Steve Roth,  publisher of  Evonomics  and at Angry Bear,  sends this note and thematic list:

Economics Doesn’t Have to Be Amoral

The complexity economist Eric Beinhocker writes “economics has painted itself as a detached amoral science, but humans are moral creatures. We must bring morality back into the center of economics in order for people to relate to and trust it. All of the science shows that deeply ingrained, reciprocal moral behaviors are the glue that holds society together.” We evolved economic morality. It’s time to put it into practice!

Economists Forgot Smith and Darwin’s Message: Society Cannot Function Without Moral Bonds by Geoffrey Hodgson

What Is the Role of Morality in a Capitalist Economy? by Peter Turchin, Branko Milanovic, Herb Gintis, Robert Frank

It’s Time for New Economic Thinking Based on the Best Science Available, Not Ideology by Eric Beinhocker

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by Ken Melvin

Economy’s Role

Economy: An Economy is a social entity’s aggregate activity of producing and exchanging
goods and services. To date, a large body of knowledge about how economies work has been
accumulated; a body of knowledge known as the science of economics.

In a Well Functioning Economy, the requisite goods and services are efficiently produced and
equitably distributed whilst all the while giving utmost consideration to Human Welfare and to
the protection of the Natural Environment.

We study history so as to better understand and be able to cope with the present (now), and to be
better able to prepare for the future.

——-Past—————————————————–|Present|———Future——-

Looking to past economic models; from slavery, …, to feudalism, …, to mercantilism, …,
to colonialism,…, to capitalism, …; we see some slight evolution but more a continuum. In
succession, each model was a variation on the theme of its predecessor. In succession, those
who held the wealth and the reins of power were the greater beneficiaries of the economy.
It is easy enough to understand how it is that this was so.

Of these past models, Capitalism of a form is the one most akin our current economic model.
Reviewing our current economic model’s past, it functioned best for Americans from around 1946
to around 1972; a time when America was manufacturer to the world and her demand for labor
was high; a time before automation and offshoring. Even during those few best years, the model
gave but slight consideration to Human Welfare and the protection of the Natural Environment, …
economic model did not function very well before 1946; it has not adapted at all well to the
changes of the past 50 years.

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 by New Deal democrat

Weekly Indicators for May 11 – 15 at Seeking Alpha

My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Noteworthy this week is that mortgage rates have fallen to new all-time lows, and mortgage applications, not coincidentally, have rebounded sharply.

This is good news since housing normally leads the way in economic recoveries. This is an important positive for whenever the time comes that more normal life is able to safely resume.

As usual, clicking over and reading helps reward me a little bit for my efforts.

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(Dan here…better late than not)

by Barkley Rosser

The 75th Anniversary Of VE Day: Forgettable Or Boring?

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Via Truthout is a reminder the US Supreme Court has rulings to make:

On May 12, the Supreme Court will have an opportunity to rebuke or endorse Trump’s pretensions to monarchical grandeur when it hears oral arguments in three cases that have the potential to redefine the nature and scope of presidential power.

The cases before the court are Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP; Trump v. Deutsche Bank AG; and Trump v. Vance. In the first two, the president is trying to block congressional subpoenas seeking access to his personal financial records. In the third, he’s asking the court to block a subpoena issued by a New York City grand jury, and to accord him unprecedented “absolute immunity” from state criminal investigations.

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bu Dale Coberly

WHAT THE TRUSTEES REPORT REALLY MEANS

REALLY “DOING THE MATH”

[a few years ago the word “du jour” among journalists about SS was “it’s the math.” Of ourse none of them actually did the math.]

[note: i use the tax rate for each the worker and the employer because this is what the worker “sees” and it is what the employer sees. It is also the legally correct division. The Trustees Report usually combines the separate tax rates into one “combined” tax rate. So, where they say a 3% immediate and permanent increase, or an eventual increase of 4%, I say a 1.5% or 2% increase “each.” Debating which is “correct” is a waste of time: it is what it is.]

I wrote a recent post I called “What the Trustees Report Really says.” This post takes a little further look at the possible futures that can be mathematically deduced from the 2020 Report.

The 2020 Report says that Social Security is now not in “short range financial adequacy”. This means that ten years from now the Trust Fund will be less than the prudent reserve of one year’s full benefit payments. This is not an emergency, but it does mean the one tenth of one percent per year increase in the payroll tax, for each the worker and the employer, that would have avoided this projection will no longer work.

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