socialist-economics

The Brexit deal https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/12/29/the-brexit-deal/ The UK finally leaves the European Union on 31 December, after 48 years of membership.  The initial decision to leave, made in the special referendum back in June 2016, has taken over four tortuous years to implement.  So what does the deal mean for British capital and labour? For British manufacturers, the tariff-free regime of the EU's internal market has been maintained.  But the British government will have to renegotiate new bilateral treaties with governments across the world, whereas previously they were included within EU deals.  People will no longer be able to work freely in both economies by right, all goods will require significant additional paperwork to cross borders and some will be checked extensively to verify they comply with local regulatory standards.  Frictionless trade is over; indeed, that's even between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain with a new customs border across...

Lots to discuss here -- Dean's year end reflections would be a great topic for educationals on real political economy in the coming period. Certainly more useful and productive than the phrasemongering, feet planted in mid-air rants, that at times masquerade as political economy on the Left. I do not concur with parts of  his analysis, but it has two great virtues: 1) It is concrete in its analysis of the US inequality -- it deals in real, not dogmatic or categorical choices in policy; 2) He affirms that among the several approaches one may take toward inequality, you cannot run away from its class character. You cannot raise the incomes of middle and lower working class people, unless you take it from the rich.  If you are having dinner with a billionaire, or a CEO, it is not going to be a win win situation Dean Baker: End of the Year Thoughts on Inequality and Its Remedies http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/beat_the_press/~3/KwG6EY98SRE/ The approach of the end of the year seems a go...

2020 Was the Year Reaganism Died https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/opinion/reagan-economy-covid.html text only versino Maybe it was the visuals that did it. It's hard to know what aspects of reality make it into Donald Trump's ever-shrinking bubble — and I'm happy to say that after Jan. 20 we won't have to care about what goes on in his not-at-all beautiful mind — but it's possible that he became aware of how he looked, playing golf as millions of desperate families lost their unemployment benefits. Whatever the reason, on Sunday he finally signed an economic relief bill that will, among other things, extend those benefits for a few months. And it wasn't just the unemployed who breathed a sigh of relief. Stock market futures — which are not a measure of economic success, but still — rose. Goldman Sachs marked up its forecast of economic growth in 2021. So this year is closing out with a second demonstration of the lesson we should have learned in the spring: In...

I receive a blessing of optimism from pieces like this in bloomberg, and other biz press. It illustrates that the most decisive factors in the "the debates" on transitions from capitalism to more socialist societies will be driven by straight out science, income and productivity more than ideology.  Noah Smith: America Can't Compete With Chinese Tech By Walling Itself Off https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-12-27/america-can-t-beat-chinese-tech-with-a-new-iron-curtain The election of Joe Biden will not end the U.S.-China trade war. Biden has   already vowed   to keep outgoing President Donald Trump's tariffs as leverage for negotiations. That signals the dawn of a permanent new era of economic competition between the two superpowers. But beyond the flashy, headline-grabbing issue of tariffs and trade deals, there's another, more important   economic struggle   being waged -- the battle to control technology industries. And the U.S. is deploying som...