Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
@dbcurren.bsky.social
writer/blogger, formerly journalist at WSJ, Dow Jones, Reuters, others. #economics #markets, #music, #philosophy, #books, #technology, #photos, etc. (ie hopelessly eclectic) Toronto. May not respond to DMs. Blog at: https://doncurren.blogspot.com
Pinned
The Decline and Fall of Big Brother: How Orwell Hinted at Tyranny’s Inevitable End
doncurren.blogspot.com
The philosopher #AlisdairMacIntyre believes #GeorgeOrwell depicted the Party’s regime in #1984 as lasting forever. #MargaretAtwood and I disagree. I explain why in my #blog post The Decline and Fall of Big Brother. doncurren.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-... #books #BookSky #totalitarianism #Newspeak
“As you may have noticed, largely anonymous and unprosecuted forces on the right make a whole lot of #deaththreats to anyone who dissents, and that keeps a whole lot of #Republican officials in a state of fear and obedience” www.meditationsinanemergency.com/an-insult-is...
An Insult Is a Confession: Notes on Journalism in the Time of Trump
There's been a lot of fuss about Trump recently calling female journalists "stupid" and "piggy" though there's nothing really new about his misogyny toward that sub-population (I am so old I remember ...
www.meditationsinanemergency.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:53 PM
“As you may have noticed, largely anonymous and unprosecuted forces on the right make a whole lot of #deaththreats to anyone who dissents, and that keeps a whole lot of #Republican officials in a state of fear and obedience” www.meditationsinanemergency.com/an-insult-is...
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
“Beckert emphasizes how capitalism has depended at every stage of its development on the military power of the modern state and frequently on practices of extreme violence, such as the outright terror required to build the Atlantic system of slavery.”
How Capitalism Took Over the World
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:28 PM
“Beckert emphasizes how capitalism has depended at every stage of its development on the military power of the modern state and frequently on practices of extreme violence, such as the outright terror required to build the Atlantic system of slavery.”
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
Mark Carney managed to trade a pipeline that will never get built for meaningful progress on industrial carbon pricing and electricity interties — both of which will get more wind and solar built.
Remember when people thought he wasn't good at politics? www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/27/o...
Remember when people thought he wasn't good at politics? www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/27/o...
The method to Mark Carney’s madness
The memorandum of understanding with Alberta might look like surrender. Look closer
www.nationalobserver.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Mark Carney managed to trade a pipeline that will never get built for meaningful progress on industrial carbon pricing and electricity interties — both of which will get more wind and solar built.
Remember when people thought he wasn't good at politics? www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/27/o...
Remember when people thought he wasn't good at politics? www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/27/o...
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
Congrats to my Dublin friends on your new title. I knew you could do it 🥳
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Europe’s Largest Capital Without a Subway Is Finally Getting One
Europe’s biggest capital city without a subway has seen initiatives to build one fail for almost a century. By the early 1990’s, a TV series was named “Waiting for Metro” after Samuel Beckett’s famous...
www.bloomberg.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Congrats to my Dublin friends on your new title. I knew you could do it 🥳
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
“There’s no precise census of all the #financial #indexes available, but they plainly dwarf the total number of #stocks or #bonds available anywhere on the planet.” www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Your ETF Is Ruining Capitalism
To get John Authers' newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here.
www.bloomberg.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:39 PM
“There’s no precise census of all the #financial #indexes available, but they plainly dwarf the total number of #stocks or #bonds available anywhere on the planet.” www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
“The idea that a hit #Spotify #artist might not even be human feels like a satire of the #attentioneconomy itself: an #ecosystem once based on #authenticity and #connection is now being topped by a #synthetic #voice engineered for maximum uplift.” app.cyberimpact.com/newsletter-v...
The slopification of CanCon — and everything else
app.cyberimpact.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:30 PM
“The idea that a hit #Spotify #artist might not even be human feels like a satire of the #attentioneconomy itself: an #ecosystem once based on #authenticity and #connection is now being topped by a #synthetic #voice engineered for maximum uplift.” app.cyberimpact.com/newsletter-v...
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
Terrific piece. Great lede: "Global capitalism is beset with problems, but a lack of liquidity is not one of them. More money flows through an ever bigger pool of investments each day."
tl;dr: It's not how big it is. It's how you use it.
tl;dr: It's not how big it is. It's how you use it.
AUTHERS: Global markets “may be drowning in liquidity. And that might explain why a deregulated and ever more confident financial economy is coexisting with a real economy that many find intolerable.”
@johnauthers.bsky.social
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
@johnauthers.bsky.social
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
November 28, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Terrific piece. Great lede: "Global capitalism is beset with problems, but a lack of liquidity is not one of them. More money flows through an ever bigger pool of investments each day."
tl;dr: It's not how big it is. It's how you use it.
tl;dr: It's not how big it is. It's how you use it.
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
Breathing in polluted air wipes out many of the health benefits of exercise.
Many have forgotten or don't know of progress we've made in cleaning up air pollution since 1960s, and the health benefits that followed. If we give that up, the more people get ill.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
Many have forgotten or don't know of progress we've made in cleaning up air pollution since 1960s, and the health benefits that followed. If we give that up, the more people get ill.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
Polluted air quietly erases the benefits of exercise
Long-term inhalation of toxic air appears to dull the protective power of regular workouts, according to a massive global study spanning more than a decade and over a million adults. While exercise st...
www.sciencedaily.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Breathing in polluted air wipes out many of the health benefits of exercise.
Many have forgotten or don't know of progress we've made in cleaning up air pollution since 1960s, and the health benefits that followed. If we give that up, the more people get ill.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
Many have forgotten or don't know of progress we've made in cleaning up air pollution since 1960s, and the health benefits that followed. If we give that up, the more people get ill.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
Big Snow
Rob Gonsalves
1999
Rob Gonsalves
1999
November 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Big Snow
Rob Gonsalves
1999
Rob Gonsalves
1999
Short answer: No.
(Personally: Hell Yes)
#jazz #JazzSky #music #MusicSky #freejazz www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
(Personally: Hell Yes)
#jazz #JazzSky #music #MusicSky #freejazz www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
‘I almost always play it in hiding, alone’: can anyone get into free jazz, history’s most maligned music?
Even though he’s partial to hideous noise, free jazz is mostly unknown to the Guardian’s pop critic. A new guidebook from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore may change his mind
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:30 PM
“Perhaps uniquely among the great #novelists of the #English language, #Austen lends herself to broad-based in-person #fandom. You don’t see people getting worked up like this over, say, #Dickens or #Twain.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/b... #JaneAusten #BookSky
Everyone Is Invited to Jane Austen’s Birthday Party
www.nytimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:19 PM
“Perhaps uniquely among the great #novelists of the #English language, #Austen lends herself to broad-based in-person #fandom. You don’t see people getting worked up like this over, say, #Dickens or #Twain.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/b... #JaneAusten #BookSky
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
- [ ] Sub stack shared by dbcurren.bsky.social on understanding how #American prosperity and power can be negatively affected by destroying us universities 👇
bsky.app/profile/dbcu...
🏷️ #attacksOnEducationAndGrantsCURATION #curation #higherEd #scholar #ignorance #threatToDemocracy #stayAwake
bsky.app/profile/dbcu...
🏷️ #attacksOnEducationAndGrantsCURATION #curation #higherEd #scholar #ignorance #threatToDemocracy #stayAwake
“Do #MAGA types understand how much damage their campaign against #universities will do to #American prosperity and power? Probably not. But I suspect that it wouldn’t matter if they did.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug... #Harvard #Boston
The Economic Consequences of Destroying Harvard
Freedom is on the line. But so are jobs.
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:26 PM
- [ ] Sub stack shared by dbcurren.bsky.social on understanding how #American prosperity and power can be negatively affected by destroying us universities 👇
bsky.app/profile/dbcu...
🏷️ #attacksOnEducationAndGrantsCURATION #curation #higherEd #scholar #ignorance #threatToDemocracy #stayAwake
bsky.app/profile/dbcu...
🏷️ #attacksOnEducationAndGrantsCURATION #curation #higherEd #scholar #ignorance #threatToDemocracy #stayAwake
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
"you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of simple corruption. Tether is closely connected with the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, formerly run by Howard Lutnick, Trump’s secretary of commerce. On joining the government, Lutnick left his role at Cantor Fitzgerald— & handed it over to his sons"
“The #Fed is supposed to be quasi-independent, and so far it has preserved its interest-rate-setting independence in the face of intense pressure by #Trump to cut rates. Yet a Trumpian agenda is attempting to overtake the Fed’s #bank #supervision operations.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Getting Ready to Party Like It’s 2008
Trump’s cronies are undermining financial stability
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:03 PM
"you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of simple corruption. Tether is closely connected with the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, formerly run by Howard Lutnick, Trump’s secretary of commerce. On joining the government, Lutnick left his role at Cantor Fitzgerald— & handed it over to his sons"
1 #TorstenSlok, chief economist, Apollo Global Management:
“Data from the Census Bureau and Ramp shows that #AI adoption rates are starting to flatten out across all firm sizes” 🧵
“Data from the Census Bureau and Ramp shows that #AI adoption rates are starting to flatten out across all firm sizes” 🧵
November 28, 2025 at 1:11 PM
1 #TorstenSlok, chief economist, Apollo Global Management:
“Data from the Census Bureau and Ramp shows that #AI adoption rates are starting to flatten out across all firm sizes” 🧵
“Data from the Census Bureau and Ramp shows that #AI adoption rates are starting to flatten out across all firm sizes” 🧵
“Why are #Trump and his allies undermining #financialstability? There may be an element of #free-market #dogma. But as always with this administration, you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of simple #corruption.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Getting Ready to Party Like It’s 2008
Trump’s cronies are undermining financial stability
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:59 PM
“Why are #Trump and his allies undermining #financialstability? There may be an element of #free-market #dogma. But as always with this administration, you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of simple #corruption.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
His rambling used to be a feature, a sign of his authenticity. Now it’s a bug, a sense that he’s losing it. Cognitively and politically. He got into it all for the grift. And it worked, spectacularly. Now Karma has come for the cheque. He’s paying it daily.
TRUMP: If you look at Somalia, they are taking over Minnesota.
REPORTER: What do the Somalians have to do with this Afghan guy who shot the National Guard members?
TRUMP: Ah, nothing. But Somalians have caused a lot of trouble. They're ripping us off.
REPORTER: What do the Somalians have to do with this Afghan guy who shot the National Guard members?
TRUMP: Ah, nothing. But Somalians have caused a lot of trouble. They're ripping us off.
November 28, 2025 at 12:35 PM
His rambling used to be a feature, a sign of his authenticity. Now it’s a bug, a sense that he’s losing it. Cognitively and politically. He got into it all for the grift. And it worked, spectacularly. Now Karma has come for the cheque. He’s paying it daily.
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
I remember seeing Tom Waits quote about how he misses going to a record store and talking to a knowledgeable person at the counter
bsky.app/profile/did:...
bsky.app/profile/did:...
Communities need used-book shops.
As the trends in our world are increasingly standardized and entrenched by "predictive" technologies that stifle innovation and reduce human actions into economic categories...
We need a full range of possibilities for readers and communities to explore and share.
As the trends in our world are increasingly standardized and entrenched by "predictive" technologies that stifle innovation and reduce human actions into economic categories...
We need a full range of possibilities for readers and communities to explore and share.
November 28, 2025 at 12:44 PM
I remember seeing Tom Waits quote about how he misses going to a record store and talking to a knowledgeable person at the counter
bsky.app/profile/did:...
bsky.app/profile/did:...
“The #Fed is supposed to be quasi-independent, and so far it has preserved its interest-rate-setting independence in the face of intense pressure by #Trump to cut rates. Yet a Trumpian agenda is attempting to overtake the Fed’s #bank #supervision operations.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Getting Ready to Party Like It’s 2008
Trump’s cronies are undermining financial stability
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:48 PM
“The #Fed is supposed to be quasi-independent, and so far it has preserved its interest-rate-setting independence in the face of intense pressure by #Trump to cut rates. Yet a Trumpian agenda is attempting to overtake the Fed’s #bank #supervision operations.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
You just died.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
November 28, 2025 at 4:11 AM
You just died.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
You just died.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
November 28, 2025 at 4:02 AM
You just died.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
You just died.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
November 27, 2025 at 3:35 AM
You just died.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
What I want is to sleep / inside a strange language,
Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll
November 26, 2025 at 10:17 PM
What I want is to sleep / inside a strange language,
Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
No, Danielle Smith, we do not want to become the 51st state and enjoy US-style *anything*.
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Americans are buckling under medical bills. It could get worse.
Charities that help people pay for care say demand is way up. That’s before scheduled Medicaid and Obamacare cuts take effect.
www.politico.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:31 AM
No, Danielle Smith, we do not want to become the 51st state and enjoy US-style *anything*.
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
The federal government has been gradually and steadily withdrawing from direct participation in Canadian R&D spending for the last half century. Perhaps it could help raise productivity growth by reversing this trend. #cdnecon
November 28, 2025 at 1:52 AM
The federal government has been gradually and steadily withdrawing from direct participation in Canadian R&D spending for the last half century. Perhaps it could help raise productivity growth by reversing this trend. #cdnecon