Hmmm. I just had a bizarre experience, involving a global news organisation and a trillion dollar corporation. (I got caught in the middle, so... owch.)
It’s not the sort of experience the people involved usually talk about in public… so I think I’ll talk about it in public.
🧵 It's personal, but of general interest, I think. If you've ever read some interesting news on Twitter/Reddit/Substack that seemed legit, about a major corporation, and then wondered why the mainstream media never picked up on it, this glimpse behind the scenes might explain why.

Well, this is hilarious. Two days after I released Minecraft's End Poem into the public domain – and finally set up a @PayPal donations page to allow people who loved the ending to say thank you... Paypal have closed my account.
Corporations.
Sigh. There doesn't seem to be any way that an artist can make a living that a major corporation can't automatically shut down.

So, eleven-and-a-bit years ago, I wrote the only written narrative in Minecraft: the story that appears after you kill the Ender Dragon. (A narrative which players often call The End Poem.)
Today, I officially librated that ending.

Er, what does that mean?

🧵 Well, THAT’S a long story. I’ve written a 10,000 word post explaining everything (the internet groans a terrible groan), which I strongly advice you to read if you actually want to understand the whole affair, because it’s complicated. (Yes, link follows.)

I note with interest that Uber have decided to bring forward their IPO. Let me decode that for you: Uber is a debt-crippled mirage of a company, worth nothing. Its backers want to get their money out before the onrushing financial crash makes that impossible. Do not buy shares. Let me back that up: here’s an analysis that brutally takes apart the case for a hundred-billion-dollar Uber IPO. It’s particularly eye-opening on the awful, unsustainable economic situation of the drivers (and this with rides subsidized by investor cash!)
nakedcapitalism.com/2018/08/hubert…

"For now, few experts think that a broader crisis is imminent."

Well, I think a broader crisis is imminent. Let me put that on the record: We will have a worse global financial crisis than 2008, starting within the year. Let's see who's right.

washingtonpost.com/business/econo… This is just irritating.

"Authorities in the United States and Europe took steps after the 2008 crisis to avoid a repeat episode."

No, they took steps that guaranteed a repeat episode. They tried to solve the problem at the wrong level.