TWO QUICK ANNOUNCEMENTS. 1. Modern Monetary Theory vs. the Austrian School First, Warren Mosler will be featured in a debate of MMT versus Austrians. Here are the details: Monday, June 3, 2013; 6:15pm until 9:15pm in CDT Those in NYC can participate in Room 103, Jerome Greene Hall, Columbia Law School. Others can view it … Read more
Are we humans the only species who understand and utilize the dismal science? Can other animals grasp the concept of currencies? Can they trade? Adam Smith did not think so. He argued in The Wealth of Nations that “nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with … Read more
Andy Warhol was truly visional when he noted that everyone would get their 15 minutes of fame in the future. I got mine when I tweeted Saturday morning that American Hospital, owned by the Koç Group, had sent staff and equipment to the conglomerate’s Divan Hotel near Taksim Square to help out those hurt by … Read more
The second revision of GDP data released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis confirmed that the U.S. economy expanded at a moderate 2.4 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2013. The figure for overall growth was almost unchanged from the 2.5 percent of last month’s advance estimate. However, there were significant changes … Read more
One of my pet peeves is the way that insiders — whether corporate CEOs, hedge fund managers, or elected politicos — capture compensation (or credit) for normal cyclical gains they had little or nothing to do with. This is the approach favored by the Crony Capitalists — those people pretending to be free market participants, … Read more
You have to wonder what they are snorting over at the Wall Street Journal. Read this and weep: Tokyo Panel Urges Abe to Tighten Finances Here’s the conceit. “Fiscal reconstruction has become all the more important” because of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s aggressive monetary and fiscal stimulus measures, the report said, while warning that a … Read more
Barring major corrections in economic policy, economic growth in Brazil is likely to remain low. Brazil has achieved, over the last years, a position of international prominence like never before. There were even those who were tempted to believe that Stefan Zweig’s prophecy – Brazil, land of the future [1] – had finally become true. But … Read more
Tonight I turned on the news to learn that a major bridge over the Skagit River on Washingon State’s I-5 had fallen down. The bridge is not far from where I live. I have driven over it more times than I like to think. Why did it fall? The proximate cause is clear: A large … Read more
This week it was the turn of Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook to sit in the Congressional hot seat. With lights blazing and cameras rolling, a bipartisan lineup of Senators grilled him about the relatively small amount of tax the company pays on its substantial corporate profits. According to a New York Times account of … Read more
Can you be wrong a thousand times? You can, if your reasoning is based on media concoctions, wherein some events receive excessive and biased coverage and other, less sensational events are ignored, according to the whims of advertising contracts. What sells is the information “commodity” supposedly expected by the undiscerning public: sensations interlaced with commercials. … Read more