The Charade That Deters the Use of “Direct Spending” to Fund Federal Operations
Why do so many people recoil at the idea that Federal spending does not depend on taxation?
Read more...Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy
Michael Hoexter: Living in the Web of Soft Climate Denial
A long road is ahead for humanity in adjusting to our new circumstances but we must now act at times before we are comfortable doing so. Such is the nature of our climate emergency.
Read more...Is Fiscal Policy for Prosperity Back in Place of Austerity?
Austerity appears to be quietly going out of fashion.
Read more...Human Development, Inequality, and Long Working Hours
One-dimensional indicators such as GNI per capita are known to be flawed measures of well-being. The Human Development Index (HDI) introduced dimensions of health and education alongside income. This column argues that an HDI adjusted for inequality and hours worked gives deeper insight into a country’s economic standing. Using this composite measure, the US falls from first to seventh among G8 countries.
Read more...Expansionary Fiscal Consolidation Myth
Why fiscal consolidation, which is neoliberal economists’ pet idea that austerity increases growth, is all wet.
Read more...Wolf Richter: Why this Job Market is Still Terrible: The Politically Incorrect Numbers Everyone is Hushing up
For individuals, the job market has barely improved since the Great Recession.
Read more...The Economic Drivers of Political Disruption in Advanced Economies
The (bad) economic policy roots of political polarization.
Read more...The Immorality and Brutal Violence of Extreme Greed
Yves here. Please welcome guest blogger #SlayTheSmaugs. For those of you who have neither read The Hobbit nor seen the movies, “Smaug” is probably a meaningless word. In The Hobbit, Smaug is a massive and vicious dragon. He sits on a pile of gold and jewels that would bury a football stadium’s grass several feet […]
Read more...Crisis After Brexit: Let Us Put An End to the Old Europe of Denigrators
Europe’s tall order for combatting Brexit: “What is called for is a union so good that people will want more of it.”
Read more...Bill Black and Stephanie Kelton: Is it Time for a New Deal Federal Jobs Program?
On the need for New Deal levels of spending on national priorities and the myths and political grifting that prevent it.
Read more...How Brexit Threatens to Turn the UK Into “Borisland”
How the Tories and UKIP intend to use Brexit to impose permanent austerity and reduce workers’ rights.
Read more...Rebalancing, Wealth Transfers, and the Growth of Chinese Debt
By Michael Pettis, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a finance professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. Cross posted from China Financial Markets. For the past ten years much of what I have written about debt in China was aimed mainly at trying to convince analysts and policymakers […]
Read more...Brexit: Fear, Loathing, and Anger on Both Sides of the Channel
Politicians in the UK and the EU are virtually at each other’s throats over Brexit.
Read more...Brexit: The Crisis Begins
The Brexit vote was a stunning repudiation of neoliberalism and austerity. But what comes next?
Read more...The Global “New Normal” Is Not New– But It Is Still a Real Concern
Why the “new normal” is a sign that capitalism is running out of options.
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