The Shafting, Um, Sharing Economy
The Wall Street Journal, of all places, describes the dark economic underbelly of Uber and other Orwellianly-named “sharing” services.
Read more...Category Archives: Economic fundamentals
A Parallel Currency for Greece: Part II
Yves here. I’m quite interested in reader reactions to this scheme. My big reservation is that the amount of the scrip devised by the authors, the TCC, has to be limited to the an amount of discount of future tax payments that is deemed to be credible. Given that Bill Mitchell has estimated that Greece […]
Read more...Wolf Richter: Atlanta Fed ‘Sticky CPI’ Soars, Hottest Inflation Since July 2008
A jump in “sticky CPI” suggests the Fed may be close to getting the data excuses it needs to raise interest rates.
Read more...IMF Paper Finds That Too Much Finance is Bad for Growth
A new IMF paper strikes another blow against the idea that Big Finance is good for you.
Read more...Greece Cornered as IMF and ECB Refuse to Relent
A flurry of stories this weekend confirms that Greece and its creditors remain hopelessly at odds. The inertial path is to a Greek default
Read more...Bill Black: Krugman is Half Right
Paul Krugman’s latest column fingers some valid targets but lets way too many other equally deserving ones off.
Read more...“Why Syriza Will Blink”
Anatole Kaletsky has a cognent, forcefully argued new article at the Project Syndicate website, Why Syriza Will Blink, which independently comes to the conclusion we’ve reached, that the winning strategy for the creditors is to keep Greece in the sweatbox and use worsening economic and social conditions in Greece to crush domestic support for Syriza. Kaletsky goes further than we have, arguing that this is the course the Troika is taking, and the new coalition should have anticipated this as a likely strategy, since it’s the same one they used successfully against Cyprus two years ago.
Read more...Wolf Richter: Why the Heck Is the Trucking Business Slowing Down?
Trucking activity is a long-standing leading indicator of economic activity. It’s been flashing red in recent months.
Read more...Is the Push for Greater European Integration a Mistake?
The assumption among policy elites that more European integration will heal the union’s ills may be misguided.
Read more...Wolf Richter: How Soaring Housing Costs Impoverish a Whole Generation and Maul the Real Economy
Housing costs are beyond the reach of many middle class earners. And while that is no news, housing has been the engine of past recoveries. So inflated home prices are part of why the economy will stay mired in low growth.
Read more...Greece Authorizes €750 Million Payment to IMF Despite Failing to Get Concession Sought [Updated]
Today, Greece blinked. But one unconfirmed report suggests the government got some eyewash.
Read more...Greece Finally Threatens Default as Deal with Creditors Remains Remote
A Greek default looms, but what does that mean for Greece and its creditors?
Read more...Ilargi: Will Austerity Be the Straw that Breaks the EU AND the UK?
Cameron thinks he’s riding a major victory, and he will now be called upon to deliver on his election promises, which just so happen to include a deepening and acceleration of austerity measures.
Read more...Greece Says It Will Make IMF Payment Next Week As Stalemate Continues
Greece may succeed in avoiding a default next week, but it remains at loggerheads with its creditors.
Read more...The Foreclosure Crisis Caused a Great Migration in Miniature
Several commentators picked up on the relationship between the events in Baltimore and the dearth of economic opportunity that leads to a sense of hopelessness. But precious few added the component of the foreclosure crisis, a dislocating event that has few parallels in American history. A new paper in the American Sociological Review by Matthew Hall (Cornell), Kyle Crowder (University of Washington) and Amy Spring (Georgia State) puts numbers to this, and shows that we really had a small-scale version of the Great Migration, the shift of African-Americans from the rural south to the big cities of the north. This migration hollowed out and segregated African-American and Latino communities to an even greater degree than where they already were.
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