Heterodox
from Ken Zimmerman (originally a comment) Following the ‘Great Depression’ excessive wealth required justification. Otherwise those who possessed it were looked on as freeloaders and featherbedders who played no or little useful part in society. FDR came from one of America’s wealthiest family’s but proved himself by his work ethic, care for ordinary Americans, and work to save the USA. Even the wealthy who wanted to be ostentatious feared public rebuke and legal punishments if they...
Read More »How soon the next dip? – chart
Where the 1% have the largest wealth share
The time to divest from Bitcoin is now
That’s the self-explanatory title of my latest piece in Inside Story Share this:Like this:Like Loading...
Read More »Debts, deficits, and patent monopolies
from Dean Baker Yes, it is spring. The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and the deficit hawks are whining. The proximate cause is President Biden’s new budget, which will push the ratio of government debt to GDP to its highest level ever. The question is whether this should bother anyone who has a life? The projections show that the debt to GDP ratio will rise to 117 percent of GDP in 2031. If that sounds scary, consider that Greece’s debt to GDP ratio is over 180 percent....
Read More »The FIRE and the ashes: Rekindling Democratic Socialism
My new book is now available from BTL. The Fire and the Ashes – Between the Lines (btlbooks.com) In The Fire and the Ashes, long-time union economist and policy analyst Andrew Jackson looks back on a fascinating career in the labour movement, the NDP, and left politics, combining keen historical analysis with a political manifesto for today. As one of the few trade union economists in Canada, Jackson brings a unique insider perspective and decades of...
Read More »Open thread May 28, 2021
Weekend read: Why economic models do not explain
from Lars Syll Analogue-economy models may picture Galilean thought experiments or they may describe credible worlds. In either case we have a problem in taking lessons from the model to the world. The problem is the venerable one of unrealistic assumptions, exacerbated in economics by the fact that the paucity of economic principles with serious empirical content makes it difficult to do without detailed structural assumptions. But the worry is not just that the assumptions are...
Read More »Why does McConnell favor a criminal investigation into the events of January 6th?
Josh Marshall nails it (paywalled, but here’s part of his argument): Published reports suggest – and it is no surprise that this is the case – that the DOJ investigations are not looking deeply into the causes of the January 6th insurrection, causes which are inherently political and tied to numerous public officials and electoral politics. They’re going to look at the specific people who broke into the Capitol. They’re going to look at organized...
Read More »Employment by wage level, claims, durable goods, pending home sales, steel prices
Claims continue to drift lower but are still about double what they were pre covid: Continued claims are also about double pre covid levels: Fell back some and still below pre covid highs.This chart is not adjusted for inflation: Same pattern of recent weakness: Pending home sales in the US surged 51.7 percent year-on-year in April of 2021, the biggest increase ever amid a low base effect from last year when sales sank at a record pace because of the pandemic. All four US...
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