Three documents that came out this week lay out the “who,” “how,” “why,” and “why it matters” of Chinese cyber espionage. Unfortunately, we still lack the “what to do.” The “who” and “how” was contained in a new report, Putter Panda, by the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike [Full disclosure: CrowdStrike helps fund a speaker series at CFR]. … Read more
It is generally recognized that the distribution of income in the United States and within many other countries has become less equal since the 1980s. Increased inequality has been popularly interpreted as a negative development, and many proposals have been offered to reverse or offset the change in inequality. However, the interpretation of increased inequality … Read more
Well, it’s been a long time since we had a Troll Friday. Here’s one. Pheuuww that was fun! My recent blog on “Debt-Free Money” brought the commentators out of the basement, especially over at Naked Capitalism. At last count there were 438 comments on the blog at NC, of which about 400 were nonsense (at … Read more
According to the Pentagon, the rapid growth of China’s military spending reflects its increasing assertiveness in the region. According to Beijing, US military spending is the real issue. What are the facts? It has become an annual ritual. Recently, the US Department of Defense (DoD) usually released its report to Congress on China’s “military and … Read more
Juan Antonio Morales* and Thomas Trebat Many observers of the Latin American economies are wondering why these vulnerable commodity exporters, including the smaller South American economies, are showing more resilience to the current crisis than economies in other parts of the world. Is it because the crisis just has not hit them hard yet, but … Read more
While we are on the topic of monetary cranks, I thought it might be useful to quickly address a cranky idea that often comes up in comments to my blogs and also during Q&A after presentations: so-called “debt-free money”. The first time I heard it, my immediate reaction was “Say what?”, and the second was … Read more
According to the latest public opinion poll from CNNMoney, 61 percent of Americans think it will take three more years for the U.S. economy to recover fully from the Great Recession. Only 3 percent think that it has already recovered, while 16 percent think it will never recover. And that was before last week’s news … Read more
Horatio: He waxes desperate with imagination. Marcellus: Let’s follow. ‘Tis not fit thus to obey him. Horatio: Have after. To what issue will this come? Marcellus: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Horatio: Heaven will direct it. Marcellus: Nay, let’s follow him. Hamlet Act 1, scene 4 Marcellus is right, the Fish of … Read more
Just in case anyone was in any doubt last weeks newspaper headlines blared it out for us loud and clear – Japanese inflation is back, and has even hit levels last seen in 1982. (Click on image below for better viewing). In fact consumer prices in Japan rose at an annual rate of 3.4% in … Read more
This is another short post on MMT, a sort of follow-up to my post from a couple of days ago. There was an interesting response to various comments on my piece, which was posted up on Mike Norman’s website: http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2014/06/randy-wray-modern-money-theory-basics.html. We got the typical: “oh you MMTers always want to consolidate the Fed and Treasury, … Read more