Why economic theory doesn’t help us to understand globalisation and trade .[embedded content]
Read More »MMT basics
We have already shown that deficit spending increases our collective savings. But what happens if Uncle Sam borrows when he runs a deficit? Is that wht eats up savings and forces interest rates higher? The answer is no. The financial crowding-out story asks us to imagine that there’s a fixed supply of savings from which anyone can attempt to borrow … MMT rejects the loanable funds story, which is rooted in the idea that borrowing is limited by access to scarce financial...
Read More »Dann sind wir Helden
Dann sind wir Helden [embedded content] Ich glaub’ das zu träumen / die Mauer / Im Rücken war kalt / Die Schüsse reissen die Luft / Doch wir küssen / Als ob nichts geschieht / Und die Scham fiel auf ihre Seite / Oh, wir können sie schlagen / Für alle Zeiten / Dann sind wir Helden / Nur diesen Tag
Read More »Brothers in arms
This one is for you — all you sons and daughters struggling to survive in wars or forced to flee your homes and risking your lives. [embedded content] Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did...
Read More »Chick Corea (1941-2021)
[embedded content] A jazz legend is dead. Yours truly will always remember his Mad Hatter concert at Olympen in Lund back in 1978. One of the most fantastic concerts I’ve ever visited. R.I.P.
Read More »Does it — really — take a model to beat a model? No!
Does it — really — take a model to beat a model? No! Many economists respond to criticism by saying that ‘all models are wrong’ … But the observation that ‘all models are wrong’ requires qualification by the second part of George Box’s famous aphorism — ‘but some are useful’ … The relevant criticism of models in macroeconomics and finance is not that they are ‘wrong’ but that they have not proved useful in macroeconomics and have proved misleading in...
Read More »Nudgelords
What’s my problem with the nudgelords? Aren’t they a force for good in the world? My answer is that I’m not sure. The problem is that good advice is good, and bad advice is bad, but Sunstein and his friends doesn’t seem to distinguish between them. They seem to be spewing out research or claims about research or claims about behavior based on what they already want to believe, without regard to the quality of evidence. And they rarely seem to go back and assess what went...
Read More »Hans Albert turns 100
Hans Albert turns 100 .[embedded content] Clearly, it is possible to interpret the ‘presuppositions’ of a theoretical system … not as hypotheses, but simply as limitations to the area of application of the system in question. Since a relationship to reality is usually ensured by the language used in economic statements, in this case the impression is generated that a content-laden statement about reality is being made, although the system is fully immunized...
Read More »Thinking about thinking
Unfortunately, the greater part of economic controversies arise from confronting dogmas. The style of argument is that of theology, not of science … In economics, new ideas are treated, in theological style, as heresies and as far as possible kept out of the schools by drilling students in the habit of repeating the old dogmas, so as to prevent established orthodoxy from being undermined … On the plane of academic theory, the importance of the Keynesian revolution was to show...
Read More »The world’s worst writing
The world’s worst writing . From The Guardian: Each year Philosophy and Literature, an academic journal, runs a bad-writing contest to celebrate “the most stylistically lamentable passages found in scholarly books and articles” … Here are the 1998 results. The journal found it hard to suppress its delight that “two of the most popular and influential literary scholars in the US are among those who wrote winning entries.” “The move from a...
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