socialist-economics

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-31/illinois-budget-crisis-is-about-to-get-even-harder-to-resolve

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/six-reasons-why-the-trump-reset-wont-work?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(173)&CNDID=18000286&spMailingID=11154930&spUserID=MjAxNzA3NjMzODgzS0&spJobID=1162689901&spReportId=MTE2MjY4OTkwMQS2

John Case has sent you a link to a blog: Blog: Enlighten Radio Post: The Wonk City Lectures on Economics and Sociology and Political Science -- 11 AM - 4PM Wednesdays and Thursdays Link: http://www.enlightenradio.org/2017/05/the-wonk-city-lectures-on-economics-and.html -- Powered by Blogger https://www.blogger.com/

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The ACA, the myths and flaws of Republican reforms, and single payer http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/the-aca-the-myths-and-flaws-of-republican-reforms-and-single-payer/ Over at WaPo . The piece was already too long so, while I didn't have time to get into another germane point: the role of single-payer coverage in this debate. A key point of my analysis is that the problem facing private insurers in the exchanges was that they initially underpriced premium costs, leading to high medical-loss ratios and thin to non-existent profit margins. They've since been recalibrating and are in the process of returning to profitability, though now they're in a race with team Trump's sabotage. A reasonable response from progressives would be: the problem isn't price calibration. The problem is this part of the ACA depends on profitable private insurers in the delivery of a partially non-market good (see my "fundamental flaw" point in the WaPo pos...

The Affordable Care Act is neither imploding nor collapsing By Jared Bernstein   Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist to Vice President Biden, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and author of the new book 'The Reconnection Agenda: Reuniting Growth and Prosperity.' Senate Republicans appear to be solidly rejecting their House colleagues' health-care plan. That shouldn't be a close call, given the Congressional Budget Office's findings that the American Health Care Act would increase the ranks of the uninsured by 23 million, while raising the cost of coverage for older and sicker people. Compared with current law — the Affordable Care Act — the out-of-pocket cost of coverage for an older, low-income person would rise by a factor of eight to nine under the AHCA. So, drop-kicking the House plan is a no-brainer. But we then have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declaring that "the Obamacare...

Links for 05-30-17 http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2017/05/links-for-05-30-17.html The Fed Shouldn't Be Afraid of Growth - Bloomberg The World Bank Has Bigger Problems Than Bad Writing - Bloomberg Basic income could transform society. But it needs to be tested - Michael Faye Flexible labour markets, real wages, and economic recoveries - VoxEU Growth will be lower if the Conservatives win - mainly macro Information Technology and the US Workforce - Tim Taylor Correct Foresight, Perfect Foresight, and Intertemporal Equil - Uneasy Money Regulating Automated Financial Advice - Regulatory Review Unsayable truths - Stumbling and Mumbling  -- via my feedly newsfeed

Trump's "China deal" is only a good deal for China http://larrysummers.com/2017/05/24/trumps-china-deal-is-only-a-good-deal-for-china/ The events of the last week have crowded out reflection on economic policy.  But things have been happening. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross described the trade deal reached with China earlier this month as "pretty much a herculean accomplishment….This is more than has been done in the history of U.S.-China relations on trade." Past a certain point, exaggeration and hype become dishonesty and deception. In economic policy, as in almost everything else, the Trump Administration is way past that point. The trade deal is a "nothing burger" that a serious Administration committed to helping American workers would likely not have accepted, and surely would not have hyped. On agriculture, China reiterated a promise that it has broken in the past to let in more beef. Previously, we, as reciprocity , had ...

Trump's budget is simply ludicrous http://larrysummers.com/2017/05/23/a-budget-warning/ Details of President Trump's first budget have now been released.  Much can and will be said about the dire social consequences about what is in it and the ludicrously optimistic economic assumptions it embodies.  My observation is that there appears to be a logical error of the kind that would justify failing a student in an introductory economics course. Apparently, the budget forecasts that US growth will rise to 3.0 percent because of the Administration's policies—largely its tax cuts and perhaps also its regulatory policies.  Fair enough if you believe in tooth-fairies and ludicrous supply-side economics. Then the Administration asserts that it will propose revenue neutral tax cuts with the revenue neutrality coming in part because the tax cuts stimulate growth! This is an elementary double count.  You can't use the growth benefits of tax cuts once t...

Under new bill's election standard, unions would never win an election—and neither would the bill's cosponsors http://www.epi.org/blog/under-new-bills-election-standard-unions-would-never-win-an-election-and-neither-would-the-bills-cosponsors/ Before leaving for recess last week, congressional Republicans introduced a bill that would make it more difficult for workers to form a union and collectively bargain. The misleadingly named Employee Rights Act has been introduced in prior Congresses as well. The legislation would strip workers of many rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). For example, it would prohibit voluntary employer recognition of a union. (Under existing law, an employer is free to recognize a union and bargain with its workforce when workers show majority support for the union.) The bill also reinstitutes unnecessary delay in the union election process, mandating that parties litigate issues likely to be resolved in the elec...

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John Case has sent you a link to a blog: Blog: Enlighten Radio Post: Neruda odes, storytelling, Jane Austen on Monday Link: http://www.enlightenradio.org/2017/05/neruda-odes-storytelling-jane-austen-on.html -- Powered by Blogger https://www.blogger.com/

Democracy and the politics of intolerance http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2017/05/democracy-and-politics-of-intolerance.html A democracy allows government to reflect the will of the people. Or does it? Here I would like to understand a bit better the dynamics through which radical right populism has come to have influence, even dominance, in a number of western democracies -- even when the percentage of citizens with radical right populist attitudes generally falls below the range of 35% of the electorate. There are well known bugs in the ways that real democracies work, leading to discrepancies between policy outcomes and public preferences. In the United States, for example, we find: Gerrymandered Congressional districts that favor Republican incumbents Over-representation of rural voters in the composition of the Senate (Utah has as many senators as California) Organized efforts to suppress voting by poor and minority voters The vast influence of corporate and private money...

The only problem with the Big Strike theory (from at least two authors that know something about big, lost, strikes) is that nothing other than political struggle, including illegal political strikes, wins that "right". The Right to Strike https://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/the-right-to-strike/ For half a century, the loss of the right to strike has moved in lock step with the increase in income inequality. According to an International Monetary Fund study of twenty advanced economies, union decline accounted for about half of the increase in net income inequality from 1980 to 2012. The following is the start of a Boston Review discussion on US workers' right to strike. James Gray Pope, Ed Bruno, Peter Kellman Boston Review May 22, 2017 In December 2005 more than 30,000 New York City transit workers walked out over economic issues despite the state of New York's Taylor Law, which prohibits all public sector strikes. Not only did the workers face the loss of...

Two Movements, One Goal: The Working People Weekly List https://aflcio.org/2017/5/26/two-movements-one-goal-working-people-weekly-list Two Movements, One Goal: The Working People Weekly List Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here's this week's Working People Weekly List. Civil Rights and Labor: Two Movements, One Goal : " A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess." —A. Philip Randolph UFCW Members Make Safety a Priority at Tyson Poultry Plant : "On a typical day at the Tyson Foods processing plant in Glen Allen, Virginia, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 shop steward Aleta Johnsons was operating the Packmat bagging machine. All of a sudden, she heard a co-worker yelling, 'Stop, stop, stop! Please help—stop the line!'" 23 Mi...

Latest Budget Bill Makes More Cuts, Revenue Still Needed from Legislature http://www.wvpolicy.org/latest-budget-bill-makes-more-cuts-revenue-still-needed-from-legislature/ During this week's special session, the Governor introduced  HB 115 , the latest version of the budget bill. Way back in February, the governor introduced his original budget plan, which called for  $450 million in new revenue . During the regular session, the legislature failed to agree on any revenue measures, and at the end of the session passed a budget that was balanced with a $90 million withdrawal from the Rainy Day Fund and major cuts to higher education and Medicaid. That budget was  vetoed by the governor . Since then, the Governor, Senate, and House have entered into a  stand-off  over personal income tax cuts and sales tax increases, with little attention to the actual budget. Now with HB 115, we can see what the governor's plan is once there is some revenue agreement with the Legislature. Total G...

Catching up on some links… http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/catching-up-on-some-links/ …to stuff in faraway lands. EG, here's a piece in the NY Daily  News  wherein I argue that for all the voices proclaiming that Trump's really nasty and thoroughly mathematically challenged first budget is "dead-on-arrival" in the Congress, that's unfortunately not quite accurate. Why not? Because "virtually every priority in Trump's budget is one that Republicans have been trying to legislate for years. That by itself should tell you that this budget, though it won't become law, is far from dead." Second, in today's  WaPo , I argue that no question, progressive must play defense to preserve what we've got, but it's walk-and-chew-gum time. We also must craft and elevate a true, progressive alternative. That's going to involve higher minimum  wages , more labor protections (especially increasing the number of people eligible for overtime pay), a big ...

Trump, trade, and Germany http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/trump_trade_germany/ So, at a meeting in Brussels yesterday, President Trump appears to have told leaders of the European Union that "the Germans are bad, very bad." I'll let those with foreign diplomatic chops figure out how to clean that up—and good luck: When I plug the Spiegel Online  headline —"Die Deutschen sind böse, sehr böse"—into Google translator, it spits back: "The Germans are evil, very evil." I'll handle the economics, which actually are interesting. When Trump talks about trade, he sometimes gets a piece of it right, and it's often a piece about which establishment politicians and the economists that support them are in denial:  Germany's trade surplus of over 8 percent of GDP really is a problem for the other countries with whom they trade. That's not just my view. Both Ben  Bernanke  and more recently, Lord Mervyn  King , former governor of the Central Bank of Eng...

Links for 05-27-17 http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2017/05/links-for-05-27-17.html The Future of Education and Lifelong Learning - Brad DeLong The Question Is Why is Wage Growth So High - New York Times Proliferation of hate and intolerance - Understanding Society Algorithmic Pricing and Competition: - Tim Taylor May's groupthink - Stumbling and Mumbling The New New Deal - INET American Economic Needs - Noah Smith Trump is Right and Wrong about Germany - Gloomy European Economist VISIT WEBSITE  -- via my feedly newsfeed

Friday, May 26, 2017 Proliferation of hate and intolerance Paul Brass provides a wealth of ethnographic and historical evidence on the causes of Hindu-Muslim violence in India in The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India. His analysis here centers on the city of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, and he believes that his findings have broad relevance in many parts of India. His key conclusion is worth quoting: It is a principal argument of this book that the whole political order in post-Independence north India and many, if not most of its leading as well as local actors -- more markedly so since the death of Nehru -- have become implicated in the persistence of Hindu-Muslim riots. These riots have had concrete benefits for particular political organizations as well as larger political uses. Hindu-Muslim opposition, tensions, and violence have provided the principal justification and the primary source of strength for the political existence of some local political organiza...

John Case has sent you a link to a blog: Blog: Poets and Mechanics Friends Worship Group Post: Call to Meeting for Worship: May 28, 2017 Link: http://poetsandmechanicsfriends.blogspot.com/2017/05/call-to-meeting-for-worship-may-28-2017.html -- Powered by Blogger https://www.blogger.com/

John Case has sent you a link to a blog: Blog: Enlighten Radio Post: Winners and Losers Solves All the Problems Today -- 6 AM Link: http://www.enlightenradio.org/2017/05/winners-and-losers-solves-all-problems.html -- Powered by Blogger https://www.blogger.com/

American workers lose $1.2 billion in 2017 due to delay in update of overtime rules http://www.epi.org/blog/american-workers-lose-1-2-billion-in-2017-due-to-delay-in-update-of-overtime-rules/ One year ago, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a  final rule to update the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime rules . The old rules—written by the Bush administration in 2004—have a loophole that leaves millions of salaried employees without the right to overtime pay (and even without the right to be paid the minimum wage). An employer may legally require salaried employees earning as little as $23,660 a year to work 70 or 80 hours a week with no additional pay. If an employer determines that a salaried employee works in an "executive, professional, or administrative capacity" the employee's effective hourly pay could fall below $6.00 an hour. If the  new rule had taken effect on December 1, 2016, as planned , 4 million employees would have become entitled to overtime pay and...