Angus Bylsma republished his very interesting review of Peter Temin's "The Roman Market Economy". unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com/p/counting-gra…

“The so-called ‘peasant mode of production’ of the early middle ages did not direct the surpluses needed for church-building to elites. The aristocracy was too poor, too small-scale, and its wealth came from having tenants.”*

Israel murdering Gaza's most prominent journalists tonight is about creating a full blackout ahead of what's coming; the total annihilation of Gaza City & completion of genocide

Our recognition a deserved rebuke to IDF’s unfolding genocide in Gaza. A message of solidarity to wretched Palestinian civilians being deprived of food water and medicine. Next step: sanction Netanyahu.

MAGA archeologists

Other countries have tech firms and chip makers but we… we have a BANK. (I think it’s about 12% of the ASX 200 now — so if you own a standard Aus index you own a lot of CBA! I think a few international indexes are ~1% CBA as well)

If it wasn't for all the shootings you wouldn't know the United States has schools

Where did this Hauge bloke come from. All of a sudden he seems to be everywhere. I’ve always been partial to most hetero econ types but now I’m being negatively polarised against my will!

I’m never quite sure what the anti-GDP extremists are asking for. What government, anywhere, sets policy strictly on GDP maximization? Who is claiming that GDP is the only economic datapoint worth collecting? What economist is examining GDP and nothing else?

I agree that there is an’ ideal’ debate that is worthwhile, but sadly in reality it often ends up interminable. I prefer a less categorical approach: looking at historical societies as changing combinations of different ‘modes’, without trying to read any one part as totalising.

Would Hobsbawm or Thompson have been the better internet personality? My bet is most people would say Thompson since he was generally more acerbic. But I reckon Hobsbawm would have been fantastic in the trenches so my vote is with him.

American exceptionalism is so funny: “liberal principles are the reason why we are the only nation in the world to define ourselves not just by where we come from but what we believe in.” What? That’s just…not true.

Only in WA can you have an airport terminal with flights to Rome, London and a bunch of mining towns in the desert.

A brief sojourn to Sicilia en route to UK. Time to put Wickham to the test. Keeping an eye out for markers of internally-driven historical economic development.