Socialdem. 21st Century

L. Randall Wray, an MMT economist, gives a very interesting perspective on taxes:[embedded content]Certainly raising taxes in the midst of a depression, recession or period of weak aggregate demand and large-scale unemployment is a bad idea. But it is fascinating indeed to hear L. Randall Wray give the left heterodox case for lowering corporate taxes and payroll taxes. If I am not mistaken, some of these ideas on taxes discussed here are derived from the thinking of Hyman Minsky. While this...

Robert Lindsay has an interesting post here on the Alt Left.Realist Left (whose Twitter account is here) posted an excellent reply to this on the Alternative Left Facebook page, especially on the question of Marxism/Communism in the Alt Left:“A not-so-brief reply to Robert Lindsay, with regards to the role of Communists, Anarchists, Marxists, the ‘Left wing of the Alt-Right’, conservatives, etc. within the ‘Realist Left’ and ‘Alt Left’ in general (to the extent that we and I are a part of...

Steve Keen gives a talk below on “Teaching Economics the Pluralist Way,” which was given to the Amsterdam Rethinking Economics students in the Netherlands:[embedded content]Realist LeftRealist Left on Twitter @realistleftRealist Left on RedditRealist Left BlogRealist Left on YouTubeLord Keynes on FacebookSocial Democracy for the 21st Century: A Realist Alternative to the Modern LeftAlt Left on the Internet:Alternative Left on FacebookAlt-Left on Google+Samizdat...

To complement my post here, there is a year-by-year chronology of important events in Keynes’ life from 1925 to 1929, along with some other major political or cultural events of the time.Chronology of Keynes’ Life from 1925–19291925 3 January 1925 – Mussolini gives a speech in the Italian Chamber of Deputies; this marks the beginning of fascist dictatorship in Italy12 March 1925 – death of Sun Yat-sen (Premier of the Kuomintang of China 10 October 1919–12 March 1925), which leaves a vacuum...

I’m currently reading biographies of John Maynard Keynes, and based on my readings I give an account below of interesting biographical details about the life of John Maynard Keynes from 1926 to 1928. My sources are Moggridge (1992) and Skidelsky (1992).This post is very much a work in progress, which I may update and expand in the future.1926 By the mid-1920s, Keynes had become an international celebrity and had married Lydia Lopokova on 4 August 1925.On 9 February 1926, Keynes gave a speech...

My top 10 posts of all time:(1) “Debunking Austrian Economics 101 (Updated).”(2) “Post Keynesian Economics 101.”(3) “The Nature, Origin and History of Money 101.”(4) “19th Century Economic History.”(5) “Debunking Marxism 101 (Updated).”(6) “Keynesian Uncertainty 101.”(7) “Post Keynesian Price Theory 101.”(8) “The Natural Rate of Interest: A History and Critique.”(9) “UK Unemployment, 1870–1999,” February 25, 2013.(10) “Mises’s Explanation of the Great Depression: A Critique,” January 26,...

To follow up on my last post, the author of this blog points out that Japan from the mid-19th century to 1911 had no tariff autonomy but managed to lay the foundation of an industrial take-off from 1880 to 1920.This is true. Japan’s industrial development is an interesting subject. Japan’s rapid period of industrial take-off came after 1911, when its industrial production in mining, manufacturing, and chemical industries soared, and its GNP doubled from 1910 to 1930 (Sorensen 2002: 92). I...

This post here has an interesting discussion of the economic literature on the relationship between protectionism and growth, both for and against.In essence, the author cites the following literature (given below in chronological order):De Long, J. Bradford. 1995. “Trade Policy and America’s Standard of Living: An Historical Perspective,” University of California at Berkeley, September, 6th draft http://pages.ucsd.edu/~jlbroz/Courses/POLI142B/syllabus/delong.pdfRodríguez, Francisco and Dani...

Steve Keen in an amusing and interesting Christmas podcast:“14. What Scrooge Could Learn From Keynesian Economics,” Debunking Economics – The Podcast, December 21st, 2016.Realist LeftRealist Left on Twitter @realistleftRealist Left on RedditRealist Left BlogRealist Left on YouTubeLord Keynes on FacebookSocial Democracy for the 21st Century: A Realist Alternative to the Modern LeftAlt Left on the Internet:Alternative Left on FacebookAlt-Left on Google+Samizdat...

Slavoj Žižek was recently interviewed by Mehdi Hasan about Žižek’s position on Europe’s migrant crisis:[embedded content]Yes, Žižek is correct that many of the migrants have come from nations with a profoundly different culture from that of Western Europe and there is a huge problem of lack of assimilation, but then, strangely, Žižek went on and seemed to want to deny this. To the extent that European governments are responsible for the interventions in Libya or Syria, they should do...