Pixel Pete @Solophax

Carl Menger's barter story is one of the most successful myths in economics. The problem is not that it is theoretically possible. The problem is that there is little historical or anthropological evidence that societies actually developed money this way. As David Graeber pointed out, anthropologists spent more than a century searching for examples of economies organized around pure barter and repeatedly came up empty. What they found instead were systems of credit, debt, obligation, and social accounting. People kept track of who owed what long before coins or commodity money became widespread. The familiar story of a blacksmith searching for a farmer who wants horseshoes is largely a thought experiment. Real communities were not collections of strangers conducting spot transactions. They were networks of ongoing social relationships where obligations could be recorded and settled over time. Historically, money often emerged alongside institutions capable of measuring and enforcing debts. Temples, palaces, kingdoms, and states maintained accounts, levied taxes, and denominated obligations in units of account long before everyday markets were dominated by coinage. Coinage itself was frequently linked to states paying soldiers and then demanding taxes in the same currency. This created demand for money not because markets spontaneously selected it, but because political authorities structured the monetary system around it. The historical record suggests that credit came first, coinage came later, and barter usually appears at the margins when monetary systems break down, not at the beginning of economic history. The real myth is not that states played a role in the development of money. The real myth is that money emerged from a world of isolated traders solving the double coincidence of wants problem through spontaneous market evolution alone.

This is wonderful. This page turns New York into a massive, zoomable, SimCity-style pixel art map. You can explore the city block by block: streets, skyscrapers, parks, waterfronts, bridges and neighbourhoods. A beautiful rabbit hole for map nerds: isometric.nyc

Global Central Bank Update: -The ECB hiked rates for the first time since 2023, 25 bps move up to 2.25%. -Denmark hiked rates for the first time since 2023, 25 bps move up to 1.85%.

When your government lies, and your media shuts down all dissent.

In an exclusive interview for Al Mayadeen, Professor Mohammad Marandi noted that while "a lot has been agreed upon, there is still work to be done," and added that Iran’s chief negotiator, #Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, is actively pursuing the file. He expressed cautious optimism, saying that in his view "the chances for an agreement is high." Marandi argued that the United States "failed in this war" and that the #US-Israeli war on Iran has already had serious global economic consequences that are still unfolding. He also pointed to continued violations by the Israeli side, saying they have repeatedly undermined ceasefire understandings, especially in #Lebanon, and remain "the biggest problem" obstructing any lasting agreement. Highlighting regional dynamics, he praised the "heroic" role of the Resistance in Lebanon, "fighting the most heroic of battles to save Lebanon... to save the honor and dignity of the people of the region and beyond." @s_m_marandi #IranWar #WarOnIran #LebanonUnderAttack #WestAsia

Iran says the ceasefire is now "virtually meaningless" after the latest U.S. strikes.

NYT reports US strikes in southern Iran, which targeted a drinking-water facility, cutting water to over 20,000 people during extreme heat. The incident could constitute a war crime under international law. t.me/PressTV

Documentos desclasificados respaldan la verdad de Cuba sobre el 24 de febrero de 1996. Correos electrónicos, memorandos y comunicaciones revelan la insistencia del Gobierno🇨🇺 a las autoridades estadounidenses, para que cesaran los sobrevuelos a la Isla. granma.cu/mundo/2026-06-…

VIDEO | Prominent Zionist Jerry Seinfeld was asked by streamer FinesseFave outside Madison Square Garden in New York, following the Knicks–Spurs basketball game, to say free Palestine. He responded, "it doesn’t exist."

The Iranian regime will lose the zero-sum game it is playing. Any damage it inflicts on our allies in the Gulf will be paid for with funds extracted from Iranian Accounts. Any tolls paid to the Persian Gulf Strait Authority will be offset by funds extracted from their accounts. Every attack Iran launches will only deepen the economic and financial consequences it faces.

Crazy that this is getting barely any coverage. This year’s European Press Prize was just awarded to an investigative report by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. It is entitled “What the Wounds Tell” and in it the journalists Maud Effting and Willem Feenstra document the cases of 114 children in Gaza under the age of 15 who were struck by a single bullet to the head or chest. Almost all of them died or were left severely disabled. They chose to document only the cases of boys and girls under the age of 15 (though often much younger: aged 3, 4 or 7) because these are children who can be immediately identified as such. “A single bullet in these parts of the body is a clear indication that these children were deliberately targeted“, the two journalists write. This is the article: volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2…

This is absolutely ridiculous: The US government controls Iranian assets that it seized through unilateral sanctions, in blatant violation of international law. Now it plans to use those to help the dictatorial Persian Gulf monarchies rebuild. But those Gulf regimes host US military bases, and the US used their territory to launch attacks on Iran, in a war of aggression launched by the US. The UAE also carried out direct attacks on Iran. So in other words, the US regime stole money from Iran, and it is using that money to rebuild what Tehran targeted in self-defense, in response to US attacks.

A massive global survey of nearly 100 countries found that most people see the United States as the biggest threat to the world, and they prefer China over the US. I summarized the findings here: geopoliticaleconomy.report/p/study-world-…

Very important point: SoftBank was pledging *all* of its OpenAI stock (worth $60bn+ on paper) to get a $6 billion margin loan. Banks turned it down due to concerns about the value of OpenAI stock. Banks clearly do not think OpenAI is worth $852 billion. tradingkey.com/analysis/stock…

FinancialJuice @financialjuice

6 days ago

SoftBank's effort to secure $6 billion OpenAI margin loan falters

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This is extraordinarily rare. In fact, according to a key figure in the German business community (who is a dear friend of mine), it's unprecedented. An op-ed, two pages, centerpiece, in Germany’s most important economic newspaper (the Handelsblatt) that begs the German establishment to stop looking at China via the prism of propaganda. And it's by their Shanghai bureau chief - not some outside contributor. The title is "The China debate cannot continue like this!" and the article makes the case that it's suicidal, from a German and European standpoint, to keep reducing China to false caricatures rather than facts. In effect it's rubbish in, rubbish out: if you tell people lies about China - whichever direction they go (anti or pro) - then obviously the policies that come out will be rubbish, designed for a mirage of a country that exists only in people's imagination. Needless to say, this is absolutely music to my ears because it's literally the main point I've been making in my advocacy around China for now almost 10 years. Some are finally seeing the light... I also believe, as I argued in my article "Are Western media turning China-friendly?" last year (arnaudbertrand.substack.com/p/are-western-…) that this type of coverage was bound to happen, and there will be more and more of it. Why? For a very simple structural reason: China is now too powerful to coerce. The West, and Europe in particular, just don't have the leverage anymore. Which means that if you tell China to do something and they don't want to, they just won't do it. Period. In this situation, incapable of coercing, your only remaining choice is... convincing. And what do you need if you want to convince someone? Well, you need to understand them: understand how they think, how they behave, what drives them, what they actually want. In other words: the moment coercion stops being an option, not only does propaganda stop being useful, it begins to be actively harmful as genuine understand becomes a strategic necessity. Reality is finally becoming profitable again. Which means, if you're a journalist reading this and you're peddling some of your usual lies, describing China as some sort of cartoonish dictatorial dystopia that's simultaneously on the verge of collapse yet a "threat" to the whole world (in short, if you write on China for The Economist or the FT), be on notice: the real threat to your country isn't China. It's you.

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“The last fortress of a man is his mind. If that stands, nothing has truly fallen.” — Epictetus

Pyongyang is now a moderately wealthy, modern city with a decent industrial base. Bet you didn’t see that coming. 🇰🇵

Peter Harrell @petereharrell

a week ago

The two best statistics in the WSJ’s genuinely great article on North Korea’s economic boom: Pyongyang built more housing last year than LA. (Says something about CA housing dysfunction). North Korea assembled more cellphones than the USA. (Assuming the #s are true!)

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I am more than familiar with Palestine history during the British occupation -its crimes and legacy - and yet. Watching #Palestine36 was a gut-wrenching experience. Gentle as it can be, Palestinian storytelling cannot hide the horror of the crimes Palestinians have endured.

hasanabi @hasanthehun

a week ago

incredible movie. especially recommend if you’re unfamiliar with palestinian history during the british occupation.

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"We do not confuse exploitation or exploiters with the colour of men’s skins; we do not want any exploitation in our countries, not even by Black people"- Amilcar Cabral