Topic: Background Articles

On 2-3 March the Swiss voted on a “constitutional initiative” introducing changes in corporate governance. The voters obligate the legislative to create laws or rules within a substantive framework.

Here, the “constructive” mandate aims to put an end to “corporate rip-off” – instances where management is either over-rewarded for good performance or receives a “golden handshake”...

(a true fairy tale)

There was strife among the Pakicetus[1] – 50 million years ago or so. The older generation dreaded a future about to destroy the very population of Pakicetus and its values. Relativism was sundering cherished traditions. Some liked living on land

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I closed 206 by saying that “diplomacy is where there are no rules”[1]. Here is a situation, which would fit a “use” definition of diplomacy. (A “use” definition is one that describes what one does, rather than what one is).

It’s a dark and stormy night; the rain pours so hard, the car lights reflect the rain and you...

In my http://wp.me/p81We-zo I mused that we are just beginning to understand the complexity of social realities and of history. Sounds clever, but what do I really mean? As luck would have it, I’ve been reading recently on the origins of the American Revolution. This historical period has been studied so much, and in such detail, that one can use the...

Prof. Maureen O’HARA, Department of Economics, at Cornell University, recently blew my mind away (not that there was much of it, so it created no more than a small dust-devil). As she was about graciously to receive her honorary doctorate from Berne University she explained to an evenfall gathering some of her work on stock market transactions.

Taken as a time line, stock...

Justice is predicated on guilt/innocence of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. It is steeped in the view of personal autonomy and individual responsibility. Justice is grounded in the paradigm that the sleuths of justice may solve the puzzle underpinning the crime and assign responsibility.

What to do with mysteries – criminal situations where it is inherently...

Popular belief long held that one could steal a person’s soul (and hold him/her in one’s power) by casting a spell over something that belonged to the victim. Witchcraft the world over is predicated on such stealing of hair, nails, or making a puppet resembling the person. It is the powerless’ dream of ultimate power as well as projection of his fear of the infinite forces that hold him...

Pity, in a way, China’s Emperor Qianlong[1]. The “Lord of the Civilized Word” (this was his title) personally supervised an extensive bureaucracy reporting to him either by the “open” or the “confidential” channel. He read all correspondence and marked it: “Noted”, “What’s all this stuff?” or roundly abused the mandarin: “...

A fact is a fact is a fact – we all know that. But what is a “social fact”?

“Social facts” – according to John SEARLE who has spent most of his life studying them – “are only facts by common agreement”[1].

As a “brute fact” a stamp is an insignificant-looking little square, often fancily...

As the new Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party is inaugurated in Beijing, terms like “harmony” and “stability” are buzz-words describing the vision of the China Communist Country for the country. The West tends to scoff at these terms, and tends to put them down as slogans. Multi-party democracy is best when achieving sustainable “stability”, it is argued.

In theory...

Cohesion within a group of monkeys is maintained through reciprocal grooming. Studies of captive monkeys have shown that grooming makes them more relaxed, reducing their heart rate as well as other external signs of stress. They sometimes become so relaxed that they fall asleep. In fact, we now know that grooming stimulates the production of the body’s natural opiates, the endorphins; in...

More than specific technologies it is our “habits of thought” – our “mentality” – which allows societies to advance in understanding reality of a broad front. Around 1250 such a change in mentality took hold in Europe. We never looked back. What happened?

One view is that: “Western Europeans evolved a new way, more purely visual and quantitative than the old, of perceiving...

I’ve just come across a case of human-made evolution, and I want to share it with you. Those who have more curiosity, or time, can see the whole story on the net[1]. Others may get the just of it – and my reflections – below.

Unilever makes powder soap for your washing machine. The process begins with mixing of component...

On 8 August 2011, the United Nations held a ceremony declaring the disease eradicated, making rinderpest only the second disease in history to be fully wiped out, following smallpox[1]. This giant step forward for mankind escaped my attention (I just got the news today[2])....

In 1994, at Inakadate, Japan, farmers seeking ways to attract tourists invented “rice paddy art”[1] – art that would put Chinese conceptual artist A Wei Wei to shame. Here is an example:

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I’ve argued in 116 – The failed promise of the European Union unveiled (I) that in the EU free circulation does not obtain for politicians. Berlusconi would not stand a chance, if standing in Germany, and Ms Merkel may just not really have what it takes in Sevilla. It was not so five hundred years ago, when an Austrian Prince, raised in the Low Countries, could be...

Make no mistake: in historical perspective the European Union has been a great success.

For about 1000 years Europe was a place of “warring states”. Today’s national states slowly emerged from a struggle for mastery in Europe overlaid by religiously motivated sectarian strife. After two world wars, Europe no longer is in a position to tear itself apart anew. Economic integration...

The Brooklyn Bridge was the first major suspension bridge, completed in 1883. This basic design was improved upon – over time such bridges more than doubled in length. As confidence in the technology grew, some of the original safety features were discarded as redundant. Other features were sacrificed to cost-cutting, or to daring design: one only has to compare the sleekness of the...

In the first part of this blog I’ve shown that “property rights” (and markets) are a social construct and don’t have transcendental character.

Now I’ll try to hint at an answer to two questions:

• Why are there so many rules and regulations? And:
• What happens if we eliminate them, in order to get a “free” market?...