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[unable to retrieve full-text content]A well constructed government, at a minimum, provides its citizens FDR’s four freedoms:  A good well constructed government would want what is best for the society or nation as a whole; understand that a healthy, well fed, well housed, well educated society or nation with a stable quality government is best.   A well constructed, healthy […] The post The Government And The Economy appeared first on Angry Bear.

real-world economics review issue no. 109 download whole issue Culture – the elephant in the roomHardy Hanappi     22 The capitalization of everythingShimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan     18 From the Bretton Woods system to global stagnationLeon Podkaminer     29  The role of internetization in creating sustainable development for the Global SouthConstantine E. Passaris     35  The works of Ha-Joon ChangJunaid B. Jahangir     56 A critique of Saito’s Slow Down; How degrowth communism...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]It seems that Hegseth may be forced to end his bid for Secretary of Defense due to his alcoholism and history of sexual abuse and mismanagement of nonprofits.  On one level this is as it should be.  I could probably live with Hegseth if he was well qualified for the job but got quietly soused […] The post The Hegseth dysfunction appeared first on Angry Bear.

There are encouraging signs that Canada’s economy and labour market are improving after a period of stagnation brought about by the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest rate hikes in 2022 and 2023. Newly released data for the third quarter of 2024 (July-September) shows the economy has continued to grow, albeit slowly. Consumer spending was the brightest light in the third quarter data: growing at an annualized rate of 3.5% (in real, inflation-adjusted terms), and constituting the...

from Dean Baker New York Times columnist Christopher Caldwell devoted his Thanksgiving piece to describing the German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck’s views on capitalism and democracy.  I have not read much of Streeck’s work, but as recounted by Caldwell, he gets many of the basic facts about the U.S. economy badly wrong. According to Caldwell’s account, capitalists were willing to sacrifice profits in the decades after World War II for stability. This meant less dynamism but allowed...

The ´natural rate of unemployment´, also called ´Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment´ (NAIRU) or ´Non-Accelerating Wage Rate of Unemployment´ (NAWRU), is as, on this blog, Lars Syll states (here and here), a dangerous tool. According to NAIRU/NAWRU theory, a) When unemployment falls below a certain threshold, an inexorable increase in inflation will start. This is simply not true, considering the facts. b) As NAIRU/NAWRU theory is untrue, it can´t be measured by...

from Lars Syll Sixty years ago Milton Friedman wrote an (in)famous article arguing that (1) the natural rate of unemployment was independent of monetary policy and that (2) trying to keep the unemployment rate below the natural rate would only give rise to higher and higher inflation. The hypothesis has always been controversial, and much theoretical and empirical work has questioned the real-world relevance of the idea that unemployment really is independent of monetary policy and that...

Who decides what statistical offices measure and how they measure it? And what are the implicit values embedded in these decisions? Recently, the ILO issued a new manual on measuring productivity. Below, I´ll discuss the questions posed. But for starters, it is essential to realize that economists measure monetary productivity, not physical productivity, which leads to problems with ever-changing prices. This will be part of the discussion. The ILO (International Labour Organization)...

Peak Babies was in 2012. At this moment, we´re back to the level of forty years ago (and the most recent data may well be an overestimate). For the first time in centuries, cohorts entering the global labour market will soon be smaller than the cohorts preceding them. Even when there are significant differences in levels between countries, the years around 1970 were a turning point everywhere. In 1965, the relentless movement towards below-replacement human reproduction started....

from Lars Syll The NAIRU story has always had a very clear policy implication — attempts to promote full employment are doomed to fail since governments and central banks can’t push unemployment below the critical NAIRU threshold without causing harmful runaway inflation. Although a lot of mainstream economists and politicians have a touching faith in the NAIRU fairy tale, it doesn’t hold water when scrutinized. One of the main problems with NAIRU is that it is essentially a timeless...