Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

The revolution will be supervised.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Not all heroes wear capes.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You are here: Home / Books / For A Good (Virtual) Time…(Shameless Self-Promotion Alert)

For A Good (Virtual) Time…(Shameless Self-Promotion Alert)

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Y’all may have heard I have a new book out:  Money for Nothing, on the South Sea Bubble (the first great stock market boom, fraud, and crash), where it came from (the scientific revolution, and spending on wars Britain couldn’t afford), and what it accomplished (the birth of modern financial capitalism, with all its wealth and woe).

For A Good (Virtual) Time...(Shameless Self-Promotion Alert)
Rosa, Salvator; Christ Expelling the Money Changers from the Temple; National Trust, Attingham Park; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/christ-expelling-the-money-changers-from-the-temple-131156

A lot of you have said very kind things about it, and about my writing in general. So many thanks.

This is just to let the Jackaltariat know that I’m going to be doing a couple of book events in the next few days, both of which are, of course, local to the world via our beloved intertubes.

The first is tomorrow (!), September 15 at seven p.m (Eastern Time).

Harvard Books, one of America’s great bookstores, is hosting a conversation between me and David Dobbs–a fine, fine science writer whose work will reward your attention.  It’ll run maybe an hour, with time for audience questions.  Details here.

Then, on Thursday, August September 24, at 7:30, Carl Zimmer and I will find more stuff to talk about around how thinking about change over time (a big theme in the scientific revolution) does really interesting things when you apply the same reasoning to money. The South Sea Bubble is such a rich story precisely because it marries a tale of huge characters, good and bad, or rather varying mixtures of the two, trying to get stupendously rich and/or powerful to the deeper story of how big changes in the way humans make sense of their surroundings play out in everyday life. That was true 300 years ago; it’s true now.  Carl and I will talk about that and more.  Details here.

And because one can’t just toot one’s own horn without offering some kind of reward, here’s a truly bizarre bit of contemporary composition on a theme of current interest.  I’m not altogether sure what I make of it, so I might as well perplex you guys. Enjoy!

Consider this an open thread…

image:n Salvator Rosa, Christ expelling the Money Changers from the Temple, between c. 1660-1669.

Reader Interactions

101Comments

  3. 3.

    Elizabelle

    Marking my calendar. Listening to smart people discuss important issues and learning history is good.

    Rather novel, in these times.

  4. 4.

    Van Buren

    Enjoyed Money for Nothing and am trying to get my son, who likes to dabble in stocks, to read. Have not seen him pick up anything other than Sci Fi or Chemistry related books in over a year, though.
    I know that I don’t have to y’all this, but cherish your pets every day. I had to put down my favorite dog today due to liver cancer. 8 days ago we were out for a brisk walk, with no signs of illness. By Saturday, he was practically comatose.

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    This event is co-sponsored by the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (MIT SHASS)

    MIT SHASS sounds like a Yiddish expression that is normally defined in euphemism.

  12. 12.

    Van Buren

    Thanks everyone. My two remaining dogs are 14 and 12 and are showing their age. Jackson was 13. Next time I am going to space things out better.

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    Tom:  can we put you on the spot and ask if you will inscribe our copies of your book?  Since you cannot — alas — tour for book signings and lecture appearances.

    Also:  Champ and Tikka photos, s’il vous plait.

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Van Buren:

    I’m so very sorry. It’s one of the hardest decisions, and it’s almost always the right one. Thank you for giving your guy his best life.

  24. 24.

    germy

    MADISON – The Wisconsin Supreme Court kept the Green Party’s presidential ticket off the ballot Monday, disappointing party members but ensuring more than a million absentee ballots will be sent to voters Thursday as required by state law.

    The ruling also bolsters hopes for Democrats, who feared presidential nominee Joe Biden could lose a small share of his votes to the liberal third party. Republicans had hoped the Green Party would shave just enough votes from Biden’s total to give President Donald Trump a victory this fall in a state he narrowly won in 2016.

    Justice Brian Hagedorn broke with his fellow conservatives to form a majority with the court’s liberals that kept Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins off the ballot.

    The majority found Hawkins and his running mate, Milwaukee native Angela Walker, waited too long to bring their legal challenge

    https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/14/wisconsin-supreme-court-keeps-green-party-off-ballot-absentee-ballots-mailed-on-time/5796737002/

  26. 26.

    oatler.

    Christ: “A plague on thee for wearing Renaissance fashions in 36 AD!” Yeah I know, all the painters did that.

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @Elroy’s Lunch: Hello!

    First comments always go into moderation, where they have to be manually approved before others can see them.

    Alas, WordPress does not like apostrophes is screen names (nyms) and if you have an apostrophe in your nym every single comment you make goes into moderation, and has to be manually approved.

    So if you do stick with an apostrophe, that’s what’s in store for you.  Some people give up the apostrophe and use an * in its place.  It’s not perfect, but it works.  Others skip the apostrophe.  Or change the name completely, I guess.

  37. 37.

    Kim Walker

    I’ve been reading your latest every night as bedtime reading and it has been keeping me up later than usual. In addition, I have the latest “Killing Eve” book by Luke Demming, but I’m enjoying yours so much, that Villanelle will have to wait. I will let my husband know about your book chats – he is a big fan.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    I hope a few people on the left get their heads out of their asses and recognize the Green Party is nothing but a Republican ratfucking operation.  Who am I kidding?  The kind of people who continue to vote Green want the Republicans to win so the Democrats are destroyed and everyone is forced to vote Green instead.

  41. 41.

    sanjeevs

    @Tom Levenson: Thanks for this.

    2020 has been a vintage year for fraud with Wirecard’s bankruptcy and now Nikola admitting they faked their ‘hydrogen truck’ video by simply rolling it down a hill and tilting the camera.

  43. 43.

    germy

    @sdhays:

    3 of the 4 conservatives would have thrown the election into chaos by adding the Greens to the ballot even though it’s effectively too late to do so (federal law requires they go out in 5 days, 100,000s have already been mailed!) as election clerks had widely attested to https://t.co/H2B4IC2JAP

    — Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) September 14, 2020

  44. 44.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:

    Here tis

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/alexander-vindman-trump-putin-useful-idiot/616341/

    But do you think Russia is blackmailing Trump? “They may or may not have dirt on him, but they don’t have to use it,” he says. “They have more effective and less risky ways to employ him. He has aspirations to be the kind of leader that Putin is, and so he admires him. He likes authoritarian strongmen who act with impunity, without checks and balances. So he’ll try to please Putin.”

    Vindman continues, “In the Army we call this ‘free chicken,’ something you don’t have to work for—it just comes to you. This is what the Russians have in Trump: free chicken.”

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    @Tom Levenson:   Yea!  I think it would be really fun to trade our review/perspective of the book (such as it is!), in a nice note, with the book for signing.

    I miss getting to interact with authors in person, but have been enjoying so many of the virtual events they’re now doing.

    Will you do a book chat with Book Passages??

  46. 46.

    SC54HI

    Congratulations on the book, Tom. I look forward to reading it and will recommend it for purchase by my local library system

    ETA: Too late, in a good way — it’s in our library system and I’m now #3 on the list.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @germy:   Free chicken.

    It’s. Just.  Such a perfect descriptive.

    Except Trump don’t do nothing for free.  Except for Putin Daddy.

  48. 48.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    Of course the “conservatives” would have thrown the election into chaos.  They don’t like elections, especially ones where their side might lose, so throwing a monkey wrench into them is exactly what they want to do.

  50. 50.

    Gary K

    Since your title starts up an earworm, Tom, I have to ask: are your chicks for free?

    (Just coincidentally it’s nearly the same as Vindman’s phrase!)

  54. 54.

    Ken

    @sanjeevs: Nikola admitting they faked their ‘hydrogen truck’ video by simply rolling it down a hill

    Amazing!  They have TAPPED the power of gravity, one of the four FUNDAMENTAL forces of the universe and the ONLY one mediated by a spin-2 boson.

    UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT Information is ENCOURAGED, ESPECIALLY to COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARDS.

  57. 57.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    I wonder if having bright lights and cameras on him made Vindman more mild mannered during his TV interview.

    Could be. Some people are a little bit mic shy and/or camera shy, and maybe he’s among them.

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    It was indeed a good read. My respect for Jeffrey Goldberg as a writer and interviewer just keeps going up and up.

    Heh. And right on cue, Rachel starts her program talking about Goldberg’s interview with Vindman. 

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @Van Buren: It was like that with my Bailey.

    I left for an 8:30 am meeting, and all was good.  I returned home from the meeting at 10:00 or 10:30, and it was clear that something was terribly wrong.

    It’s so fast, it’s heart to wrap your head around it.  And your heart.

    But you know what you have to do, and you do it for them.  I’m so sorry.

  63. 63.

    John S.

    @Elroys Lunch: Greetings fellow Balloon Juice old timer!

    I’m definitely not a lurker, though I comment far less often than I used to. I too remember those days when John was a conservative, and doing pitched battle here with the likes of Darrell.

    My how the world has changed.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    It’s sad that such a wonderful public servant/military member can get sandbagged by someone who does not serve on ANY outside corporate boards because they recognize the value of his counsel.  (Zero. Zip.  Nada.)

    And do not return to being nonpolitical, Lt Col V.  You cannot do that.  A synonym is ignorant, or naive.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle:  I don’t have the faintest idea what you mean by that. I am surely missing some connection, but I just have no idea.

    …can get sandbagged by someone who does not serve on ANY outside corporate boards because they recognize the value of his counsel.  (Zero. Zip.  Nada.)

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:   Trump.

    Donald Fucking Trump.

    And his minions drove Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman out of his military career.  And a lot of of our wonderful public servants.  Sally Yates.  Marie Yovanovitch.  A long list of excellent government employees and executives.

    Never forget that DF Trump did not have to extricate himself from ONE corporate board, to take his stolen office. (To my knowledge.  Plz correct me if I am mistaken.)   He was not serving on any board.  Because they knew he is hot air and ignorance.

    And he appoints crazy asses like Michael Caputo.  Etc.

  73. 73.

    Mary G

    A win in court:

    BREAKING: Colorado Federal Court REJECTS Dejoy and @USPS motion to reconsider order blocking misleading mailers to Colorado voters."The imminent distribution of false and misleading voting information to over half a million Colorado households constitutes irreparably harm." pic.twitter.com/uuBK8B6Ibw— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) September 15, 2020

  78. 78.

    EthylEster

    I just finished reading “Why Trust Science?” by Naomi Oreskes.

    It is excellent. Just the right  balance of philosophy of science, history of science, and sharp observation of both. Of course, she destroys the opposition (climate change deniers, tobacco industry hacks, creationist/anti-evolutionists) but with easy-to-follow reasoning, data, and great writing. I think she has a position at Harvard.

  81. 81.

    bjacques

    I picked up Money For Nothing at Waterstone’s in Amsterdam a few weeks back and I’m really enjoying it. At first I lamented that the Dutch by bubble and its hilariously scabrous cartoons don’t get a mention, but I can understand now there wouldn’t be any room.

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: It was the corporate board reference I didn’t understand.  I think most people on corporate boards are full of shit and are often there for prestige, not because of actual knowledge and experience.  So i’m still a bit confused about what corporate boards have to do with anything, but that’s okay, I don’t need to understand. :-)

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    The FTF NY Times rewrote its South Dakota AG hits deer — surprise! — story, to bring it into the same orbit as most other reporting.  You will recall that the NYTimes charmingly called it a “car crash” and only mentioned the word “deer” once. As the literal very last word.

    They have read up over there, researching lesser papers and outlets.  Story was written by a brand new reporter but, Jeebs, she did a horrible job initially.  Maybe she literally wrote her article from the AG’s or CovidGovernor Noem’s press release.  (I’m not kidding.  The story was so insufficient, for appearing hours after the initial reporting, that I wonder how the Times managed to hash it up so badly.)

    “Deer” now appears 8 times in their story, which is now headlined: South Dakota Investigates Fatal Crash Involving Attorney General

    The attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg, called 911 to say he thought he had hit a deer late Saturday. The next morning, the body of Joe Boever, 55, was found nearby, the authorities said.

    That mere blurb is more informative than the entire earlier Times story.

    It does have some new details:

    On the way to pick up his cousin on Sunday morning, Victor Nemec passed blood on the highway, a police investigation and Mr. Boever’s pickup, which was still in position about half a mile down the road. When there was no answer at Mr. Boever’s home, they feared the worst, Nick Nemec said.

    Mr. Boever worked stints as a nurse’s aide and at a grocery store, his cousin said, but was most recently employed helping Victor Nemec haul hay on his cattle farm.

    I put the whole of the Times’ original article in Betty’s “stupidest president” this afternoon. It was … an original take on a story that other newspapers got right hours earlier.

  86. 86.

    J R in WV

    Open  Thread?  OK:

    I have cousins all over the country, from the east coast to HI, and as far south as Brazil.

    After a long phone call with cousin in AZ, I learn that her offspring (first cousins once removed, I think) in WA coast report adopting a new young lady, 18 years old, fleeing her family.

    Her family wanted total control of the young lady, as is culturally common in their home country. She, however, decided she was an American, and as a newly hatched adult, didn’t need to be a slave to old country custom.

    She is also quite fond of young man (first cousin twice removed? I dunno, too complicated for me) of cousin’s family, by a coincidence… I’m quite sure that had nothing to do with the whole sequence of events.

    Anyway, her sisters came to “rescue” her from the despicable American family willing to help her escape her traditional family, much shouting on the front porch. Next day cousin took her to the police station, where the liberal community cops expressed admiration for young woman’s strength in leaving her family to remain free and independent in America. All is well that ends well, we all hope!

    High School graduate, with a job. Proud of cousins !!!  Cousin was a Hot Shot fire fighter with Forest Service for quite some time, brave and strong! Do not mess with fire fighters!! I expect she is well acquainted with police folks, is still fire fighter with local VFD!

  88. 88.

    prostratedragon

    Money for Nothing sounds like something I’ll enjoy –I like bubble tales. Will check it out soon.

    “Protect yourself from infection” is downright haunting, especially with the names interlaced. Simple chant helps focus on the meaning of the words.

  89. 89.

    Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    it’s pretty simple.

    Corporate Boards are supposed to provide guidance and advise to the CEO/CFO based on their “business experience”.

    In reality, it’s mostly a way of giving Rich White Businessmen/ Investors $50k to $70m plus stock options for a 1 hour a week work day fellating every word and plan of the CEO/CFO.

    Cheetolinni never got in on the grift, because nobody wanted him, ever, in on the grift.

  91. 91.

    Jay

    Today is the beginning of week 5 of my having #COVID19. This time last week, I was nearly hospitalized. I am now on the up and up now, but seriously, be careful out there. This thing is no joke.— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 13, 2020

  92. 92.

    CaseyL

    @Van Buren: Oh, jeez, I am so sorry.

    Tom – thanks for the information!  Not sure I’ll be able to make the event tomorrow, as I’ll be in a webinar all day, but the 24th should be do-able!  Can’t wait to read Money for Nothing – but wait is exactly what I. have to do: I’m on a waiting list at the library.

  93. 93.

    eddie blake

    haven’t gotten the book yet. definitely on the list, though. i love stuff like that, the stories about why things work the way they do.

  96. 96.

    The Lodger

    @Mary G: Aaaaaand… we got our mailer today in Oregon, where all registered voters get their ballots mailed to them automatically. Your tax dollars at large.

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