Labour leaders’ decision to abandon their highly publicized Green Prosperity Plan underscores the party’s ongoing failure to articulate a coherent response to Conservative criticism. Instead of focusing on bolstering their fiscal credentials, Labour leaders should reconnect with the party’s Keynesian roots. LONDON – Following months of speculation and infighting, the United Kingdom’s Labour Party has officially abandoned its pledge to borrow £28 billion ($35 billion) annually to invest...

Top economics influencers to follow Mainstream economics has sadly made economics increasingly irrelevant to the understanding of the real world. Trying to contribute to making economics a more realistic and relevant science, yours truly launched this blog in 2011. Now, thirteen years later and with millions of page views yours truly is — together with people like e.g. Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Mariana Mazzucato, Thomas Piketty, and Steve Keen — ranked...

Russian-Ukrainian peace talks, February–March 2022 20th February 2024 As the Ukrainian war approaches its second anniversary, there has been renewed, if rather limp, talk of a cease-fire followed by negotiations. The premise is that since neither side can “win,” it makes sense to start making peace. Few now remember that the war almost ended before it got going. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched ground and air attacks on Ukraine on four fronts. On February 28, 2022, Russian and...

17th Forum of the World Association for Political Economy ‘Political Economy vs Economics in a turbulent multipolar world 2-4 August 2024, Panteion University, Athens, Greece The 17th WAPE Forum will be held 2-4 August 2024 at Panteion University, Athens, Greece. It is co-organised by WAPE (World Association of Political Economy – http://www.wapeweb.org/) and GAPE (Greek Association of Political Economy – https://politicaleconomy.gr/main/en ) and hosted by the Panteion...

The problem with economics — too much maths, too little history .[embedded content] Mainstream economists have always wanted to use their hammer, and so have decided to pretend that the world looks like a nail. Pretending that uncertainty can be reduced to risk and that all activities, relations, processes, and events can be adequately converted to pure numbers, have only contributed to making economics irrelevant and powerless when confronting real-world...

I gave this exact date all the way back in September.

Other than among Jehovah’s Witnesses, vaccination rightly gained widespread trust and acceptance in America. Innoculation against smallpox was around for hundreds of years before Jenner described the eponymous vaccine. Polio was a scourge in the US through the 1950s until it was virtually eliminated by vaccination. Many deadly diseases like whooping cough and measles were all but elimated in my lifetime through vaccination.Now, thanks to rank...

Weekly Indicators for February 12 – 16 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat I am back from my travels, so it’s time to catch up. There’s no significant economic news until tomorrow, but in the meantime I neglected to link to my weekly high frequency indicator wrap-up, which was posted at Seeking Alpha. As usual, if you haven’t already done so, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual minute on the economic data and...

Predatory For-Profit Education: Exploiting Students

[embedded content]My brief interview at the Rick Smith Show on the likelihood of a recession this year, and the unfounded fears about public debt in the United States.