Being #austrian means hating on the #germans because they seem so arrogant and at the same time admiring the #swiss because they are even more arrogant.
@tomkindlon@mecfs#Austria is a small country with a small pop of #pwME cf. to UK or Germany, but their charities have stepped up to the plate. UK M.E. charities still drastically fail those of us with #SevereME. They seem scared of appearing too radical to the Establishment. Too much done behind closed doors. Too little involvement with our ground-up causes, needs & wishes. Dare I say perhaps UK charities seem too complacent? I love this #Austrian#AwarenessRaising ad: herrlich!
Mark Francois talks about Neville Chamberlain "denuding the British forces of funding until it was too late."
This is wrong. Even while Chamberlain was signing the Munich Agreement in 1938, he was agreeing to a huge increase in spending to increase Britain’s armament in preparation for war.
@fabiocosta0305
You are interpreting a racial bias that simple isn't there in the article:
Both, #Hitler and #Stalin would be "White"--an invention of early 20th century US right-wingers.
Hitler was #Austrian by birth , Stalin #Georgian.
Being from eastern #Georgia (Gori) you could argue, that he was Asian, however, as Georgia belonged to the #RussianEmpire at that time, this distinction would be anachronistic, and thus irrelevant, in my view. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gori,_Georgia
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an #Austrian right-wing, populist party #FPÖ (@FPOE_TV). They're best-known for their anti-immigration and euroskeptic rhetoric and policies, and for their close ties to the #Kremlin and other pro-Kremlin parties around Europe.
Nobel laureate James Buchanan is the intellectual linchpin of the Koch-funded attack on democratic institutions.
If the Tennessee-born economist James McGill Buchanan were alive today, it would suit him just fine that most well-informed journalists, liberal politicians, and even many economics students have little understanding of his work.
The reason? Duke historian Nancy MacLean contends that his philosophy is so stark that even young libertarian acolytes are only introduced to it after they have accepted the relatively sunny perspective of Ayn Rand. (Yes, you read that correctly).
If Americans really knew what Buchanan thought and promoted, and how destructively his vision is manifesting under their noses, it would dawn on them how close the country is to a transformation most would not even want to imagine, much less accept.
Buchanan’s view of human nature was distinctly dismal. Adam Smith saw human beings as self-interested and hungry for personal power and material comfort, but he also acknowledged social instincts like compassion and fairness.
Buchanan, in contrast, insisted that people were primarily driven by venal self-interest.
Crediting people with altruism or a desire to serve others was “romantic” fantasy: politicians and government workers were out for themselves, and so, for that matter, were teachers, doctors, and civil rights activists. They wanted to control others and wrest away their resources: “Each person seeks mastery over a world of slaves,” he wrote in his 1975 book, The Limits of Liberty.
The people who needed protection were property owners, and their rights could only be secured though constitutional limits to prevent the majority of voters from encroaching on them, an idea Buchanan lays out in works like Property as a Guarantor of Liberty (1993).
Buchanan saw society as a cutthroat realm of makers (entrepreneurs) constantly under siege by takers (everybody else).
His own language was often more stark, warning the alleged “prey” of “parasites” and “predators” out to fleece them. https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/meet-the-economist-behind-the-one-percents-stealth-takeover-of-america
Historian Nancy MacLean explains that Virginia’s white elite and the pro-corporate president of the University of Virginia, Colgate #Darden, who had married into the #DuPont family, found James #Buchanan’s ideas to be spot on.
In nurturing a new intelligentsia to commit to his values, Buchanan stated that he needed a “#gravy#train,” and with backers like Charles #Koch and conservative foundations like the #Scaife Family Charitable Trusts, others hopped aboard.
#Money, Buchanan knew, can be a persuasive tool in academia. His circle of influence began to widen.
MacLean observes that the #Virginia#school, as Buchanan’s brand of economic and political thinking is known, is a kind of cousin to the better-known, market-oriented #Chicago and #Austrian schools — proponents of all three were members of the #Mont#Pelerin#Society, an international neoliberal organization which included Milton #Friedman and Friedrich #Hayek.
But the Virginia school’s focus and career missions were distinct. In an interview with the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), MacLean described Friedman and Buchanan as yin and yang:
“Friedman was this genial, personable character who loved to be in the limelight and made a sunny case for the free market and the freedom to choose and so forth.
"Buchanan was the dark side of this: he thought, ok, fine, they can make a case for the free market, but everybody knows that free markets have externalities and other problems. So he wanted to keep people from believing that government could be the alternative to those problems.”
The Virginia school also differs from other economic schools in a marked reliance on #abstract#theory rather than #mathematics or empirical #evidence.
That a Nobel Prize was awarded in 1986 to an economist who so determinedly bucked the academic trends of his day was nothing short of stunning, MacLean observes. But, then, it was the peak of the #Reagan era, an administration several Buchanan students joined.
Buchanan’s school focused on public choice theory, later adding constitutional economics and the new field of law and economics to its core research and advocacy.
The economist saw that his vision would never come to fruition by focusing on *who rules. It was much better to focus on the rules themselves, and that required a “#constitutional#revolution.”
Fascists walk among us, they take position in European in governments. And yet, there is no consequence. #Europe is at risk from subverted politicians. But nothing gets done.
"An #Austrian former foreign minister, #KarinKneissl, who became infamous in 2018 for dancing with Russian president Vladimir Putin at her wedding, has moved to St Petersburg – along with her ponies, which were flown in on a Russian military plane."
🇦🇹 🇷🇺 #Austrian officials insist that the country’s continued reliance on #Russian gas is only temporary and that it will wean itself off by 2027.
Some experts question the viability of that plan, considering that OMV, the country’s dominant oil and gas company, signed a long-term supply deal with #Gazprom under former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz that company executives say is virtually impossible to withdraw from.
Money and Money equivalents.
Credit == money
High deficits need to be borrowed or printed
More money, same or fewer goods == higher consumer prices
Low rates, financial deregulation, covid money printing == price inflation now
No, #Austrian Airlines, $14.70 doesn't have anything to do with Sustainable Aviation Fuels. Even the most expensive option, $150.50, you offer only does 20% SAFs.
100% SAFs costs $750. And yes, that's what each transatlantic flight should cost extra.
#Raiffeisen Bank, the biggest Western bank still operating in russia gave its employees an extra $220 million over the last 6 months. That's an average of $24,000 per employee
🔹 The #Austrian bank spent $220 million more in staff costs for the russian market in the first half of 2023.
🔹 The bump was due to higher salaries and social security costs, one-off payments, and increased headcount.
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