100 year old Taoist master. Photo taken in 1930’s. I have written recently about how a recession could open the door to progressive policies to reduce inequality. Of course it is crazy to call for a recession. Yet the message is one of healing. So to understand this message… let’s explore a healing principle […]
Yesterday I wrote that causing a recession to correct policy mistakes would reflect the medical wisdom of re-breaking a bone in order to set it correctly. Yes, there is pain in re-breaking a bone. Yes, the patient screams. But the patient is better off in the long-run. I said people would think I was […]
A talk given by Christina Romer was very good. (Posted by Mark Thoma) She said many practical things about economic downturns. She loved to refer back to the Great Depression. The basic message was not to fear downturns, and to be careful of doing anything to prolong them. Economies will recover normally and fairly quickly […]
The search for a model to explain Secular Stagnation is happening behind the scenes at the moment. Larry Summers is presenting Secular Stagnation as an Inverse of Say’s Law… “Lack of demand over time creates lack of supply”. But getting the mathematical mechanisms of how lack of demand suppresses supply (output) seems to be missing. […]
By way of Mark Thoma, there is a new video of Larry Summers talking about Inverse Say’s Law. It is a wonderful video and one that could wake up the economics profession about Effective Demand. His views will not only challenge Fresh Water economists, but also Salt Water economists. (His talk starts at 9-minute mark.) […]
Angry Bear Spencer England commented on Tim Duy’s post… Very good wrap-up. There is virtually no evidence that the economy is breaking out of the past few years very sluggish growth. One For the Doves, by Tim Duy: The March employment report came in pretty much in line with expectations. Nonfarm payrolls gained by 192k, […]
The quotes in this post’s subject line are very much intended as a double entendre. I’m of course referring to the title of Piketty’s book (which I’ve read about 80% of, jumping around). But even more, I’m talking about his definition of “capital.” I’ve ranted frequently about economists’ failure to define this term or agree on […]
Back in 2008 cactus wrote Back at you on the GM argument. Reader Jack sends this note on 2014: Proof positive that the UAW is/was(?) the cause of car maker’s demise!! That’s how I’d put it to all those out there that still harbor the idea that the poor performance of much of the American […]
Seth Klarman’s work is to take money from clients and invest it. Yet, he made news recently by returning some $4 billion back to his clients. He did not want to invest their money. Why would he do such a thing when it is his job to invest money? He says the market is not […]
by J Tsimeskes Overhead Allocation vs. Theft I was readingDean Baker’s excellent post today on high speed trading. My initial reaction was that this was simply theft, high frequency traders supply absolutely no value to anyone but reduce the gains made by legitimate traders. The first comment, however, made me think. SteveB asks “I don’t […]