.[embedded content]

from John Komlos and RWER issue 104 . . . for the first 97 percent of our species’ history, humans did not compete for status by amassing economic and political power and thus such inequality cannot be viewed as socially necessary. Such competition was proscribed because it would be destructive of these societies’ collective well-being. Instead, their rules of the game compelled them to compete in other manners beneficial to the community, such as by being good warriors, good hunters and...

To analyse the urban riots of 2023 – by far the most serious since those of 2005 – and the political misunderstandings to which they give rise, it is essential to go back to the roots of France’s territorial malaise. The suburbs that are currently catching fire have much more in common with the abandoned villages and midsize towns than is sometimes imagined. The only way out of the current contradictions is to bring these different disadvantaged areas together politically.   Let’s look...

The risky business of capitalizing on demand

Here’s my update on the market and what’s happening while I’m in Los Angeles. 

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The United States’ Financial Quandary: ZIRP’s only Exit path is a Crash Abstract Interest-bearing debt grows exponentially, in an upsweep. The non-financial economy of production and consumption grows more slowly as income is diverted to carry the debt overhead. A crash occurs when a large part of the economy cannot pay its scheduled debt service. Continue Reading The post ZIRP’s only Exit path is a Crash first appeared on Michael...

It should be seen that the root cause of the current weak domestic demand lies in the low spending power of families caused by the high unemployment rate and high housing prices. Although China has arguably the largest middle-income group in the world, most of its wealth exists in the form of the real estate bubble that may burst under the pressure it is under.Under the current policy of "dual circulation," domestic demand must increase in order to reduce dependence on exports to avoid the...

[embedded content]One minute. They get it right. Banks create new "money" simply by entries in accounts. No details of the process now, but at least they have the key point correct.The EconomistHow do banks actually create money? We explain

Scenes from the June employment report: consumption leads employment, goods vs. services edition  – by New Deal democrat No big new economic news today, so let’s take a more in-depth look at some of the information from Friday’s employment report. Today I’m going to focus on the division between goods and services. As I’ve written many times in the past, consumption leads employment. Typically I have shown that via real retail sales. The...

It is not possible to determine the scientific method that it is appropriate to employ for a given task (in a particular context) without knowing the nature of the task. And to know the nature of any scientific task it is always essential to have an insight into (i.e., to seek to determine) the nature of the material that is to be investigated … Now if there is one feature that provides the greatest obstacle in the path of economics achieving its potential as an explanatory...