What’s at stake: The rise of the extreme right in the latest French election has mostly been treated as surprising or reflecting special circumstances like the November 13 Paris attacks. But a large literature linking extreme right votes to persisting depressed economic conditions suggests that longer run factors are at play.
Read more...How did Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve justify their rate increase now, despite strong signs that there is little economic basis for doing so?
Call this an exercise in twisted logic, plain and simple.
Read more...The election of businessman Mauricio Macri to the presidency in Argentina signals a rightward turn in the country and, perhaps, in South America more generally. Macri, the candidate of the right-wing Compromiso para el cambio (Commitment to Change) party, defeated Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli (the Peronist party candidate) in November’s runoff election, by less than 3% of the vote.
Read more...A vignette of how pensioners are being shafted by being denied their COLA, or cost of living increase. In New Jersey, this looks to be a transfer to Wall Street.
Read more...A study by Pew gives a new look at the fall of the middle class and how the accompanying rise in income stratification is playing out.
Read more...As bad as available data says wealth concentration is, it is probably even worse.
Read more...Being homeless in San Francisco is not necessarily a bargain.
Read more...On the fallen status of lower-class whites, and the poor prospects for many of their betters.
Read more...An excerpt from CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot’s important new book, Failed.
Read more...Our favorite curmudgeon, political scientist Tom Ferguson, appeared on Real News Network to tease some signal out of the considerable noise on Donald Trump.
Read more...Labour20 set forth important goals not just for labor but for the economy and broader society. But does organized labor have the credibility to promote these aims?
Read more...More on the ground readings on the impact of austerity in Greece.
Read more...Yves here. Readers know I have a weakness for righteous rants…
Read more...A conversation between Marshall Auerback and Branko Milanovic on income inequality and the potential countervailing forces to its rise.
Read more...Intergenerational income mobility is currently not very high in the US compared to other developed countries. This column shows that US intergenerational income equality was high in the 19th century but plummeted between 1900 and 1920. The income-mobility ladder was thus pulled up during the so-called Great Gatsby era.
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