Hello and welcome. I'm Lynne Freese, producer of Global Political Economy, or GPE News Talks. This is a report on a conversation with Prabhat Patnekk on why capitalism is going to be finding it very difficult to come to terms with a post-COVID-19 world. Prabhat Patnekk is a professor emeritus of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Udali. An eminent and prolific economist, Patnekk's published work includes books like The Value of Money and Accumulation and Stability under Capitalism. In a forthcoming book titled Capital and Imperialism to be released in February, co-authors Prabhat Patnekk and Utsa Patnekk will publish their comprehensive survey of capitalism's colonialist roots and uncertain future. We go now to our conversation with professor Prabhat Patnekk. Prabhat, what I want to get at in this conversation is why the working population is being pushed to acute distress and unemployment and insecurity. You've long argued that capitalism throughout the entire era of globalization under neoliberalism has been characterized by a conflict between the interests of finance and working people. And with COVID-19, this is intensifying. So we're going to be talking about that and let's start with one of the main pillars of neoliberal policy, the withdrawal of the state from demand management. Yes, I mean, I think the main aspect of the current neoliberal policy is the globalization of finance. Under the Bretton Wood system, countries impose capital controls. In fact, you know, if European countries had very strict capital controls, capital could not come in and go out as it wished. And therefore, these capital controls included also financial controls. Now, one thing which has happened, which is, I think, the crux of the current neoliberal globalization is the removal of capital controls and therefore the freedom of finance to move around globally. Now, if finance moves around globally, but we have nation states, in that case, the nation states lose their autonomy. They have to do what finance wants them to do. Otherwise, finance would, in fact, flow out in the country causing bankruptcy of that particular. They forever have to be very careful that they do nothing to offend finance. Now, for any state intervention in raising demand, it is important that state expenditure be financed either through a fiscal deficit or by taxing the rich or taxing the capital. Either of these are disliked by finance and therefore in a world in which finance has the upper hand, the state simply lacks the instruments through which it can actually intervene in raising the level of aggregate demand. And that is exactly what is happening. Namely, that fiscal policy for raising aggregate demand is out. The only thing the state is allowed to do is to use monetary policy. But monetary policy is an extremely blunt instrument that predictably has not been made successful, which is why the capitalist countries have been caught in a protracted crisis starting from 2008 itself. You basically say that to view the neoliberal state as withdrawing in favor of the market is misleading, that the state is acting in accordance with the demands of international finance capital and the domestic corporate financial oligarchy integrated with it. And it's promoting rather than restraining the spontaneity of the capitalist system. Is that right? That's right. You see, basically the conclusion which people have come to in the 1930s, depression, for instance, Keynes argued that capitalism save in exceptional circumstances is saddled with mass unemployment, that it's, it's tendencies are to generate mass unemployment. That's because of the fact that it is essentially a flawed system in which there is a lack of coordination between whatever is required as investment to keep the level of demand up. And of course, what people actually see, so there is a tendency for there to be an overproduction because demand is not enough. Keynes thought that you could actually overcome this anarchy of the system through state intervention. But the point is that that is something which really requires I mean, the state, if you like, is an external agency that intervenes in the spontaneity of capitalism in the autonomous behavior of capitalism, you actually introduce an outside agency, which acts to bring about certain social objectives. And Keynes did it because he wanted to preserve capitalism against the socialist threat. He had seen the Bolshevik revolution. And he was clearly aware that if the state, if capitalist countries continue to have the kind of unemployment that they had seen in the 1930s, then of course socialism would triumph. So what he wanted is to keep socialism in check by changing capitalism, by overcoming its spontaneity, by introducing the state as an external, rational agent that actually introduces measures that ensure that social objectives are met, like, like full the Keynes' vision, imagine that the state would overwrite the behavior of the system. But if it is the case that the state itself is now dominated by the predilections of finance, the state cannot do anything if finance doesn't like it, then the state has got subordinated under the spontaneity of the system. You actually have a reversal of the situation from what Keynes had visualized, what had transpired in the capitalism for the couple of decades after the Second World War and what's transpired up. In government policy in the 1950s and 60s, labor parties pretty much backed labor, the working class. But since Reagan and Thatcher, it doesn't much matter which political party is in power. Governments on both sides of the aisle back neoliberal policy. You know, one of the things is that as long as you're caught in this web of globalized finance, you have to do what they want you to do. Tomorrow, for instance, even if you had the most extreme left government you can imagine, but that kept the country inside this movement of globalized finance, then that left government also would be adopting policies exactly similar to what the parties or the labor or don't even there would be adopting. Therefore, the point is whether you are within this vortex of globalized finance or whether you take the country out of it. Look at Greece, for instance, cities that came to power on a certain platform, but in fact, it didn't do anything different from what the others were doing. So as long as you're within this web of globalized finance, then you'll be more or less coerced into doing the things that finance wants you to do. Otherwise, there'll be a crisis. So the only way to checkmate the dictates of finance is if the country could be taken out of this web of finance through capital control, through a re-imposition of capital control, but that on the other hand is going to bring about great hardships in the transitional period because if finance does not come in, many countries have current account deficits and balance of payments. How do you meet those deficits? If you can't meet those deficits, and that was for instance, it is a problem. If you cannot meet those deficits, then you cannot really import from outside. If you can't import from outside, you'd have to have import controls. If you have input controls, then the standard of living of the domestic population would temporarily at least go down. So getting out of it is also very difficult, but on the other hand, if you don't get out of it, then you are caught in this web of globalized finance being exactly what every other government is doing. The Financial Times recently ran an editorial that radical reforms in reversing the policy direction of the last four decades need to be put on the table. In commenting on that FT editorial, you made the point that finance capital does not voluntarily make concessions. Well, you know, I mean obviously no matter what the Financial Times says, you'll have to persuade finance that it should allow governments to kind of, you know, put restrictions on its movements. The point is finance is not going to willingly sacrifice its ability to go all over the globe in search of profits because of the fact that some people believe this to be necessary for reviving capitalism. You know, in other words, finance would be looking after its own interests. Finance, you know, these are not altruistic bodies. Finance is not after all going to be looking after the interests of the supposed interests of workers or things of that kind in order to preserve the system. It should be interested in looking after its own interests. And that being the case, I believe there would be a lot of opposition. Can the state override this opposition? One possibility through which the state could do this. If it's globalized finance, suppose you had a globalized state, you had a global state, then matters would be different. And if you don't actually have a global state, you could have coordinated fiscal action among a lot of advanced country states. There's no talk even of that. I know that very recently the European Union has got some kind of a little agreement on this. But on the other hand, that has still been debated. It's not a major, it's not a major factor. It is something which is also done only in the conflict of globalism. But to get capitalism going, you'd require for instance a coordinated fiscal stimulus across many advanced countries and there's no talk of that. If we're talking about any given particular country, then that particular country can get out of the way of finance by putting controls on capital, particularly financial flows. And of course that would bring enormous transitional difficulties, hardship for the people, which no government is really daring to do. Which is why capitalism has now got a kind of structural crisis from which there is no easy exit. In times of financial crises, when government deficit spending was rolled out to preserve the financial system, it was followed by austerity to get the government budget deficit back down to the limits imposed by neoliberal policy. And that included cuts to healthcare, the consequences of which are being made all too clear with COVID-19. Talk more broadly on the situation with COVID-19. Well you know COVID-19 is coming in the context of a crisis of capitalism that was already there. COVID-19 of course has worsened the crisis in the sense that there is huge unemployment. Let's imagine tomorrow COVID-19 crisis gets over. If it gets over then two things would happen. The first thing that would happen is there would be no automatic recovery because after all even the COVID had worsened things. When COVID disappears, consumption might recover but recovery of consumption would not mean recovery of investment. Even if there had been no crisis in capitalism, a sheer shock of COVID-19 would have actually delayed recovery for a very long time. In other words it would have generated a crisis that would not have disappeared with the disappearance of COVID-19. But on the other hand since it is already the case that there was a crisis before COVID-19 in capitalism. Now that crisis would again come into its own so you would find that for both these reasons, namely recovery is problematic from such a shock anyway and additionally such a shock occurred in the midst of a crisis. Capitalism now is going to be finding it very difficult to come to terms with the post-COVID world. There are two possibilities which I see opening up, you know one possibility is for instance what people like financial times are talking about namely that look you have to restructure capitalism and this restructuring of capitalism going back on some of these policies the last four decades would require control on finance and how they're going to bring about I don't know but at least they are that is one possibility. The other possibility is that in the face of this protracted crisis there would be a tendency towards fascism where you actually try and control resentment, control resistance through sheer force and that is something that we see happening in a number of countries including my own. But the even authoritarian government seemed to be enthralled with global finance and so they too don't have the solution. Can you comment on that? You see one of the big differences between 1930s and now is that fascism in 1930s is one that at least got these countries out of the crisis and out of unemployment. Germany in 1933, Japan in 1931 they actually undertook large-scale military expenditures in order to generate demand and finance by borrowing in order to generate demand whereby you actually had near full employment as a matter of fact therefore there was a brief period between the coming out of the depression by these countries and the actual major start of the war when some of the fascist governments actually became quite popular because they had got the countries out of the depression and the horrors of the war still had not visited them. But on the other hand today you cannot do that because that time when the government's finance military expenditures they did so by borrowing which means by fiscal deficit, they had large fiscal deficit dramatically. But on the other hand today finance is globalized whose days it was national finance is globalized and it doesn't like fiscal deficits it can very easily leave the country which is why the governments cannot even undertake larger military expenditures by fiscal deficits and therefore they really have no way of coming out of the crisis and therefore the fascism of today would be much more negative in the sense that they would only be using coercive methods to keep popular discontent in chair without providing any solution to the crisis that we know. Commenting on the US stock market boom on the back of US Federal Reserve crisis management you said a stock market boom in a real economy crisis represents the supreme triumph of finance. Talk more about the use of monetary policy and asset price inflation under neoliberalism. Yes in fact because state expenditure would not be undertaken and at the same time you find that the usual monetary policy levers for generating investment don't really work. The only thing that is available to these governments is to use monetary policy to generate an asset price bubble. Now in the past the dot com bubble had an impact on the real economy and they believe that if you can generate a stock market bubble then this would have some impact on the real economy. Why does an asset price bubble have an impact on the real economy? If you are someone who holds one of these assets whose prices have gone through the ceiling then you feel your wealth here.  On the other hand if you feel your wealth here for instance if the financial asset price increases then it is easier for you to borrow you know because after all the interest rate is the other side of the price of let's say the bond. If bond price is the high then the interest rate is low. It reduces the cost of borrowing and if it reduces the cost of borrowing again you can borrow and spend more. But the point is that if investment is curtailed because there is insufficient real demand a reduction in the cost of borrowing would not help. If it is the case that the wealth effect on consumption you know I mean for instance even if people may feel wealthy they may know that look this wealth is illusory tomorrow I'm going to find myself without any kind of you know without this wealth. In that case they would not necessarily spend more on consumption. The very fact that asset price bubbles work in the past in generating real demand reduces their capacity to work as effectively in future because of the fact that they have collapsed because the collapse of the bubble makes people much more cherry of actually taking the bubble as seriously in future as they had taken it in the past. But it seems to me that that is the only way in which capitalism can continue trying to offset the crisis. That is the only way which is available to the various governments and which is which is sanctioned by globalized finance and so that is what they're going to try. I think unemployment and so on would continue to remain high. I think the unutilized capacities would continue. I think inequalities would become even more pronounced and so on and all the tendencies which we have been seeing over the last decade taking in a half are tendencies which are going to continue become become. Earlier in the conversation we talked about how the hegemony of finance has prevailed even over labor governments including European social democrats UK labor US democrats and and so on. What's your prognosis going forward? Because in the present situation there is a growth of authoritarian fascist tendencies. There would also be a growth within these social democratic labor and democratic party of a left tendency. So a left wing tendency is also going to grow is going to manifest itself and that left wing tendency if it gathers the courage to break with the hegemony of finance and if it can actually mobilize substantial segments of working class around itself and of the general population can really find a way out. That way out while initially it would not be a socialist way out because actually they would be coming out of the capitalist system can actually lead over time to going beyond capitalism. You also said however that the same process of neoliberal globalization that's unleashed the spontaneity of the capitalist system also results in in febling resistance against it. Yeah you know for instance usual trade union kind of struggles which are confined within nation states are struggles which have become increasingly in fee. Obviously if a trade union demands higher wages in that case capital shifts to some other country unless you have international trade union unless globalization of capital is accompanied by globalization of working class struggles isn't necessarily the case of the working class struggle inside any particular economy gets in fee and that's what we are seeing. I mean historically trade union struggles were very powerful and written had very powerful trade union struggles but on the other hand now under the globalization trade union struggles I mean extremely unique for you know and and this is true everywhere the trade union movement is is suffering drastically everywhere. Now on the other hand to the extent for instance that let's say there are growth of fascist tendencies this growth of fascist tendencies would mean that the working class can actually come out with a political agenda of binding with democratic elements in all other classes in order to raise different resistance against fascism and if you can raise the resistance against fascism you can do so only by also having an alternative economic agenda so it's possible to actually build coalitions to build alliances in order to overcome the current conjunctions. We have to leave it there many thanks to our guest professor Prabhat Patnaik who joined us from New Delhi India and from Geneva Switzerland thank you for joining us in this episode of GPE News Docs


No, Betty, no! Don't make me... I say yes!  Betty! I say yes! Here! I'll hold her arm! All right, Betty, but no... Midnight, the witching hour when the night is darkest, our fears the strongest, and our strength at its lowest end. Midnight, when the graves gape open and death strikes. How? You'll learn the answer in just a minute in... Nightmare. Tales of Mystery and Terror by Radios Masters of the Macabre. Our story by Joseph Rascall is one of the most terrifying and fantastic nightmares we've ever heard. It's titled... Nightmare. Beats, say, hey! Stop it, Helen, stop it! It's me, it's Ernie. Hey, bed, where do you suppose? It's almost 12 o'clock. We should let me get some sleep. Then just a dream. Ernie, it was so real! I dreamed somebody was leaning over me just now with a pillow. Oh, it was horrible. They were trying to smother me to death. And Ernie... Yeah? It was you. What? Oh, that's a beauty. Where's the light? Oh, my goodness.  Come here, butch.  No, no, don't touch me. Keep away. What is this? That pillow in your hand. Oh, for crying out bells. Can't I even straighten it out? Sorry, dear. Gee, don't mind me, but that horrible nightmare, it seemed so real. Arling wasn't that crazy. You, the sweetest, gentlest husband in the world. Then why? Ernie, now please, don't look so hurt. Now I can't even look hurt. I just murdered my wife and her sleep, didn't I? No, you were just about to. Everything's happening tonight. Hello? What? Who? Wrong number. And what's more, this is a heck of a time to be ringing. Why, what a nerve. On a night that maybe that was the police you phoned in your dream. Now will you go to sleep? Ernie, crap, I'm sure I didn't mean to insinuate anything. I was just telling you my dream. You asked, didn't you?  I guess I'll have to put you in that book I never wrote, too. Well, now what? That was it, too. Huh? That book you never wrote. You nagged about it so much, no wonder. Oh, and that look when you bent over me. Like a man on earth, you suppose, made me have a nightmare. That's easy. You would insist on eating hamburgers after the show tonight. Yes, I did, didn't I, when we got out of the movies. Hamburgers, of course. Ernie, they were part of my dream, too, hamburgers. Ernie, stop punching on that pillow, please. All right, all right, go ahead then. Better tell me your dream, all of it. Neither of us are sleeping till you do. I'll just light this butt. Oh, let's have it. You grew some details. Well, I don't know if I can remember now. It was all so hazy and terrifying. Well, what happened before I smothered you with a pillow? A crazy quilt. Something about your job. And I was a millstone around your neck and hamburgers, and you hated me in July 15. July 15? Yes, I can't imagine what that meant. Look, look, start at the start. Why did I decide to murder you? Because of that other woman, your secret love. Huh?  My secret love? Yes, she had you in her spell. That's kind of bad casting, isn't it, Butch? I'm the dishes and dustpan type, remember? In the five years we've been married, have I ever looked at another...  Maybe you want me to eliminate my one night a week out, too? My Saturday gin rummy with the boys. Oh, no. Who was my secret love? Did she have a face? Well, this is the silliest part of it, Ernie.  It was that girl, Betty Daniels. Betty Daniels? Who's she? You remember that tall, dark-haired artist I introduced you to at Cape Cod last summer? Cape Cod? At the exhibition. No, I don't... Oh, wait a minute. Trousers, long cigarette holder, very intense. Yes, very intense. What was she doing in your dream? We settled over, we walked off, and that was that. Casual. Yes, I know, I already remember myself. I can't imagine why I dreamt of her. Why? No, no, don't touch me. Don't dream. Awful. Provincetown and us looking at the art exhibition just the way we did last summer. Only now the picture was about ten feet tall and hanging crooked. She came along. Betty Daniels. Just the way she did then. Hello, Helen. And I introduced you the same as I did then. Only not exactly the same. Like in a dream. You know, silly. Betty Daniels, this is my husband, Ernest. He is very faithful to me. How do you do? How do you do? We've never met. That's a marvelous gloria painting, Helen. Don't you think? Do you prefer hamburgers? Well... My wife prefers hamburgers, Miss Daniels. Oh. Oh, I didn't know. Only after a movie, though. Anyway, I'm sure I can't tell one painting from another. My husband's the art lover in the family, I guess. And I just tag along for the fish. Only I don't like fish. I like hamburgers. I know. You don't wear trousers like I do. You're... ...luffy. Betty and I met on the beach. She's a painter. Our rowboat's got tangled. That's how we met. Yes, it was all very casual. I hardly remember. Well... Ernie and I are going back to New York today. Isn't that a shame? I wish you two wouldn't stare at each other so. Well, we'd better run along, Helen. Lots of packing to do. Ernie has got to get back to his silly old job. He's a reporter. A reporter? Shouldn't he write a book he never wrote? Well, imagine that's what he always says. Well, goodbye. I'm wondering why I'm thinking of you now. Goodbye. Goodbye. It seems sort of dissolve into each other. Like a kind of dream movie. And I'm trembling with fright because I have a feeling I know how the plot's going to end. The next thing I remember, Ernie, I'm in a penthouse apartment on Park Avenue. Everything zigzag, even the butler. And I'm the maid, Helen, there. And what I'm doing is turning pages for Betty Daniels while she plays the piano. For you, Ernie. Isn't that crazy? Neither of you hardly notice me at all. And I keep trying to open my mouth. Like that. But it's stuck. And I'm absolutely frozen at what I overhear. Darling. Yes, butch. Love our loveless. Out of this world. Ah, this is heaven.  Never. What gave you that idea?  She's really a little ignoramus. You're telling me. She prefers hamburgers. Ernie, do you think she suspects yet? Of course not. She thinks I'm at a gin rummy game. Darling, you're blind, but she's not. She knows. She knows? How? How'd she find out? You may go, Helen. Helen, you hear me? Why don't you go? Answer me if you lost your tongue. Oh, well, there's murder in the air. How'd she find out, Betty? Tell me. Darling, you suppose she doesn't know what happened last summer in Provincetown? After we all said goodbye, you came to look for your cigarette lighter. She knew you hadn't lost your lighter, that you'd come back to ask me for my New York telephone number. She knew? Of course, intuition. She knows we've been having a secret affair ever since. I can't go on like this. I'm tired of being just a gin rummy excuse. Ernie, if you love me, you'll do what I promised. But I pity her so.  Isn't it her fault you never wrote that book you never wrote? It's true. She wouldn't let me give up my job. She's a millstone around the neck. Ernie, get rid of her, Ernie, get rid of her, and I'll bring your genius to the world. I've plenty of money and you can give up reporting and write that book. Fulfill your destiny. Fulfill my destiny? Oh, Betty, you'll help me? Yes. But only if you forget July 15th. You'll forget about July 15th. It won't mean a thing to you from now on. Not a thing, I promise. And you'll do away with it. The way I told you. Yes, like you told me. The pillow. The pillow. Don't let her hear. Just look at her standing there at the piano. You've been spying on us, Helen, haven't you? Haven't you? Answer if you lost your tongue. Don't try to fool us. We know you're the real Helen and not the maid. She's heard everything you've said, Ernie. So we'll have to kill her now. Unless, unless she gives me a divorce. Will you give him a divorce? Answer or we'll finish you right now. Hey, love. Here's the pillow, Ernie. Right now. I'll hold her on. Answer, Helen. Don't make me do it. Answer, Helen.  You let her cry. Look at me. Strict and dumb. I'm out of smoothing, but she's not saying anything. What are you trying to say? Helen, please don't make me do it. Will you give me a divorce? Tell me. Tell me. Ernie. Ernie, stop. Oh, as we are. Do you want her body found here? Well, hang on. She's got it. She's got it. No, no, not here. I'm not like this. There must be some other way. Later tonight, Ernie. After the movies. Hamburgers. She'll get hungry for hamburgers. She's bound to. The waiter will ask her how she wants them. That'll give you the clue. And then, when she's asleep. And they'll find her in her bed. The perfect crime. And you see, Ernie? Hamburgers. A frightened girl reliving a dream that was more terrible than any reality. A dream that could even become more terrible. As the clock on the mantle takes on. And the hands draw closer to 12 o'clock and... Murder. It's midnight. Now back to murder at midnight and nightmare. Let's hear the rest of this dream of yours, Helen. What happened after that? Well, it was after that that it really got bad. It was so crazy, but so real. I don't know what stopped you, Ernie. Kept you from killing me then, but you didn't. And still, I knew you were going to. You dragged me out into the street and then into a movie and then out again. And I looked at you and you were crying. Because you'd made up your mind to finish me off when we got home. You should have let me write that book, Helen. You should have. And I kept crying. I love you, Ernie.  Please don't kill me tonight. But I've got to. I've got to. I pity you, but I've got to. And you pulled me along through the streets again. I was terrified. And then I saw a policeman and I cried to him, Officer. Yes? What is it, lady? Please save me.   Why, that's a crime. A felony. Oh, why are you joking? Don't joke about it. Do something. Please. I'm frightened to death. Don't pay any attention to her, Officer. She's dreaming. I'm not. Don't believe him. He wants to wait till I go to sleep tonight. And then as soon as I fall asleep... Oh, come now, lady. He wouldn't do it to you in your sleep. Why, you're cute. Not in her sleep now. Would you, mister? Of course not, Officer. Not in her sleep. As a matter of fact, we're stopping off first for a hamburger. She's hungry. No, no, no. I'm not. I mean, I am, but I don't dare. I'm starving, but I don't dare. He's just waiting for me to order one, Officer, to see what I'll say.  Oh, lady, stop. Sure, and you're breaking me hard. Come along, dear. No, no. What can I say? Darling. And then we were in the little lunchroom in our neighborhood, around the corner from our house, sitting on stools. The counterman came over to us. He winked at you, Ernie, and you winked back at him, and he said... Evening, folks. What do you have? You looked at me, but I shook my head. I shook my head and the tears was screaming out my face. I tell you what, Joe. Make it two hamburgers. Right. Rare, medium or well? Medium, Joe. Make mine medium. Right. And the little lady? How do you have yours, Alan? How do you like yours? Make hers medium, too. Two hamburgers. Medium. Two mediums. Coming up. And what do you have on them, folks? Relish or unrelish? Relish. Make mine with relish, Joe. Right. And the little lady?  How do you have yours? Answer him, I say. Answer him. This is it. How do you have yours? Joe, I've looked at the next thing I dreamt. We were home again, sitting in the parlor, everything exactly the same, Ernie, just like tonight before we went to bed. But in my dream, I was sitting paralyzed in a cold sweat waiting for the word, the word from you that meant my death. Well, butch, I guess we better hit the hay. What do you say? What do you say, darling? No, uh, wait. Did I tell that counterman how I wanted my hamburger, sir? Of course, dear. What did I say? I can't seem to remember. I forget to come along to bed. No, no, I don't want to go to bed yet. Please don't make me go to bed. I'm scared. Alan. Come to bed, darling. Like a good little girl. We went to bed. Lights out, eh? I tried to think of everything I knew to keep awake. I wondered whether I ought to count to a hundred or whether counting would put me to sleep. I tried not to count, but I felt myself getting sleepier and sleepier. Sleep, honey? I heard, but I pretended not to. I fought to keep my eyes open. I knew I would die if I closed them. A sleep, butch? I didn't answer. I couldn't if I wanted to. I was so scared. And then pretty soon I heard you stirring ever so quietly. And in a moment you were leaning over me. Oh, Ernie, I know it was just a dream, but it was so real. And there was hatred in your eyes, and there was a pillow in your hand, and I knew you were going to do it right then. And I... Oh, that's a beaut, that's honey. Oh, my aching bag. Darling, when you have a nightmare, you sure do it up golden, brown and creepy. Wasn't it crazy? Oh, darling, wasn't it mad? Oh, wouldn't I tell it around the office tomorrow? Oh, this is too good, kid. But, Ernie, how does a person have a horrible dream like that? What does it mean? Oh, it's a cinch. I'll interpret it for you. And without a dream book, too. You will? Well, go on then, Ernie. Tell me. Okay, then here it is. First of all, a dream always means the opposite, right? You ever hear that? Yes, I have. That's right. It does. Which means I must love you simply awful. Granted? Granted, silly. But goodness, what about the rest of it? Easiest thing in the world. Darling, where'd we go tonight? To a movie. What kind of a movie? It was a murder story. Gee, that's right. Do you think that was... Not an interrupt, Butch. Who was starring in the movie? Betty Davis. Repeat the first name? Betty. And the villainous in the dream, My Secret Love, the girl we met last summer, was also Betty. Betty Daniels. Oh! Well, that gave you Betty on the brain when you went to sleep tonight and movies and murder and those hamburgers you did stop to eat after the show wrapped up the whole sequence. And no wonder. They're still lying on my stomach, too. What was the pillow doing in it? Sweetness and light. What were you talking about early this evening? That chore you intend to get after some day? Oh, yes. I've got to stuff the pillows. They're caved in the way the feathers have come up. Right. That's your pillow you had on the brain. Which brings me back to the hamburgers. Yes, I was going to ask you. I mean, that nonsense of how did I want my hamburgers? What did all that mean for him to say? Precious, how did you order your hamburgers down tonight, remember? No, I can't recall. Of course you can. Think now. How do you almost always order your hamburgers? Smothered in onions. Oh, Ernie, of course. Smothered in onions. Smother. Pillow. Smother with a pillow. Jack! Oh, my heaven takes alive. Oh, my. Gosh, so that was it. Oh, if that doesn't be... Ernie, that was wonderful. Really. The way you did that, figured that all out. I think you'd make a terrific detective. So I'm a police reporter. Close enough. Darling, it's made me think so. But maybe I have been a little bit selfish. What do you mean? Well, that book you always wonder, right? Maybe I ought to let you give up your job and try. Oh, and have us both starve? Nuts. Anyway, in my sane moments, Helen, I've always known the truth. I'm no writer. If I had it in me, it would have come out of me. Job or no job. I could go back to work again, you know. I could take up nursing again. It was pretty hard, but I... No, no, no, nonsense. I won't have it. I won't say any more about it, and that's fine.  To offer to. Oh, there was one thing more, Ernie. What do you suppose that was? That was all that about July 15th, about you're forgetting July 15th. What did that mean, you know? Yeah. Don't you? No, I can't. It does seem familiar, but I can't seem to... Where are you going? Get something on my wallet. Wait a minute. What's the date of our anniversary, Helen? July 15th, of course. Tomorrow. What was that? Right. You've had that on the brain, too. Oh! Here. A little present for you, darling. Oh, what an early ticket. Railroad tickets to Montreal. Right again. We're taking an anniversary trip. I wanted to surprise you when you woke up, but... Well, anyway, happy anniversary, baby. Oh, Ernie. Oh, you great big precious darling. How can I ever? Didn't forget. You always did before, but this time you didn't. First that dream and then finding out that it did me just the opposite. No, no, no, Helen, don't. It's so sweet of you. I'm so thrilled. Montreal, where we had our honeymoon and you haven't forgotten. Oh, Ernie, I do hope I've been a good wife to you. And if there's anything I ever... I mean, if you want me to, I can always change. Darling, I wouldn't want you any different for the world.  And now, let's get some shut-eye, huh? Lights out? All right. But I'm going to put the tickets right here under the pillow. And they have a happy dream for a change. Ah, good night, Butch. You haven't kissed me. Good night, dear. You were asleep? Shouldn't have phoned before, Betty. She was still awake. Not yet. You got the tickets? Yes. I know. Just gone off. Then what are you waiting for? Nothing. I'll do it now. Right now, as soon as I hang up. Ernie turns and picks the pillow off his bed as the clock finishes striking 12. Murder! Remember to be with us again when death appears out of the darkness, wearing the face of one you know. And the clock strikes 12 for... Murder! By Elspeth Eric. Walter Vaughn was Ernie. With music by Charles Paul, Murder at Midnight was directed by Anton M. Leder.


Joe Rogan is going to provide us inadvertently so with a really important lesson and this is how Misinformation spreads at least one of the ways that it spreads Usually I think it's probably a game of telephone of sorts between podcast hosts Where they'll hear one of them say something then they'll repeat what they've heard and then you know before you know But it spreads but Joe Rogan is going to see over a story coming out of Australia Ostensibly and basically this is a story about how they're going to ban people in a certain area From growing their own food the story on its face sounds absurd and if I saw this headline I would think twice and maybe question I think a lot of people with BS detectors would maybe think twice before just accepting this but not Joe Rogan So he's going to talk about why this is so bad How absurd it is that the government would take away so much rights from people and then he's gonna find out the story is Completely bogus take a look, you know, I want to find out what this is But I read something briefly and I didn't get into the article But they were saying that they were trying to pass a bill that would outlaw you growing your own food in Australia Oh my god, did you read that? No, there's a part of Australia. I think it was New South Wales Someone's trying to pass a law that won't allow you to grow your own food And they were saying well, you could grow your own food and what else does this leave us from your food?  We can have Unchecked pig ownership That's not fair.   They they got a good grip on people during the pandemic They locked it right down.  Passes bill What to look for I'm just it's not nothing is coming up the closest thing I could find was something like this I don't that's not food. No, it's not it's not in New Zealand. It's in it's in Australia I know but this is close New Zealand is like right around the corner could have There's got it's got to be a real thing. It seems too good to not be it's obviously Titan outlaw growing food in Australia and nothing not a single thing comes up Hold on except for that which was a false thing Growing they want they want us completely dependent Yeah, I can't find it either.  Maybe it's a warning. Is it though? Do you really believe that do you really believe that this is a warning this fake story?  I don't know. Maybe that's just me now I've got to say before I talk about what Joe Rogan was discussing here That impression that he did of the supposedly authoritarian Australian politician trying to ban people from growing their own food That was so cringe-worthy.   I mean, do you really think that this would be a ploy to get people to take the vaccine? Isn't there more effective methods to get people to get vaccinated like going through employers? I mean when you think about these types of things for more than a few seconds you begin to realize Okay, this really doesn't make a lot of sense But he's convincing himself like he's not thinking it through He's getting more amped up as he speaks about this because of how absurd this is and sure like it this were true This would be absurd. He'd be right to be angry, but it's not true and it's absurd, but thankfully He got fact-checked by his producer Who I believe is named Jamie and it almost seemed like he was irritated that Jamie couldn't find this bullshit article Like Jamie was trying to find what he was talking about, but it didn't exist Because it's not real now the question is where did Joe get this idea and My initial thought was well, of course, it's got to be somewhere on Facebook This is how a lot of boomers come to political Conclusions they saw it on Facebook and sure enough this image has been circulating around Facebook And it's about the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill of 2022 which will supposedly ban people from growing their own food Of course, this is not true I mean, we all have to have conversations with our loved ones who are older who are new to the internets and Explain to them why everything that you see on Facebook Isn't necessarily true and you need to be diligent and think about whether or not what you're seeing is real Find a different source try to you know question the reasoning of what's going on Like we have to have this conversation. I've had conversations with people in my family about this And I feel like it's it's landing like I feel like it's helping them to figure out what is and isn't Bullshit on the internet like people need to know how to decipher these things So we all I feel like have to find some way to talk with our loved ones older one specifically about this thing Joe Rogan Someone near him needs to have this conversation with him, but there's more details about this So NBC News reporter Brandi Zandrosi gives us some more information about where this myth originated She says Twitter search shows lots of folks claiming the same a lot of the videos and tweets include a screenshot From something called apex world news. So who is apex world news? The account is a typical breaking news type of miss info account. No ownership listed spammy and unverified content It does list the website but expired to the way back site looks junky serves ads and much of the content is authored by a Grace Sawalli there is a person on Twitter with this name not linking and she shares a lot of apex world news links She's also deeply religious and a fan of one particular preacher uber angel a British Zimbabwean who preaches the prosperity gospel God wants you to be rich and he'll make it. So if you give me money I don't know just go with it and a little googling shows us that angel founded apex in 2020 Just for good measure We can take a look at the website and domain tools and see that apex shares a male server IP with other sites Including those that clearly belong to the preacher So I wouldn't get my news from a so-called profits junk news site But you know who might rogan fan vaccine critic I've remeft an loving friend of the intellectual dark web Chris is a self-described financial analyst and founder of a self-help Slash Actualization thingy. That's definitely not an MLM. So it's a junk news website created by the founder of a pyramid Now there's a lot of these junk news websites that exist they form to essentially Get clicks and it's all about the ads. They don't even really need to put content there Sometimes if you go to a legit news website, there'll be an ad that pops up with fake headlines If you don't have ads disabled and it'll show like these weird bombastic headlines just insane things just untrue They're essentially tabloids and all they want is free to click on them. So that way they get ad revenue It's not even about generating news. It's just about getting clicks. So you get to see their ads That's all that it's about. So the goal isn't necessarily even Disinformation, it's just about making money. So these things are out there. They exist and so Joe Rogan was duped by it And you know, I'm glad he caught himself here. I'm glad that he was fact-checked But imagine if he just spread this lie to his audience of 11 plus million people How quickly other people would be parroting this how quickly this would devolve into a gigantic conspiracy theory This is why I hope that this triggers some level of self-awareness and Joe Rogan thinks okay I really need to think more about the things that I say to my 11 million followers. I need to be more introspective myself I need to maybe vet these sources that I find and if I see a headline on Facebook or a meme on Facebook Perhaps I seek out, you know a source find out what this is really about before I talk about it On my massive massive platform, but I mean, maybe that's too much to expect from the number one podcast in the world But I mean it's like, you know for me I have a much much smaller audience than Joe Rogan, but I feel an absolute sense of responsibility I want to make sure that whatever I say is Accurate it's verifiable and that you can Google what I'm saying in fact check me yourself, right?


Hello everyone, it is Crypto Grounds here. Welcome back to another Unity Outer Game Tutorial video, this episode 5.3 and today we're going to be working on the engineering notation. If you find this video helpful, make sure you leave a like, share with your friends, comment below and subscribe to my channel for your new round here and turn on that bell if you want to get notified for future videos and live streams. Anyways, let's just hop right into it. So this is going to be yet another very simple video. I'm pretty much going to be doing some copying and pasting because of how simple this notation is. Basically, we're combining the standard and scientific notation. So we're going to be grabbing everything from the standard notation and just getting rid of parts of it. So let's start with our switch statement. So first we're going to add a case to this will determine our engineering notation. And what we want to do is return our, our number string, which we already have up here. So we can just copy this. So it's going to look just like this. We want to add in our E and for our exponent, we're going to be stealing it from the standard notation as well. So we're just going to grab it from the standard notation at index, this equation right here. All right, so it's a bit big from a screen. Again, we have our number right here, the first part of the number before the E, then we have our E that splits between the, the mantissa and exponents. So, and then we have our exponent here, which is the big doubles exponent minus the, it's exponent, mod three. And we're going to do, we're going to format it with zero digits and we use N. So we want to get that comma for our exponent when we have bigger numbers, just like we do for scientific. So that is literally all we need to do for the actual notation method. Now we need to modify some settings in order to be able to change to our engineering notation because we haven't implemented that yet. So next let's head to our setting script. So first we want to add on to this notation names are right. So I'm just going to add engineering. Great. That is all we need to do with this. So now let's give it a try. All right. So let's head to settings. Let's switch it to engineering and it should look something like this. So again, it's like a mix of standard and scientific and we would have to change the size of the text for it to actually look good. But yeah, so as you can see, we have the three numbers here and exponent changes every three digits. So yeah, that is the engineering notation in action. I hope this video was helpful. And if you guys liked it, make sure you please leave a like as it really helps the videos. Subscribe if you're new around here and turn on the bell to get notified for future videos and live streams. Anyways, I will see you guys in episode 5.4, which will be logarithmic notation. So if you're interested in that, make sure you stay tuned for that video. Thank you guys for watching. I'll see you next one. Have a great day or night. Peace.


We can use Facebook and Instagram for that. So I'd like to say a few words about that. But I'd like to say a few words. I think I know a lot about it. I can speak a lot about it. I don't know a lot about texts. I'm sorry, I've just finished a bit. What do you think, Kallum? Are you happy that you know what I'm talking about? I think I just like to say the words. I think you can say a few words. I think I'd like to say something. So, I think it's important for us to be able to do something like this and to be able to do it as quickly as possible. Yeah, it's a great idea. You can do rails and fashions and tiktoks. So, it's a great immersion. Yeah, but I think it's important for us to be able to do it as quickly as possible. Yeah, it's important for us to be able to do something like this to do it as quickly as possible. You're looking at a role play, isn't it? So, it's important for all of us to be able to do it as quickly as possible. I'm not sure. Yeah.  What's the difference between North and North? What's the difference between North and North? The difference between North and North? What's the difference between North and North? I don't know. I've lived in America for a long time. I've travelled a bit and I've lived in the country for a long time. I've lived in Thailand for a long time. I've lived in Australia for a long time. I'd just like to say that I'm very happy that I've got the chance to go to the dentist and take care of my teeth. I feel like I'm going to the dentist. Yeah, it's at the Sasta Bay, on Shaw, Edwina Nal, Augusta Nairan. Yeah, Augusta has a suggestion if we like our foil leaf across this channel. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, in our era. I don't know if any fan out here has seen her foil leaf. So Augusta, the honourable and honourable Aaron McCormick. Aaron, you're more than welcome. Hi, how's it going? Oh, it's going right now, yeah. We're flying it. Yeah, yeah. It's great to have you in. Thanks for having me. I've been to one of the stations here more or less. You've been in a few times over the years. Once or twice, yeah. A few different things. Okay. Monday night sessions and things like that. Very good. And you have the pleasure and the privilege of accompanying Shawna with her tunes. And I'm going to start with that. So, I'm going to try it. It's called Mershyn. So, home bird. So, Shawna Nieskallen and Aaron McCormick on the guitar. Well, this is the home bird. It's been a while. We're out here in the countryside. We're here in Scrave Sheep through the Americas. And I've been without it. I'm going to say this first. The other thing is I don't want to mess up my channel. Can I stop for a second? Please. Can you stop for a second so I can call you together and have a chat. You'll get everything you need for delicious breakfast, lunches and dinners at Don's Stores. First you'll save on the aisles when you fill your trolley with everyday low prices on the products you buy the most.