from Lars Syll Mainstream (neoclassical) economics has always put a strong emphasis on the positivist conception of the discipline, characterizing economists and their views as objective, unbiased, and non-ideological … Acknowledging that ideology resides quite comfortably in our economics departments would have huge intellectual implications, both theoretical and practical. In spite (or because?) of that, the matter has never been directly subjected to empirical scrutiny. In a recent...

I rewrote portions of this article and added information from my own experiences in Automotive when new technology is introduced. My experience is not as great when compared to the introduction of EVs. However, it does come close enough to understand what is going on with the industry. Anyways, onwards. As taken from: GM Says EV Demand Is Shrinking. Data Shows a Complex Market, autoweek.com, Emmet White Generally speaking about the market . . ....

On October 26, 2023, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis published the latest US National Accounts figures – Gross Domestic Product, Third Quarter 2023 (Advance Estimate) – which showed that “Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023”. The June-quarter 2023 growth rate was 2.1 per cent. There was broad-based growth in all the expenditure components, including those that would be most sensitive to interest rate rises. My prior, of...

Upon hearing the Latin term caveat emptor, we likely think of the Uniform Commercial Code – of legal matters regarding commerce. These days – it turns out – ‘let the buyer beware’ is also very applicable to politics and the media. Fox News isn’t only hiding behind the First Amendment; it is also saying that one should know better than to believe the lies it is peddling. Facebook sells its consumers little-fettered access to a hotline to spread...

This commentary by Steve Early is about politics and war. The wars the US politically gets involved in, sends its young off to fight, and then leaves them pretty much stranded. It ain’t all John Wayne and scenes from the Alamo. Steve Early and I have been exchanging emails back and forth on VA healthcare. From what he tells me, he has picked up on our posting on healthcare. Just when you think no one is reading your work, a comment like this pops...

An appreciation of Rob A. Bryer, a Marxist scholar of accounting. I stumbled upon a You Tube channel and web site for the International Marxist Tendency. I do not know what I think about variants of Trotskyism. Alessandro Roncaglia contrasts theories of crises in which tendencies exist in competitive markets towards equilibrium and in which such tendencies need not exist. Some have YouTube channels trying to explain the strange ideas that mathematicians have come up with: An Infinite...

The purist streak in economics So in what sense is this “dynamic stochastic general equilibrium” model firmly grounded in the principles of economic theory? I do not want to be misunderstood. Friends have reminded me that much of the effort of “modern macro” goes into the incorporation of important deviations from the Panglossian assumptions that underlie the simplistic application of the Ramsey model to positive macroeconomics. Research focuses on the...

Russia continues with her program of updating IL-96 line, as an intermediate wide-body solution, to IL-96-400M. This is the first aircraft of this limited series doing its take-off regime runs yesterday.Its four engines are advanced PS-90A3--a further development of venerable high-bypass ratio PS-90A. This aircraft is fully Russian made, from systems to avionics. The Russian commercial aircraft industry is self-sufficient and unaffected by sanctions.And here we are, in the new geopolitical...

Government shutdowns, and threats of shutdown, have become routine in the US, with the result that no one much worries about them any more. Typically some kind of compromise is reached just as the deadline approaches, and government returns to quasi-normality.. Occasionally, bluffs are called and a ‘shutdown’ actually happens. Civil servants are sent home, public facilities are closed and so on. But the armed forces operate as normal, Social Security checks go out, and IOUs take the...

A new sandpit for long side discussions, conspiracy theories, idees fixes and so on. To be clear, the sandpit is for regular commenters to pursue points that distract from regular discussion, including conspiracy-theoretic takes on the issues at hand. It’s not meant as a forum for visiting conspiracy theorists, or trolls posing as such. Like this:Like Loading...