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from Lars Syll In an issue of the journal Fronesis yours truly and a couple of other academics (e.g. Julie Nelson, Tony Lawson, and Phil Mirowski) made an effort at introducing its readers to heterodox economics and its critique of mainstream economics. Rather unsurprisingly this hasn’t pleased the Swedish economics establishment. On the mainstream economics blog Ekonomistas, professor Daniel Waldenström rode out to defend the mainstream with the nowadays standard defence — heterodox...

The International Conference on Marxism that is organised yearly the School of Marxism of Peking University this year, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, goes online. To commemorate the 200 years from the birth of F.Engels and the 150 years from the birth of V.I.Lenin a Special Session is organised on Saturday 28-11-2020. In this session I will give a lecture titled ‘Once again on the Alledged Differences between Engels and Marx’. The full paper has been published in the latest issue...

Φέτος είναι η επέτειος των 200 χρόνων από την γέννηση του Φρειδερίκου Ένγκελς, συνιδρυτή του Μαρξισμού, μαχητή της επανάστασης του 1848, υπερήφανου «αποστάτη της τάξης του» και στρατηγού της οικοδόμησης του Μαρξισμού ως θεωρίας της προλεταριακής επανάστασης και πυλώνα της κομμουνιστικής οργάνωσης και πολιτικής. Γι’ αυτό ο Φρειδερίκος Ένγκελς έχει συγκεντρώσει την μήνη των κονδυλοφόρων του συστήματος αλλά και αρκετών «άσπονδων φίλων» του Μαρξισμού που προσπαθούν να υπονομεύσουν εκ...

from Jayati Ghosh Recently, mainstream economics has been forced to acknowledge some of the explicit and implicit forms of discrimination and bias that are rampant in the discipline, thanks in particular to some brave interventions by some women economists. The focus of these interventions has been on still-pervasive patriarchal and racist attitudes that are evident within the discipline in the Global North, particularly in the United States – such as the now-famous blog by Claudia Sahm:...

For some reason, I’ve been asked to do an interview with a Korean radio station about the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, frequently described as “the world’s largest trade deal”, on the basis that the countries involved have a combined population of 2.2 billion, more than any previous deal. The most interesting thing about the deal is what’s not in it (also, who’s not in it, notably India and the United States). Early drafts followed the classic pattern, with strong...

from Dean Baker We know that Republican office holders are not allowed to say that Joe Biden won the election. Apparently there is a similar ban in place for news outlets when it comes to the question of the United States collaborating with China, and other countries, in developing vaccines against the pandemic. In recent days, there have been articles in several major news outlets about how China vaccinated close to 1 million people, under an Emergency Use Authorization, for vaccines...

from Lars Syll Paul Samuelson claimed that the “ergodic hypothesis” is essential for advancing economics from the realm of history to the realm of science. But is it really tenable to assume that ergodicity is essential to economics? The answer can only be – as I have argued here here here here and here – NO WAY! Obviously yours truly is far from the only scientist being critical of Paul Samuelson. This is what Ole Peters writes in a highly interesting article on Samuelson’s stance on the...

from Dean Baker I have largely been in agreement with Paul Krugman in his assessment of the economy over the last dozen years or so, but I think in his latest column he let the promise of a post-Trump era get the better of him. Krugman notes that the distribution of effective vaccines should allow people to return to their normal lives. He argues that this will lead to a spending boom, as consumers have accumulated savings through the slump and will now be in a position to spend lots of...

from Peter Radford That’s the subtitle of Robert Skidelsky’s little book “What’s Wrong With Economics”?.  A primer for the perplexed.  With the U.S. election past us, I decided to start reading some of the books that had accumulated in my “to read” pile.  Skidelsky being one of my favorite authors I started with his.  The problem is that perplexity is insufficient to describe my usual emotion or state of mind whenever I engage with economics.  So, here I am, a mere fifty or so pages in,...