Real-World Economics Review

from Asad Zaman (continuation of previous post on ET1%: Blindfolds Created by Economic Theory) Economists have performed an amazing piece of magic, successfully creating a mass deception which has taken in the vast majority of the population of the world. Seeing through this complex and sophisticated trick requires separating, studying and understanding many different elements which all combine to create this illusion. One of the elements is a binary theory of knowledge, according to...

from Lars Syll The loanable funds theory is in many regards nothing but an approach where the ruling rate of interest in society is — pure and simple — conceived as nothing else than the price of loans or credits set by banks and determined by supply and demand — as Bertil Ohlin put it — “in the same way as the price of eggs and strawberries on a village market.” It is a beautiful fairy tale, but the problem is that banks are notbarter institutions that transfer pre-existing loanable...

Economic Thought, vol. 7, no. 1download issue in full Spiethoff’s Economic Styles: a Pluralistic Approach?Sebastian Thieme The Backward Induction Controversy as a Metaphorical ProblemRamzi Mabsout Reassessing Marshall’s Producers’ Surplus: a Case for ProtectionismDaniel Linotte The Decline of the ‘Original Institutional Economics’ in the Post-World War II Period and the Perspectives of TodayArturo Hermann Comments on Arturo Hermann’s paper, ‘The Decline of the “Original...

from Maria Alejandra Madi Alfred Marshall wrote in his Principles of Economics that “economic conditions are constantly changing, and each generation looks at its own problems in its own way” (1920, p. v.). Our generation is confronted with many problems including climate change, environmental damage, disruptive innovations, inequality, indebtedness, youth unemployment, besides a health care crisis. At the center of these problems, however, is the discipline of economics itself and...

As tax day approached, St. Francis College Economics Professors launched their first Economics Week with three days of guest speakers, and student research. Dean Baker, co-founder and a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C. discussed "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Trump" on April 6, 2018. Baker is the writer of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich...

source: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/economists-tax-rich_n_6024430

from Lars Syll When the great crash hit a decade ago, the public realised that the economics profession was clueless … After 10 years in the shadow of the crisis, the profession’s more open minds have recognised there is serious re-thinking to be done … But the truth is that most of the “reforms” have been about adding modules to the basic template, leaving the core of the old discipline essentially intact. My view is that this is insufficient, and treats the symptoms rather than the...

from David Ruccio The history of capitalism is actually a combination of two histories: it’s a history of employers attempting to hire workers and develop new technologies to make profits and expand the reach of capitalism; it’s also a history of workers banding together to improve wages and working conditions and imagine ways of moving beyond capitalism. The World Bank’s World Development Report, currently in draft form, comes down firmly on the side of employers and their historical...