As the clever hopes expire of a low dishonest decade

Well, we knew this, but somehow it's always reassuring when the latest newfangled tehnique confirms one's bias!

Network analysis indicates that a small elite has disproportionate control of the world economy.

The graph is certainly pretty.


Add to this the latest rehabilitation of Karl Marx coursing through the twitterverse, even at bastions of capitalism like UBS:



@jdlahart
Justin Lahart
Not just Roubini singing Marx's praises - UBS economist George Magnus says Marx offers "still relevant insights"


And then add the increasing undercurrent of violence from the radical right all over the world, and I start trying to convince myself that Romney might not be that bad.....

I'm feelin' like it's time to dust off the Auden as I head off to the Maine coast....


Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.