The Second Great Depression

At least four major factors are terrifying economists and weighing on the recovery. The American economy is reopening. In Alabama, gyms are back in business. In Georgia, restaurants are seating customers again. In Texas, the bars are packed. And in Vermont, the stay-at-home order has been lifted. People are still frightened.

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You Can’t Have a Prosperous Economy Without an Entrepreneurial Government – Evonomics

Capitalism Ending the state vs market myth The debate about the relative roles of the state and the market in capitalist economies tends to swing from side to side in the hearts and minds of public opinion: periods when the state is defended for its role in economic development are always superseded by an attack on its intervention into ‘well functioning’ markets.

Yanis Varoufakis

Ioannis ” Yanis” Varoufakis ( Greek: Ιωάννης Γεωργίου “Γιάνης” Βαρουφάκης, Ioánnis Georgíou “Giánis” Varoufákis, pronounced [ˈʝanis varuˈfakis]; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist, academic, philosopher and politician. He has been Secretary-General of MeRA25, a left-wing political party, since he founded it in 2018.

Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalism will eat democracy — unless we speak up

Have you wondered why politicians aren’t what they used to be, why governments seem unable to solve real problems? Economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece, says that it’s because you can be in politics today but not be in power — because real power now belongs to those who control the economy.

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The neoliberal era is ending. What comes next?

In a crisis, what was once unthinkable can suddenly become inevitable. We’re in the middle of the biggest societal shakeup since the second world war. And neoliberalism is gasping its last breath. So from higher taxes for the wealthy to more robust government, the time has come for ideas that seemed impossible just months ago.

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Is Capitalism a Threat to Democracy?

In London, in the nineteen-thirties, the émigré Hungarian intellectual Karl Polanyi was known among his friends as “the apocalyptic chap.” His gloom was understandable. Nearly fifty, he’d had to leave his wife, daughter, and mother behind in Vienna shortly after Austria lurched toward fascism, in 1933.

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Why neoliberal capitalism and the common good are incompatible

If the response to coronavirus has accomplished anything, it is reminding us of the basic principle of our society. I say “principle,” which is singular, because there is really only one. It is not “all men and women created by you know, the thing,” which has as much to do with our way of life as the Code of Hammurabi, but money.

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Bernie Sanders’ plans may be expensive but inaction would cost much more | Robert Reich

In Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, the former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg charged that the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ policy proposals would cost $50tn. Holy Indiana. Wisconsin’s dairy farmers see bleak future for ‘America’s Dairyland’ Larry Summers, formerly chief White House economic adviser for Barack Obama, puts the price tag at $60tn.

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Economist Mary Wrenn provides an easy to understand definition of what Neoliberalism is:—

“Neoliberalism is an ideology that guides a lot of economic policymaking and has done so since roughly the Reagan/Thatcher administrations. And it’s an ideology that prioritizes the health of the economy over the health and well-being of the state’s constituents, the people essentially. And the idea is that if the economy is healthy, if the economy is prosperous, and growing then all other social ills will be remedied through that market activity. So the market will step in and provide where people are lacking if a particular region is lacking in services well that’ll be a profit-making opportunity in the market will see that service is provided.

So it’s an idea that the economy’s health is the number one priority of the state and the way that the state takes care of the economy is leaving it alone.

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Bankruptcy, Divorce, and Long Commutes. More Evidence That Income Inequality is Toxic – Evonomics

Inequality How inequality is eroding the fabric of American life. The world is slowly reaching the conclusion that income inequality is toxic for human welfare. Books such as The Spirit Level , Why Nations Fail , and Capital in the 21st Century make the case at the macro scale by chronicling the fate of nations.

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Opinion | Bernie Sanders Isn’t a Socialist

Maybe Buttigieg is unaware of the growing consensus among mainstream economists that the deficit hysteria of seven or eight years ago was greatly overblown. Last year the former top economists in the Obama administration published an article titled ” Who’s Afraid of Budget Deficits?”

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I don’t think running a deficit is necessarily bad. I don’t think the size of the U.S. debt is a danger.

Convince me I am wrong.

This video helps explain my position.

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Universal Basic Income versus Jobs Guarantee-Which Serves Workers Better?

The need in the United States for big new economic ideas has become obvious: despite a record low unemployment rate, the nation’s economy is failing to provide good paying jobs to those who want and are willing to work for them.

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New Reports Show That Trump’s Economic Promises Were Empty

With the impeachment trial, the coronavirus, and the Iowa caucuses in the news, dry economic statistics aren’t getting much attention right now. But two new reports-the latest gross-domestic-product figures from the Commerce Department and a new set of budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office -shouldn’t be allowed to pass without comment.

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It is becoming conventional wisdom that US President Donald Trump will be tough to beat in November, because, whatever reservations about him voters may have, he has been good for the American economy. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Truth About the Trump Economy | by Joseph E. Stiglitz

It is becoming conventional wisdom that US President Donald Trump will be tough to beat in November, because, whatever reservations about him voters may have, he has been good for the American economy. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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“It is aggregate demand that drives the economy. Payments made on a rise in interest rates on credit card balances from 19% to a 29% penalty rate reduce consumers’ ability to contribute to aggregate demand by purchasing goods and the services of doctors, lawyers, plumbers, electricians, and carpenters. Contrary to logic, the fee is magically counted in the “financial services” category as a contributor to GDP growth. The extortion of a fee that reduces aggregate demand lowers GDP, but builds paper wealth in the financial services sector.”

Neoliberal Economics Destroyed the Economy and the Middle Class

Perhaps economists will also come to the realization that they owe us accurate GDP accounting and not fanciful accounts that serve elite wealth in the financialized economy. According to official US government economic data, the US economy has been growing for 10.5 years since June of 2009.

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