Category Archives: The dismal science

Philip Pilkington: Unemployment and Wages in the US – A Tale of Institutional Change

A fresh look at historical data shows how the relationship between unemployment and wage growth changed radically starting in 1981.

Yanis Varoufakis on the “Success” of Greece’s Bond Sale

Yves here. The RT show Boom/Bust has an informative conversation with Yanis Varoufakis on the conundrum of the recent successful Greece bond offering.

Joe Firestone: Using Generational Warfare to Divert Attention from Oligarchy and Corporatism

Some of the favored children of the economic elite who have a public presence, work hard in their writing and speaking to divert attention from inequality and oligarchy issues by raising the issue of competition between seniors and millennials for “scarce” Federal funds.

Did Derivatives Worsen the Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis?

Yves here. This post summarizes a paper that argues that derivatives, specifically credit default swaps, exacerbated the severity of the European sovereign debt tsuris. This sort of analysis deserves a wider audience, precisely because the prejudice of both neoclassical and neoliberal economists is that markets are ever and always virtuous, and that prices are never wrong unless someone is interfering (with labor unions the preferred bad example).

Joan Robinson’s “Introduction to Modern Economics”

One of the more shocking things about Robinson’s textbook is the way many core features of neoclassical economics are brushed away in a sentence or paragraph as mere metaphysical reasoning. She defines such reasoning as being “applied to a use of language that conveys no factual information, describes no logical relations nor gives precise instructions and yet is calculated to affect conduct.”

Richard Alford: Has the Fed Learned Monetary Policy Lessons from the Financial Crisis?

Yves here. This post is a devastating critique of current Fed policy. But Alford sets his stage carefully before delivering his conclusions, so don’t be deceived by the tone of the early sections.

Paul Ryan’s “New” Austerity Budget

Paul Ryan’s austerity budget is demonstrably failed economic policy in a new bottle.

“There Will Be Growth in the Spring”: How Well do Economists Predict Turning Points?

Forecasters have a poor reputation for predicting turning points into recessions. This column quantifies their ability to do so, and explores several reasons why both official and private forecasters may fail to call a recession before it happens.

Philip Pilkington: The Yield Curve and Recessions – Against US-Centricism

One of the nicest stylised facts in applied economics is that if the Fed inverts the yield curve it will cause a recession. But how applicable is it?

All in the Family: Tunisia as a Case Study in State Capture, aka Kleptocracy

If kleptocracy is a disease, Tunisia is in Stage 4. Its ruling family that controlled an impressive swathe of the economy. But what is sobering about the Tunisian case study is that an overthrow of the government has done little to reverse the concentration of wealth and power. Is that because Tunisia was so far gone, or is this native to kleptocracy, that once it becomes established, it is difficult to extirpate?

Reserve Currency: Is the Yuan Tearing Down the US Dollar?

40 central banks have invested in yuan. Should the US be worried?

Philip Pilkington: What Constitutes a Money Crank?

By Philip Pilkington, a writer and research assistant at Kingston University in London. You can follow him on Twitter @pilkingtonphil. Originally published at Fixing the Economists I’ve been asking myself that question rather a lot in the past two weeks. This is because I have had two separate commissions for pieces of writing that require […]

Bill Black: The Kamikaze Economics of Forcing Austerity on the Ukraine

We all understand why Russia is waging economic war on the Ukraine, but why is Obama doing so?

Michael Hudson: R is for Rentier

Yves here. Two in a row! Enjoy latest entry in Michael Hudson’s Insider’s Economics Dictionary.