MMT Does Do Policy
Randy Wray clears up some of the “bizarre” claims that have been made about Modern Monetary Theory
Read more...Category Archives: Economic fundamentals
Pettis: 11 Reasons China Can’t Escape from Its Debt Overhang
China’s increasing debt level has goosed the economy. What form might the hangover take?
Read more...Philip Pilkington: Unemployment and Wages in the US – A Tale of Institutional Change
A fresh look at historical data shows how the relationship between unemployment and wage growth changed radically starting in 1981.
Read more...Don Quijones: “Uncreative” Destruction – The Troika’s Hostile Takeover of Europe
How the Troika is overriding national constitutions and popular will to strip-mine Europe’s periphery countries on behalf of banks.
Read more...Richard Alford: Has the Fed Learned Monetary Policy Lessons from the Financial Crisis?
Yves here. This post is a devastating critique of current Fed policy. But Alford sets his stage carefully before delivering his conclusions, so don’t be deceived by the tone of the early sections.
Read more...Wolf Richter: America’s Structural Unemployment Crisis in Two Charts
The enormous number of people who work only part-time for economic reasons is one the tragedies of the unemployment crisis in this country. And that started before the financial crisis.
Read more...How the West Looks to Carve Up the Ukraine
Michael Hudson gives an update on the West’s resource grab in the Ukraine
Read more...The Jobs Report For March 2014: After A Long Winter, The Economy Plays Some Catchup
Mr. Market was not happy with today’s jobs report. While it was not that bad, the ADP report earlier in the week had led investors to hope for better details.
Read more...IMF Imposing Even Tougher Austerity Conditions on New Loans
How the IMF has been devising even nastier versions of its austerity hairshirt in recent years.
Read more...Satyajit Das: The New Colonialism – Businesses Refuse Spend a Few Cents More Per Garment to End Labor Exploitation in Emerging Markets
Yves here. Das wrote this post to commemorate the anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, which killed over 1100 garment workers.
Read more...Bill Black: Deflation Dementia
Yves here. This piece by Bill Black not only does a great job of kneecapping some typically poor MSM reporting, but it’s also valuable as a high-level overview of the insanity of European economic policies.
Read more...Michael Hudson on the Real Logic of the $14+ Billion Ukraine Rescue Package
Yves here. Michael Hudson gives a short, persuasive explanation of the real reason the US and the IMF are bailing out the Ukraine. Hint: it’s not the reason you read in the American press.
Read more...Philip Pilkington: How Krugman’s Addiction to the ISLM Model Has Led to Repeated Bad Forecasts
Some people often ask why I complain about Krugman. “Hey Phil, Krugman is a good guy. He likes government spending. You like government spending. Therefore you must like Krugman,” says our budding young Socrates. Well, I’ll tell you why….
Read more...A U.S.-Saudi Move to Lower Oil Prices to Hurt Russia?
Could the U.S. unleash a flood of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve that would drive down prices in order to punish Russia?
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: Think Big, Think Bold – A Green New Deal
Yves here. One of the common frustrations expressed by the NC commentariat is that we spend a lot of time on diagnosis and not as much on solutions. I actually don’t think our emphasis on forensics and analysis is misplaced. Too often, people are uncomfortable with examining deep-seated problems and thus rush to devise remedies that are incomplete or worse, counterproductive.
A second frustration, which I sympathize with, is that many of the solutions recommended by economists to our current problems (income disparity, high unemployment, increasing looting of the private sector and government) is based on restoring growth, which will make redistribution and other measures less contentious. Readers correctly point out that more growth is a 20th century remedy, when the 21st century is faces with global warming (meaning an need to start containing and better yet, reducing energy consumption) and resource constraints.
Yanis Varoufakis addresses both issues in his outline of what he calls a “Green New Deal”.
Read more...