Trump’s Pivot to Russia Against China
Donald Trump seems to be embarking on the most drastic realignment of U.S. foreign policy since President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s opening to China […]
Prices and Crises
Recently I have blogged about the crisis-prone and debt-burdened global economy. Heavy debt makes many governments and bullish businesses allergic to deflation, i.e., falling prices. […]
Profiting from the 2008 Crisis
Economic crises always create both winners and losers, as I argued last week and throughout this blog series. This was particularly stark during the 2008 […]
Profiting from Debt Crises
Last week, I promised to explain how rising debt creates an incentive for debt crises worldwide. One of the biggest errors of textbook economics is […]
Trump: Debt or Taxes?
Last week, I considered whether Trump will use an unprecedented degree of trade protectionism, as he promised on the campaign trail. House Speaker Paul Ryan, […]
Pundits Just Don’t Get It: Here Is the Real Reason Why Trump Won
The pundits still don’t seem to understand the meaning of President-Elect Donald Trump’s victory. They are still fixated on his violations of political correctness, while […]
Trump’s Trade Wars
Donald Trump’s victory took most pundits by surprise because of excessive faith in Big Data, which meant the serious unexamined errors in polling will not […]
Inefficient Market Hypothesis
Last week we considered how the ubiquitous initial public offering process for raising funds systematically biases underwriters and brokers toward disequilibrium pricing. Another vast arena […]
Initial Public Offerings
Two weeks ago I introduced the idea that it is sometimes strategic for capitalists to avoid equilibrium prices. Since all the claims textbook economics makes […]
Leadership Beyond Political Labels
I will take a detour from the thread I was pursuing last week to reflect on the importance of judicious leadership in a capitalist system. […]
The Rectification of Names
I borrow the title of today’s blog from the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, though I use the term differently. For Confucius, rectification of names (zhèngmíng […]
Why am I Such a Contrarian?
Most critics of textbook economics today adhere to some rival economic school, including Marxian, post-Keynesian, neo-Ricardian, Austrian, information, and evolutionary economics. Each of these schools […]
Easy Credit and Bad Debt
When I was young, critical as I was, I took the economic textbook too seriously. I thought low interest rates meant easy or loose credit […]
I Told You So: China Debt Reprise
Regular readers of my blog will recall that I warned months ago that China will be the center of the third leg of the world […]
Weapons of Math Destruction
Last week, just after I submitted my blog, I heard on NPR about a book arguing similar points by Cathy O’Neil, titled Weapons of Math […]
Statistical Deception
Statistical reasoning is a valuable tool that is unfortunately vastly abused in practice. Whether because of mistaken self-deception or deliberate misdirection, statistical arguments are routinely […]