Logic and reason aren't the same
Max Keiser hits one point brilliantly, then interviews an economist who misses a point entirely.

Brilliant point: NSA is mainly engaged in frontrunning, ie insider trading. By picking up every bit of information that flows, NSA can spot trends and ideas and inventions before they go public, and can help its Chosen Customers in government or business to profit from those trends, politically or monetarily.

This fits with what I saw in the '80s when I was working in speech recognition research. Every time we came up with something that seemed new and worthwhile, we realized that NSA was already working on it. Clearly they were reading more than we could read. They saw all the emails between all the researchers and grad students, and used their vast resources to pounce on the ideas. In the case of speech research, NSA was using the stolen ideas for internal purposes, improving its ability to steal ideas from audio streams. I wasn't thinking about the external economic and political uses, but Max is smarter than I am. He can see the big picture.


Missed point: Max interviews a lefty economist who says that the purpose of globalization is to create a huge group of poor people dependent on government subsidies, who are politically powerless.

This is obviously meant to be a mirror image of the standard Repooflican line: Obama is trying to create a huge group of poor people dependent on government subsidies, who are politically powerful. (Tiresome quote: the "takers" or "moochers" can "vote themselves largesse".)

Well, which is it? Are the 47% powerless because they're on subsidies, or are they powerful because they're on subsidies? Correct answer: NEITHER. The 47% have the same power as the non-subsidized 52%, namely zero. Nobody has power based on votes, because votes are purely decorative. Only the remaining 1% have power, and they have ALL the power.

Good illustration of how logic (computer-type thinking) can lead you astray, while reasoning can find the solution. If you're thinking like a computer, you have to make binary choices. Mirror image. If the 47% are NOT powerful, they must be powerless.
  ¶ 5:15 AM