Getting Radical Might Be the Most Practical Way to Fix Inequality — Lynn Parramore interviews Adair Turner

Why we need more radical policies so that we don’t just repeat the debt-fueled booms all over again

Evonomics
Getting Radical Might Be the Most Practical Way to Fix Inequality

Lynn Parramore interviews Adair Turner

Meet the Visionary Venture Capitalist Who's Inspired by Marx and Keynes: Lynn Parramore interviews William Janeway

William Janeway is no ordinary businessman. In his view, waste can be good, efficiency is the enemy of innovation, and government investment builds the platform on which venture capitalists and entrepreneurs can “dance.” A Cambridge-educated economist whose career as a venture capital investor has spanned four decades, Janeway has been called a “theorist-practitioner” by the great Hyman Minsky. As an investor, he built and led the Warburg Pincus Technology Investment team that provided financial backing to some of the companies that sparked the Internet economy. 

Janeway’s new book, Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy, reveals how the state, the market economy, and financial capitalism work together to create innovative technologies. As he sees it, innovation has stalled in America, and it’s time to get it up and running again, particularly in critical areas like clean tech/green tech that can help us fight climate change. Somewhat unusual among highly successful businessman, Janeway draws lessons not from Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, but from Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Joseph Schumpeter. He believes that if we can break free of the fetters of neoclassical economic theory, the U.S. can lead the way in innovation and provide more of the things that make for a good life for all.

AltertNet
Meet the Visionary Venture Capitalist Who's Inspired by Marx and Keynes
Lynn Stuart Parramore

Lynn Parramore on MMT at Alternet

Over the last week, an important approach to economics that has spent years on the sidelines went mainstream: Modern Monetary Theory. This is good news for anyone who wants to see the neoliberal paradigm challenged, and a positive sign to heterodox economists who have difficulty getting a hearing in a field still gripped by outmoded models.

The theory, which provides unusual perspectives on issues including currency, debt, and government spending, kicked off in the mid-90s and has since grown into a movement. Its roster of proponents includes James K. Galbraith; Australian economist Bill Mitchel; Randall Wray and Stephanie Kelton of the University of Missouri-Kansas City; Rob Parenteau; Scott Fullwilier; Warren Mosler; and blogger Marshall Auerback. Their insights have been particularly valuable in countering the deficit hysteria which reached a fever pitch in the U.S. during the summer of 2011, and still darkens policy debates worldwide.

Read it at AlterNet
The Challenge to Status Quo Economics Everybody is Talking About

by Lynn Parramore

(h/t Clonal in the comments)

Radicalizing Gen X

I've been writing for some time about the work of Ravi Batra (The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos) and Strauss & Howe (The Fourth Turning). Strauss and Howe's work, especially, is based on generational change. Lynn Parramore, a gifted writer who blogs at New Deal 2.0 provides her take about Gen X from her own experience and how Occupy radicalized her.

Many members of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers can relate to this process through experience, since they were on the ground during the anti-war movement and experienced it first hand at the barricades. But no generation since has had to go through this searing experience. All that has changed now, and it portends to change the world. That's why I think this is a big deal, which will affect all of us socially, politically and economically over the years to come.

Read the whole post at AlterNet
Back to the Future? Generation X and Occupy Wall Street
by Lynn Parramore

Lynn Parramore asks six disturbing questions

1. Who convened the mayors call?
2. Was there an attempt to control press coverage?
3. What, if any, was the role of the White House?
4. Was the Department of Homeland Security involved in the raids?
5. What, if any, was the role of the FBI?
6. Where are the libertarians?

Read the whole post (short) at AlterNet
Six Burning Questions About the Violent Crackdowns on Occupations Around the Country
by Lynn Parramore of New Deal 2.0