Yves here. I’ve heretofore avoided the topic of Bitcoin, since I recall the brief fad of the Second Life currency, which then flamed out impressively. And Bitcoin already has had the US Treasury clear its throat and say if market participants try exchanging Bitcoin for dollars, it takes a dim view of that. Recall that … Read more
I just came across a very interesting bit of research, A Guide to Paradigmatic Self-Marginalization: Lessons for Post-Keynesian Economists by Leonhard Dobusch and Jakob Kapeller; you can find it here: http://www.dobusch.net/pub/uni/Dobusch-Kapeller%282009%29A_Guide_to_Paradigmatic_Self-marginalization-WP.pdf. I realize this is not going to be of interest to many of our readers, as it is a sort of “inside the halls … Read more
Corruption is widely acknowledged to be a serious problem in many countries. Ukraine has experienced a series of corrupt governments, and revulsion against widespread corruption is one factor that brought about the ouster of the Yanukovych administration last February (Poroshenko). Chinese officials have recently acknowledged corruption to be a serious problem. Extreme levels of corruption … Read more
In the current policy debate on whether China, India, and the rest of Asia can continue to grow without a return to international markets of the US consumer—or, indeed, the opposite whether those national-economies will from now form the engine of growth for the global economy—compelling empirical evidence has been relatively scarce. This posting seeks … Read more
The party was packed with the usual collection of highly polished New York media and business types. (The entertainment highlight of the night for me was a charming duet by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett.)It was a great honor to be asked by Bloomberg and BusinessWeek to give an official toast during the event, along … Read more
Here’s a summary of the plan Bernie Sanders has set out (http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/27297-an-economic-agenda-for-america-12-steps-forward), along with my comments (in italics). 1. We need a major investment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. $1 trillion investment to create 13 million decent paying jobs and make this country more efficient and productive. Agreed, but let’s not settle for a mere … Read more
Two disquieting elections in the news. Two challenging election results. In Moldova, pro-European parties outpolled pro-Russian parties. In Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, the pro-independence candidate beat the pro-China candidate. The Republic of Moldova, formerly the Moldovian Soviet Socialist Republic, declared its independence at the collapse of the USSR. It comprises much of the former Russian and … Read more
The obituary of the American century has been written, but there are very good reasons to believe that the USA will continue to play a dominant role in the 21st century. This is the first of 2 pieces that examines the resilience of American economic power. There are fundamental economic, financial, political, military and social … Read more
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics LLC and a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, talks about European Central Bank policy and the global economy. Lee Sachs, co-founder of Alliance Partners and a former assistant U.S. Treasury secretary, also speaks. They speak with Erik Schatzker and Stephanie … Read more
Dean Baker, everyone’s favorite progressive economist (mine, too), has an interesting take on our unemployment problem. Give more paid vacations. (See here: The Paid Vacation Route to Full Employment) The idea is that if all the employed work less, employers will need to hire the unemployed to produce what the already employed won’t be producing … Read more