Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Richard D. Wolff — The Narrowness of Mainstream Economics Is About to Unravel

Recent extreme volatility and sharp drops in US stock markets underscore the instability of capitalism yet again. As many commentators now note, another economic downturn looms. We know that all the reforms and regulations imposed in the wake of the Great Depression of the 1930s failed to prevent both smaller downturns between 1941 and 2008 and then another big crash in 2008. Capitalism’s instability has, for centuries, resisted all efforts to overcome it with or without government interventions. Yet mainstream economics mostly evades an honest confrontation with the social costs of such economic instability. Worse, it evades a direct debate with the Marxian critique that links those costs to an argument that system change would be the best and most “efficient” solution....
Truthout
The Narrowness of Mainstream Economics Is About to Unravel
Richard D. Wolff | professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a visiting professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City

2 comments:

Konrad said...

“All the reforms and regulations imposed in the wake of the Great Depression of the 1930s failed to prevent both smaller downturns between 1941 and 2008 and then another big crash in 2008.”

That’s because the reforms and regulations were repealed in order to widen the gap between the rich and the rest. The Banking Act of 1933 (aka Glass-Steagall) was repealed in 1999. The Commodity Exchange Act of 1936 was repealed in 2000. Other Acts further deregulated banks, such as the Depository Institutions Deregulatory and Monetary Control Act of 1980, plus the Depository Institutions Act of 1982, and so on.

These deregulations (i.e. decriminalizations) led to the 2008 Financial Crisis. And the US Senate continues to decriminalize banks. On 14 March 2018 the Senate repealed many parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

Oligarchs only like government regulation when oligarchs are the government.

The article says that “mainstream economics” is about to “unravel.” I doubt that, since “mainstream economics” consists of bullshit, and the rich will never stop bullshitting.

For example, “free market” bullshit is opposed to genuinely free markets. “Market-based” solutions mean oligarch owned and controlled solutions.

“In the mass media, informal education and the world of social media, capitalism is now far more widely criticized and rejected than at any other time in the past half-century. Advocates for socialism have likewise returned.”

Mass media outlets do not criticize capitalism, since the outlets are owned by oligarchs and corporations. Instead, mass media outlets promote identity politics. Leftists attack straight white non-Jewish males as “fascists” and “homophobes” who enjoy “male privilege” and “white privilege” and so on.

In response, right-wingers condemn leftists as “communists” and “socialists.” They praise Margaret Thatcher, and denounce Jeremy Corbyn.

While the two idiotic sides bicker and cut their own throats, the wars continue, and inequality worsens, along with pollution and climate change.

I see no “unraveling” of mainstream economics (i.e. bullshit-o-nomics).

Matt Franko said...

“Recent extreme volatility and sharp drops in US stock markets underscore the instability of capitalism”

Lol us is down maybe 10% and Chicomms are down 30%...