New French Book on Growing Inequality
It sounds like Thomas Piketty, who is French, has written an important book about the trends of distribution of wealth and income in 20th-21st century economies, primarily in developed economies. The general story is that the “natural” rate of accumulation of capital is on the order of five-six percent per annum, while the natural rate […]
Doug Henwood, often indispensable
Everyone should listen to this edition of Doug Henwood’s “Behind the News” (March 13, 2010). http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#100313 First, you will hear one of the best interviews I have heard about the financial crisis. The first interviewee is a woman who has written a new book about the financial crisis, and who blogs at Naked Capitalism, under […]
What are Obama’s core economic beliefs?
This just in from John Judis at “The New Republic,” Obama’s sympathies are really with Wall Street, not with Main Street. But I object to Judis’s own gloss on the old chestnut of comparing very high compensation in the business world with the very high compensation of athletes and entertainers. Judis makes the wrong argument. […]
Doug Henwood Speaks for Me
in his introductory editorial for the edition of January 21, 2010. Those not familiar with Henwood should check him out. A leftist with a brain, who began adulthood as a graduate student of comparative literature at Yale. I don’t share his taste for punk rock, but his book about Wall Street is quite good. He […]
Mankiw on repealing the estate tax
Gregory Mankiw, Professor of Economics at Harvard and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under George W. Bush, gave a speech to the National Press Club in 2003 in which he advocated abolition of the estate tax. This post provides my attempt to rebut his speech. The post is organized to correspond to […]
Bob Herbert – The US Economy on the brink
I like Bob Herbert. He mostly speaks for me in this column about America’s sinking economic fortunes. I’m not too sure what would be so awful if America were to be like Germany – I guess Herbert means that America would be consigned to lower average growth in GDP. Herbert says that America’s economic problems […]
The state of the Union is bad, continued
I am a self-identified progressive. My favorite economists in the public arena are Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. But I am also a deficit hawk. Today, I received an email from Nouriel Roubini’s consulting business that addresses America’s likely long-term fiscal deficit. The picture is bleak. This is the main reason that I think America’s […]
Frank Rich deserves Pulitzer, gets Ledocsian
This piece by Frank Rich in today’s NYT is one of the best political columns I have ever read. It’s about, surprise, surprise, the need to reregulate the financial industry. This is the big story that is being neglected by almost everyone. www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/opinion/10rich.html I would never have guessed that this former NY drama critic would […]
Wishful thinking or disingenuousness on the left?
I have been very remiss in my blogging over the past several weeks, but one of my resolutions for 2010 will be to make blog entries on a much more regular basis. I have been counseled to make shorter blog posts, and I expect to take this advice in 2010. On the year-in-review edition of […]
Bob Herbert on youth unemployment
Good column by Bob Herbert in today’s NYT about the problem of youth unemployment in the US. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/opinion/31herbert.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1256983230-yBdtHrpZGJEHWzILiVcDWg I have a niece who is a recent graduate from a very good (non-Ivy, not Berkeley) university who is working part-time in a Whole Foods kind of store. France has been experiencing this youth unemployment problem for […]