Why Banks Fail
Last week I promised to talk about capitalism this week, but I will postpone that to discuss why banks fail. Two events prompted the change. […]
What is Capital?
“Capital” is a very common term in economics. Like many folks, I have referred to the contemporary economic system as “capitalism.” Yet the terms “capital” […]
Valuing Nature and Real Estate
In the last few columns, I have been discussing value theory, emphasizing the virtues of an objective theory of value as developed by classical political […]
Valuing Capital
Last week I argued why an objective theory of value, such as the labor theory of value used in classical political economy, is useful for […]
Understanding Value
What determines the value of anything? This is one of the central questions of both economics and political economy, but economics has obscured its implicit […]
Boom Bust Boom
This is my 50th blog article in this weekly series. Here I focus on a new film I saw Tuesday in Manhattan called Boom Bust […]
The China Dilemma
We are now in the “third leg” of a world economic crisis that started in 2007. As I said in a recent post, whereas the first […]
A Day in the Life of the Current Economic Crisis
This week I had intended to write about the effect of the economic crisis in China on the world economy. However, my plan changed on […]
The Third Leg of the World Financial Crisis
My friend and WPI colleague, Sherle Schwenniger, suggests 2016 may witness the “third leg” of the world financial crisis that started in 2007-2008 with the […]
Social Wealth and Natural Scarcity
Economic systems include two interrelated components. Economists focus on the production-consumption component, but largely neglect the debt and asset component, especially in textbook macroeconomics. Yet […]
Consumer Surplus and Related Absurdities
A few weeks ago I left off my series criticizing the way economics is taught in order to discuss critical economic events, but this week […]
Competitive Devaluation
Donald Trump has a huge problem as he enters office, given what he promised the American people. The problem is the strong dollar. A strong […]
The Impending Student Loan Debacle
“Corruption is a constant, but scandal is a variable.” This aphorism is one of several coined in my book International Political Economy: The Business of […]
Stocks Tumble as Asset Deflation Threatens Debts
One of the puzzles for in this recent market rout is that jobs numbers in December were so favorable and yet stocks acted like the […]
Is China a Currency Manipulator?
We are well into a political season as the U.S. presidential campaign heats up. We are also in the midst of deflationary pressures evident in […]
Will ‘The Big Short’ Help Us Learn the Lessons of the 2008 Financial Crisis?
Many critics have deservedly praised the new docudrama about the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short. Unfortunately, movie critics seldom understand finance so few reviews comment on the investment […]