socialist-economics

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-22/socialism-and-capitalism-work-together

Is public opinion part of a complex system? http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2017/12/is-public-opinion-part-of-complex-system.html The worrisome likelihood that Russians and other malevolent actors are tinkering with public opinion in Western Europe and the United States through social media creates various kinds of anxiety. Are our democratic values so fragile that a few thousand Facebook or Twitter memes could put us on a different plane about important questions like anti-Muslim bigotry, racism, intolerance, or fanaticism about guns? Can a butterfly in Minsk create a thunderstorm of racism in Cincinnati? Have white supremacy and British ultra-nationalism gone viral? There is an interesting analogy here with the weather. The weather next Wednesday is the net consequence of a number of processes and variables, none of which are enormously difficult to analyze. But in their complex interactions they create outcomes that are all but impossible to forecast over a period of more t...

How Doug Jones Won and the Takeaway for Democrats http://prospect.org/article/how-doug-jones-won-and-takeaway-democrats AP Photo/John Bazemore Senator-elect Doug Jones is greeted by a supporter before speaking during an election-night watch party in Birmingham I n his victory speech Tuesday night, Doug Jones made sure to wish his Jewish supporters a "Happy Hanukkah." His stunning victory over Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate seat from Alabama coincided with the first night of what Jews call the Festival of Lights. The holiday celebrates the Jews' triumph over a tyrant king and the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem. As the story goes, they only had enough oil to light the temple's lamp for one day, but the oil lasted a full eight days. During the holiday, Jews play with a four-sided spinning top called a dreidel, whose Hebrew letters represent the saying, "A great miracle happened there." Many voters and pundits think that a great miracle happened in Alaba...

Interesting episode for historical materialists.... Weekend Reading: Sidney Blumenthal on the Finances of Stephen "The Little Giant" Douglas http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/12/in-1836-the-legislature-granted-a-charter-for-a-railroad-running-from-galena-in-the-northwest-corner-to-the-southernmost-ti.html  -- via my feedly newsfeed

The Economics Debate, again and again http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2017/12/the-economics-debate-again-and-again.html The debate on the economics profession – its alleged ills and failings -- abates at times, but never ends. A recent  piece  in The Guardian taking the profession to task for its lack of reform has prompted a  response  from a group of economists. I thought it was time to re-up my own views on this debate, in the form of two sets of ten commandments. The first set is directed at economists, and the second to non-economists.    Ten commandments for economists 1.       Economics is a collection of models; cherish their diversity. 2.       It's a model, not  the  model. 3.       Make your model simple enough to isolate specific causes and how they work, but not so simple that it leaves out key interactions among causes. 4.       Unrealistic assumptions are OK; unrealistic  critical  assumptions are not OK. 5.       The world is (almost) always second-bes...

Wait…now the Trump admin is coming for waitpersons' tips??!! http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/wait-now-the-trump-admin-is-coming-for-waitpersons-tips/ Heidi Shierholz is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, but before that, she was the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama administration. When I read some of Heidi's jaw-dropping work on this rule change on tips the Trump administration was making, I thought even — especially — in the midst of all this attention to the GOP's lousy tax plan, readers needed to learn about this latest effort to whack the working class. Below is my interview with Heidi. JB:  What is this new rule about tips and why is the Department of Labor proposing it? Heidi Shierholz (Courtesy of Heidi Shierholz) HS:  The Department of Labor's proposed rule is about employers taking control of workers' tips. It rescinds portions of long-standing Department of Labor regulations that prohibit employers from taking tips...

John Case has sent you a link to a blog: Blog: Enlighten Radio Post: Station Break Over the Holidays Link: http://www.enlightenradio.org/2017/12/station-break-over-holidays.html -- Powered by Blogger https://www.blogger.com/

#SaveTPS: A Working-Class Struggle https://workingclassstudies.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/savetps-a-working-class-struggle/ Jessica's TPS work permit cards By the time the  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals  (DACA) was announced in 2014, I had already benefited from another immigration relief program:  Temporary Protected Status (TPS) . In January and February 2001, my birth country of El Salvador experienced two earthquakes –  a month apart from each other  – that utterly devastated every aspect of life in Salvadoran Society. In order to help El Salvador reconstruct and get back on its feet, the United States extended TPS status to undocumented Salvadorans immigrants already in the U.S. I was one of them.  Created by Congress in the  Immigration Act of 1990 , TPS was meant for people from countries going through environmental disaster and other extraordinary and temporary conditions or confronting armed conflict. Currently, the program is administered by the U.S. Department of ...

How Might Restricting Immigration Affect Social Security's Finances? https://www.urban.org/research/publication/how-might-restricting-immigration-affect-social-securitys-finances Immigration helps finance Social Security by expanding the labor force and increasing payroll tax revenue, which largely funds the program. A recently introduced congressional bill would reduce lawful permanent immigration by about 50 percent. This brief shows that this bill, if enacted, would worsen the already strained finances of the Social Security trust funds. Program revenues would fall faster than expenditures, raising the present value of Social Security's unfunded future obligations by $1.5 trillion, or 13 percent, over the next 75 years. Restricting immigration would require additional Social Security benefit cuts or tax increases to balance the system.  -- via my feedly newsfeed

The Global Economy's Risky Recovery https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/global-economy-risky-recovery-in-2018-by-joseph-e--stiglitz-2017-12 Dec 20, 2017   JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ As the advanced economies' post-2008 recession fades into the distant past, global prospects for 2018 look a little better than in 2017. The shift from fiscal austerity to a more stimulative stance will reduce the need for extreme monetary policies, which almost surely have had adverse effects not just on financial markets but also on the real economy. NEW YORK – A year ago, I predicted that the most distinctive aspect of 2017 would be uncertainty, fueled by, among other things, Donald Trump's election as president in the United States and the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union. The only certainty, it seemed, was uncertainty – and that the future could become a very messy place.  Throughout 2017, Trump proved every bit as bombastic and erratic as expected. Anyone who paid attent...