Free-market Ideology – Page 5

The Gig Economy in the Academy – a note

December 29, 2016

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 -->>

“Liberal”, “Progressive”, “Free Market”, “NeoLiberal” – what’s up?

November 15, 2016

A friend asked the following question of me on Facebook the other day: What’s wrong with the word LIBERAL …. This word … progressives … is only a diluted weak solution of the real thing …. the L word has become like the N word … it can’t be mouthed --->> read more -->>

Inside Goldman Sachs with the Federal Reserve

September 27, 2014

The relationship between our financial services industry, our government, and us, ordinary citizens who have repeatedly suffered the consequences of the avarice and incompetence of this industry, has always been troubled. Booms, busts, crashes, bubbles, depressions, inflation. Since the beginning of the 2008 Great Recession we have hoped that the --->> read more -->>

Flash Boys Doesn’t Ask the Important Question

April 7, 2014

The new book, Flash Boys, by Michael Lewis has reignited the discussion of how our financial markets are rigged by high frequency trading. From my 2012 note: To turn back to HFTs, why do we need this kind of transaction? How do they contribute to economic growth? These activities are --->> read more -->>

Wall St – not about investing but fixing the game

July 9, 2013

An article in the NY TImes today reports that NY Attorney General Schneiderman is pursuing various information providers, Thomson Reuters in the immediate case, for their practices of selling market sensitive information preferntially. Those paying a premium get information several minutes before its release to the general public. This is --->> read more -->>

The Job Creators – Who Are They? The Rich, Really?

May 19, 2012

In recent years a standard bit of political rhetoric in the US has included references to “the job creators”. This most usually flows along the lines of higher taxes on the wealthy will injure the job creators. Or, government regulation is crushing the job creators. The presumption of course is that the --->> read more -->>

Charts from Mother Jones Illustrate That the Rich Have Won the Class War

November 19, 2011

I came on a set of graphics in Mother Jones, “It’s the Inequality, Stupid: Eleven charts that explain what’s wrong with America” that illustrate what you probably already know. But, a simple refresher course in some of the reasons why the rich are rich. The 99% already have this base covered. Here are some of the --->> read more -->>

Corporations as Persons – Freedom of Speech, now Right to Privacy – Bring on Three Strikes!

January 20, 2011

The case of the Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T now being heard before the US Supreme Court raises anew the craziness of the thinking that has position corporations to be “persons” in the first place. Noun vs Adjective! First we have several of the justices focusing argument around the difference --->> read more -->>

Religious Doubt Spreads – Free Flows of Capital Seen as Dangerous to Some

November 12, 2010

There is more evidence that the current run of religious mania about “free markets” is finally giving way to a more fact-based approach to this important human invention, many countries are now applying capital controls on the flow of monies into their economies. The world flood of money seeking higher --->> read more -->>

The Mortgage Debacle – Redux

October 10, 2010

The current tsunami of revelations of misbehavior, if not outright criminality, by the banking industry in their pursuit of mortgages gone bad, is further evidence of how fundamentally corrupt and cynical this industry continues to be. On the front end of this global economic disaster the financial system engaged in misleading sales --->> read more -->>

Economy

Krugman Asleep at the Wheel of History ….. the elite has not been interested for forty years…

August 2, 2010

The August 1st New York Times carries the latest Paul Krugman opinion piece, “Defining Prosperity Down“. He is depressed because it is dawning on him that the elite is in the process of redefining the level of structural unemployment that is normal to adjust to the significant likelihood that we --->> read more -->>

Free Markets – free? markets? – lessons not learned

June 6, 2010

“Free market” has always struck me as a rather strange phrase. Never more so than in this period of financial market disasters. The phrase ‘free market’ continues to be used reflexively. Just as commentators go right on speaking of Wall St. as a source of capital and innovation, few want to ask --->> read more -->>

Do We Need Wall St. and all the other gamblers in the financial services world?

April 20, 2010

What Is the Function of Wall St.? The global financial meltdown of 2008 – 2009 with its ongoing sequelae seems not to have definitively demonstrated the dangers of our continuing belief in the religion of “free markets” nor shaken, especially it seems in the Obama administration, our thrall with Wall --->> read more -->>

Economy

How Did We Come To Consider Corporations to Be Natural Persons? – What To Do Next?

January 25, 2010

This week’s decision by the US Supreme Court to allow corporations, including unions, to hold full rights to free speech and political action under the First Amendment to the Constitution once again reminds me of the strange practical and ethical relationship we have with corporations. In the 1886 ruling, Santa --->> read more -->>