Economics: Poetry and Essays by Daniel X. O’Neil and Jonny Stepping
is the third full-length book collaboration of the two Juggernaut Co. founders. The book was released on July 19, 2003. Each book is hand-numbered. There are 2,000 copies printed in the First Edition.
The book, a collection of work dating back to the publication of Memo To All Employees, focuses on the simple fact that the world (market) economy has become an unquestioned foundation for the lives of friends and enemies all over. Whether you are a member of al Qaeda or the Board of Directors of Exxon Mobil, you believe in using capitalism to make money and achieve your goals.
This often makes for strange combinations and odd expressions of reality.
Lots of the material was first published in Emigre Magazine and other magazines and websites. Much of it was also developed while on performance tours around the USA in the late 90s.
Here is the blurb from Books In Print:
The book for those with unclean hands. Economics is a book based on the gargantuan fact that the world economy is so all-inclusive that it embraces good and evil equally. And no one can do good, like feed their children and clothe themselves and love one another, without somehow bowing down before the presence of evil. Economics moves from large to small. It contains an essay coining the word “trut”– the mutable concoction of facts employed for an ulterior purpose. 4/5 of the truth, lined up in a reasonable facsimile of the truth. And it contains tiny accounts of the author, exposing his own economics, his own bowing down, and finding dignity in it all. Economics contains found poems and obitpoems. Economics is a book for people.
Front & Back covers
Illustrations
Table of contents
Copyright
Epigraphs
Dedication
The Economy
My Weight
What the Wheat Said to the Chafe
Despite My Need for Corrective Lenses
Trut: The Star, The Globe, and the Missing H in the New Veracity
Two Short Plays by Bob Christy
Found Poem (Bulls)
What I Would Say to Yigal Amir
Wonder
Currency
4/14/96
ObitPoem: Rose Blumkin (Victory Over Descendants)
What Rose Folan Said
California Poem
August 22 1997 Fri
August 23 1997
Will Work for Food
ObitPoem: Benny Waters (Jerry Lewis Redemption)
List of Health Problems
Tree
Life After Christmas
Volgare Proclamation
0
Balthus and Earnhardt Are Dead
Poem (Chauvinism)
How I Got My Hernia
ObitPoem: William Ferris (Delivered)
Unclean Hands
Barry Rodgers Poem
Deirdre & Beatrice Poem
Calorie Count
James (Buddha) Edwards
Project: What Smells?
Wait A Minute
Susan Molinari Works on Her Keynote Address
Mortgage Credit Explanation Letter
Approaching Pittsburgh
Annotations
The “Mathematics” poetry handout was published on October 14, 1997.
“Emigre” refers to Emigre Magazine, the premier graphic design magazine in the United States of America. Editor Rudy
Van der Lans gave me the space and the encouragement to develop much of the thinking that appears in this book.
ObitPoems are found poems based on obituaries published in newspapers.
The Economy was first published as a performance poem onstage at the Red Room, Dallas, TX, in “The Economy Tour”, Saturday, November 8, 1997. Tour sponsored by Camel Cigarettes.
Written long before I discovered UBL had profited from a plane crash or that his family owned the right to sell Snapple in the Middle East.
My Weight was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout. I gave up on the 20 pounds circa 1999.
What the Wheat Said to the Chafe was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout.
Despite My Need for Corrective Lenses was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout. “Punch 10” is a nowoutlawed voting booth procedure that allowed the voter to vote for the major seats by perforating one hole. Used effectively by Chicago Democrats to deliver the votes.
Trut: The Star, The Globe, and the Missing H in the New Veracity was first published in Emigre 41, The Magazine Issue (1997). Dear Oxford English Dictionary: First appearance of the word “trut”.
Two Short Plays by Bob Christy was dictated by Bob Christy in a conversation in October 1997.
Found Poem (Bulls) Text from Chicago Bulls Public Address Announcer Ray Clay.
What I Would Say to Yigal Amir is published here for the first time.
Wonder was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout and is to be read aloud with a sad wistfulness.
Currency was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout.
4/14/96 was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout. The “U” in Unabomber is to be pronounced like the “oo” in “boo”.
ObitPoem: Rose Blumkin is from the original obituary in The New York Times, “Rose Blumkin, Retail Queen, Dies at 104” by Barnaby J. Feder, August 13, 1998
What Rose Folan Said was first published on May 30,2003 at the inaugural Technology Committee Comedy Night in the Voss Center at Queen of Angels Catholic Elementary School.
California Poem was inspired by Dylan Morgan and his apple tree, Santa Cruz, CA.
August 22 1997 Fri was first published as a journal entry.
August 23 1997 was first published as a journal entry.
Will Work For Food was first published in a slightly different form in Tunnel Rat, a Chicago poetry newsletter read mainly by poets, which accounts for its “preaching to the choir” nature.
ObitPoem: Benny Waters is from The New York Times obituary “Benny Waters, 96, Who Played Swanky Jazz in 7 Decades” by Ben Ratliff, August 13, 1998.
List of Health Problems was first published as a journal entry. Most of the issues have been cleared up, thank you.
Balthus and Earnhardt Are Dead was first published February 19, 2001 on www.sweetfancymoses.com, edited by Matt Herlihy.
Poem (Chauvinism) was first published as a MapPoem in October 2002.
Volgare Proclamation was first published in Emigre 38, The Authentic Issue (1996). The original manuscript upon which Stephen Farrell based his Volgare typeface can be found at the Newberry Library in Chicago in Case Manuscript Fj 135.082, from their collection of Florentine manuscripts. Since first publication, Slobodan Milosevic was offered up to The Hague by his fellow countrymen and is now representing himself in his first trial. Ratko Mladic and other killers are still on the loose. You can find the text of the Dayton Peace Plan on the State Department website at
www.state.gov. On the home front, we now know firsthand as a country what it feels like whena list of the missing serves as a list of the dead.
Unclean Hands was first performed on The Economy Tour. Cadence and structure of this poem based on music composed by Forrest Rausch.
How I Got My Hernia was first published as a journal entry. True story. Kenny was dead by Fall, shot face down and naked in an apartment above the Lincoln Restaurant in Chicago.
ObitPoem: William Ferris is from the Chicago Tribune obituary “Notable Chicago Composer, Renaissance Man of Music” by John von Rhein, Tribune Music Critic, May 18, 2000.
Barry Rodgers Poem is published here for the first time.
Deirdre & Beatrice Poem was first published in performance at The Hideout, May 3, 2000. Thank you, Deirdre. Thank you.
Tree was first published as part of the “Mathematics” Poetry Handout.
Life After Christmas is published here for the first time.
Calorie Count was first published in Emigree 46, Fanzines and the Culture of DIY (1998). It was the answer to the question, “what is your favorite magazine?”.
James (Buddha) Edwards was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout. Mitch Ritchmond has yet to fulfill his early promise.
Project: What Smells? was first published as journal entries. I soon learned to live with the uncertainty of scent.
Wait A Minute was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout.
Susan Molinari Works on Her Keynote Address was first published as part of the “Mathematics” poetry handout.
Mortgage Credit Explanation Letter was first published on the date described and under the circumstances described.
Approaching Pittsburgh: “Whoa… Hang On” is a found poem from The New York Times article “From an Airliner’s Black Box, Next-to-Last Words” by Adam Bryant, April 21, 1996. The words themselves belong to the workers who uttered them, and I mean no disrespect to them. The fact that this plane and the 9/11 American Flight 93– the one full of the heroes who brought down the plane– went down 7 years, 3 days, and 103 miles from each other is weird, yes.
This book exists, as do I, because of my mother. I love you. Thank you.
Economics list
There are a world of examples out there that illustrate what Economics is all about:
Maria Bartiromo from Don’t Worry About Me by Joey Ramone – one of the founders of punk checks on his stocks.
The Sopranos – the things we do to make a living.
UBL profiting from putting airline stocks – the open market means that people who hate American capitalists can use American capitalism to help kill American capitalists.
The linking of the stock market and the war – the war is the market, the phoenix is the ashes
The Simpsons – Homer’s job at the nuclear plant, Smithers’ moral ambiguity– The Simpsons is proto-Economics
Weekend Box Office Sumaries – economic value = artistic value
Star Magazine – The trut will set us free
The Three Represents – China takes care of business
Europe acts American – everyone wants an accounting scandal
National “Do Not Call” list – cursed with a deep understanding of how individual decisions affect the national economy (NYT – Registration required)
Bullet With Butterfly Wings – despite finding market capitalism somewhat distasteful, we find ourselves intextricably enmeshed in it
The Godfather, Part 2, Scene with Senator – market culture often places respect in the wrong place
AdBusters – they get it
Pentagon Prepares a Futures Market on Terror Attacks – A great idea disguised as a disugusting one (NYT – Registration required)
Promotional card
