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from Mother Jones

from Mark Weisbrot The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has gotten some attention in the past week for the publication of an unusual article in its quarterly magazine, Finance and Development. The article’s title, “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” itself is a shocker, since the institution has been the most influential proponent of neoliberalism in the world for more than four decades. It’s kind of like an op-ed from Donald Trump titled, “Insulting Your Opponents: Oversold?” From the authors...

from Maria Alejandra Madi   Technological change has significantly transformed the labour scenario as the result of the diffusion of innovative practices at the micro-level. The technological impact on the future of work was deeply analysed by Jeremy Rifkin. According to him, we are facing a new phase of history – Third Industrial Revolution – that is characterized by the steady and inevitable decline of jobs in the production and marketing of goods and services. Today, the Third...

This went from bad to worse but they don’t seem to pay much attention to it: Labor Market Conditions IndexHighlightsLast week’s employment report was very weak and is reflected in May’s labor market conditions index which came in at minus 4.8 for the fifth straight negative reading and the lowest of the economic cycle, since May 2009. April is revised 2.5 points lower to minus 3.4 which, next to May, is the second lowest of the cycle. These readings point to a fundamental...

from Asad Zaman Before Keynes, Classical Economic Theory (CET) was based on three principles. The First Principle is that Unemployment is automatically eliminated by the free market. The Second Principle is the Quantity Theory of Money, which states that money supply makes no difference to real economic outcomes. The Third Principle is that private investors automatically find the right investment opportunities to create the best economic outcomes for future. The realities of the Great...

Mohammed Ali – ‘The Greatest’ – died today, at the age of 74. With his loss, the world is deprived of the terrific energy of a principled, devout and committed man. A boxer, a philosopher and a poet. But for those of us who worked hard to achieve the cancellation of about $100 billion of debt for thirty five of the poorest countries, Ali occupies a special place in our hearts. This great man, celebrated around the world, took time out to join us in London in 1999, and to give his backing to...

Continuing to decelerate. As previously discussed, I see no chance of a reversal until deficit spending- public or private- picks up to offset the unspent income/savings desires: Employment SituationHighlightsThe assessment of the labor market, not to mention the outlook for consumer spending, just came down as nonfarm payrolls proved much weaker than expected in May, up only 38,000 with the two prior months revised a total of 59,000 lower. The Verizon strike is a negative in the data but...

from Peter Radford I try to take my own advice: when you have nothing to say, don’t say anything. Thus, for the best part of a month I have busied myself doing other things and staying away from here. It’s been a nice break, and here I am still convinced that there’s not much to say. The economy is where it was. Economics is where it was. Politics is where it was. The three intermingle, mix, merge, separate and go their different ways in the same manner as before. The same complaints and...

Big, listed banks, darlings of the neoliberal establishment, brought Ireland to its knees. Small Irish community banks (credit unions, a volunteer led movement with over 3 million members), while severely affected by the financial crisis, did not only not contribute to the financial crisis but also weathered it, retaining the trust of their members. Mind: ‘members’, not ‘clients’. Via the website of the Irish Central Bank some excerpts of a speech by Registrar Anne Marie McKiernan to Irish...

Seems the corporate profits report includes the Fed’s profits, all of which get turned over to the Treasury, of course… How the Fed Stopped the “Corporate Profit Recession” (and the Media Fell for it) By Wolf TichterThe end of the corporate “profit recession” has been declared last week. It was based on data by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, released on May 27. Corporate profits, after declining with some zigs and zags since their peak in the third quarter 2014, suddenly ticked up in the...