socialist-economics

from the Economist Jun 19th 2025|CHICAGO, NEW YORK AND SAN FRANCISCO THE VIDEO of Brad Lander getting slammed against a wall and arrested by federal immigration agents shocked New Yorkers, who are not easily shocked. On June 17th the mild-mannered city comptroller had been attempting to escort a migrant through a federal building in Manhattan as agents tried to detain the man. “It’s bullshit,” said Kathy Hochul, the Democratic governor of New York, of Mr Lander’s arrest. It came a week before a crowded Democratic primary for New York City mayor, in which the city comptroller is a candidate. The arrest may well help his campaign, but it marked yet another skirmish over immigration with Donald Trump’s administration. It is just the latest escalation in a confrontation with cities and states that did not vote for the president, on a topic where the public supports him most. Mr Trump’s administration has tried to withhold funding from some states whose governors, like Janet Mills of Maine...

 Charts for an intro to WV political economy: Where Do People Work What is the Real Gross National Product for WV  What is the Real GDP per employee per industry? What is the compensation in wages and salaries What is the surplus (profits plus interest)

Mercantilism Isn’t All Bad, but Trump’s Version Is the Worst King George, or Don Corleone Dani Rodrik  /  May 7, 2025 at 9:58 AM Donald Trump's chaotic, indiscriminate trade policies do little to expand critical, strategic investments in the United States, and are riddled with cronyism. His brand of mercantilism embodies all its worst defects, with none of the benefits that countries have unlocked by getting their trade policies right. CAMBRIDGE – When economists celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations next year, US President Donald Trump’s mercantilism will constitute an incongruous backdrop. After all, Trump’s obsession with bilateral trade balances, glorification of import tariffs, and zero-sum approach to international trade has revived – in defiance of Smith’s teachings – the worst mercantilist practices. Economists are right to denigrate Trump’s trade policies. Other countries’ unfair trade practices are not the main rea...

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  China’s Growth Leaves Trump’s MAGA USA in the Dust New 3 hours ago The International Monetary Fund just released its growth projections for 2025, as well as the next five years. It’s not a very good picture for Donald Trump’s economic plans. The I.M.F. projects the U.S. economy will grow just 1.8 percent from 2024 to 2025. It looks even worse for next year, with growth projected to slow further to 1.7 percent. It’s also important to remember that these are full year averages, so most of the growth from 2024 to 2025 was actually in the second half of 2024, when Biden was in the White House and the U.S. economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate. The story looks even worse if we compare our projected growth to the growth projected for Donald Trump’s arch nemesis, China. The I.M.F. is projecting that China will grow 4.0 percent from 2024 to 2025 and again from 2025 to 2026. This difference is even more striking if we look at the absolute amount each country is projected to add to ...

Michael Pettis misleading the  American zeitgeist on China Public intellectual and avid tweeter’s views on China are mostly wrong and dangerously en vogue in tariff-crazed Washington by Han Feizi, April 14, 2025 Han Feizi has written extensively about China’s economy in ways which challenge Michael Pettis’s heterodox views (see here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here and here ). Michael Pettis has become the go-to source for getting most things about China's economy wrong. Image: X Every so often, an American public intellectual captures the political zeitgeist and sends the nation down decades-long paths, for good or for ill. Ralph Waldo Emerson provided the nation with spiritual rigor and moral fortitude, resulting in the Republican Party, the Civil War and the end of slavery. Francis Fukuyama provided America with a stunning vision of national triumph, resulting in military debacles, a financial crisis, a stratified society and our current insane clown poss...