The End of the Line: The Crash Following a Debt Default
In my recent letter to the editor to the Albany Times Union, “Defaulting on debt a national disaster” (here), I argued that the budget and debt limit crises are the result of the massive growth of...
View ArticleIgnorance Is Death
The science of economics has failed us. Until I got deeply into my research on the economics of inequality, which has been my passion for the last three years, I did not imagine how badly it has failed...
View ArticleThe Neoclassical Boondoggle and the “Mutilated Economy”— Part 1
Prologue The hallmarks of so-called “neoclassical” economics are: (1) a faith that, no matter what hits the economy takes, it will always grow itself back to full employment, at least eventually; (2)...
View ArticleEconomics: The Lost Science
As the year 2013 draws to a close, this post summarizes the concerns that have been driving me these past two years about the deterioration of the “science” of economics. The year 2014 will be a...
View ArticleInequality and Taxation
It’s not just Occupy Wall Street protesters that are worried about wealth and income inequality. Now people like Bill Gross, manager of the world’s largest bond fund at Pimco, are warning that the...
View ArticleInequality and the National Debt
(Mark McHugh, “Understanding the National Debt – Sesame St. Addition,” September 24, 2010 here) , updated April 17, 2012 (here) Public credit affords such facilities to public prodigality, that many...
View ArticleThe Time-Warp and the Three Milliseconds
(“Navajo Family Receives Electricity in Their Home for the First Time,” by Candice Naranjo, AP, April 13, 2014, here, and Sara Morrison, The Wire, here.) Spread’s tunnel was not intended to carry...
View ArticleInequality Retards Growth: A”New View”?
For more than three decades, almost everyone who matters in American politics has agreed that higher taxes on the rich and increased aid to the poor have hurt economic growth. Liberals have generally...
View ArticleClimate Change and the Economy: Facing Reality
(Canada Geese – Eric Kraft) I denied climate change for longer than I care to admit. I knew it was happening, sure. But I stayed pretty hazy on the details and only skimmed most news stories. I told...
View ArticleProfitability and Progress: Capitalism’s Achilles Heel
“Blowing the Roof off the Twenty-first Century: Media, Politics, and the Struggle for Post-Capitalist Democracy,” the latest book by Robert W. McChesney, the Gutsgell Endowed Professor in the...
View ArticleThe Trickle-Down Nightmare
In my retirement, I have devoted myself to the investigation of income and wealth inequality, and in the process acquired a distributional perspective on how modern market economies actually work. When...
View ArticleThe Terrifying Truth About Politics
The preceding post began with a little-noticed quotation from Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention: “I believe that our economy isn’t working the way it should because our...
View ArticleTrump’s Presidency and Our Economic Future: Part II – The Bitter Fruits of...
On October 9, 2013, in a blog article entitled “Ignorance is Death,” I discussed the vast public ignorance about economics and the extreme danger inherent in GOP policies (here), I wrote: The fruits...
View ArticleBad News on the Doorstep
This line, from the song “American Pie” by Don McLean , instantly popped into my head when I sat down to read the morning papers on Monday, December 5, 2016. A Google search for “Bad News on the...
View ArticleThe Great Correction
Most Americans are at least apprehensive, and many of us are terrified, by the prospect of the upcoming Donald Trump presidency. These fears are justified. People who voted for him did so despite his...
View ArticleThe Big Lie: Reaganomics
Opposition to the Trump regime is surfacing rapidly. The most recent issue of Rolling Stone (February 25 – March 9, 2017) features an interview with John Oliver, discussing his plans for “Last Week...
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