Why Tax Cuts for the Rich Solve Nothing
An update on Republican tax cut plans, and why they are economic chicanery.
Read more...Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents
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.
Read more...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.
Read more...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.
Read more...The US Antitrust Counter-Revolution
In case you doubted it, diminished antitrust enforcement, a rise in monopolies, and increased inequality are related developments.
Read more...How “Use of Machinery” Promotes Inequality and Social Upheaval
A prescient take from the 1840s on “machinery” versus labor and communities.
Read more...Matt Bruenig: Nordic Socialism Is Realer Than You Think
Yes, Virginia, Nordic countries really are socialist success stories.
Read more...Lack of Hope in America: The High Costs of Being Poor in a Rich Land
Tying the loss of economic mobility to the loss of hope and personal despair.
Read more...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.
Read more...People Voted Communist Because…
Italy had the largest communist party in Western Europe. Why did ordinary people vote communist? What did they believe in?
Read more...The Minefield of Historical Communism
What does the experience of historical communism imply about modern politics and about possibilities in the future?
Read more...Monetary Sovereigns, Monetary Subjects: Modern Money & The Criminal Legal System
On the connection between money, and in particular monetary sovereignity, and the criminal justice system.
Read more...The Retirement Wealth Inequality Machine
A fine, high level description of the retirement problem in the US, coupled with a not-as-stellar remedy.
Read more...It Takes a Theory to Beat a Theory: The Adaptive Markets Hypothesis
Economist Andrew Lo presents his alternative to the Efficient Markets Hypothesis: the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis.
Read more...Bill Black: The CFPB Arbitration Rule is Pro (Honest) Businesses
The CFPB takes a modest but important step to rein in fraud against consumers, which has banks hoppin’ mad.
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