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I’ve been posting on Armistice Day ever since I started this blog back in 2002, arguing against war and lamenting the disaster of the Great War which has cast a shadow over all of our subsequent history, including the terrible wars that afflict the world today. This year, I’m too depressed to say anything more, except to express the hope that peace will come one day. Share this:Like this:Like Loading...

from Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan [1] The Hamas-Israel War The 2023 war between Hamas and Israel elicits many different explanations. As with previous regional hostilities, here too, the pundits and commentators have numerous overlapping processes to draw on – from the struggle between the Zionist and Palestinian national movements, to the deep hostility between the Rabbinate and Islamic churches, to the many conflicts between Israel and Arab/Muslim states, the contentions between...

from Dean Baker The New York Times seems to really love telling readers that China is facing a demographic crisis because its population is falling. It is not clear why the NYT thinks this amounts to a crisis for China, since many other countries have declining populations without experiencing any obvious crisis. The most obvious examples are two of China’s neighbors, Japan and Korea, both of which are seeing modest drops in population. In both countries, per capita income is continuing...

Documento 5/11/2023 Αλήθειες και ψέμματα για την απόκτηση επενδυτικής βαθμίδας από την S&P Σταύρος Μαυρουδέας Καθηγητής Πολιτικής Οικονομίας Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο Τμήμα Κοινωνικής Πολιτικής Η κυβέρνηση και τα διαπλεκόμενα ΜΜΕ πανηγυρίζουν για την αναβάθμιση της Ελλάδος σε επενδυτική βαθμίδα (BBB- με σταθερές προοπτικές) από τον αμερικανικό οίκο αξιολόγησης S&P. Υποστηρίζουν ότι σηματοδοτεί την οριστική έξοδο από την κρίση και απόδειξη της ανάκαμψης και του...

Please click here to support this open-access journal and the WEA RWER issue no. 105 download whole issue In Praise of Rebellion?Peter Radford2   Professor Stiglitz’s contributions to debates on intellectual propertyDean Baker 12   America’s trade deficits: blame U.S. policies – starting with tax lawsKenneth E. Austin 25   Extending the concept of inflation beyond consumer pricesMerijn Knibbe 46   History and origin of money in MMT and Austrian Economics:The difference methodology...

This paper introduces the notion of monetary disorder. The underlying theory rests on a twin circuits view of the macro economy. The idea of monetary disorder has relevance for understanding the experience and consequences of the recent decade-long period of monetized large budget deficits and ultra-easy monetary policy. Current policy rests on Keynesian logic whereby […]

from Lars Syll Mainstream (neoclassical) economics has always put a strong emphasis on the positivist conception of the discipline, characterizing economists and their views as objective, unbiased, and non-ideological … Acknowledging that ideology resides quite comfortably in our economics departments would have huge intellectual implications, both theoretical and practical. In spite (or because?) of that, the matter has never been directly subjected to empirical scrutiny. In a recent...

Government shutdowns, and threats of shutdown, have become routine in the US, with the result that no one much worries about them any more. Typically some kind of compromise is reached just as the deadline approaches, and government returns to quasi-normality.. Occasionally, bluffs are called and a ‘shutdown’ actually happens. Civil servants are sent home, public facilities are closed and so on. But the armed forces operate as normal, Social Security checks go out, and IOUs take the...

from Peter Radford The machine makers are restless! There’s quite a debate going on about something called “techno-optimism” which roughly translates as anything technological is good and will, inevitably, make us all much better off.  That it makes fortunes for its owners is of secondary importance. The debate has emerged as a result of the publication of Marc Andreesen’s ‘Techno-Optimist Manifesto’, a strange and rather long paean to the many virtues of technology and the much more...

from Dean Baker Mark Twain famously quipped that everyone always talks about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it. (This was before global warming.) In the same vein, it is common for people to rant about billionaires, like Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk, controlling major media outlets and using them to advance their political whims. But, no one seems to do anything about it. There is a reason for inaction. For the foreseeable future, it is hard to envision a political...