economy

economy

Recently Noted about the US Economy – Dynamism in Retreat

October 12, 2017 Comments Off on Recently Noted about the US Economy – Dynamism in Retreat
“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 -->>
economy

Recently Noted – John Oliver and Monopoly Capitalism

September 26, 2017 Comments Off on Recently Noted – John Oliver and Monopoly Capitalism
Capitalism, Monopoly, Oligopoly and John Oliver Capitalism does a number of things very well. Concentrating power, wealth and income is one of them. Though we naturally focus our attention on wealthy individuals, fat cats, tycoons, money bags, but corporations, the legal entities with personhood (at least in the US) are --->> read more -->>
economy

United Airlines, Monopoly/Oligopoly, The Natural Laws of Capitalism

April 17, 2017 Comments Off on United Airlines, Monopoly/Oligopoly, The Natural Laws of Capitalism
The recent incident in which United Airlines used the Chicago Police Department to enforce its corporate policies has already roused plenty of comments. Many have focused on the clumsiness, even callousness of the policy and its later justifications by senior managers. This is missing a more telling point about airline --->> read more -->>
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books

Building the New American Economy – Not

April 5, 2017 Comments Off on Building the New American Economy – Not
The title of this short book, only 130 pages, Building the New American Economy: smart, fair, & sustainable by Jeffrey D. Sachs with a foreword by Bernie Sanders (Columbia University Press, 2017) is unfortunately misleading. There is much here about the new economy. The misleading part is that there is --->> read more -->>
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economy

Job (Business) Killing Regulations

March 2, 2017 Comments Off on Job (Business) Killing Regulations
Ever since Ronald Reagan told us in his 1981 Inaugural Address, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” government bashing by right-wingers, Republicans and many Democrats has been a constant drumbeat of political rhetoric. Now we have Trump with his “Kill 2 regulations for every --->> read more -->>
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economy

The Internet and Demand Management (Advertising)

March 1, 2017 Comments Off on The Internet and Demand Management (Advertising)
My friend Joe Keenan recently sent me an article by Vicki Boykis, “Fix the internet by writing good stuff and being nice to people” from her blog Woman.Legend.Blog. Today’s internet is mean. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when everyone online became a jerk, but to me it seems that the --->> read more -->>
economy

How Much Money Would It Take To Eliminate Poverty in the US?

February 26, 2017 Comments Off on How Much Money Would It Take To Eliminate Poverty in the US?
This 2013 article “How Much Money Would It Take to Eliminate Poverty” (http://prospect.org/article/how-much-money-would-it-take-eliminate-poverty-america) addresses this question. The answer then was $175 billion. This is a ridiculously small number in the context of a $16 trillion GDP. As someone who is on the homeowners gravy train I was stuck by this part --->> read more -->>
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economy

Talk Back: Correcting the Anti-Government Bias of Our Politics

January 29, 2017 Comments Off on Talk Back: Correcting the Anti-Government Bias of Our Politics
President Reagan was not the originator of this central trope of free-market (neo-liberal) politics, but he famously said in his first Inaugural Address in 1981, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” President Clinton, a Democrat, continued this theme during his terms culminating the the --->> read more -->>
economy

Park Avenue and How We Got There

January 22, 2017 Comments Off on Park Avenue and How We Got There
“There” is our current situation in which our government has been bought by the rich and corporations, over 80% of the population has not had a pay raise in 40 years and the public sphere, schools, parks, our infrastructure, really anything not behind the gated walls of private wealth, is --->> read more -->>
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economy

The Gig Economy in the Academy – a note

December 29, 2016 Comments Off on The Gig Economy in the Academy – a note
The values of capitalism, especially as expressed through free market (neoliberal) ideology, have come to dominate how we organize our lives. Silicon Valley and the tech sector is busy celebrating the “gig” economy. Companies have simply stopped hiring employees and now conduct much of their work using “temps”, “1099ers”, part-time --->> read more -->>