Socialdem. 21st Century

On multiple levels, in both the Third World and the developed world.[embedded content]It doesn’t have to be a catastrophe, however, since Western governments can implement a large-scale industrial policy to bring back manufacturing and reverse the trend of de-industrialisation.The mass unemployment that will result must be solved by government programs to create socially and economically useful work for decent wages, and maintenance of aggregate demand by fiscal policy.

I know I have my share of Swedish readers from blogger stats and assume that many of these people are left-wing, so I am curious to know what they think of Tino Sanandaji’s assessment of what has gone wrong in Sweden in the last 30 years. I am unclear on precisely what Tino Sanandaji’s economics are, but I assume he is some kind of neoclassical.Nevertheless, I have to say that it all sounds depressingly familiar to me: a Swedish left taken over by Postmodernists and bourgeois cultural...

I have updated my “Debunking Austrian Economics 101” post below. Many new posts are now included, such as, for example, against Austrian price theory, the Rothbardian view of fractional reserve banking, and Austrian apriorism.I have yet to see any substantive Austrian engagement with the Post Keynesian critique of their theories, and this is not really that surprising, since any moderately well-read person with a knowledge of Post Keynesian economics – informed by economic history and some...

In the video below.[embedded content]Once again, good and bad points. Yes, working class Americans savaged by neoliberalism have a lot to do with the rise of Trump, but so do the issues of regressive left nonsense, political correctness and open borders.Chomsky is also clueless on the EU, just as much of the left.

Steve Keen was interviewed recently on various issues in the video below.[embedded content]

Some observations from Clyde Prestowitz from about 10 years ago on China, but still relevant: “… China has become the location of choice for global manufacturing. This is usually attributed to its low wages. Chinese factory workers today earn 50 cents to $2 an hour and often work long shifts, getting minimal time off for weekends and holidays. But low wages are not the only factor; after all, wages in places like Vietnam, Myanmar, and Africa are even lower. China’s workers are not just...

The list below complements this post and the works are listed in chronological order: Kaufmann, Moritz. 1879. Utopias: Or, Schemes of Social Improvement: From Sir Thomas More to Karl Marx. C. Kegan Paul, London.Cunningham, William. 1879. “The Progress of Socialism in England,” Contemporary Review 34 (January): 245–260.Ely, Richard Theodore. 1883. French and German Socialism in Modern Times. Harper, New York.Rae, John. 1884. Contemporary Socialism. C. Scribner, London.Wicksteed, Philip H....

For once he gets something right when he examines the views of open borders left libertarians and pro-open borders right-wing libertarians: “Let us begin with a proposal made by the editors of the Wall Street Journal, the Cato Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, and various left-libertarian writers of an ‘open’ or ‘no’ border policy—not because this proposal has any merit, but because it helps to elucidate what the problem is and what needs to be done to solve it.It is not...

The libertarian Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s ideal model for a libertarian society is a “covenantal community” which requires a single property owner (or owners) who owns a whole territory or area and who then leases the right to live within this community to other people. A strict enforcement of a set of laws or rules on everybody is also necessary: “The standard libertarian model of a community is one of individuals who, instead of living physically separated and isolated from one another,...

The chapter from Paul Johnson’s book Intellectuals (1990) criticising Karl Marx can be read here (warning: I’m afraid it’s been reprinted on some idiotic and crazy far right site).But Johnson’s chapter on Marx makes interesting reading.BIBLIOGRAPHY Johnson, Paul. 1990. Intellectuals. Harper & Row, New York.