Lars P. Syll

On the impossibility of objectivity in science Operations Research does not incorporate the arts and humanities largely because of its distorted belief that doing so would reduce its objectivity, a misconception it shares with much of science. The meaning of objectivity is less clear than that of optimality. Nevertheless, most scientists believe it is a good thing. They also believe that objectivity in research requires the exclusion of any ethical-moral...

Unemployment and real wages Not exactly the story that Mankiw et consortes tell you. But Heiner Flassbeck did.

Noah Smith’s new MMT critique — more nonsense on stilts In recent years … macroeconomists have redoubled their efforts to match theory to data … This kind of research is not dramatic, headline-grabbing stuff. It doesn’t give instant answers to the big questions of macroeconomics … What it is, is science … Empirical macro represents a real, honest, ongoing attempt by dedicated researchers to explore the ins and outs of a hideously complex and hard-to-measure...

Debating MMT with Randall Wray  [embedded content]

Vickrey on deficits and obfuscatory financial rectitude We are not going to get out of the economic doldrums as long as we continue to be obsessed with the unreasoned ideological goal of reducing the so-called deficit. The ‘deficit’ is not an economic sin but an economic necessity […] The administration is trying to bring the Titanic into harbor with a canoe paddle, while Congress is arguing over whether to use an oar or a paddle, and the Perot’s and budget...

Mainstream​ economics — the true picture Mainstream economists’ picture of economics looks like this: In reality, I would argue, it looks more like this:

My friends — you bow to no one​ Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg. Bravest of the brave. [embedded content]

Erich und die Mauer “Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten“, beteuerte Walter Ulbricht am 15. Juni 1961. Zwei Monate später, am 13. August 1961, begannen die Arbeiten am Mauerbau. Am 9. November 1989 kündigt Politbüro-Sprecher Günther Schabowski Reisefreiheit für alle DDR-Bürger an. Noch am selben Abend öffnen sich die Grenzübergänge. [embedded content]

Fragen eines lesenden Arbeiters Wer baute das siebentorige Theben? In den Büchern stehen die Namen von Königen. Haben die Könige die Felsbrocken herbeigeschlappt? Und das mehrmals zerstörte Babylon – Wer baute es so viele Male auf? In welchen Häusern Des goldstrahlenden Lima wohnten die Bauleute? Wohin gingen an dem Abend, an dem die chinesische Mauer fertig war, Die Maurer? Das große Rom ist voll von Triumphbögen. Wer errichtete sie? Über wen...

Schumpeter — an early champion of MMT Evidently this phenomenon is peculiar to money and has no analogue in the world of commodities. No claim to sheep increases the number of sheep. But a deposit, though legally only a claim to legal-tender money, serves within very wide limits the same purposes that this money itself would serve. Banks do not, of course, ‘create’ legal- tender money and still less do they ‘create’ machines. They do, however, something—it...