Economy

Robert Reich is continuing his series of brief YouTube videos on progressive view of the economy. This is a good introduction to the arguments for re-invigorating our protections against monopolies. However, the problem is much more widespread than just the high tech industry. We’ve written about this broader phenomenon in --->> read more -->>

The May 9th NYTimes has an Op-Ed essay, It’s Time to Break Up Facebook, by Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook, calling on the government to break up that company. The essay is very thorough in describing the current monopoly behavior of Facebook, the deleterious effects on competition and vigor in --->> read more -->>

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The Dalio Critique of Capitalism – Part One Ray Dalio, number 79 on Bloomberg’s list of the  100 wealthiest people on the planet with a net worth of 18+ billion $s, published an essay on LinkedIn, “Why and How Capitalism Needs to Be Reformed (Parts 1 & 2)” is US --->> read more -->>

In our continuing effort to find varied sources to illustrate the power of marketing and the costs of unregulated capitalism we return to John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight for his segment on sugar in food. The food industry continues to put sugar in nearly every processed food and fights --->> read more -->>

We have written earlier (for example our article The Monopolization of America) about the increasing concentration of market power    In the hands of just a few corporations. This is a phenomenon occurring  throughout the US economy (really more broadly across the globe). Here is an 11 minute review of --->> read more -->>

In 2017, female full-time, year-round workers made only 80.5 cents for every dollar earned by men, Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the sole or co-breadwinner in half of American families with children. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men. Yet, on average, women continue --->> read more -->>

The nearly continuous puffing up of Silicon Valley, the construction of an enormous bio-pharma complex in Cambridge, and other examples of high tech ebullience are offered up by the mass media and the business press as evidence of a dynamic economy. The actual facts show a different story that should --->> read more -->>

Adam Smith discussed the harms caused by monopolies in the frequently, ritualistically cited book, The Wealth of Nations. The progressive politics of the end of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th was marked by a deep reaction to the monopolistic practices of large companies then. This --->> read more -->>

Corporate concentration of income and wealth are core features of capitalism. From its earliest chroniclers and cheerleaders like Adam Smith, the drive for corporations to get ever larger and in the doing drive their competitors out of the market was noted and warned against. In the US, the late 19th --->> read more -->>

The New Digital Monopoly Capitalism Capitalism has always been marked by relentless growth, the destruction of smaller businesses by larger, and ultimately the creation of oligopoly and monopoly corporations. From the earliest descriptions of capitalism, even by proponents like Adam Smith, this tendency towards concentration was warned against. In the --->> read more -->>

Structure of Jobs Is Changing Rapidly – Political System Failing to Address Issue A recent NPR story, “Freelanced: The Rise Of The Contract Workforce” based on the  NPR/Marist poll January 2018: Picture of Work shows that 1 in 5 jobs are now contract jobs. Here are the key findings reported: --->> read more -->>

The Future of Bitcoin and Blockchain Technologies UPDATE 1/22/2018 While watching a football game over the weekend this ad from IBM was shown several times. At the very end you hear the word “blockchain”. IBM is in the blockchain business? A visit to the IBM website reveals that they are --->> read more -->>

A Note on Jobs & Unemployment Original publication date – 12/27/2016; Revised – 12/31/2017 As the presidential campaign of 2016 fades away and the Trump Era begins, we find a national scene without any real discussion of the facts of jobs and unemployment and what the future might bring. Trump --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America by Ed Pilkington In the Time of Republican Transfers of Income and Wealth to the Rich and Corporations A friend pointed me to this article in 12/15/2017 The Guardian, “A journey through a land of extreme --->> read more -->>

Deficits, Deficits – the rhetoric of the forthcoming attacks on the poor Republicans Create Bigger Deficits Then Blame The Entitled Poor The Republicans have given huge tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations thereby ballooning the deficit by more than $1.5 trillion. Now, they will start making big noises about --->> read more -->>

Inequality in the World – findings Inequality in wealth and income is not a new phenomenon. Nevertheless, recent decades in the US, and as this new report World Inequality Report 2018 shows, the world has seen a real explosion in inequality. As shown in the charts below the US is --->> read more -->>

The shape of jobs in the US and around the world it’s changing rapidly. On 11/5/2017 NBC News reported: Self-driving trucks One year ago this week a truck rolled into history as it traveled from a Colorado brewing plant to a warehouse 120 miles away carrying 45,000 cans of Budweiser beer. --->> read more -->>

The Republicans have rolled out their tax “reform”. As predicted earlier in “Trickle-Down Returns to Enrich the Rich – updated” there are ample claims that their plan will boost economic performance for the vast majority of Americans. Additionally we are hearing more about how American corporate tax rates are the --->> read more -->>

Trump and Republicans (and some Democrats) puff up the return of well-paid manufacturing jobs and toss about ideas that thirty years of globalization can be reversed by renegotiating NAFTA and other trade agreements. All the while one of the most important factors in the disappearance of jobs, automation and robots --->> read more -->>

“Dynamism in Retreat: Consequences for Regions, Markets, and Worker”, a February 2017 report from the Economic Innovation Group provides interesting evidence that the US economy has been loosing its innovative edge and that the slowdown in enterprise creation is exacerbating regional differences in the US economy. “From 2010 to 2014, five --->> read more -->>

The impact of globalization on the US economy has been mostly cast by the media and politicians in light of the disappearance of many manufacturing jobs and the swarms of cheap products imported to fill our stores. We should not think that just because we invented the internet and most --->> read more -->>