they want?”

Albert O. Hirschman (1915-2012)

Albert O. Hirschman had a big impact on my thinking about economics and society. He passed away here in Princeton this past December. Reading the press release from the Institute of Advance Study, I realize that he was not only a brilliant scholar, but a very brave man. 

Most of my blogs about Hirschman have been in Swedish, but here is a link to an English language comment:

The Social Impact of the Great Recession

Does the Republican implosion leave big business out in the cold?

Thomas B. Edsall has an interesting blog post in the New York Times.

The Obama Coalition vs. Corporate America

He writes: 

"The slow implosion of the Republican Party — along with the growing strength of a Democratic coalition dominated by low-to-middle-income voters — threatens the power of the corporate establishment and will force big business to find new ways to reassert control of the policy-making process."
 (...)
“Economists on both the right and left, from Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University to the Times columnist Paul Krugman, are increasingly talking about the detrimental consequences of high concentrations of economic and political power – concentrations that threaten the innovation that is supposed to be what makes unequal outcomes worth the price.
Daron Acemoglu of M.I.T., who wrote the highly regarded book “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty” with James A. Robinson of Harvard, argues that concentrations of wealth and market power allow “the already well off and already well organized” to exercise excessive leverage through “lobbying, campaign contributions and otherwise” that distort market processes."