Trump’s trickle dries up — Michael Roberts

Well, Trump’s boast turned to dust in 2019. US GDP grew by 2.3% in 2019, well below President Trump’s promise of 3%+ growth. The most recent GDP number proved that the tax cuts championed by Trump had no sustained impact on US growth. Indeed , even the most optimistic forecasts see growth to stay well below 3% for the next few years. Of course, that won’t stop Trump in his State of the Union speech today in Congress proclaiming a huge rise in the living standards of working people under his reign. Actually, cumulative growth under Trump has been lower than under both Obama and Bush Jnr.

Michael Roberts explains why.

Michael Roberts Blog — blogging from a marxist economist
Trump’s trickle dries up
Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts — The Fed, trade wars and recession

Some numbers.

Michael Roberts Blog
The Fed, trade wars and recession
Michael Roberts

Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan — Profit warning: there will be blood

As we show in our recent research note ‘Blood and Oil in the Orient, Redux (2017)’, the Weapondollar-Petrodollar Coalition might no longer be in the Middle East driver’s seat. However, with the oil and armament companies, the region’s oil-exporting autocracies and various non-state groups all keen on seeing their oil incomes rise from record lows, the prospects of a new energy conflict, whether premeditated or coincidental, seem extremely high.

More evidence suggestive that economics drives politics.

Real-World Economics Review Blog
Profit warning: there will be blood

Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan

Bill Mitchell — British employers exhibit on-going greed but lie about it

One of the abiding and recurring trends, accentuated in the neo-liberal era, is the apparent ‘concern’ for the low-paid by the captains of industry. They continually warn against allowing pay increases for this cohort because they are – so the story goes – deeply concerned about the damage it will do to the employment prospects. What they really mean is that they know pay rises at the bottom end of the pay structure don’t alter employment levels significantly but have some impact on profitability. That is, they reduce profits a little. And that is the concern they are really expressing. The British Chambers of Commerce have called for a freeze on real wages for the lowest paid workers in Britain despite profitability soaring and the share of business profits in national income rising. The expression ‘where do these characters get off’ comes to mind. Although it is hardly surprising. British entrepreneurs tend to be lazy and take the easy way out when they can to further their own ends.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
British employers exhibit on-going greed but lie about it

Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia