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from Peter Radford I keep coming upon ideas that seem to make such sense that, surely, they have been imported into economics.  But, no, hubris prevents an expansion of the discipline to include such novelty.  The threat they represent to the entire mainstream edifice is too much of a threat.  The guild closes ranks.  The guild closes its mind.  And gets quite snooty in the process.  Outsiders are seen as simple, lacking in basic understanding, or naively misunderstanding the great...

According to the Monetary Statistics of the European Central Bank, the credit impulse to the Euro Area economy is getting even weaker (graph 1, the yellow part of the bars). Which not only forbodes a recession but already is a recession. Graph 1. Monetary developments in the Euro Area. Source. This interpretation (the EA is in a recession) gains credibility when we realize that most of the remaining net credit is used to finance the purchase of existing houses and not to finance...

from Dean Baker Like many self-imagined “free-traders,” the Washington Post editorial board cannot even conceive of free trade when it comes to prescription drugs. They demonstrated this fact yet again in discussing ways to deal with the high price of effective weight-loss drugs like Wegovy. These drugs carry price tags of more than $1,000 a month, making them costly for insurers, governments, or individuals who have to pick up the tab themselves. The Post throws out a couple of ideas...

from Maria Alejandra Madi I am writing today about a new online conference of the World Economics Association ”Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy 80 years later: Looking at capitalism today in light of its past and possible future”.  It runs from 1st February to 28th February, 2024.  You can find more information about it here: https://capitalismanddemocracy2024.weaconferences.net/ Home Background Submissions Register Frequently Asked Questions Conference Leaders Arturo Hermann and...

Within pretty broad limits[1], I’m an advocate of historical ‘presentism’, that is, assessing past events and actions in the same way as those in the present, and considering history in relation to our present concerns. In particular, that implies viewing enslavers, racists and warmongers in the same light, whether they are active today or died hundreds of years ago. Protesters pulling down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, England, during a demonstration organized...

from Lars Syll In 2022, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) placed a large bet on an experimental drug developed to limit brain damage after strokes … The gamble seemed warranted. Lab studies, most by a longtime grantee, prominent University of Southern California (USC) neuroscientist Berislav Zlokovic, had generated promising data. A small safety study of the drug, sponsored by a company Zlokovic co-founded called ZZ Biotech, was also encouraging. Because of its potential to...

With corrupt crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried as its most prominent representative, the Effective Altruism movement is not particularly popularly these days. And some other people associated with the Effective Altruism movement have bizarre and unappealing ideas. But the worst form of ad hominem argument is “someone bad asserts p, therefore p is bad”[1]. Whether under this name or not, most economic research on both welfare policy and development aid takes the premise of effective...

from Norbert Häring Shortly after it has become known that hackers are offering the identity data of most Indians from the world’s largest digital identity database for sale, the European Parliament and Council have agreed to introduce something similar for Europeans, while Washington praises the Ukrainian version as an export model and Bill Gates wants to impose a biometric digital marker on every newborn child in Kenya for life. In early October, IT security...

from Peter Radford To ignore power is to ignore reality. How can you construct a theory of economic activity that excludes the power embedded in relationships between the various actors on the stage you are directing?  More to the point why would you?  To ignore power is to ignore reality. I think, perhaps we need to reverse those two questions.  You see, power matters even in the construction of economic theories. The reason you ignore power is because the powerful want you to. It’s that...

Two days ago in a comment, Yoshinori Shiozawa offered the following suggestion. I have proposed to create a forum in which heterodox economists can inform each other and discuss the future directions of heterodox economics. The simplest and easiest [way] to start is to organize a series of book reviews (or paper reviews if necessary) in this RWER Blog. If the editors of this blog offer a space (a post for reviewing a book or a paper) once a month, or each two months, for example, it will...