Lars P. Syll

Keynesian vs Newtonian economics To complete his theory, Keynes tied these elements together. The market for money determined interest. Interest (and the state of business confidence) determined investment. Investment, alongside consumption, determined effective demand for output. Demand for output determined output and employment. Consumption out of incomes determined savings. Employment determined the real wage. In this world, a change in monetary policy,...

 [embedded content] Public debt is normally nothing to fear, especially if it is financed within the country itself (but even foreign loans can be beneficent for the economy if invested in the right way). Some members of society hold bonds and earn interest on them, while others pay taxes that ultimately pay the interest on the debt. The debt is not a net burden for society as a whole since the debt ‘cancels’ itself out between the two groups. If the state issues bonds at a...

The Deficit Myth: a review One common objection to neoclassical economics is that it underweights the importance of history and class. It is therefore paradoxical that Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth, which claims to challenge orthodox economics, should be guilty of just these vices. Let’s start by saying that I wholly agree with the main claims she makes — that a government which enjoys monetary sovereignty can always finance its borrowing. Asking how...

The atomic hypothesis which has worked so splendidly in Physics breaks down in Psychics. We are faced at every turn with the problems of Organic Unity, of Discreteness, of Discontinuity – the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts, comparisons of quantity fails us, small changes produce large effects, the assumptions of a uniform and homogeneous continuum are not satisfied. Thus the results of Mathematical Psychics turn out to be derivative, not fundamental, indexes, not...

[embedded content] The Srebrenica genocide is the worst episode of mass murder within Europe since World War II. In July 1995 more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims were slain by Bosnian Serb forces. Today we pay tribute to the victims. Let us never forget them. [embedded content]

Eleverna på Römosseskolan i Göteborg har delats upp i grupper efter kön och undervisats separat i bland annat idrott, engelska och slöjd. I en rapport som Skolinspektion gjort framkommer att skolan haft könsseparerade lektioner sedan den startades – för 22 år sedan. Först efter en lagändring gav myndigheten förra året skolan kritik för könsuppdelningen – vilken i våras ännu inte åtgärdats. SVT Nyheter Väst har tidigare berättat om den fristående F-9-skolan Römosseskolan med...

Paul Krugman — a case of dangerous neglect of methodological reflection Alex Rosenberg — chair of the philosophy department at Duke University, renowned economic methodologist and author of Economics — Mathematical Politics or Science of Diminishing Returns? — had an interesting article on What’s Wrong with Paul Krugman’s Philosophy of Economics in 3:AM Magazine a couple of years ago. Writes Rosenberg: When he accepts maximizing and equilibrium as the...

People who have their heads fuddled with nonsense The Conservative belief that there is some law of nature which prevents men from being employed, that it is “rash” to employ men, and that it is financially ‘sound’ to maintain a tenth of the population in idleness for an indefinite period, is crazily improbable – the sort of thing which no man could believe who had not had his head fuddled with nonsense for years and years… Our main task, therefore, will be...

 [embedded content]