How the Troika, the WSJ and the NYT Keep the Public Befuddled About Austerity and Deflation
Deflation proves that austerity policies are failing, but the media is doing a remarkable job of keeping readers confused and ignorant.
Read more...Category Archives: The destruction of the middle class
Robert Pollin and Dean Baker Discuss the Anemic Recovery and Why Economists Don’t Recommend Real Remedies
A good discussion of why the weak economic recovery has only helped those at the very top, and why economists who know better continue to enable that.
Read more...A Reflection on Piketty’s “Rentiers Always Win” or r > g
The Piketty postulate that r > g, meaning the return on wealth exceeds overall economic growth, is simply not a universal truth. This post provides a tidy and accessible debunking.
Read more...Piketty’s Wealth Tax Won’t Hurt Investment
Transfers don’t matter for investment, and most savings are transfers. Thus Piketty’s wealth tax won’t hurt investment.
Read more...Michael Hudson: The EU Parliament Elections as a Vote Against the Oligarchs
The US press and newscasts make it appear that Europeans have voted against poor immigrants and foreigners. What they voted against was the super-rich, the oligarchy.
Read more...Michael Perelman: Vietnam – Invitation to a Morass
How the Vietnam War helped usher in neoliberalism, financialization of the economy, and the use of military spending as stealth stimulus.
Read more...European Voters Deliver the Revenge of the Nation-State
Were the results of the European elections a tremor or an earthquake?
Read more...Financial Times Finds “Many” Errors in Piketty Analysis, Argues They Undermine His Thesis
Chris Giles of the Financial Times has charged Thomas Piketty with making Reinhart and Rogoff-like data and methodological errors in his best-selling book on wealth inequality, Capital in the 21st Century.
Read more...America: Europe and Canada’s Willing Chump
How America facilitates a labor and environmental race to the bottom, helping companies based in Europe, Canada, and Mexico.
Read more...Is the Piketty Enthusiasm Bubble Subsiding?
Although Piketty’s Capital has garnered a great deal of praise, the criticisms were initially overlooked. They are finally getting the attention they warrant.
Read more...Randy Wray: Forget Taxes for Redistribution – What to do About Inequality
Yves here. A lot of people argue for redistributive taxes, contending that they were very successful in the golden age of the American middle class, from the end of World War II through the Reagan era, in constraining the concentration of income and wealth at the top. However, that tax structure reflected a broad social consensus in favor of fostering prosperity for ordinary Americans, in no small measure to keep Communist impulses at bay.
In Yankee terms, Wray’s argument against using taxes to create a more egalitarian distribution of income is “You can’t get there from here”.
Read more...UK Survey Finds High Levels of Depression and Desperation Among the Young
High levels of un- and underemployment among the young are undermining their mental health. And the damage might be lasting.
Read more...How the Democrats Are Using Piketty’s Book on Inequality
How Democrats are using Thomas Piketty’s new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, to bolster the party’s flagging fortunes.
Read more...Piketty’s Wealth Tax is Real, and It Works
Most economists deride Thomas Piketty’s recommendation of a wealth tax as the remedy to inequality. It might help if they did some empirical research.
Read more...Rhode Island Senate Considering “Maximum Wage” Legislation
Why Rhode Island’s maximum wage proposal is a potential big step toward reducing income inequality.
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