Economy as Circulation System

Construction spending continued to increase in November  – by New Deal democrat I’m feeling a little under the weather today, so I am going to keep this brief. Total construction spending rose 0.4% in November, while residential construction rose 1.1%: Keep in mind that these are nominal numbers, affected by the cost of construction materials. Typically residential construction moves in tandem with building units under construction....

Economists' Climate Change Misconceptions Exposed

The New Year has barely started, but the world of academia seems to be back to work, and sending me a variety of gifts, some more welcome than others. Coincidentally or otherwise, it’s also the day I’ve moved to semi-retirement, a half-pay position involving only research and public engagement. Most welcome surprise: an email telling me I’ve been elected as a Fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory. In the way academia works, some friendly colleagues must have...

The Hidden Costs of Capitalism

January 1, 2024, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox-Richardson On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed his name to the Emancipation Proclamation. He said . . . “I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper. If my name goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.” The Emancipation Proclamation provided that as of January 1, “all persons held as...

from Gregory Daneke and RWER issue 102 Emerging ecological ideas . . .  rushed headlong into the canonical growth imperative of the mainstream. Anyone who uttered ecology and economics in the same breath was bullied and harassed going as far back as the 19th century, but the battering became more intense in the late 1970s as Neoliberalism was fully asserting itself in the halls of power (Reagan, Thatcher, etc.). The unrelenting and scurrilous ad-hominem attacks on the scholars associated...

Final COVID-19 update for 2023: mainly good news (at least on a comparative basis)  – by New Deal democrat Here is the status of the COVID-19 pandemic as of the end of 2023. It’s mainly “good news,” at least on the comparative scale. But as (now) per usual, we are in the midst of the Thanksgiving through New Year’s surge. Let me start with infections, which these days can only be inferred from wastewater sampling. Per Biobot, we currently...

As a veteran, I am interested in what the VA does in providing healthcare. Suzanne and Steve have a great interest is how veterans are treated by the VA. PTSD Is a Nightmare. A Fully Funded VA Can Provide Relief, jacobin.com, Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the often-hidden wound of war. Post-9/11 wars added hundreds of thousands of former service members to the patient rolls of the Department of...

 Intervista a Il sussidiario 24 dicembre 2023 (a cura di Lorenzo Torrisi) NUOVO PATTO DI STABILITÀ/ “Italia lasciata senza alternativa, arriva l’austerità perpetua” Pubblicazione: 24.12.2023 - int. Sergio CesarattoLa riforma del Patto di stabilità non porta a una vera governance economica europea. Per l'Italia si prospettano anni di austeritàCosa pensa dell’accordo finale raggiunto sulla riforma del Patto di stabilità e crescita? Mah, è finita come doveva finire. La verità è che...