Category Archives: Economic fundamentals

Michael Klare: Plunging Oil Prices – A Recipe for More War?

Low and generally volatile oil prices are a prescription for more political instability in major oil producing nations.

2015: A Failing Fiscal Policy

Although the case study is the UK, this post is yet another example of how counterproductive austerity is, from both an economic and a social perspective.

Mathew D. Rose: Now It Is Poland’s Turn

Germany is very upset that Poland has voted in a populist, Euroskeptic, anti-austerity government. And Germany is particularly unhappy that the new regime is increasing its control over public media….which Germany already has in place.

How the Labor Cost Competitiveness Myth is Making the Eurozone Crisis Worse

A new article makes a devastating attack on a fundamental belief driving Eurozone policy, that the member economies need to be made more “competitive,” meaning labor needs to be squeezed, for the currency union to achieve more growth.

Marshall Auerback: What US Treasury Yields Might Be Signalling

Bond yields warn of deflation. How real is this worry?

2016: Oil Limits and the End of the Debt Supercycle

How tight linkages among phenomena, such as oil and commodity prices, and flagging non-elite wages, are about to cause substantial economic disruption.

China’s Contradictory Aims, Greater International Role Versus Domestic Economic Control, HIt Breaking Point

China appears to be in denial that it can’t have more open financial markets and maintain the same degree of control over the economy that it once enjoyed.

Identifying Vectors Influencing China’s (and International) Markets

A list of some of the factors driving the recent market upheaval in China. Readers will hopefully add to and refine this compilation.

Why Lowering the Marginal Corporate Tax Rate Does Not Increase Growth

A new paper puts another nail in the coffin to the idea that lowering corporate tax rates will boost growth.

Another Slow Year for the Global Economy

The factors that dragged down the global economy in 2015 will persist – and in some cases worsen – in the new year.

Deflation Denialism: No, Chancellor, 0.5% Inflation is Not “Welcome News”

What is deflation? What has caused inflation to fall? And why is there no such thing as ‘good deflation’?

Start-Up Governments, or Can Bureaucracies Innovate?

What makes bureaucracies innovative?

Wolf Richter: Welcome to 2016! With Just a Touch of Mayhem for Stocks

Stocks took a beating around the globe on the first day back in 2016. Hopes of a better year start out inauspiciously.

Private Equity Made Bad Bet on Ships, Hit by Collapse in China Trade

Private equity’s misadventure in ships is yet another proof of both hubris and too much money looking for deals.

Louis Proyect: Greece as Rashomon

Like Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon”, the story of Syriza is also one about a rape told from different, self-serving and contradictory perspectives.