The way we measure the #economy hasn't changed in nearly a century. This methodology makes it very easy to miss the fact that life has gotten harder for the average American. Wall Street analysts at Citibank anticipated this over 20 years ago in a memo to wealthy clients.
https://misaligned.markets/its-the-plutonomy-stupid/
#blog #economics #capitalism #inequality #GDP #oligarchy #misalignedmarkets
Chrematistics or accumulation without limit was the most important concept I ever learned about. It's not #greed per se, it's something much worse and it dominates our world. #capitalism #philosophy #misalignedmarkets #poliecon
https://medium.com/@misaligned-markets/greed-is-not-selfishness-0474653eba10
(1/3) I learned a lot through blogging last year, as writing is a form of reflection. In this blog post I speedrun some of the more interesting topics I discussed. Mainly two ideas that illustrate how capitalism creates “attack surfaces” in market economies.
https://misaligned.markets/one-year-of-misaligned-markets/
#cybersecurity #capitalism #economics #politicaleconomy #philosophy #infosec #misalignedmarkets
A short #thread 🧵:
(6/6) #Capitalism runs like a computer (and it's being hacked)
Markets under capitalism are an open system whose norms and protocols can be hijacked to create permanent structural advantages. Very similar to #exploits #vulnerabilities in #cybersecurity.
Because #capitalists institutions determine what can be bought and sold in market capitalism they are often targets of hijacking.
(5/6) The tension at the heart of market #capitalism
Markets under capitalism face four paradoxes managing the balance of power in the system:
1. Property rights limit competition.
2. Property rights enforcement invites exploitation.
3. Markets reward secrecy but need transparency to function well.
4. Market success undermines market competition.
(4/6) The lethal economics of corporate kung fu
Market failure = firm success. To understand #economic reality, we have to understand that companies are competing over ways to avoid economic competition. Even if it comes at consumers' expense. Corporate kung fu are the insane tactics companies pursue that screw over consumers.
(3/6) AI hype is a mirror of market fundamentalism
#LLMs are the perfect microcosm of capitalism. These systems mask the vast amounts of labor needed to run them, allowing commodity fetishism to form around #AImodels.
This mirrors the fetishism #neoliberal #economists display around markets, detached from understanding the influence of #capitalist institutions and #politics on markets.
(2/6) #LLM “intelligence” is a #darkpattern. I argue that the defining feature of LLMs is that they’re a structured “dark pattern” meant to launder the idea that a mind’s on the other side.
To that end, unlike any good technology, there’s no affordance that promotes any intended use. That doesn't make LLMs useless, but it makes them extremely dangerous from a user safety standpoint. Like a hammer without a handle.
#blog #anniversary #misalignedmarkets #longthread
https://misaligned.markets/llm-intelligence-is-a-dark-pattern/
(1/6) My blog #MisalignedMarkets turns one! I spent the year blogging about lots of topics: optimization, information asymmetry, risk, #AI but here are my most popular posts
A thread 🧵
Jen Easterly uses the phrase #misalignedmarkets to describe the current state of cyber. As a former #cybersecurity writer now running a blog called Misaligned Markets, I couldn't agree more! Companies are rewarded for externalizing costs (in every domain). In cyber, that takes the form of unaudited software with low hanging vulnerabilities not being caught. The result is weak-link systems that function but are fragile.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/end-cybersecurity
MidniteMikeWrites
