The Danger From Within

No doubt, they saw these decisions as moments of greatness. Or, at least hoped that history would see it that way. One, an egotistical ass who used his intellect as a cudgel with which to intimidate, to bully others. The other, simply a small minded man selected for that very smallness of mind. The one, recently departed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The other, now Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Had Justice Scalia been...

Quick Housekeeping Note

By James Kwak I’ve been asked if you can sign up for email notifications when I write stories on Medium. Apparently you can, but the option is a bit buried. (One of the nice things about Medium is the clean interface. One downside of that clean interface is that sometimes you have to go looking for things.) If you’re on my main page (jamesykwak.medium.com), you have to click on About at the top. Then you get to this page, and at the...

The Weekend Quiz – April 10-11, 2021

Welcome to The Weekend Quiz. The quiz tests whether you have been paying attention or not to the blog posts that I post. See how you go with the following questions. Your results are only known to you and no records are retained. These were the Quiz questions for the second week of my edx MOOC – Modern Monetary Theory: Economics for the 21st Century. I promised students that I would provide answers and analysis for them after the course...

IPA’s weekly links

Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action. Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as Tanzania’s first woman president, following the death of John Magufuli, known for his denial of COVID-19 in the country. Some speculate the virus was the cause of his death rather than the official announced cause, heart failure. A nice article from Dani Rodrik about how economists can get along with other fields. Known for their breadth and...

Three Things I Think I Think – Housing Bubble 2.0, Passive Investing and Hyperinflation

Here are some things I think I am thinking about: Is the Housing Market a Bubble (Again)? I’m starting to see a lot of chatter about a housing bubble 2.0. So I went on Twitter and asked people what they thought. There were tons of smart responses if you want to review them. Ben Carlson also wrote a nice piece about the state of the housing market. I think Ben gets the big picture right. Basically, this isn’t that much like 2006 because: The...

The “Work Ethic” Hoax

The story has been told that Martin Luther invented the doctrine of the "calling" and that John Calvin ("my friends call me Jean") intensified it with his doctrine of predestination. Subsequent pastoral literature softened the predestination blow with the Protestant ethic that working hard and succeeding would show that you were one of the elect. Max Weber told that story. It was, of course, a fable. But that is beside the...

From Carbon To Metals: the Renewable Energy Transition

The world is transitioning from a carbon-intensive to a metals-intensive economy. Low-carbon technologies use much larger amounts of metal than traditional fossil fuel-based systems. Demand for metals is thus rising exponentially, fuelling a boom in mining and production.But this creates an environmental challenge. Metals extraction and processing is a significant contributor to global warming and a major pollutant. Unless more...

The Habtic Standard

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Habtic Standard: I wrote another article! This one is about why organizational change is hard and how it can be made less bad for workers…and it’s totally 100 percent not based off of personal experience I swear :)

My Future

I am winding down Azizonomics, though, as I am sure you are already aware it has already existed in a winded down state for many years, particularly since I left The Week in 2014. I mostly started this blog in 2011 because I was concerned about the economy, and the future, and was reading a lot, and jotting down my thoughts. From today, I will be focusing on my new podcast: Cybernetics Chat. The focus of that is much more a mixture of...

Finkel’s road to zero

That’s the title of my latest piece in Inside Story (republished with a slightly different title in The Canberra Times). It draws on a shorter summary I published here. Read it at Inside Story, and comment here. Share this:Like this:Like Loading...

Lacrimosa

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Dream House, Nightmare Mortgage: Carry on!

An interview with Australia’s Renegade Economists. Karl: Listeners, it’s time to discuss with Professor Michael Hudson, the author of ‘The Bubble and Beyond’, ‘Forgive Them Their Debts’, ‘Super Imperialism’ and so many others. We’re lucky to have Michael with us yet again to continue our series of interviews and, Michael, here we are where, in Australia at least, we’ve made it through COVID, America is still being whacked by it. But our...

My new podcast episode is out.

Personal income and spending, Architecture billings, Congressional Resolution

With consumption as weak as it is, the latest fiscal adjustment probably won’t put much upward pressure on prices:

The “Thing” with Job Guarantee Programs…

In a February 18th front page article in the business section of the New York Times, Eduardo Porter surveys the potential for a job guarantee program. After starting with the caveat issued by Republican politicians—why trust your life choices to bureaucrats?—the piece goes on to present opinions of various experts on employment programs. It is noteworthy that even among the specialists, not one has ever been involved in actual fieldwork or...

Godley versus Tobin on Monetary Matters by Marc Lavoie

[embedded content] The 4th Godley-Tobin Lecture given by Marc Lavoie, a co-author of Wynne Godley, and one of the leading Post Keynesian authors.

Standard Money Theory and the Coronavirus

By J.D. ALT The theme and illustrations of this essay are from the new book “Paying Ourselves to Save the Planet.” It might seem, as we observe the U.S. government “instantly” generating $2 trillion new dollars for direct payments and grants to people and businesses, that the coronavirus pandemic has shed a new light on the authenticity (and necessity) of modern money theory (MMT). But that light, if it is being shed at all, is illuminating...

Making the most of furlough

Blog Making the most of furlough With 850,000 jobs still at-risk by the end of summer, furlough can play a transformational role in training and education beyond September By Alex Chapman, Chaitanya Kumar, Alfie Stirling 05 April 2021...

MARX & MMT – Currency Value and its Relationship to Price Stability

The marxian labor-time values of individual commodities fall as productivity improves. This means that if a currency unit is to command a stable quantity of use-values (i.e. physical goods and services) over time, the value of the currency must likewise fall as productivity improves. For a given distribution between wage and profit income, and a given share of value added in total value, a currency unit’s command over use-values will remain...

New Review of My Book

A nice review of my book by Marc Morgan has appeared in American Affairs. Morgan works with Thomas Piketty at the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics. He is doing interesting work on profit accounting and determination. I would also note that Morgan attended the same secondary school (high school) as me in Dublin. Apparently, Christian Brothers College, Monkstown — although not a very prominent school in any meaningful sense...

Flummery From Robert A. Heinlein

He had been droning along about 'value,' comparing the Marxist theory with the orthodox 'use' theory. Mr. Dubois had said, 'Of course, the Marxian definition of value is ridiculous. All the work one cares to add will not turn a mud pie into an apple tart; it remains a mud pie, value zero. By corollary, unskillful work can easily subtract value; an untalented cook can turn wholesome dough and fresh green apples, valuable already, into an...

COVID 19-related debt relief: a consortium proposal to the SDR basket countries

By T. Sabri Öncü & Ahmet ÖncüIn Memory of David Graeber (1961–2020)This article first appeared in the Indian journal, Economic and Political Weekly, on 21 November, 2020On 30 March 2020, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) called for a $2.5 trillion COVID-19 crisis package for developing countries.[1] The UNCTAD proposals were: (i) $1 trillion to be made available through the expanded use of the International...

2021 PEF STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST IS OPEN

The 2021 PEF Student Essay Contest is now open! Calling all Canadian students anywhere in the world and all post-secondary students in Canada who are working on papers taking a critical approach to the functioning, efficiency, social, and environmental consequences of unconstrained markets. The winning essays will receive a cash prize of $1,000 for the graduate student category and $500 for the undergraduate student category. You can...

Latest SNB Intervention Update: Weekly Sight Deposits

Weekly update on SNB interventions: Sight deposits are debt for the central bank. An increase of sight deposits implies more debt and SNB interventions

Sequencing the Post-COVID Recovery

As countries emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, John Maynard Keynes’s emphasis on the need to implement post-crisis economic policies in the right order is highly relevant. But sustainability considerations mean that the distinction between recovery and reform is less clear cut than it seemed in the 1930s. LONDON – John Maynard Keynes was a staunch champion of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The road to a civilized future, he...

Flummery From Robert A. Heinlein

He had been droning along about 'value,' comparing the Marxist theory with the orthodox 'use' theory. Mr. Dubois had said, 'Of course, the Marxian definition of value is ridiculous. All the work one cares to add will not turn a mud pie into an apple tart; it remains a mud pie, value zero. By corollary, unskillful work can easily subtract value; an untalented cook can turn wholesome dough and fresh green apples, valuable already, into an...

The “Thing” with Job Guarantee Programs…

In a February 18th front page article in the business section of the New York Times, Eduardo Porter surveys the potential for a job guarantee program. After starting with the caveat issued by Republican politicians—why trust your life choices to bureaucrats?—the piece goes on to present opinions of various experts on employment programs. It is noteworthy that even among the specialists, not one has ever been involved in actual fieldwork or...

Audio-video del Seminario “Dopo le crisi. Un dialogo interdisciplinare sul futuro dell’Europa”

Registrazione audio-video del Seminario "Dopo le crisi. Un dialogo interdisciplinare sul futuro dell'Europa", 21-22 gennaio 2021 onlineRelazioni di Sergio Cesaratto, Omar Chessa, Carlo Clericetti, Guido Comparato, Marco Dani, Andrea Guazzarotti, Federico Losurdo, Luigi Testa, Luigi Melica, Edmondo Mostacci, Francesco Saitto, Fiammetta Salmoni, Alessandro Somma, Antonella Stirati.

Academic Agent versus “Adam Friended” on Price Inflation and MMT

Academic Agent has got into another row on MMT, but this time with someone called “Adam Friended.”In brief, “Adam Friended” responded to Academic Agent in the following video on the issue of MMT and price inflation:[embedded content]Academic Agent then produced this response on MMT here:[embedded content]Academic Agent is correct that Covid welfare payments and furlough schemes were not the fundamental drivers of inflation in some goods. It is...

Interview in PRESS TV news (11-3-2021) on police brutality in Greece

I made a short comment in PRESS TV news (11-3-2021) on the recent incidences of police brutality and the popular revulsion against the policies of the Greek right-wing government. Following are (a) the summary of the comment and (b) the video links of the News Widespread popular revulsion against the policies of the Right-wing government These events are the result of the accumulated popular anger against the right-wing...

Interview in PRESS TV news (11-3-2021) on police brutality in Greece

I made a short comment in PRESS TV news (11-3-2021) on the recent incidences of police brutality and the popular revulsion against the policies of the Greek right-wing government. Following are (a) the summary of the comment and (b) the video links of the News Widespread popular revulsion against the policies of the Right-wing government These events are the result of the accumulated popular anger against the right-wing...

The Danger From Within

No doubt, they saw these decisions as moments of greatness. Or, at least hoped that history would see it that way. One, an egotistical ass who used his intellect as a cudgel with which to intimidate, to bully others. The other, simply a small minded man selected for that very smallness of mind. The one, recently departed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The other, now Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Had Justice Scalia been...

2021 Godley-Tobin Lecture: Marc Lavoie, “Godley versus Tobin on Monetary Matters”

REGISTER HERE.