Michael Perelman: The Fraud of Adam Smith’s Pin Factory
Adam Smith’s pin factory is more a charming tale than a representative of early industrialization or contemporary pin making.
Read more...Category Archives: The dismal science
The Metaphysics of Money
Yves here. As a finance person, I can’t readily relate to the distinction the author makes between money once being seen as something tangible and it now being widely regarded as a mechanism for facilitating commerce. Nevertheless, I believe this post will resonate with many readers and thus I believe it will make for useful grist for discussion.
Read more...J.D. Alt: Piketty, Wealth, and The Sinking of Norfolk
Believing that existing wealth defines and “finances” what we can accomplish as a collective nation going forward, however, makes solutions not just difficult but impossible.
Read more...Bill Black: How Hayek Helped the Worst Get to the Top in Economics and as CEOs
Libertarians are profoundly anti-democratic. The folks at Cato that I debate make no bones about their disdain for and fear of democracy. Friedrich von Hayek is so popular among libertarians because of his denial of the legitimacy of democratic government and his claims that it is inherently monstrous and murderous to its own citizens.
Read more...Piketty’s “Second Law of Capitalism” — Is it Fundamental?
Thomas Piketty’s new book has been widely praised for its empirical contribution, but his prediction of rising inequality rests on economic theory. This column argues that Piketty’s pessimistic forecast is based on an extreme – and unrealistic – assumption about households’ saving behaviour. According to standard theory, the wealth–income ratio would increase only modestly as growth falls, so declining growth would not be a powerful force for generating high inequality.
Read more...David Cay Johnston on the Perils of Our Growing Inequality
David Cay Johnston is a clear and lively conversationalist, and I anticipate readers will enjoy his discussion of his work over the last 20 years on inequality.
Read more...How the Troika, the WSJ and the NYT Keep the Public Befuddled About Austerity and Deflation
Deflation proves that austerity policies are failing, but the media is doing a remarkable job of keeping readers confused and ignorant.
Read more...Negative ECB Deposit Rate: But What Next?
The ECB is expected to cross a Rubicon today by implementing negative deposit rates. What is the impact likely to be?
Read more...Robert Pollin and Dean Baker Discuss the Anemic Recovery and Why Economists Don’t Recommend Real Remedies
A good discussion of why the weak economic recovery has only helped those at the very top, and why economists who know better continue to enable that.
Read more...The Federal Reserve Versus Hyman Minsky (and Deflation)
How the Fed has gotten itself caught in its own underwear by ignoring Hyman Minsky and in persisting in the clearly failed strategy of super lax monetary policy rather than calling for more government spending.
Read more...Why Don’t the Unemployed Get Off Their Couches?
Why it is ludicrous to expect the unemployed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Read more...A Reflection on Piketty’s “Rentiers Always Win” or r > g
The Piketty postulate that r > g, meaning the return on wealth exceeds overall economic growth, is simply not a universal truth. This post provides a tidy and accessible debunking.
Read more...Piketty’s Wealth Tax Won’t Hurt Investment
Transfers don’t matter for investment, and most savings are transfers. Thus Piketty’s wealth tax won’t hurt investment.
Read more...MMT on a Postcard
My reasons for taking MMT seriously are simple and pragmatic: I want people like me (working people) to have nice things — concrete material benefits. Lots of them. And I believe MMT — unlike other schools of thought, but especially neo-liberalism — can deliver on that promise, given the chance. So I took on the project of putting “Why MMT” onto a postcard.
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: One Extreme Europe? On the Parliamentary Election Results
Conventional wisdom that extreme parties on the right and left won in the European Parliamentary elections. In fact, only one extreme won.
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