Gunmen today seized Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from a hotel in central Tripoli, releasing him shortly afterwards, but making it clear that post-Gaddafi Libya is a failed state and that the government is incapable of taking full control over its oilfields and export terminals. While the markets have been responding lately with unfounded optimism … Read more
Talk about a reversal of fortunes! Last week’s filings for new jobless claims soared 66,000 to a seasonally adjusted 374,000, which is the highest weekly total since March, according to a division of the Labor Department that’s still publishing economic reports. A substantial slice of the increase is reportedly due to playing catch-up with the data in … Read more
Here’s a piece I published in HuffPost back on Oct 18, 2010. A flash from the past–three years ago–predicting that QE2 would prove to be as impotent as QE1 had been. And here we are, folks. No recovery in sight–at least once you get off Wall Street. We’re now set–yet again–to go off the fiscal … Read more
Abenomics, Tokyo’s winning the right to stage the 2020 Olympics, modest improvements in the economy and a consumption tax increase intended to signal resolve in dealing with its high government debt levels have given Japan new hope. The Prime Minister has stated that “Japan is back!” But the reality is somewhat different. Activity is easily … Read more
Beyond a certain national income level, a greater increase in social satisfaction can be achieved through distributing it more evenly than through its quantitative increase. This is a major hint for economic policy. Well, actually not only for policy, also for the education system. The better people understand it, the easier it will be to … Read more
Putting an accurate price on pollution is something the world has been struggling with now for decades. Getting prices to reflect environmental damage will help slow pollution by encouraging people and firms to change their behavior and shift away from activities and products that pollute the planet. Paying true prices is something we need to do if … Read more
The Secretary of the US Treasury has stated that the consequences of US debt default might prove catastrophic, and could cause credit markets to freeze, the dollar to plummet and interest rates to rise precipitously. These outcomes could bring on a new global financial crisis. One might have thought that the McClintock-Toomey bill could have … Read more
I’ve saved the best for last. Here is Michael Merrill’s third guest post on MMT, labor, and especially public sector workers. This piece is made all the more important as Economic Terrorists in Washington hold our government hostage. These terrorists do not care that government is largely shut down. In their warped view of the … Read more
Today foreign direct investment (FDI) is driven by emerging nations and the impending unwinding of U.S. monetary stimulus. In Europe, the lingering debt crisis is reflected in the dramatic plunge of FDI inflows.In the postwar era, the degree of global economic integration was still relatively low. As a result, international trade played a vital role … Read more
This is the second part of a series of guest blogs by Michael Merrill. He has written these pieces to introduce MMT to labor. In the first segment—posted yesterday—he argued that Americans should not be fooled by the claims that our government is broke. That piece is timely, given what is going on in Washington. … Read more