Revival of U.S. manufacturing

A week and a half ago, I admitted I didn’t understand the fascination with reviving U.S. manufacturing. Apparently, however, mainstream economists have come up with a new plan to boost the production of goods “made in America,” which will help U.S. industrialists compete on the global stage. After conducting an in-depth analysis of the nation’s [...]

“Butte, America”

My suggestion: rush out and find a copy of Butte, America [ht: mfa], a 2009 documentary film about the history of Butte, Montana as the site of what once was called both “the Richest Hill on Earth” and “the Gibraltar of Unionism.” The film was created by Pamela Roberts, is narrated by Gabriel Byrne, and [...]

How do we not tax thee? Let us count the ways

The United States is a low-tax nation, at least for the rich and big corporations. Bruce Bartlett makes that point clearly—and you can’t have much more conservative credibility than Bartlett (who served as a domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and was a Treasury official under President George H.W. Bush.) by the broadest measure [...]

Cartoon of the day

Alternatives to existing capitalism

According to neoclassical economists, capitalism is a stable economic system in which everyone gets what they deserve. However, in the midst of the Second Great Depression, and after decades of worsening inequalities, economists and community organizers are beginning to look at alternative economic systems. One of them is shared capitalism; the other is noncapitalism. Nancy [...]

Texas Budget Massacre of 2011

Texas is giving us a real live example of modern right-wing budgetary politics in action: facing a growing fiscal deficit, the legislature and the governor have agree to balance the budget—without raising taxes! How is that possible? By approving a two-year budget that spends $15 billion less in state and federal dollars than in the [...]

Proletarianization and politics

  Historically, the proletarianization of different social groups—craft workers, peasants, small business people, and so on—has led to a move to the Left in their politics. The latest group to be forced to have the freedom to sell their labor power, and to undergo a change in their politics, are medical doctors. According to the [...]

Cartoon of the day

Class, macroeconomics, and development

  Michal Kalecki should be required reading in both macroeconomics and economic development. But he’s not. In fact, I’d dare say a large number of macroeconomists and development economists have never heard of Kalecki, let alone read his work. Instead, in the midst of the Second Great Depression, macroeconomics continues to be wedded to dynamic [...]

Squeezing Greek workers

Greg Mankiw is perplexed by Martin Feldstein’s suggestion that Greece take “a temporary leave of absence from the eurozone.” How that would work, logistically, is unclear to me.  Introduce a new currency, devalue it, then go back to the Euro at the new exchange rate?  It seems that Marty is mainly trying to figure out a [...]