Nobel Memorial Prize Winning Economist James Heckman has a piece in the Opinionator section of the NYT (is that a printed section, by the way, or online-only?) that reveals the lie behind the farce that is Arne Duncan’s “leadership”:  Children raised in disadvantaged environments are not only much less likely to succeed in school or in […]

by Robert Waldmann Kevin Drum quotes Tyler Cowen and I wrote a huge comment (without clicking the link) just about the quoted passage. “Tyler Cowen posits today that on economic issues, the right wing was both more dynamic and more correct than the left during the 70s and 80s, with “peak right” coming in 1989. After that, […]

I wrote that Paul Krugman is assuming full-employment. Yesterday Krugman basically pleaded with the Fed to not taper. I see full-employment as constrained by effective demand, which can be determined by quite simple equations. My view comes from Keynes and chapter 3 of his General Theory book. “An alternative, though equivalent, criterion is that at […]

The principles of effective demand can be used to evaluate the aggregate profit rate on capital. This measure is a useful indicator of the business cycle. When the aggregate profit rate gets sluggish or falls, the economy is tempting a recession. The basic equation to determine the aggregate profit rate on capital is… Aggregate profit […]

Via Naked Capitalism comes this video discussion  FIVE YEARS ON, LEARNING LEHMAN’S LESSONS FROM THE PANIC OF 2008- Panel Discussion in a panel discussion with James K. Galbraith (Economics Professor at the University of Texas), Neil Barofsky (former Inspector General for overseeing TARP), John Coffee (Law Professor at Columbia University). A link to the entire event, including Elizabeth […]

Details here.

Stiglitz on globalization: the MNE’s bought the law by Linda Beale Trans Pacific Partnership bad for the middle class, but how bad? by Kenneth Thomas Latest World Trade Organization lunacy by Dan Crawford Trans Pacific Partnership: A new Constitution by Dan Becker Letter from an angry reader by Stormy

Paul Krugman asked today… “Are we getting close enough to “full employment” that it’s time to let up on the gas? How much slack is there in the economy, really?” By letting up on the gas, he is referring to tapering by the Federal Reserve. Tapering would signal tightening as he ends his post with […]

by Robert Waldmann “If non-bureaucratic mechanisms like markets or decentralized experimentation could achieve the same or better results at less cost and without the political taint of Big Government, why not try it?* “ Might have been an interesting question in 1993, although it starts with an “If” clause which assumes the new Democrats are […]

Moody’s economist Marisa DiNatali discusses the idea of part timers and current times: Though some businesses are claiming that they are hiring more part-time workers to avoid the Affordable Care Act’s employer responsibility requirements, which apply to companies with more than 50 full-time employees, that incentive is limited and research from Moody’s economist Marisa DiNatale […]