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punkerella

Slowly piecing together how the entire world works

5533 points

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Critically Acclaimed Memoirs
Memoir & Biography Starter Pack Vol I
Justice for All
My Taste
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win
Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
Reading...
The SpellshopYour Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform UsThe Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real WorldGéopolitique de l'Afrique (French Edition)Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone SmarterThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

punkerella made progress on...

1h
The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World

The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World

Greg Ip

27%
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  • The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World
    Thoughts from 27% (page 70) / Ch 4

    “In the short run, the number of jobs rises and falls with the business cycle. In the long run, though, the growth in jobs usually tracks almost perfectly the growth in the number of people who want jobs.”

    The chapter on labor and unemployment is somewhat comforting in terms of longterm recovery but also hints to the rosy picture painted by the official unemployment rate, or simply the people available and actively looking for work for a minimum of 4 weeks. (The US unemployment rate as of August 2025 is estimated to be around 4% which is lower than the typical ‘healthy’ or ‘natural’ rate per the author of 6%.)

    More interesting is the consider an expanded definition of unemployment called the U-6 unemployment rate, which includes people who are “marginally attached” meaning they aren’t looking but would like a job, and people who are part-time but would like a full time job. (August 2025 u-6 comes in at 8% indicating many Americans are under-employed even before the significant layoffs we’ve seen recently.)

    I also found it helpful to get a clear understanding of what is the BLS report that has not been getting released as it is supposed to on the first Friday each month.

    This book which is published in 2013 notes that “US politicians certainly abuse statistics but virtually never interfere with them,” instead citing examples in Argentina and China tampering with economic reports.

    The BLS report comes in two reports, the payroll report and the household survey. The payroll report is considered to be more reliable than the household survey because it takes a significantly larger sample size (30% of US workers) vs just the 0.1% sample size of the household survey. Additionally the payroll report does get revised as more data comes in, and it is typical for those revisions to be big.

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  • The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World
    Thoughts from 19% (page 48)

    “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”

    Shots fired

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  • punkerella made progress on...

    1h
    The Spellshop

    The Spellshop

    Sarah Beth Durst

    16%
    7
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    punkerella commented on beloved404's update

    beloved404 completed their yearly reading goal of 36 books!

    4h

    beloved404's 2025 Reading Challenge

    36 of 36 read
    The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
    Der große Sommer
    The Pairing
    The London Scene: Six Essays on London Life
    The Song of Achilles
    Becks letzter Sommer
    The Sea, the Sea
    91
    27
    Reply

    punkerella wrote a review...

    10h
  • Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance
    punkerella
    Nov 16, 2025
    4.0
    Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 5.0Characters: Plot:
    🏦
    🤝
    🌎

    This was my first Chomsky book and I found it both intriguing and digestible due to accessible, conversational language pulled directly from lectures.

    Surprise, basically all the bad stuff you know about is capitalism functioning as intended, but wait, there’s more: you’re living your entire life in an extreme authoritarian environment and early Americans would consider you a “wage slave”.

    I’m glad there was a tidbit of hope at the end but I’m really not sure what I’m supposed to be doing with this information next to my mountain of student loan debt.

    9
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  • punkerella commented on a post

    14h
  • Vampires of El Norte
    OhMyDio
    Edited
    Thoughts from 37%
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    3
    comments 3
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  • punkerella commented on crybabybea's update

    punkerella commented on BooksErgoSum's review of Necropolitics (Theory in Forms)

    20h
  • Necropolitics (Theory in Forms)
    BooksErgoSum
    Sep 16, 2025
    5.0
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    I have a new philosophy book obsession.

    When a book published in 2019 warns us about a new form of politics and says that, 👉 “Gaza is the paradigmatic example,” and, “Gaza might well prefigure what is yet to come,” and, “the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories serves as a laboratory.”

    It has my FULL attention.

    This new form of politics? It’s the far-right, deportations, mass surveillance, a politics of hate, it craves apartheid, it increases insecurity with one hand and dominates in the name of security with the other, it’s the MAHA death cult…

    I think we’re all watching our democracies gleefully descend into anti-vaxx, anti-intellectual, nationalist authoritarianism and we’re just like “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!” This book is why—it’s NECROPOLITICS.

    The philosophy nerd argument in here demystified the WHY?! through a critique/development of philosophers Foucault and Agamben. But this also synthesized a bunch of other philosophical ideas I've been thinking about with respect to the current state of politics: Aimé Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Hegel, Judith Butler (on grievability, violence, and the reactionary right's beginnings in the Global South), Anthony Loewenstein, Quinn Slobodian (particularly Crack Up Capitalism), Lacan, and Žižek.

    This book was so good. One of the best explanation for the rise of the far right, tyranny, and exit neoliberalism I’ve ever seen.

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  • punkerella commented on a post

    1d
  • The Spellshop
    Thoughts from 30%

    I’m kind of bored with this and haven’t picked it up in days. Should I persevere? Jeez, the last book I read I paused because it was too heavy, and now I want to pause this one because it’s too light 😂

    12
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  • punkerella commented on one_crazy_eliott's update

    one_crazy_eliott is interested in reading...

    4d
    The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration

    The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration

    Jake Bittle

    18
    2
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    punkerella commented on punkerella's update

    punkerella made progress on...

    1d
    The Spellshop

    The Spellshop

    Sarah Beth Durst

    13%
    9
    2
    Reply

    punkerella made progress on...

    1d
    The Spellshop

    The Spellshop

    Sarah Beth Durst

    13%
    9
    2
    Reply