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

The 2022 Globie: Money and Empire

by Joseph Joyce The 2022 Globie: Money and Empire Every year we name a book the “Globalization Book of the Year” (aka the “Globie”). The prize is (alas!) strictly honorific and does not come with a monetary award. But announcing the award gives me a chance to draw attention to a recent book—or books—that are […]

Has the Third Era of Globalization Ended?

by Joseph Joyce (Capital Ebbs and Flows) Has the Third Era of Globalization Ended? Behind the headlines forecasting a global economic recession there is another narrative about the end of globalization. This reflects political tensions over trade, the impact of the pandemic on global supply chains and the shutdown of economic ties with Russia. But dating the beginning […]

The Tax Free Tour; a look at the offshore tax haven system

We’ve all talked and read about the idea and practice of offshore accounting to reduce taxation. Here is an article produced by a show called Backlight.  Backlight appears to be a news journal show in the idea of Frontline by a Dutch public broadcasting organization known as VPRO. This episode is titled: The Tax FreeTour.  […]

Trans Pacific Partnership: A new Constitution

Update: Application, clarification of “New world Order”. I have put this update at the beginning of the post for I believe it is an aspect of my post on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)  that should not be dismissed by myself nor by a reader of the post. Now that I have had the day […]

Why the World Should Care About America’s Middle Class

by Kenneth Thomas Guest post: Why the World Should Care About America’s Middle Class Tim Worstall, in his Forbes blog, attacks my series (here and here) on whether globalization is good for America’s middle class. Not on the basis that he disagrees with my conclusion (though he does), but because, he argues, there are much […]

Guest Post: Is globalization good for America’s middle class? Part 2

by Kenneth Thomas Guest Post:   Is globalization good for America’s middle class? Part 2 In Part 1, I examined what economic theory has to say about the winners and losers from trade. The main conclusion is based on the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem: Because the United States is labor scarce in a global perspective, an expansion of […]

Is Globalization Good for America’s Middle Class? Part 1

by Kenneth Thomas Is Globalization Good for America’s Middle Class? Part 1 In this blog, I have frequently documented economic trends that have been bad for the middle class: Declining real wages, steadily falling bang for the healthcare buck, stagnant educational attainment, the gigantic cost of tax havens, etc. With this post, I want to […]

More on Illinois’ income tax increase –thinking about globalization

by Linda Beale More on Illinois’ income tax increase –thinking about globalizationcrossposted with Ataxingmatter As states continue to face difficult times and vulnerable residents unemployed by the Great Recession come to the end of their ropes with the last of their unemployment support checks (those unemployed for 99 weeks don’t get any more help under […]

g7-vs-g5-in-charts

by RebeccaCross posted from Newsneconomics These are interesting times in global economics, especially from the policy perspective. And although there was a sense of global urgency across the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, UK, and US) and the G5 (Brazil, People’s Republic of China, India, Mexico, and South Africa) late in 2008 and early […]