Economy – AmericanDelusions

John Oliver and Monopoly Capitalism

February 21, 2018

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 -->>

US manufacturing out vs employment 1947 - 2011

A Note on Jobs & Unemployment – revised

December 31, 2017

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 -->>

Jobs, Automation, Walmart, and Globalization – low skill, low pay jobs disappearing

October 30, 2017

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 -->>

Recently Noted about the US Economy – Dynamism in Retreat

October 12, 2017

“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 -->>

Globalization Taking American Hi-Tech Jobs – IBM example

October 1, 2017

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 -->>

Trickle-Down Returns to Enrich the Rich – updated

September 28, 2017

Updated 9/28/2017 When I posted this back in June 2017, I was hardly prescient, just sure that Republicans and conservative Democrats would return to the illusory language of trickle-down economic growth. Yesterday President Trump kicked off his big tax cut program in Indiana saying, “a revolutionary change, and the biggest --->> read more -->>

Building the New American Economy – Not

April 5, 2017

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 -->>

Thomas Friedman’s It’s a 401(k) World – facile, misleading

May 21, 2013

May Day 2013 brought a piece in the NY Times by Thomas Friedman, “It’s a 401(k) World” that points out the enormous changes in employment, technology, personal access to information and personal responsibility for larger swaths of life. Work changed from a steady job as a regular feature of life --->> read more -->>

Economic Inequality – Does It Matter?

May 9, 2012

It is fairly widely known that income and wealth inequality in the US is as high or higher than at any time except perhaps the Robber Baron period at the end of the 19th century. Lots of articles and books explain how this has come about over the last 30 --->> read more -->>

Idiocy in America

September 8, 2011

The recent scene of Jon Huntsman, Republican candidate for President, stating that he believed in evolution surrounding this with the parenthetical comment, “call me crazy”, sets out in stark relief how idiotic our politics and body politic are at this moment. Every other Republican running for President has disavowed evolution. --->> read more -->>