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from Asad Zaman  “my views are based on insights acquired from MMT, but  .  . . . . . . . . . . . ”          In this post, I will provide a critique of Raguram Rajan’s article “How Much Debt is Too Much?”. (Alternative link to Rajan’s article) The article opens with a description of the governments “opening their coffers, to support small households and firms” in the COVID era. Required spending has been on the order of 15-20% of the GDP, and the article examines the extent to which...

Τα Οικονομικά της Κοινωνικής Πολιτικής Χρίστος Παπαθεοδώρου, Θεόδωρος Σακελλαρόπουλος (επιμέλεια) Αθήνα: ΔΙΟΝΙΚΟΣ Κεφάλαιο 2 Ο οικονομικός ρόλος του κράτους στο καπιταλιστικό σύστημα Σταύρος Μαυρουδέας ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ Το κεφάλαιο αυτό διαπραγματεύεται τον οικονομικό ρόλο του κράτους στο καπιταλιστικό σύστημα. Επισημαίνει ότι ο ρόλος του κράτους και ιδιαίτερα η σχέση του με την οικονομία διαφέρει από ένα κοινωνικο-οικονομικό σύστημα σε ένα άλλο. Τονίζει την ιδιαιτερότητα...

from Lars Syll And still, amidst all this tumult, many economists are disinclined to rethink the foundations of their field. It reminds me of the closing joke in Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall. A guy has a crazy brother who thinks he is a chicken.  The doctor asks, ‘Why don’t you turn him in?’ The guy replies, ‘I would, but I need the eggs.’ ” Why is the free-market discourse so perdurable despite so many social, ecological, and political realities that call its logic and categories of...

Covid 19 vaccinations are going well. Quite a number of vaccines have been approved. And these are being used. At the time of writing close to 100 million ‘jabs’ have already been provided, not just of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine but also of the Sputnic, AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines. And the pace is quickening, for instance in countries like Brazil and Morocco (which uses AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines in its 3.000 vaccination centres). Look here for the scientific...

I’ll be appearing (virtually) tomorrow, Monday 1 February to give evidence to the  the House of Representatives Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy’s inquiry on Zali Steggall’s Climate Bills 2020, the core of which is a proposal to set a target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As readers would expected, I’ll be supporting the bill. At almost exactly the same time, Scott Morrison is going to address the National Press Club, and there are rumours he’s...

from Lars Syll Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done.The measure of success attained by Wall Street, regarded as an institution of which the proper social purpose is to direct new investment into the most profitable channels in terms of...

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for January 25 – 29 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. After many weeks of stability, there is some turmoil – in opposing directions – among the short leading indicators in particular. It is an indication of the bifurcated nature of the economy at present, where portions of the service sector have a pandemic-sized hole blown in them, while  manufacturing is barreling...

This paper presents a macroeconomics-friendly Post Keynesian model of the firm describing both an inventory theoretic approach and an entry deterrence approach to choice of excess capacity. The model explains why firms may rationally choose to have excess capacity. It also shows the two approaches are complementary and reinforcing of each other. Analytically, the paper […]

from Dean Baker The Wall Street crew is furious over the masses at Robinhood and Reddit ruining their games with their mass buying of GameStop, which wiped out the short position of a big hedge fund. The Robinhood/Reddit masses are touting this as a victory over Wall Street. The Wall Street insiders are decrying this effort to turn the market into a casino. It’s worth sorting this one out a bit and answering the question everyone is asking (or should be), would a financial transactions...