AMERICAN INEQUALITY WITH SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN and ECONOMIST THOMAS PIKETTY Boston, MA: This Saturday, The Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength will sponsor a landmark dialogue between Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and economist Thomas Piketty. Senator Warren is one of progressivism’s most admired and powerful leaders and–despite her “I’m not running” assertions–a top presidential pick for many […]
AMERICAN INEQUALITY WITH SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN and ECONOMIST THOMAS PIKETTY
The War on Private Citizens and Organizations Feeding the Homeless
It has been the political right’s mantra of welfare and charity being best done by private organizations rather than be government sponsored. 50 years have passed since President Johnson declared war on poverty. It was declared an abject failure by the right as it did not make people independent nor did it make people want […]
Has Tyler Cowen Updated His Priors on Wealth Concentration and Inequality?
Noah Smith has documented the “anti-Piketty crusade” by Tyler Cowen, Chairman and General Director of the Koch-brothers-funded Mercatus Center. (The post seems to have gone missing from Noah’s site [pourquoi?]; here’s Google’s cached version.) The latest from Cowen is here, joining in the right-wing chorus desperately trying to debunk the long and widely documented increase in wealth inequality (documented […]
Higher Inflation Target is a Non-Issue
Paul Krugman is pushing for a higher inflation target. Joseph Stiglitz pushed for it a couple of years ago and then put the issue on the shelf well, he is still talking about it. (source) Even as the ECB’s president, Mario Draghi, said at the ECB conference where Mr. Krugman is presenting his case for […]
Is the Right to Carry and Bear Arms Absolute? Or Situational? Or Depending on the Arms Bearer?
I am probably not the only one to suspect that no matter how Second Amendment Friendly your local white-owned Southern retail establishment might be, there might be a little frisson (a Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey word) of fear when this group of “responsible gun owning” citizens simply exercising their Second Amendment Rights to open carry […]
Marginal Consumption per Employee & Effective Demand
What is Effective Demand? Keynes made it a central concept of his great General Theory book. But what is it? Well, the idea is that there is only so much demand in the population for products. And that low demand can keep the economy from reaching full employment. How does that work? Keynes pointed to […]
Private Equity limited lease agreements
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism lists posts and links to documents on private equity agreements well worth taking the time to read through and comment. The list is extensive so best go there. Dean Baker weighs in today as well in the Wall Street pension scam via Truth Out. We anticipate that some of you […]
Protesting Madame Lagarde (what is the IMF doing now?)
by Joseph Joyce Protesting Madame Lagarde The protests at Smith College that led to the withdrawal of Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, as this year’s commencement speaker have been widely denounced as a manifestation of intolerance. They also demonstrate a lack of understanding of the IMF and the many changes […]
Fred Hiatt Thinks Obama Not War whooping Enough
by Barclay Rosser (reposted from Econospeak with permission from the author) Fred Hiatt Thinks Obama Not War whooping Enough In today’s Washington Post, editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, has a column under his own name entitled, “A critique of Obama catches on.” The critique amounts to Obama being “too passive” in foreign policy, with this […]