It didn't sound like philosophy to me, I always assumed that Strauss was politics rather than philosophy.

Are we all going to sit here handing it off between disciplines so we don't take the blame for that one.

I'm tired of this backslapping, aint humanity great BS, we're a virus with shoes Bill Hicks

First, ---Coleman, It's in fun. At least partly. Like Doug Adams? Jeez.

Does Strauss sounds like philosophy?

If Strauss is a brilliant political philosopher to the pistol wavers in the empire, a nazi propagandist and panderer (more my view) --or a cartoon artist for Le Monde, does that mean Dr. Shadia Drury has wasted her life stdying his work?
On another level, much if not most of economics is indeed pop economics. That's an essential, high demand market. Not to say it's all BS at all. As you imply, I am not competent to make that statement--even if I would. But a lot of what justifies our economic world vision is pure horse hocky. Few here would disagree with that, I think.
The most powerful lies are the ones that contain a good measure of truth.
Strauss is in exactly the same business as Milton Friedman, and his influence is profound and pernicious in all our lives.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5010.htm

Disastrous mistake #1: Thinking that to label something is to understand it.
 

Grabbing what you can, as John Ruskin said, isn't any less wicked when you grab it with the power of your brains than with the power of your fists.

Pop economics as opposed to what? The very sensible academic economics of rationality and utility?

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

I'm going to try very hard not to babble on in incomprhensible jargon here.

You're right to a certain extent, but let's dig a little deeper.

If you look at older books economics it frequently spelled out oeconomics, which isn't a misprint.  It helps reveal the origin of the word and a great deal about its true meaning.  

economy  
c.1530, "household management," from L. oeconomia, from Gk. oikonomia "household management," from oikonomos "manager, steward," from oikos "house" (cognate with L. vicus "district," vicinus "near;" O.E. wic "dwelling, village;" see villa) + nomos "managing," from nemein "manage" (see numismatics). The sense of "manage the resources of a country" (short for political economy) is from 1651. Hence, economic (1835) means "related to the science of economics," while economical (1780) retains the sense "characterized by thrift." Economist is 1586 in the sense of "household manager," 1804 meaning "student of political economy." Economy (adj.) as a term in advertising at first meant simply "cheaper" (1821), then "bigger and thus cheaper per unit or amount" (1950).

Economy taken from its origin does not presume that one either attempts to maximize their utility, nor does it assume that the pursuit of self interest is at the heart of economics.  Economics in this original sense is simply the way that a society provides for its material wants.

The market on the other hand presumes both self interest and getting as much as possible from every transaction. That's the problem.

When there are social and environmental limits on growth.  When the formal presumption that the market can expand forever is shown wrong, what emerges is not voluntary exchange. If much of the economy is zero sum, that is that in order for one person to gain another must lost.  Then the market is revealed as a very thin veil for redistribution in which  those who have take from those who do not have.

The whole voluntary nature of the game is thrown out the window, because both parties do not gain.  One must lose in order for the other to gain.

In this case, the invisible hand of the market is nothing more than naked power cloaked as economic interest.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

Increasing travel costs will hit labour mobility first, then trade in goods, then movement of capital. So I think financial globalisation might outlast free trade.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

As is the US.

For "EU is doomed" to apply (from my reading of MfMs reasoning), EU has to fail in developing into the arena which people can use for their political sovereignty.

In effect, EU is doomed unless it develops into a state, including a social side.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

The issue with Europe is whether European identity trumps national identity.

You and Barbara are prime examples of why this may happen.  You're Spanish, she's Czech and you live in London.  Now without the free movement of labor in Europe do to the EU would you all be where you're at now?

Now again, during the period before the First World War, there was a great deal of internal and extracontinental migration from Europe.  Hungarians moving to France, Poles to Germany, etc.  But those mass flows stopped after the First World War.

Few remember, that prior to the First World War, most international travel occured without passport including migration.  4 million Europeans migrated to Latin America between 1870-1914.  An even larger number went to the United States and Canada.

Ultimately, assmilation occurred.  I mean recognize the irony that Sarkozy is the grandson of Hungarian immgrants calling second generation Arabs and Africans "racaille."

But the EU is a case where you have the conscience construction of a transnational identity much like you had in the Holy Roman Empire prior to 1806. And in that case, sovereignity at the national level is limited.

So does the EU die, or does it grow into an explicit political union?  How many people have to be shifted around if the EU dissolves and suddenly all the Polish plumbers and Spanish polymaths are kicked out of the UK?

The whole other thing is that countries like the UK and Belgium are starting to show serious internal strains.  What happens if Flanders goes on it's own?  Scotland declares independence?  One thing is that in the case of serious military threats from say a resurgent Russia have to be dealt with either through a European military or dependence on through alliance with the US.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg