Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents

Austerity in One Country: The Case of Britain

A devastating review of the recent history of austerity in the UK.

Wolf Richter: How Banks Hurt the Real Economy – FDIC’s Hoenig to Senate

The FDIC’s Tom Hoenig takes up the thankless task of shellacking the latest self-serving whinge from Jamie Dimon.

Fake Unicorns: Study Finds Average 49% Valuation Overstatement; Over Half Lose “Unicorn” Status When Corrected

Investors beware! A large scale study found that every unicorn it looked at was overvalued, on average to a significant degree.

Why Tax Cuts for the Rich Solve Nothing

An update on Republican tax cut plans, and why they are economic chicanery.

What the US “Health Care Reform” Debate Did Not Address

A sobering compendium of the factors responsible for the rot in the US health care system.

Original Shareholder Value Article – Milton Friedman to GM: Build Clunky Cars

Yet another reason to doubt the supposed wisdom of the “shareholder value” theory of corporate governance.

The Two Capitalisms: Electric Batteries as a Case Study in US Magical Thinking vs. Chinese Vertical Integration

Electric vehicle batteries illustrate how the Chinese use control of raw materials and end markets to built vertically integrated industries.

The US Antitrust Counter-Revolution

In case you doubted it, diminished antitrust enforcement, a rise in monopolies, and increased inequality are related developments.

How “Use of Machinery” Promotes Inequality and Social Upheaval

A prescient take from the 1840s on “machinery” versus labor and communities.

Trilemmas and Financial Instability

Examining national policy tradeoffs in a world of perhaps too much in the way of free and easy international money movements.