Many Minsky moments

Hyman Minsky’s papers are available here [ht: Naked Keynes]. That’s one less excuse for mainstream economists to ignore his work on financial fragility. Update And here’s a link to John Cassidy’s 2008 article on the relevance of Minsky’s “financial-instability hypothesis.” Many of Minsky’s colleagues regarded his “financial-instability hypothesis,” which he first developed in the nineteen-sixties, [...]

What did you NOT learn in school today?

Rod Hill and Tony Myatt, in an interview conducted by Philip Pilkington, explain what students learn—and don’t learn—in mainstream introductory economics courses. PP: The issue of power is an interesting one. I think what many students who feel instinctively critical of economics courses note from the outset is that the theories taught imply some sort of [...]

Chart of the day

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Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Chart of the day

Here are some of the conclusions from the report by the Congressional Budget Office comparing the compensation of federal and private-sector employees: Overall, the federal government paid 2 percent more in total wages than it would have if average wages had been comparable with those in the private sector. On average, the benefits earned by [...]

Protest of the day

Stand Up Chicago [ht: ab] invited Chicago’s wealthy elite to take a seat on the golden throne. The coalition awarded the golden toilet to Terrence Duffy, Chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), as a way of protesting the CME’s recent gift of $109 million from Illinois taxpayers. Close to a hundred Chicagoans—each representing one [...]

One industry at a time. . .

My students generally think of the United States as the leader, or a top-ranked nation, in most areas. But, as a 24/7 Wall St. study [ht: ja] shows, the United States has been losing that first place, usually to China, one industry at a time. 1. Steel China production: 627 million metric tons in 2010 [...]

I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends. . .

  It probably wouldn’t interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends. However. . . Inequality is currently being rationalized in three stages: 1. Rising inequality? What rise in inequality? 2. OK, inequality has been rising, but it doesn’t matter, because we have lots of social mobility. 3. OK, we don’t have lots of [...]

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Public art of the day

  Pichação is described in today’s New York Times as an “alphabet designed for urban invasion.” It nearly envelops some of São Paulo’s government buildings, residential high-rises, even public monuments, with lettering eerily reminiscent of Scandinavia’s ancient runic writing. The most daring practitioners risk their lives, scaling building facades at night to paint their script [...]