These are my recent Pinboard.in links:

• David Graeber: On the Invention of Money – Notes on Sex, Adventure, Monomaniacal Sociopathy and the True Function of Economics « naked capitalism

  "At this point, it’s easier to understand why economists feel so defensive about challenges to the Myth of Barter, and why they keep telling the same old story even though most of them know it isn’t true. If what they are really describing is not how we ‘naturally’ behave but rather how we are taught to behave by the market—well who, nowadays, is doing most of the actual teaching? Primarily, economists. The question of barter cuts to the heart of not only what an economy is—most economists still insist that an economy is essentially a vast barter system, with money a mere tool (a position all the more peculiar now that the majority of economic transactions in the world have come to consist of playing around with money in one form or another) [10]—but also, the very status of economics: is it a science that describes of how humans actually behave, or prescriptive, a way of informing them how they should? (Remember, sciences generate hypothesis about the world that can be tested against the evidence and changed or abandoned if they don’t prove to predict what’s empirically there.)

  Or is economics instead a technique of operating within a world that economists themselves have largely created? Or is it, as it appears for so many of the Austrians, a kind of faith, a revealed Truth embodied in the words of great prophets (such as Von Mises) who must, by definition be correct, and whose theories must be defended whatever empirical reality throws at them—even to the extent of generating imaginary unknown periods of history where something like what was originally described ‘must have’ taken place?"

  economics rationality conservatism David-Graeber anthropology debt Austrian-school takedown pragmatism-it-ain't

• Welcome to The Bessenberg Bindery NEW website | The Bessenberg Bindery – Custom Case Bound Books from Thomson-Shore

  "The Bessenberg Bindery has served the university, medical, legal, publishing, advertising and book collecting communities in southern Michigan since 1978.

  We are a hand book bindery that offers a full range of sewn, hardcover book binding, custom boxes, book repair, prototype objects, custom photo album and scrap books, portfolios, and desk accessories. We quote on jobs as small as one book, or as large as 500.

  We are a craft shop and all our work is customized to meet our clients' varied requirements. In both original binding and book repairs we stress attractiveness, proper fit and durability."

  local bookbinding making project vendor