Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents

A Hard Look at Rent and Rent Seeking with Michael Hudson & Pepe Escobar

An in-depth discussion of financial capitalism versus earlier models and the Chinese and Russian approach, with a focus on the role of rent.

Polarization, Then a Crash: Michael Hudson on the Rentier Economy

Michael Hudson discusses the chokehold of pro-finance, pro-rentier capitalism reaching into the present COVID-19 crisis.

Explaining Fiscal Multipliers, a Stealthy but Important Budget Battleground (Part 1)

Fiscal multipliers, an economic concept often misused to justify austerity, is rearing its head in Beltway budget debates. Time to bone up.

Someone Should Ask Biden Cabinet Candidate Ursula Burns If She Supports Child Labor in Africa

Ursula Burns, a candidate for Commerce Secretary, is a director of Nestlé, which defended its use of child labor before the Supreme Court.

Who Loses Out From Covid-Induced Changes in Buying Patterns?

Why for some sectors of the economy, life after Covid may never be the same.

Antitrust Spring

Regulators and officials are dusting off antitrust rule books to go after tech monopolists.

Wolf Richter: Who Holds the $1.65 Trillion of Apartment Building Debt amid Eviction Bans and Plunging Occupancy Rates at High Rises?

How much apartment building debt is there, and who holds it?

SCOTUS: States Can Bar Pharmacy Benefit Manager Grifting

A new Supreme Court ruling upholds the ability of states to regulate pharmacy benefit managers.

Why We Need to Adopt Friedrich Engels’ Thinking on Science in These Times

Friedrich Engels work on working class included describing how capitalists would not contrain their environmental damage.

Covid, the Politicization of Science, and More Questions About the Pfizer Vaccine Approval

How political considerations are getting in the way of science-based policy, as in not unduly tainted by commerce, special interests, or fashion.

Do Billionaires Destroy Democracy and Capitalism?

The US can draw on its Gilded Age to bring its billionaires to heel.

Study of 50 Years of Tax Cuts For Rich Confirms ‘Trickle Down’ Theory Is an Absolute Sham

Another nail in the trickle down economics coffin. Too bad that vampire-like, it keeps coming back.

Congress to Pass $17 Billion Bailout of Airlines, to Top Off Prior Bailout

Airlines are back at the trough while more and more Americans go hungry.

Market Capitalism

Some musings about late-stage capitalism and what it might take to fix it.