EconoSpeak

 I usually find myself agreeing with Glenn Greenwald, but not today.  GG has posted a heartfelt warning against overreaction to the attempted fur-and-horn putsch at the Capitol Building Wednesday.  He says the mob trampled on symbols of state power but otherwise did little of consequence, and vilifying them and their supporters will lead to repressive overreach, just like we saw after 9/11.  Cool it, says Glen.Actually, I agree with one piece of this, the use of the “t” word, terrorism.  No...

 Tell them to find 16 colleagues, enough to constitute a credible threat of conviction if he is impeached, and make him resign.

Why is it that no existing society, nor society that ever existed, has arrived at universal prosperity, considering that in all times, and in all societies, excepting only the very barbarous, a few years would naturally have led to it?How is it that notwithstanding the unbounded extent of capital, the progressive improvement and wonderful perfection of machinery, canals, transportation, and all other things that either facilitate labour or increase its produce; that the population instead of...

Not an attempted coup d'etat, as many are saying in the media.I must credit Juan Cole with making aware of this useful term, which apparently comes out of Latin America.  According to Cole, a coup attempt traditionally involves military and also is directed at overthrowing a leader in power.  What happened yesterday in the Capitol did no fit either of these criteria.But it does fit an autogolpe very well.  This is a self-coup, if you well, a situation where a leader, especially one who is...

Is there any means of adding to national prosperity other than adding to the facilities of living?What is liberty?What is wealth if it does not add to liberty?Who should determine how individuals dispose of their free time?

 It’s all happening as I write, but here are a few reactions:1. Fortunately we see Q-Anonics, Loud Boys and other right wing crazies invading the Capitol Building and not Black Lives Matter or the Left.  Think how many lives would have been lost if it had been the other way around.2. It will be interesting to see how deeply investigators will delve into the lax security preparations for today’s senate meeting.3. In the end, it all comes down to one question: where do the loyalties of the...

If the whole labour of the country was just sufficient for the support of the whole population; would there be any surplus labour or capital accumulation?If the whole labour of the country could raise as much in one year as would maintain the population for two years, would the country cease working for a year, would the surplus be left to perish or would the possessors of the surplus produce use it to employ people on something not directly and immediately productive, for instance, the...

 Yesterday Saudi Arabia announced that it is ending the embargo/boycott of Qatar, and though reportedly the UAE leadership is not entirely happy with this, they are going along with this as are the other nations involved in this, Bahrain and Egypt. This had begun in June, 2017, reportedly with the encouragement and initial support by Trump and Jared Kushner, with them buying into it as part of an anti-Iran alliance, given that Qatar was accused of having dealings with Iran, with which it...

 I’ve just finished several days of staring, hour after hour, at the year’s economics meetings via Zoom.  What really struck me, beyond the content of the talks, was the way Zoom exacerbates “death by bullet point”.PowerPoint’s capabilities encourage speakers to load up their slides with lots of text and graphics, which then leads the audience to glue their eyeballs to the slides and not the speaker.  This defeats the core purpose of public speaking in the post-Gutenberg era, which is to use...

What would be the ultimate effect on interest rates of a perpetually increasing accumulation of capital?What would be the logical social response to a situation in which the interest rate on money is effectively zero?What was the principal intention and object of the early political economists?What effect does the detail of figures, the jargon of political economists, or the complexity of existing institutions have on the accumulation of capital?