Tag Archives: Economics

Logic and truth in economics To be ‘analytical’ and ‘logical’ is something most people find recommendable. These words have a positive connotation. Scientists think more deeply than most other people because they use ‘logical’ and ‘analytical’ methods. In dictionaries, logic is often defined as “reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity” and ‘analysis’ as having to do with “breaking something down.” But that’s not the whole...

from Lars Syll We have already shown that deficit spending increases our collective savings. But what happens if Uncle Sam borrows when he runs a deficit? Is that wht eats up savings and forces interest rates higher? The answer is no. The financial crowding-out story asks us to imagine that there’s a fixed supply of savings from which anyone can attempt to borrow … MMT rejects the loanable funds story, which is rooted in the idea that borrowing is limited by access to scarce financial...

En statsbudget för Sveriges bästa En statsbudget i balans optimerar inte det reala resursutnyttjandet i ekonomin. Statsbudgeten och dess ramverk ska i stället verka för Sveriges bästa, så att tågen kan rulla och sjuka får vård, skriver Erik Arnell, utredare, Johannes Borgström lektor och docent vid Uppsala universitet och Peo Hansen, professor i statsvetenskap vid Linköpings universitet. Det gläder oss att Jesper Hansson understryker vikten av att statens...

MMT — debunking the deficit myth We have already shown that deficit spending increases our collective savings. But what happens if Uncle Sam borrows when he runs a deficit? Is that wht eats up savings and forces interest rates higher? The answer is no. The financial crowding-out story asks us to imagine that there’s a fixed supply of savings from which anyone can attempt to borrow … MMT rejects the loanable funds story, which is rooted in the idea that...

Daniel Waldenströms rappakalja om ojämlikheten Medan Piketty ser det ekonomiska systemet som en ojämlikhetsskapande faktor ser Waldenström marknaden som lösningen … Piketty och Waldenström är eniga om politikens, demokratins och utbildningens viktiga roll för den utveckling som skett mot ökad jämlikhet. Den stora skillnaden ser vi i inställningen till presenterade fakta. Waldenström säger att Pikettys analys är ”bitvis ideologisk”, men jag kan inte finna...

from Peter Radford Well done AJR.  A prize deserved.  And remarkably little grumbling.  What’s wrong with that? In other news, my wife is deep into creating an artificial intelligence application.  One of the great challenges of getting AI to be useful is something called ‘prompt engineering’.   What have these two snippets of news have in common? The great thing about our better economists — the triumvirate we know affectionately as AJR being an example — is that they all seem to...

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Statens finanser funkar inte som du tror Sex av åtta riksdagspartier har nyss ställt sig bakom ett nytt stramt finanspolitiskt ramverk. Osagt i diskussionerna kring ramverket är en bakomliggande föreställning att staten fungerar som ett hushåll eller ett företag: Att det är osunt och riskabelt för staten att ”leva över sina tillgångar” och att dra på sig stora skulder. Att ”den som är satt i skuld är inte fri”. Metaforerna och liknelserna är lika talrika...

from Lars Syll Today’s model of delegation has much to recommend it. But it should not be cloaked in euphemism. It is an abrogation of democratic sovereignty for pragmatic reasons, conditioned on the one hand by deeply entrenched and unflattering assumptions about electoral politics and, on the other, on an unquestioning acceptance of the private organization of credit markets and their lack of confidence in democratic control of economic policy. This may be an abrogation that we are...

For a new fiscal policy framework Poorer and lower-income households have a higher marginal propensity (MPC) to consume than richer and higher-income households. The more equal income and wealth are distributed, the higher the structural level of demand of an economy. A high structural level of demand in turn reduces the need for public deficits: full capacity utilisation is already achieved at a lower level of debt and deficits. The more unequal the...