Asked whether modern capitalism is sustainable, Ken Rogoff says yes.
Read it at Project Syndicate (short)
Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?
by Kenneth Rogoff
Conclusion:
In principle, none of capitalism’s problems is insurmountable, and economists have offered a variety of market-based solutions. A high global price for carbon would induce firms and individuals to internalize the cost of their polluting activities. Tax systems can be designed to provide a greater measure of redistribution of income without necessarily involving crippling distortions, by minimizing non-transparent tax expenditures and keeping marginal rates low. Effective pricing of health care, including the pricing of waiting times, could encourage a better balance between equality and efficiency. Financial systems could be better regulated, with stricter attention to excessive accumulations of debt.
Will capitalism be a victim of its own success in producing massive wealth? For now, as fashionable as the topic of capitalism’s demise might be, the possibility seems remote. Nevertheless, as pollution, financial instability, health problems, and inequality continue to grow, and as political systems remain paralyzed, capitalism’s future might not seem so secure in a few decades as it seems now.
Nothing mentioned about energy and climate change?
11 comments:
From a strict technological point of view, (lack of free) energy and climate change are not insurmountable issues.
Surely, one can argue that under present day capitalism too much noise is generated for those problems to be solvable. But, inside a MMT framework, they seem quite solvable.
The real problem on capitalism's sustainability is one of human development. Both being an employer (master) and an employee (servant) are below human dignity.
Or, at least, both are below the dignity that humans can aspire.
Every other time I come across an economist talking rubbish it turns out he’s from Harvard, and Rogoff is an example. That article by Rogoff is largely hot air: it’s not worth reading.
Yes, I was horrified when realized that the Chess Grandmaster Rogoff & the idiot Harvard economist (but I repeat myself) Rogoff were the same person. There is more thought involved in every move in a GM level game than all the doo-doo produced by a modern Harvard economist in their career. What a waste - a chess bum making money on games in a park is a more productive, integral member of society than those nitwits.
PG, they may be solvable but not in terms of the current neoliberal approach to economics that has become the basis for modern capitalism. Solving these issues will involve seriously modifying or abandoning neoliberalism, which is not sustainable on many counts. So I think that Rogoff is wrong here.
@ Ralph
True, and unfortunately, Rogoff is one the Very Serious People who is widely listened to.
The question to ask Rogoff is "Has he ever worked at a productive job in his life? Or has he always spouted hot air!" In particular see Ralph's post - "Academia at its worst.
Quote:
"I've been in school for the last 35 years - 21 years as a student, the rest as a professor. As a result, the Real World is almost completely foreign to me. I don't know how to do much of anything. While I had a few menial jobs in my teens, my first-hand knowledge of the world of work beyond the ivory tower is roughly zero.
I'm not alone. Most professors' experience is almost as narrow as mine. If you want to succeed in academia, the Real World is a distraction. I have a dream job for life because I excelled in my coursework year after year, won admission to prestigious schools, and published a couple dozen articles for other professors to read. That's what it takes - and that's all it takes."
I'm not alone. Most professors' experience is almost as narrow as mine. If you want to succeed in academia, the Real World is a distraction.
Colonel Douglas could kill this tool with his bare hands, bum arm and all.
While at Chicago, [Paul] Douglas developed (with Charles W. Cobb, a mathematician at Amherst) the Cobb-Douglas production function, an often used production function in neoclassical economics... Douglas was listed as a supporter of banking reforms suggested by University of Chicago economists in 1933 that were later referred to as the "Chicago plan"... Douglas resigned from the Chicago City Council and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a private at the age of 50...
During the Battle of Okinawa, Douglas earned his second Purple Heart. A volunteer rifleman in an infantry platoon, he was helping to carry wounded from 3rd Battalion 5th Marines along the Naha-Shuri line when a burst of machine gun fire tore through his left arm, severing the main nerve and leaving it permanently disabled... Douglas was given an honorable discharge as a Lieutenant Colonel with full disability pay... As a member of the Senate [h]e was a passionate crusader for civil rights (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described him as "the greatest of all the Senators")...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Douglas
And all things are possible with Jesus. Just close your eyes and poof everything better!
I thought the story of Jesus was that it's not easy as magic but so hard like being nailed to a heavy wooden cross that you had to drag across the village ??
Whatever happened to all the climate change hurricanes that were going to wreak post-Katrina havoc?
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/katrina-flashback.html
Turned into the great drought that is affecting the Southwest
The Age of Thirst in the American West
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