Real-World Economics Review

from Dean Baker I have written before on the post-pandemic economy and how it should actually provide enormous opportunities, but it is worth clarifying a few points. First and most importantly, there is an important measurement issue with GDP that people will need to appreciate. It is often said that GDP is not a good measure of well-being, we see this in a very big way in the post-pandemic period. It is likely that many of the changes in behavior forced by the pandemic, first and...

from Peter Radford A couple of things before we get started:  when I say that economics is not history, I mean exactly that.  Geology is not history either.  That is not the same as saying that economics ought pay no heed to history.  Let’s not get confused over that.  Economics is its own discipline with rules and territory that its exponents determine.  That might frustrate or annoy some of us who would like to think of it more broadly, but it’s up to us to find doors to open to help in...

I speak with Dean Baker, US economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research based in Washington, D.C. Dean is widely regarded as one of the first economists to have discovered the existence of the US housing bubble. I learn what indicators led him to make that call and what lessons his experience holds for future bubble-seers. Topics discussed - What problem is Dean working at the moment that excites him the most? [3:20] - The story of Dean selling his house in...

I speak with Dean Baker, US economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research based in Washington, D.C. Dean is widely regarded as one of the first economists to have discovered the existence of the US housing bubble. I learn what indicators led him to make that call and what lessons his experience holds for future bubble-seers. Topics discussed - What problem is Dean working at the moment that excites him the most? [3:20] - The story of Dean selling his house in...

from Lars Syll Being a true expert involves not only knowing stuff about the world but also knowing the limits of your knowledge and expertise. It requires, as psychologists say, both cognitive and metacognitive skills. The point is not that true experts should withhold their beliefs or that they should never speak with conviction. Some beliefs are better supported by the evidence than others, after all, and we should not hesitate to say so. The point is that true experts express...

from James Galbraith and Jaehee Choi and issue 92 of RWER In the years following World War II the division of labor between neoclassical micro- economics and pseudo-Keynesian macroeconomics was pioneered at MIT and disseminated worldwide from there. Macro held a narrow strip of economic territory: unemployment, inflation, interest rates and money supply, the business cycle, the rate of growth and their interrelations through the quantity theory, the Phillips Curve and Okun’s Law. The...

from David Ruccio and issue 9 of RWER Mainstream economists continue to insist that workers benefit from economic growth, because wages rise with productivity. Here’s the argument as explained by Donald J. Boudreaux and Liya Palagashvili:  Firms cannot afford a misalignment of their workers’ pay and productivity increases – the employees will move to other firms eager to hire these now more productive workers. Higher economy-wide productivity, after all, means that workers add more to the...

Krystal Ball looks back at notable interviews with economists amid the financial crisis. Professor of Economics, Stephanie Kelton, debunks common rebuttals from the GOP caucus on stimulus spending. Economist, Pavlina Tcherneva, explains why a federal jobs program is essential to economic recovery. Economist, Dean Baker, reveala how big pharma is cashing in on coronavirus vaccine research grants through patents. Stephanie Kelton DISMANTLES GOP Inflation, Deficit Myths...

Baker

from Richard Koo and issue 92 of RWER Income inequality has become one of the hottest and most controversial issues in economics not only in the developed world but also in China and elsewhere as well. Many are growing increasingly uncomfortable with the divide between the haves and the have-nots, especially after Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century2sparked a fresh debate on the optimal distribution of wealth, an issue that had been largely overlooked by the economics...