The debate on whether to frack or not, whether to build the Keystone pipeline or not, focuses on jobs v. environment. But this conventional framing looks past the fact that there are other ways to create jobs, and even worse, the role of government corruption in covering up the environmental costs.
Read more...The media understates how much the prosperity of the US middle class has fallen on a relative basis.
Read more...Despite President Barack Obama’s charm offensive in the region, Pacific nations are well-advised to remain wary of the U.S. government’s position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP)
Read more...If you think medical care in the US is already suffering from crapification, the Brave New World of corporatized medicine will take it to a new level.
Read more...At this point, it seems hard to add insult to injury, given the terrible track record of the OCC Independent Foreclosure Reviews. But it’s nevertheless been done.
Read more...Michael Hudson discusses how Thomas Piketty’s new book Capital in the 21st Century greatly understates the degree of wealth concentration with Karl Fitzgerald of Renegade Economists.
Read more...Randy Wray clears up some of the “bizarre” claims that have been made about Modern Monetary Theory
Read more...A lot of people are misreading this Princeton study on the political influence of the wealthy and business groups versus ordinary citizens. The study does not say that the US is an oligarchy, wherein the wealthy control politics with an iron fist.
Read more...Since readers have taken interest in the details of our ongoing litigation with the giant California public pension fund, CalPERS, I thought I’d tie off a thread from earlier in the month. By way of background, last September, we filed a Public Records Act request (California’s version of FOIA) for private equity return data that […]
Read more...Yves here. This is a day-late Earth Day post, but the proper stewardship of this planet is a 365-day-a-year duty. Ilargi focuses on one of my pet issues, that too many of the remedies for climate change (and environmental protection generally) rely on the illusion of new technology eliminating or blunting the need for lifestyle changes.
Read more...China’s increasing debt level has goosed the economy. What form might the hangover take?
Read more...Yves here. The subject of inequality in income and wealth has, in the last year or so, become an oft-mentioned topic in economic and political commentary. It’s now even acceptable to use the word “oligarchy” to describe the US. Yet too often lost in the debate is that this type of inequality is the result of what right society allows various members to have. For instance, in the last 30 years, intellectual property laws have gotten stronger while the rights of workers to organize have been cut back.
We had a more equitable society when unions were stronger, taxes were more progressive, and anti-trust laws were enforced. This post by Geoff Davis serves as a reminder that there are remedies other than progressive taxation (which he regards as an after-the-fact remedy) to achieve that end.
Read more...A fresh look at historical data shows how the relationship between unemployment and wage growth changed radically starting in 1981.
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