"Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them. As the repository of something suprapersonal and objective, it enables people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true position and their inglorious modus vivendi, both from the world and from themselves. It is a very pragmatic but, at the same time, an apparently dignified way of legitimizing what is above, below, and on either side. It is directed toward people and toward God. It is a veil behind which human beings can hide their own fallen existence, their trivialization, and their adaptation to the status quo. It is an excuse that everyone can use, from the greengrocer, who conceals his fear of losing his job behind an alleged interest in the unification of the workers of the world, to the highest functionary, whose interest in staying in power can be cloaked in phrases about service to the working class. The primary excusatory function of ideology, therefore, is to provide people, both as victims and pillars of the post-totalitarian system, with the illusion that the system is in harmony with the human order and the order of the universe.

[...]

Last week saw the release of a curious paper from authors toiling away from within the hallowed, marble-encased edifice of the Cambridge, Massachusetts based "New England Complex Systems Institute." The piece "Evidence of Market Manipulation in the Financial Crisis," bought to the attention of finem respice by the always engaging Alea, purports to be the first direct evidence of what the authors term a "bear raid." The piece goes on to insist that market transparency is presently insufficient to guard against market manipulation and closes with a call for more regulation to curtail short selling, via the "uptick rule" in particular. Even the most superficial analysis of the work exposes it as utter nonsense. A deeper look would seem to suggest that this paper, as well as The New England Complex Systems Institute itself, are the essence of corrupt, crony-science masquerading as legitimate study.

The New England Complex Systems Institute describes itself as:

...an independent academic research and educational institution with students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty. In addition to the in-house research team, NECSI has co-faculty, students and affiliates from MIT, Harvard, Brandeis and other universities nationally and internationally.1

A quick look at data from OMB Watch makes it clear that the use of the word "independent" by the New England Complex Systems Institute (hereinafter "CSI:NE") is creative.

To say the least.

1. 1. "About NECSI," New England Complex Systems Institute.

Typically astute long-time readers of finem respice will by now have noticed the addition of the "anti-green" logo (repurposed from Dale Amon via samizdata.net) to finem respice's long-static sidebar. Of course, the adoption by finem respice of an overt, as opposed to incidental, opposition to the "green movement"1 is a departure from the general philosophical bent exhibited here over the years.2 Certainly, finem respice has clashed with the periphery of the "green movement," or at least its secondary effects, on occasion, but for the most part critiques in these pages have been focused on narrow slices of these issues (e.g. price discovery, period mismatches, short-term political gains at the expense of long-term social losses). Some deeper lunges into the thoracic cavity of "climate science" may have nicked a green artery or two along the way, but only in the way of collateral damage. Unfortunately, the time of Franco-Spain style neutrality has come to an end.3

1. 1. The defining properties of which are explored further infra.
2. 2. Cf. Private, Equity, Malignant Solar Cells, finem respice (October 23, 2011).
3. 3. Identifying the parties in this analogy who represent the Axis and the Allies respectively is left as an exercise for the listless finem respice reader.

Once the Roman Republic began to mint silver coinage,1 but prior to the reign of Julius Caesar, Roman currency was generally struck by the tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo.2 These "moneyers" are often described as aspiring Senators and, given the import of consistent and reliable minting to The Empire and The Republic before it, the position required and established a measure of credibility and integrity. A moneyer had a modicum of control over the design and legend that appeared on "his" coinage and many used this precious advertising real estate to promote the fortunes of their patrons or, perhaps more commonly, themselves.

The appearance of hammered coins probably dates back to sixth century BC Lydia when the silver-gold alloy "electrum" was annealed and set between a pair of dies (most likely bronze) before the handle of the top die was struck, literally, with a hammer to impress design into the blank on both sides.

More expensive and complex screw presses eventually usurped hammered coins and, perhaps as a direct result of an increased ability to monopolize the minting process, what had started as a widely distributed process that continued into the middle ages increasingly became a highly centralized one. Queen Mary, for instance, finally concentrated all minting by the Royal Mint in the Tower of London (excepting the appearance of special "siege mints" for towns under- wait for it- siege and the like, particularly during the English Civil War).

Roman mints were, however (and if finem respice readers will perhaps permit us to coin a phrase) legion. While smaller denominations may have been minted locally, or to suit regional demand for small transaction coinage- in particular the bronze strikings that held limited value and were hammered either with or (more likely) without authorization from Rome- the larger gold and silver denominations with real intrinsic value (the Aureus, Solidus, Denarius, Tremissis, Antoninianus, etc.) were struck only by the official moneyers.

As the payments required of a large Republic (and later an expansionist Empire) were generally of much larger denomination, the state (and what would eventually become formalized mints) concerned itself mostly with the coinage used to pay the official obligations of its treasuries, foreign bribes, the regular expenses of a swelling geo-political influence and, of course, its many soldiers.

1. 1. Thought to be around 269 BC.
2. 2. The trio of men authorized, probably by appointment, to strike coins in gold, silver and bronze.

Whatever other concerns may occupy contemporary readers of finem respice, the novelty of bearing witness to the decline of a civilization might, for the existentially minded, offer a measure of "witness to history" solace. And then again, probably not. Of course, not all great declines are created equal. Historically, it was primarily in the ancient world that whole civilizations could find themselves remembered as not just slowly slipping beneath the surface tension and into the dark waters of chaos, but suddenly confronted by an existential crisis that literally consumed the whole culture. Only in the past could a civilization be recalled with tales of its only city swallowed by the malevolent seas that surrounded it, or an entire sovereign devoured and buried in a hot, sulfur-laden ash loosed by the wrath of angry deities real or imagined.

It is perhaps instructive to note that almost all of the "dead" languages that met with recent extinction were possessed of decidedly less historical-cultural significance than their ancient ancestors. One does not mourn, for example, the death in 1952 of Martha's Vineyard Sign Language or the 19th century passing of the last speaker of Crimean Gothic in the same way that one wonders after the practical end of Ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Ugaritic, or, certainly, Latin (though perhaps in the strictest sense the annihilation of Tamboran by the Volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 is an exception to the general case).1

"Civilization," to be coarse, seems a bit more resilient today than it once did. And interesting that we now refer to "civilization" in the singular and as a single bit. One is either in it, or in the jungle with Colonel Kurtz at the head of an isolated tribe with cannibalistic tendencies. True, one returns "back to civilization" in the modern world, though in this idiomatic use one first "takes a break from civilization" by flying a jet aircraft to whichever airport is closest to Hedonism II or Burning Man.

1. 1. The eruption of Mount Tambora was the only eruption since Lake Taupo in 180 AD to be listed as a "7" on the Volcanic Explosively Index. Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii, only rated a "5". Some 70,000 people were killed by Mount Tambora, making it the most deadly eruption in recorded history.

It would be understating the case significantly to observe that various national schemes to support solar power are literally flirting with the frayed edges of insanity. The sheer solar-mass of many of these schemes is such that reality literally distorts around the event horizon of the regulatory documentation that describes them. Some are (and have been since inception) so blatantly unsustainable that one is moved to despair upon learning that investors actually supported (with actual capital) the labyrinthine logic that winds through them. Some, however, stand out with decidedly more verve and opulence than others. For example, in the wild animal kingdom of these constructs it is difficult (but, alarmingly, not impossible) to find schemes more blatantly divorced from sanity than those propagated by the United Kingdom.

Depending on one's source, retail electricity costs in the United Kingdom run between GBP 0.12 and GBP 0.14 per kilowatt hour. The figure most often used to describe loaded cost to producers from gas turbine power (likely the most cost effective of the wide-spread production methods in the United Kingdom) is between GBP 0.044 and GBP 0.050 per kilowatt hour.1

Against this basic market structure, the challenge for the enlightened and educated legislator of an appropriate temperament and breeding for the rarefied environs of British Leadership is to design incentives to support the development of less, shall we say, unsavory means of electricity generation. Solar, of course, has emerged recently as a popular means to salve the rapidly festering green wounds infecting many a thin (and pasty) political epidermis.

1. 1. In 2010, the top three sources of UK electricity production were: 47% Natural Gas, 28% Coal, 16% Nuclear. See Generally: "UK Energy in Brief 2011" Department of Energy & Climate Change, United Kingdom Statistics Authority. (July 2011).

"We agree that we need to see election reform. However, the election reform proposed ignores the causes which allowed such a system to happen. Some will readily blame the federal reserve, but the political system has been beholden to political machinations of the wealthy well before its founding. We need to address the core facts: these corporations, even if they were unable to compete in the electoral arena, would still remain control of society. They would retain economic control, which would allow them to retain political control. Term limits would, again, not solve this, as many in the political class already leave politics to find themselves as part of the corporate elites."1

1. 1. Occupy Wall Street

On December 1st, 1944 Lieutenant General Ronald MacKenzie Scobie (soon to be "Sir Ronald," KBE, CB, MC), Chief of the General Staff for General Headquarters (Middle East), issued a final ultimatum ordering the disarmament within ten days of all remaining Greek guerrilla forces– excepting, of course, the "Sacred Squadron" and the 3rd Mountain Brigade, who had pledged support for the Greek government that was, at least at that particular moment, presently enjoying the fickle favor of the Allies.

Scobie had, mostly effortlessly, commanded Britain's III Corps– which, as it happened, had for some time following its ignominious withdrawal from Dunkirk in 1940 been used primarily for deception purposes– this time on a real, armed mission to politely escort from the country those Germans still possessed of the temerity (not to mention the outrageously poor taste) to find themselves still within the sovereign borders of Greece in 1943.

Might it be that an explanation so overused and sublime as "simply before its time" resolves the four and a half year paradox that is an almost universal scorn and abject loathing- or at the very least the most divided critical response in recent or distant memory- for Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette"? Booed during and after its first screenings at Cannes (though ironically during a standing ovation following the second screening) and subjected to almost withering criticism thereafter, Coppola's third and final picture in her sequential exploration of estrogen induced ennui could not but disappoint in the wake of a string of films that anointed Coppola as a third-generation Oscar laureate (though thankfully not for her acting) and the third ever female "best director" nominee.

Increasingly the subject of askance in response to the populist swoon that seems to accompany financial crises, the ranks of English Peerage is both a European throwback and a uniquely modern British institution. (Is there a better euphemism with which one could label the font from whence Prince Charles issued forth?) In this connection, it will surprise few finem respice readers to find that British Airways' frequent flier program "The Executive Club" offers a literally daunting plethora of titles (including some Malay honorifics abolished by the British in 1891) for the discerning and frequently airborne applicant. The pull-down menu spans at least two pages. Personally, I think "Air Vice Marshal Equity Private" has a nice ring to it, don't you agree? Or perhaps "Reverend Mother Equity Private"?