Ideology is Dead! Long Live Ideology!
Economists like to say they’re immune to ideology. Research shows the opposite.
Read more...Category Archives: The dismal science
How Richard Vague Discovered Gravity: An Interview + Book Review of A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises
Richard Vague extends his work on the dangers of private debt via his new book, A Brief History of Doom, on the role of debt in financial crises.
Read more...No, Productivity Does Not Explain Income
Why a widely-held view about productivity that is foundational to the claim that people are paid what they deserve does not hold up to scrutiny.
Read more...Keeping the Oil in the Soil
The goal of any serious climate policy is to keep oil and other fossil fuels in the ground. The central question is how.
Read more...China: The Covert Credit Superpower
An new working paper by Sebastian Horn, Carmen Reinhart and Christoph Trebesch on China’s foreign lending has some important findings, such as that China accounts for more than 40% of the external debt of 50 developing countries. We’ve embedded the document at the end of this post. The study is an ambitious undertaking, seeking to […]
Read more...Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete
In a 1946 classic, New York Fed chairman Beardsley Ruml explains why taxes aren’t necessary for Federal spending and argues against corporate income taxes.
Read more...Is Industrial Policy Finally Legitimate?
Awfully late in the game, industrial policy gets the recognition it deserves.
Read more...The Myth of Expansionary Austerity
If you hold mainstream economic views, it was too good to be true: Another effort to vindicate austerity falls victim to flawed methodology.
Read more...Michael Hudson Discusses the IMF and World Bank: Partners In Backwardness
Michael Hudson explains how the IMF and World Bank support US hegemony.
Read more...Takers and Makers: Who Are the Real Value Creators?
Why stories from “value creators” should be taken with a fistful of salt.
Read more...Rebel Economist Breaks Through to Washington on How Shareholder Value Theory Rewards the Undeserving
How William Lazonick persuaded pols and pundits that the shareholder value theory was bad for business and society.
Read more...The Individual Costs of Occupational Decline
Quelle surprise! Occupational decline, aka “The robots ate my career,” lowers lifetime earnings, particulalry for low-wage workers.
Read more...Are Economists Blocking Progress on Climate Change?
As they so often do, by promoting unrealisitc models, economists have become part of problem rather than the solution.
Read more...Economic Growth: A Short History of a Controversial Idea
Environmentalists and even some economists question the relentless pursuit of GDP growth. But where did the idea come from?
Read more...Conservative Economists Embrace Adam Smith as a Hero — But Many Scholars Say His Legacy Has Been Distorted
In popular imagination, Smith’s invisible hand has become so strongly associated with Friedman’s openly conservative economic agenda that people often take for granted that is what Smith meant.
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