Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents

“The US Trade Deal Is a Bad Deal, and It Has the Potential to Get Worse”

The first US trade “deal”, with the UK, looks as ugly as one might have expected.

Martin Wolf’s “The old global economic order is dead”

A look at two factoids in a new Martin Wolf article illustrate why our economic mess seems intractable….and not just for the feckless US.

Distributional and Macroeconomic Effects of Trump 2.0: The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer

The likely outcome of Trump policies are a recession, a rise in inequality, and a further fall in living standards of working and middle-class Americans

Trump’s Neverending Tariffs War? Proposes 100% Tariffs on Foreign Movies; De Minimus Exclusion Ends, Hurting the Poor; Financial Times on Tariff Evasion, Official and Via Trans-Shipment

A battlefield update on Trump’s tariff wars.

The Ripple Effects of Shrinking U.S. Science

Severe cuts in science research funding will cause a complex cascade of effects across the United States and the world.

Complacency, Denialism and the Risk of an Economic Trumpocalypse

Why the downside to Trump economic policies are far greater than the press and pundit class are willing to acknowledge.

Satyajit Das: The Unravelling – Part 2: Contagion & Containment

Mapping the contagion fever chart of how a Trump financial meltdown might unfold.

Michael Hudson and Yanis Varoufakis with Ann Pettifor on Economic and Political Paradigm Changes

The formidable trio of Michael Hudson, Yanis Varoufakis, and Ann Pettifor assess the rapid changes in our economic system.

Imagine You Are a Poor Nation, Trapped by Debt and Strangled by Climate Change—What Are Your Options?

Climate change, debt, and development have a caustic relationship, hindering economic justice and national advancement, but solutions exist.

Extractive Taxation and the French Revolution

What ought to be a cause for tariffs pause: unrepresentative and often high taxes were a major spur to the French Revolution.

How the American Economy Is Rigged to Serve the Rich, and Why Tariffs Won’t Change That

The money to support well-paid American jobs exists—it’s just being hoarded by the rich.

Company Accused of Organizing National Rental Housing Cartel Goes on Offense as Trump DOJ Mothballs Price-Fixing Case

In a lawsuit against Berkeley, RealPage contends that using pricing algorithms to coordinate residential rents among mega landlords is “free speech.”

‘You Don’t Need a Tariff, You Need a Revolution’

Chinese point out that Americans are exploited by oligarchs. But the tariffs, like it or not, are part of a radical right counter-revolution.

More on DOGE’s Fraud and Destruction

An update on DOGE’s rampage through government functions.

Tariffs and Trade Wars: Failing to Learn from the Great Depression

A detailed discussion of the damage done by Smoot Hawley to illustrate why tariffs typically do more harm than good