How NCL theory subverts Catholicism

At Catholic universities such as Notre Dame, there are many efforts to harmonize Catholic doctrine with neoclassical economic theory. However, these efforts are doomed to fail as there are four major reasons that neoclassical economic theory is subversive to Catholicism: (1) Perfect competition throws ethics out the window. Neoclassical theory assumes perfectly competitive markets are [...]

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Memo to the Tea Party re: Running from Social Justice

First of all, Tea Party, welcome to DC! Thanks for choosing the anniversary of MLK’s “I Have a Dream Speech” to celebrate your divisive version of politics on our National Mall (and even more appropriately, in front of the memorial for the President who ended slavery). Your fearless leader, Glenn Beck, is holding this rally [...]

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Got a New Sheriff

This must be the first time there has been a rap video made about a Senate confirmation…

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Class in American Literature

I’m not a literary expert, so I have to take this essay by Gerald Howard at face value. And, it’s an excellent essay, discussing how discussions of class used to be common in American fiction, but no longer are. Here are some excerpts: Work—especially the sort of work that gets your hands dirty and that brands [...]

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No room for reading

I was talking to some English PhD students today, and when the conversation turned to economics they were dismayed to learn that no one in “top” economics departments ever read Marx, much less understood any of his theories. Then I was caught off-guard when I was asked, “so what thinkers do most students in economics [...]

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How Can Inequality Cause the Crisis?

When economists talk about inequality and the current economic crisis, things tend to get weird. Discussions of possible mechanisms don’t seem to go anywhere. Empirics generally rely on time-series correlations of aggregate figures. The overriding sentiment is, “but how?” We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the relationship between inequality and the crisis. The [...]

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Not just rotten eggs

Robert Reich thinks the recent recall of hundreds of millions of salmonella infected eggs is just the result of some “rotten apples” in the industry.  It’s the same argument we heard after the Massey Energy mine explosion, the BP oil spill, and the Wall Street banks bringing on the financial crisis. Every week, more stories [...]

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Cold Water for Locavores?

An Op-Ed yesterday by Stephen Budiansky in the NYT argues that the local food movement is not necessarily as green as it seems: Studies have shown that whether it’s grown in California or Maine, or whether it’s organic or conventional, about 5,000 calories of energy go into one pound of lettuce… It takes about a [...]

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Input Needed- Teaching Alternative Econ to HS Students

A friend emails our old econ listserv: I recently found out that I am going to be teaching a high school economics course this coming year. It is only a one semester course (we meet everday for approx. 45 min) and I am suppose to follow the Texas State Standards. In Texas, the course is [...]

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A For-Profit Education Bubble

New data from the department of education shows student loans at for-profit colleges are being repaid at lower than the expected rates. NPR asks, Is the sequel to the subprime mortgage crisis a subprime education crisis? I think this is a very fair parallel to draw, and something that we do need to keep an [...]

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