Michael Hudson: Smoke and Mirrors of Corporate Buybacks Behind the Market Crash
Hudson clearly differentiates what is happening in the Chinese versus the US markets, with emphasis on the role of corporate buybacks here.
Read more...Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents
Robert Reich: In the New Economy, Workers Take on All the Risk
More Americans than ever don’t know what they’ll be earning next week. That’s why we need income insurance.
Read more...Bill Maher, New York Times Op Ed on the “Post Greed is Good Economy”
Bill Maher has a devastating short segment on the “post greed is good” world, as exemplified by the “sharing economy.” In a bit of synchronicity, a New York Times op ed by a former high-end restaurant captain covered similar themes.
Read more...Picking Apart One of the Biggest Lies in American Politics: “Free Trade”
How the Founding Fathers and successful advancing economies steered clear of manufacturer-destroying “free trade”.
Read more...As QE Wanes, Real Costs of “Employment” Subsidies Surface
As the QE prop is removed, it will become more difficult to ignore the fact that “employment” subsidies were often simply “employer” subsidies.
Read more...“How Complex Systems Fail”
Complex systems are prone to catastrophic failure. Have we come to embrace policies and values that increase the odds of failure?
Read more...Greece’s Missing Drivers of Growth
This post mines an issue we’ve discussed repeatedly, that the heavy dose of “reforms” imposed on Greece succeeded in lowering wage costs without providing the expected boost in exports.
Read more...The ALEC Rankings: Does Smaller Government Mean Higher Growth?
Demonstrating why Menzie Chinn stated, “The ALEC economic outlook ranking is, in my assessment, a manifestation of faith based economics.”
Read more...Michael Pettis: Do Markets Determine the Value of the RMB?
A thorough discussion of the background and implications of the so-far modest devaluation of the RMB.
Read more...Kanbur/Stiglitz: Rent Seeking as a Major Driver of Wealth and Income Inequality
Yves here. This post is wonky but important. While Stiglitz has written regularly about inequality as problematic from an economic perspective, and has mentioned rent seeking as a contributor, to my knowledge, this is the first time he’s said that old theories need to be tossed and that rent seeking is one of the main factors now driving wealth and income inequality.
Read more...Why Bernie Sanders Should Add a Job Guarantee to His Policy Agenda
Bernie has unapologetically rejected sclerotic visions of what is ‘politically possible’. And now he should add the Job Guarantee to his list of issues.
Read more...The GM Labeling Law to End All Labeling Laws
Campaigners for the Orwellianly-named “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015” falsely demonize those who want GM labeling as anti-science.
Read more...California First, As Both Climate Victim and Responder, the National Style-Setter Leads the Way
An old saying among trend-mavens is that as California goes, so goes the nation. That means its devastating drought is a real warning.
Read more...Perry Mehrling: The Fuss about Market Liquidity
I am SO glad to see this post appear. It’s annoying to see investors and banksters whine that they want more liquidity, as if that were a right.
Read more...Turbulence and Stability in Financial Markets: China in Recent Times
China is a case study of how liberalization of financial markets has never contributed to stability.
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