G20: You Can Smell Tear Gas in the Streets as the Oil Industry Squabbles
What the G20 and OPEC meetings mean for the political relations, economies, and people of the world.
Read more...Category Archives: Economic fundamentals
Brexitonomics
A short discussion of why economists’ efforts to model the impact of Brexit leave a lot to be desired.
Read more...American Life Expectancy Continues to Fall: Rise in Suicides, Overdose Deaths the Big Culprit
America’s falling life expectancy is a symptom of rising social distress.
Read more...White House Doubles Down On Coal Despite New Climate Report
Yet more official climate change denialism…
Read more...Michael Hudson: “Moral Hazard” vs Mutual Aid – How the Bronze Age Saved Itself from Debt Serfdom
Bronze Age societies forgave agricultural debt to keep cultivators working on their land, able to pay taxes and work in the military and on public projects. Lenders were seen as greedy and exploitative.
Read more...An MMT View of “Twin Deficits”: Budget and Current Account Deficits
Why the worries about the US budget deficit and China buying Treasuries are overblown.
Read more...Is This Time Different? Examining Recent Emerging-Market Turbulence
Some emerging-market economies look wobbly. How likely are we to see more crises?
Read more...High Stakes, Entrenched Interests And The Trump Rollback Of Environmental Regulations
Trump’s “progress” in gutting environmental protections.
Read more...Apple’s “Capital Return Program”: Rewarding the Wrong People
nstead of rewarding the taxpayers and employees who actually create value for the tech giant, Apple is doling out massive stock buybacks
Read more...Trump and the Midterms: Is It Not The Economy, Stupid?
What role did the state of the economy likely play in the midterm results?
Read more...AOC Rental Woes a Reminder of Worsening Conditions for Workers
Rising rental costs put a spotlight on how it is even harder than ever for ordinary workers to get by.
Read more...Cryptocurrencies: Financial (In)stability and (Un)fairness
If private cryptocurrencies were to find widespread economic use, either coexisting with or fully displacing fiat money, the result would be increased financial instability, inequality, and social instability.
Read more...Wolf Richter: The State of the American Debt Slaves, Q3 2018
Consumer debt continues to grind upwards.
Read more...Brexit: Even More Noise in the Signal
Rumors of Brexit progress seem to be greatly exaggerated.
Read more...Economic Distress Did Drive Trump’s Win
Contrary to the dominant media narrative, social issues like racism and sexism on their own can’t explain Trump’s success.
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