Brad DeLong — The New Socialism of Fools

Good read. BDL argues that globalization is not the problem it is taken to be. The solution is not more nationalism and less globalization but rather full employment economic policy that addresses social welfare and economic distributional issues simultaneously. 

The problem is not globalization as much as neoliberal globalization, where the gains go to the top of the town. This results in distributional issues that affect social welfare and create a political reaction.

Now if he would just jump on the MMT bandwagon about effecting a full employment policy using enlightened fiscal policy.

Project Syndicate
The New Socialism of Fools

Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

Bill Mitchell — The Modigliani controversy – the break with Keynesian thinking

I have been continuing the research for my next book (hopefully to be finished by May 2016) on the way in which the neo-liberals convinced policy makers including those in progressive social democratic political parties that the globalisation of finance and capital flows meant that the currency-issuing state was no longer capable of maintaining full employment through appropriate use of fiscal policies. The tenet we are entertaining is that the state never went away, it was just co-opted by capital to serve its interests. This will be a two-part blog and centres on a critical period in economic history in the mid-1970s, which marked the break with the full employment system which had moderated the excesses of capitalism. This was the period when the neo-liberal period dawned, and which steadily, opened the way for these excesses to reemerge, in all their indecent indulgence and destruction. It is also the period in which a series of economic myths crystallised into the mainstream narrative we know today, which opposes government deficits and allows unemployment to remain elevated at excessive levels. It is really important to understand what went on then because we are living with the legacy of the falsehoods introduced during this period.…

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The Modigliani controversy – the break with Keynesian thinking
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia