Category Archives: The dismal science

The Government Hack Trying to Squash Discussion of Government Corruption – Cass Sunstein – Doesn’t Understand BASIC Math Or Law

Yves here. This piece is heated, but looking at Cass Sunstein’s work does that to people.

Has Anglo-American Capitalism Run Out of Strategies?

In this Real News Network interview, George Irvin, research professor at the University of London takes a broad historical perspective to show how the rise of a low-wage, debt driven economy and the pressure to reduce the role of government have painted Anglo-Saxon capitalism in a corner.

These Charts Show What is Wrong With American Capitalism

For the last 30 years, neoliberals have fixated on a simple program: “Get government out of the way,” which meant reduce taxes and regulations. Business will invest more, which will produce a higher growth rate and greater prosperity for all. The belief was that unfettered capitalism could solve all ills.

That’s not how this children’s story is turning out.

Rent in a Warming World

What’s rent got to do with climate change? More than you might think.

Philip Pilkington: Thinking Makes It So – The IMF Bailout of the UK in 1976 and the Rise of Monetarism

Monetarism began it’s rise to world prominence in the ever-conservative Bundesbank in 1974. But it would be the government of Margaret Thatcher in the UK, elected in 1979, that would truly launch monetarism in central banking. After Thatcher’s monetarist experiment undertaken between 1979 and 1984 every economics student would be taught to recite the various monetary aggregates by heart for at least a decade or two.

This is what accounts for the monetarist bent we see in the economists of the last generation. Basically any economist trained between roughly 1980 and 1995 would be heavily exposed to monetarist dogma. And only those that read alternative accounts of money creation — namely, the theory of endogenous money — would be fully immunised. This explains, for example, why certain economists that champion Keynesian policies — like Paul Krugman — actually speak in monetarist tones.

Seeking Reader Input on the Outlook for the Economy

Damsel in distress!

Gaius Publius: Neoliberalism, “Just Desserts,” and the Post-Climate-Crisis Economy

Gaius examines the connections between neoliberalism and the convulsions that climate change will bring to the world.

Philip Pilkington: Keynes and Loanable Funds

A seldom-noticed book review sheds new light on Keynes’ critique of loanable funds theory.

Tax Havens Make US and Europe Look Poorer than They Are, Exaggerate Size of “Global Imbalances”

Peculiarly, despite the importance of tax havens, a pathbreaking paper published in 2013 by Gabriel Zucman of the Paris School of Economics, The Missing Wealth of Nations: Are Europe and the U.S. Net Debtors or Net Creditors? (hat tip Dikaios Logos) has received perilous little attention. Perhaps that’s because, among other things, it undercuts the Bernanke-flattering claim that “global imbalances” were a major driver of the financial crisis.

Randy Wray: When Will They Ever Learn – Uncle Sam is not Robin Hood

Why Obama’s budget is yet another economic policy failure.

Steve Keen: Godzilla Banks are Good for You?

Yves here. Although Keen’s use of the Godzilla metaphor is fun, the unvarnished facts he presents are plenty alarming. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is actually gleeful at the prospect that England’s banking sector might grow to be as large relative to its economy as Iceland’s and Cyprus’ on the eve of their busts. But even worse, Carney’s enthusiasm for a banking sector that continues with its cancerous (or as Keen would have it, monstrous) growth gives license to bank lobbyists in the US and Europe to press for high rates of growth in their finance sectors so as to defend their national champions.

Yes, Virginia, Banking Contributes a Lot Less Value Than You are Led to Believe

One thing we’ve discussed repeatedly is that the activities of large banks, as presently constituted, are purely extractive. And to add insult to injury, GDP calculations exaggerate what in the way of value they arguably do add.

Gaius Publius: Are Democrats who Propose Cuts to Social Security “Stupid” or Just Doing Risk-Analysis?

Are austerity-promoting Democrats stupid or evil?

Philip Pilkington: James Galbraith’s ‘The Predator State’ – A Testament to Our Turbulent and Troubled Era

Yves here. I’m a huge fan of Jamie Galbraith’s book The Predator State. Aaron Swartz wrote a good recap. Pilkington, who is also keen about the book, uses it to raise a different set of issues: how it reveals the deep-seated impediments to having well-informed public discussions about economic issues.