During the interwar period, there was no consensus on how economics should be done. There was no “orthodoxy”, but rather various competing schools of thought. In the US, for example, there were schools that did neoclassical theory, and there was also strong movement in American Institutionalism at universities such as Texas and Wisconsin. Today, there [...]
Archive for December, 2010
Another tale of two depressions
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Economic Debates, pluralism on December 28, 2010 | 2 Comments »
North Pole Exploitation: “The Elf’s Lament”
Posted in Uncategorized on December 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Enjoy this Barenaked Ladies’ song, “The Elf’s Lament.” The song details the hardships of being an elf, and reminds us all to remember the less fortunate this holiday season. My favorite lyric: “Toiling through the ages, making toys on garnished wages / There’s no union / We’re only through when we outdo the competition.” Merry Christmas!
Why economics can’t explain the modern world
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Development, economic conversations on December 18, 2010 | 5 Comments »
It is no secret that modern economic theory fails miserably at explaining the tremendous explosion in economic activity and income levels that has taken place since the 18th century. We don’t have a good story of why in 1800 an ordinary person lived on $3 a day, whereas today an ordinary person in a “bourgeois” [...]
Questioning Alternative Microfoundations
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Alternatives, behavioral economics, Economic Debates on December 16, 2010 | 1 Comment »
There’s been a bit of discussion on a Rajiv Sethi post about Duncan Foley’s attempts to bring strong microfoundations into macro. Mark Thoma first had comment and then Leigh Caldwell chimed in. If you have time, start with Rajiv’s post. Thoma sums up a key problem well: That is, you need to make the representative [...]
“Inequality, Leverage, and Crises”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Economic Crisis, financial crisis, inequality, Labor on December 9, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Commenter Tomboktu tipped me to an IMF working paper from last month by Michael Kumhof and Romain Ranciere, “Inequality, Leverage, and Crises.” I referenced it in my previous post about plutonomy. In this paper, the authors use conventional tools like a DSGE model to explain the curious fact that, Both [the Depression and current recession] [...]
Survey on Economic Views, Deficits, and more
Posted in Uncategorized on December 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell, a regular commenter whose blog I have linked here before, now has a survey on economic views. The survey itself touches on issues of deficits, federal spending areas, taxes, and deficit view formation. Most surveys with these types of questions-though Rodger’s are fairly unique- query professional economists. Blog traffickers like my readers [...]
Banks Notice the Rise of Plutonomy
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Economic Crisis, financial crisis, inequality on December 7, 2010 | 2 Comments »
A few weeks ago, Ed Fullbrook posted about a Citibank report about the rise of a plutonomic society. The report reads, in part: The World is dividing into two blocs – the Plutonomy and the rest. The U.S., UK, and Canada are the key Plutonomies – economies powered by the wealthy. Continental Europe (ex-Italy) and [...]
Zombie ideas
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged zombie economics on December 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
[ht:cr] Very disappointed in this tax deal. Trickle down economics is an example of “zombie” economics: it should be long gone but somehow refuses to die.
The Joy of Stats
Posted in Uncategorized on December 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
[ht:ak]
Organized Money Threatens Strike Over Tax Cuts
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Corporations, Labor on December 2, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Perceptive observers will remember that the Tea Party as we know it today was started by an interview from the trading floor, given by CNBC’s Rick Santelli, and only later did the “grassroots”- apologies for the scare quotes, but no better time- come on board. What we had with that movement, which has since been [...]
