Saturday, 29 October 2011

You Wanna Be a Lawyer?


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Wednesday, 26 October 2011

89th Session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance (Friday, Oct 28st, 2011, 18:00 - 20:00, room 516, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London)

Dear all,

For the 89th Session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance, and thanks to the ever eagle-eyed spotting by Edmond Curtin and Heather Roberts, we shall investigate the Note on the financial reform from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. See: http://www.news.va/en/news/full-text-note-on-financial-reform-from-the-pontiff and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8846595/Vatican-sides-with-anti-capitalist-protesters-and-attacks-global-financial-system.html.

In a heavy but benign anti-hypnotic antidote to what appears to be the Papal call for a global and therefore dominant political authority, we will also read from Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor. BTW & IMO, the Grand Inquisitor, about 30 pages within The Brothers Karamazov, is the best piece of political-religious-spiritual writing in about 2,500 years--one of the great gifts to humanity.

 Joe

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Thursday, 20 October 2011

88th Session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance

Dear all,

for the 88th Session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance, I will give a brief talk on "Post-Modern Finance and Other Revolutionary Etudes." Last time, we had a strong group of poets, lawyers and investment bankers. The best part of the evening is sharing gossip. You can learn so much from indiscretion. It's a great luxury to go slow. Our pace is about one paragraph of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics per hour. Comments are unconstrained by any -ism. The sessions remind me of watching the English weather...very changeable from "hungry clouds" swaging on the deep to instantaneous transformations of exaggerated and piercing sunlight. 

Room 516, 309 Regent Street, London, from 6 to 8 pm, Friday, Oct 21, 2011.

Joe

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Thursday, 13 October 2011

87th Session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance

1. For the 87th Session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance, we will continue reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and discuss the question:

2. Is the US Fed constitutional? 

3. See John P. Hussman's brilliant little law and finance analysis at:
http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc101122.htm. Quoting from the article, he states:

"Ever since the Bear Stearns bailout, I've been insistent that the Federal Reserve is increasingly operating outside of its statutory boundaries. As I noted in the March 31, 2008 weekly comment (What Congress and Investors Should Understand about the Bear Stearns Deal):

"The clear historical role of the Federal Reserve has been to manage the composition of Federal liabilities (by varying the mix of Treasury securities and monetary base - currency and bank reserves - held by the public). The recent transaction is a dangerous break from that role, in which unelected bureaucrats are committing public funds to facilitate private business transactions and selectively defend the holders of corporate securities. Only Congress has the Constitutional right, by the representative will of the people, to commit public funds. The Bear Stearns deal is a dangerous precedent and a dilution of Congressional prerogative.""

4. Venue: room 516, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London.

5. Date and time: Friday, Oct 14th 2011, 18:00 - 20:00

6. Dinner at The Galleria from 20:30 at 17 New Cavendish St. 

7. RSVP jnjtanega@gmail.com or text 07748186880.

Joe

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