Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Hear, hear, Linda Greenhouse.

I don’t understand why some high-profile liberals are saying that the Supreme Court is becoming a liberal Court, although I guess that if you think the end-all-and-be-all of Supreme Court jurisprudence is culture-wars cases, then the two end-of-term culture-wars opinions that went liberal, and the gay marriage case last term, is all the proof you […]

Clinton’s Judgment

by Mike Kimel Clinton’s Judgment Via the Washington Post, this quote from the NY Times: Mrs. Clinton say she may decide to retain Ms. Lynch, the nation’s first black woman to be attorney general, who took office in April 2015. The Post article goes on: about the appearance of impropriety: Lynch remains the person responsible […]

Net Profit Rate look at Japan

The data in this post was updated from errors. Correct data below. As net profit rates rise in the aggregate, pressures for firms to raise prices to cover opportunity costs of capital decrease. So why is inflation in Japan so low? Have net profit rates increased there since the 1980’s? Let’s take a quick look. […]

Effect of High Net Profit Rate on Inflation & Interest Rates

I have been twittering a chart this morning which puts inflation alongside the net profit rate. Net profit rate = Corporate profits/GDP – effective Fed rate This measure is based on Keynes Marginal Efficiency of Capital. MEC. As net profit rates went down in the 1970’s, firms felt pressure to raise prices to protect their […]

The Impact of Financial Globalization on the Brexit Vote

 by Joseph Joyce The Impact of Financial Globalization on the Brexit Vote The reasons for the majority vote in favor of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union will be studied and analyzed for years to come. Globalization in the form of migration—or fear of migration—played a considerable role. Support for leaving the EU was […]

Reigniting Competition in the American Economy

Via Alternet: “Reigniting Competition in the American Economy”: Keynote Remarks at New America’s Open Markets Program Event By Elizabeth Warren June 29, 2016 Thank you, thank you. As Barry mentioned, before I was a senator, I was a law professor. What he didn’t say is that I taught contracts, secured transactions, and bankruptcy—all courses related […]

Reflections on Anwar Shaikh: Equation for Corporate Profit Rate

A couple weeks ago, I found the work of Anwar Shaikh. Briefly, he has developed unique and better models to describe the economy, so that there is no need to use rational expectations, utility functions, monopoly power, and much more. He describes the economy as always developing around the central aspects of Real Competition and […]