New Economic Perspectives

By William K. BlackJanuary 30, 2017     Bloomington, MN Maybe it is because I am part Irish, or because I am flying to Dublin this week to present at the Trinity Economic Forum, but Kellyanne Conway’s claim that though she does not “resemble” any “terrorist,” she has to go through security checks at airports, stunned me.  Given her name and looks, that struck me as a bizarre statement.  Surely, she must “resemble” some of the IRA terrorists.  It took me four minutes of research to find...

NEP’s Bill Black says Linda McMahon’s career involved exploiting workers as independent contractors and sabotaging small businesses as he appears on The Real News Network below. You can view with transcript here.[embedded content]

By William K. BlackJanuary 24, 2017     Bloomington, MN Overview This article explains three critical reasons why the Democratic Party’s leaders are far more insane than all but a few Democrats understand.  It focuses on the leaders of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the New Democrats.  The DNC leadership is composed of New Democrats.  Debbie Wasserman Schultz had to resign in disgrace when the leaks proved that she was putting the DNC’s thumbs on the scale to favor Hillary...

NEP’s Bill Black and Norman Soloman join TRNN’s live inauguration coverage to discuss the criminogenic environment that will thrive under the Trump administration as well as its unprecedented conflicts of interest. [embedded content] You can watch here with transcript.

By William K. BlackJanuary 17, 2017     Bloomington, MN The Wall Street Journal recently published a summary of a study of “desired director traits.” A survey of 369 supervisory directors from 12 countries by search and advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates asked which behaviors they thought are most important to creating a board culture that drives effectiveness and company performance. The Ideal Director’s Traits The study found that the five most highly valued traits in a...

William K. BlackJanuary 16, 2017     Bloomington, MN I know the Republicans are complete hypocrites about federal deficits and debt.  I know their dishonesty and faux deficit and debt hysteria, when a Democrat is president, harms the Nation and the world through the infliction of self-destructive austerity.  Austerity’s primary victims are the working class and government social programs for the poor and working class.  That means that the Democrats should never mimic the Republicans’...

By J.D. ALT In a recent essay (“A Strategic Thought”) I suggested that right now is an opportune moment for some brave progressive leader to step out and explain what modern fiat money is, why we’ve been using, in fact, it for the past half century, and how it changes the way we imagine our federal government pays for public goods. Whoever takes on this challenge, I suggested, would be treated as a harlequin by mainstream media and economic pundits—and would be marginalized and shunned...

By J.D. ALT Happy New Year. Now let’s get to work. There is much to be accomplished. The first order of business, from my perspective, is the issue of reinvigorating our democracy—specifically: What are zealously proactive progressives thinking about? Instead of hauling the Republicans into court over their voter I.D. statutes, we should be exuberantly embracing the very idea of a voter I.D. Yes! Let’s take conservatives at their word: The purpose is not to make it more difficult to...

NEP’s Bill Black appears on The Real News Network. Topic of discussion is how the Legarde case reveals how power and money protect the elite. You can view the video below. If you wish to see a transcript, you can view it here. [embedded content]

By J.D. ALT I’d like to propose that it is important, right now, for existing progressive political leaders to stake out positions in support of direct sovereign spending for the creation of collective goods. If they must, they can call it “deficit spending.” What is important is that they very aggressively get on the record as proposing and supporting federal spending programs to to address specific issues that Americans are struggling with. If this does not happen, there is a real...