Notes for an Elite Playbook: The Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone
Accounting Control Fraud is one play in the elite playbook; this post argues that Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones are another.
Read more...Category Archives: Social policy
The Persecution and Assassination of the People of Greece as Performed by the Inmates of the Troika, Under the Direction of the Eurogroup
A new paper shreds the myths that justified the misguided application of austerity and wage-rate reduction policies in Greece and the Eurozone.
Read more...After Shocking Fundraising Totals, Bernie Sanders Defends European-Style Socialism
Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid is already creating more of a stir than expected. He is not just running against Clinton. He’s targeting an entire system.
Read more...Syriza Emulates Nixon Going to China in a Bad Way
It’s painful to watch the Greek ruling coalition unwittingly do the creditors’ work by wringing Greece dry of cash more aggressively than Pasok or New Democracy would have dared to.
Read more...Insurance in Extended Families
Yves here. Color me appalled by the premise of this post. It starts from the assumption that social safety nets are bad because they crowd out “informal institutions” namely family, as the insurer of the last resort. Note it may be unfair to single out this post, since the authors are addressing an apparently conventional […]
Read more...Bill Black: Obama & TPP – Every One That Doeth Evil Hateth the Light
President Obama wants the world to know that he takes it personally that the Democratic Party’s base opposes his latest effort to sell out the people of the world to the worst corporations through the infamous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal.
Read more...Gaius Publius: What’s Wrong with Wyden-Hatch-Ryan’s Fast Track Bill – The Specifics
Why the proposed “fast track” authorization for misnamed “trade” deals is even worse than you imagined.
Read more...The Continuing Depopulation of Detroit
Detroit is getting the same treatment as Latvia and Ireland, and we are already seeing similar results in Greece, with most people who have good foreign job prospects taking a hike. But while Latvia and Ireland stabilized at much lower levels of output and have started to recover from their, Detroit, like Greece, looks like a failed state. And this is perversely seen as acceptable in America.
Read more...Gaius Publius: Hillary Clinton, Progressives & the Uphill Climb
Aversion to Hillary Clinton among bona fide progressives is far more acute than Democratic party loyalists recognize.
Read more...Quick Note on Slavery, Finance, Minsky, and the Panic of 1837
Looking at slavery from the financial perspective, 1837 looks a lot like the Crash of 2007 – 2008.
Read more...Richard Wolff: Scapegoat Economics 2015
A new politics organized around scapegoat economics appeals to voters by promising to “protect” them from austerity policies.
Read more...Joe Firestone: When Will the Senate Budget Committee Majority Ever Learn About Sector Financial Balances?
The best budget policy: Let the government deficit float and spend on programs to produce full employmen and solve our many other problems.
Read more...The Minimum Wage: Could the Democrats Please Give Consideration to the Idea of Ceasing to Betray Working People?
A living wage is $15.00 an hour. Why the heck can’t Democrats bring themselves to support that, and why do they punish those who do?
Read more...J.D. Alt: A Push-Pull Model for Cooperative Markets Financed by Sovereign Spending
This model of allocating new fiat dollars to specific collective purposes could be applicable to many sovereign spending situations.
Read more...‘National Competitiveness: A Crowbar for Corporate and Financial Interests
We’ve regularly derided the notion of “national competitiveness” as a an inevitable accompaniment to the oversold notion of “free trade”. Economists are aware of, yet choose to ignore, the Lipsey-Lancaster theorem, which says when an idealized state cannot be attained, moving closer to it may not be an improvement; it can often produce worse outcomes. You need to evaluate the “second best” options specifically and not go on faith.
But economists and policy makers treat “free trade” as an article of faith, and with that comes the idea that countries must compete to find customers overseas. There is too little consideration of the fallacy of expecting countries to be competitive and by implication, seek to be exporters. It is impossible for all countries to be net exporters. Moreover, countries are often better served to design their policies primarily for the benefit of domestic workers and markets, and to promote export-oriented programs only to the extent that they do not undermine conditions at home, or will clearly produce a net benefit.
Read more...