Tag Archives: Uncategorized

from David Ruccio I’ve been writing for some years now about the emergence of new technologies, especially automation and robotics, and their potential contribution to raising already-high levels of inequality even further. The problem is not, as I have tried to make clear, technology per se but the way it is designed and utilized within existing economic institutions. In other words, the central question is: who will own the robots? If capital owns the robots, even if their development...

So I count 3 or 4 increases and 3 or 4 decreases, so hard to say overall policy has changed, which is to keep the price just low enough to keep global investment to a minimum? Still very bad: This index went up with the shale boom and now down since the bust pulled the rug out from under oil capital expenditure:

from Thomas Palley After more than 7 years of economic recovery, the Federal Reserve is positioning itself to tighten monetary policy by raising interest rates. In light of the wobbly reaction in financial markets, an important question that must be asked is whether raising interest rates is the right tool. It could well be that the world’s leading central bank is going about the process of tightening in the wrong way. Owing to the dollar’s preeminent standing, that could have severe...

David Ruccio During the past couple of weeks, the only real India economic news in the Western press was the decision by “the Ranbir Kapoor of banking,” Raghuram G. Rajan, to step down from his position as the head of the Reserve Bank of India. But we read almost nothing about the 2 September nationwide strike by 150 million Indian workers [ht: Magpie], which was certainly the largest strike in India’s long labor history—and may have been the largest general strike in world history. As...

After more than 7 years of economic recovery, the Federal Reserve is positioning itself to tighten monetary policy by raising interest rates. In light of the wobbly reaction in financial markets, an important question that must be asked is whether raising interest rates is the right tool. It could well be that the world’s leading central [...]

from Dean Baker The efforts by many elite types to deny basic statistics and to tout the new technologies transforming the workplace are truly Trumpian in their nature. According to the OECD, productivity growth in the UK was essentially zero between 2007 and 2014 (the most recent year for which it has data). So we would naturally expect that the Guardian would run a column telling us that globalization and new technologies are making old workplace relations obsolete. As John Harris tells...

Decline in Profits Slows By Stephen Grocer Sept 12 (WSJ) — Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to report that revenue grew by 2.6% in the third quarter from the year-earlier period, according to FactSet. That would end a six-quarter period of sales contraction. Importantly, sales estimates for S&P 500 companies improved slightly since the third quarter began and companies began reporting second-quarter earnings. On June 30, analysts expected revenue to increase 2.5%,...

Did low interest rates contribute to the growth of tourism and tehrewith to higher aggregate demand? Yes. but not like the models predict. Lower rates on existing debts (instead of on new loans) fired the animal spirits of consumers (instead of producers). In normal times, Italy would have been hailed, by EU officials, as a beacon and an example of succesful development of one of its main sectors, tourism. Nowadays, the growth of employment in Italian tourism (+10% in three years, which...

from David Ruccio In a recent New York Times article, Quoctring Bui reveals some fascinating details about the geography of inequality in the United States—including the fact that  between 1990 and 2014, the states that we tend to think of as economic engines for the country — like New York, California and New Jersey — are the ones where inequality has grown the most.    But the author makes the mistake of repeating the common presumption that, prior to the new millennium (specifically,...

As previously discussed, this ‘nowcast’ is working its way lower as more data is released, much like it did last quarter. Still to come are weaker retail sales due to weakening car sales, weaker residential investment due to weakening housing permits, more inventory reductions due to weaker sales, and generally weaker consumption as employment growth continues to decelerate. And I also suspect the trade deficit to resume it’s climb as exports continue to weaken and the...