Real-World Economics Review

from David Ruccio It must be confessed that though the plague was chiefly among the poor, yet were the poor the most venturous and fearless of it, and went about their employment with a sort of brutal courage; I must call it so, for it was founded neither on religion nor prudence; scarce did they use any caution, but ran into any business which they could get employment in, though it was the most hazardous. Such was that of tending the sick, watching houses shut up, carrying infected...

from Asad Zaman Economic systems evolve, sometimes under external dynamic and sometimes under internal dynamics. As they evolve, economic theories co-evolve, however their can be (often are) lags in understanding – so theories relevant to one system are applied to another, with disastrous results. Human beings started out with tribal societies, and spent the longest period of history in this form. They societes were egalitarian and communal. They were not market oriented. Production and...

from David Ruccio We already had high food insecurity in this country and now we are putting another layer of need on top of it. — Kevin M. Fitzpatrick One of the many irrational characteristics of capitalism is that billions of tons of food go to waste while hundreds of millions of people struggle with hunger on a daily basis. And like all the other senseless attributes of the way the economy is currently organized, the mismatch between the enormous quantity of food that is available for...

from Dean Baker The pandemic crisis created a rare economic opportunity. In effect, the whole economy was thrown up for grabs, with the winners and losers determined by who had the political power to get a nice bailout. Needless to say, those who were already rich got the big handouts, those at the bottom got crumbs, if anything at all. Suppose we had let the market work its magic on the airlines, on the hotel chains, the restaurant chains, the aircraft industry (i.e. Boeing), and on the...

from Lars Syll [embedded content]

from David Ruccio   source When social solidarity is essential, it’s common to hear pious sermons against class warfare. Unfortunately, there is a class war. And its victims, so many of them front-line workers, didn’t start it. — E. J. Dionne Jr. New research confirms what we’ve all been seeing for the past couple of months: the lowest paid, most precarious workers are the ones who are being forced to face the choice between their jobs and their lives. And, looking forward, as those in...

from Asad Zaman It is an Obvious Truth that economic theories analyze specific historical economic systems. In nomadic societies, there is no production. Economics would be about finding plants, game, and moving according to seasons. In agricultural societies, private property becomes important. Those who plant need to have rights to harvest their plantings. Feudal Societies are mostly self-sufficient in commodities and operate without money. These are barter societies. Money is not a...

from Lars Syll As yours truly has reported repeatedly during the last couple of years, university students all over Europe are increasingly beginning to question if the kind of economics they are taught — mainstream economics — really is of any value. Some have even started to question if economics is a science. At least two Nobel laureates in economics have tried to respond. This is Robert Shiller‘s answer: Critics of “economic sciences” sometimes refer to the development of a...

We firstly speak to Dean Baker, the co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and one of the first economists to predict the property market crash in 2008. He discusses the bailouts passed in the United States by Congress, how they have many giveaways to the richest in society, how the giveaways have nothing to do with the pandemic, why the Coronavirus bailouts are worse than TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), how state and local governments have been left out of the...

We firstly speak to Dean Baker, the co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and one of the first economists to predict the property market crash in 2008. He discusses the bailouts passed in the United States by Congress, how they have many giveaways to the richest in society, how the giveaways have nothing to do with the pandemic, why the Coronavirus bailouts are worse than TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), how state and local governments have been left out of the...