GDP's Days Are Numbered — Diane Coyle

Ditching gross domestic product as the main gauge of prosperity was always impossible in the absence of broad agreement about what the alternative might be. But as economists and statisticians develop wealth and well-being approaches to measuring economic success, the direction of change is clear.…

Project Syndicate
GDP's Days Are Numbered

Diane Coyle | Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/replacing-gdp-with-wealth-and-wellbeing-indicators-by-diane-coyle-2021-12

See also at PS

Water As an Asset Class Is Here

Willem H. Buiter | visiting professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/emergence-of-water-as-an-asset-class-by-willem-h-buiter-2021-12

China is securing battery metals on the global stage — J.Heller

Merics
China is securing battery metals on the global stage
J.Heller

https://merics.org/en/tracker/china-securing-battery-metals-global-stage

The five laws of stupidity — Richard Murphy

Moron check.

Tax Research UK
The five laws of stupidity
Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
 

See also

Dunning and Kruger describe a common cognitive bias and make quantitative assertions that rest on statistical arguments. But their findings are often misinterpreted, misrepresented, and misunderstood. According to Tal Yarkoni, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin:

Their studies categorically didn’t show that incompetent people are more confident or arrogant than competent people. What they did show is [that] people in the top quartile for actual performance think they perform better than the people in the second quartile, who in turn think they perform better than the people in the third quartile, and so on. So the bias is definitively not that incompetent people think they’re better than competent people. Rather, it’s that incompetent people think they’re much better than they actually are. But they typically still don’t think they’re quite as good as people who, you know, actually are good. (It’s important to note that Dunning and Kruger never claimed to show that the unskilled think they’re better than the skilled; that’s just the way the finding is often interpreted by others.)

Wikipedia
Dunning–Kruger effect - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Bill Mitchell — Australian labour market rebounds strongly after lockdown ends but still 1.6 million (12.1 per cent) without enough work

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest labour force data today (December 16, 2021) – Labour Force, Australia – for November 2021. With most states now abandoning most Covid restrictions just as the new variant arrives, which evades the vaccine coverage and infection numbers soar to record levels (go figure), the labour market certainly rebounded emphatically. Employment growth was very strong and resulted in sharp falls in unemployment and underemployment. Participation also rose, which prevented the unemployment rate from falling more. Overall, this is an improving situation although whether it will last as infection numbers start to rise rapidly is another question. It is certainly time for the Federal government to take advantage of the strengthening situation in the non-government sector and target some really good job creation initiatives in the regions and demographic cohorts that are still lagging behind....

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Australian labour market rebounds strongly after lockdown ends but still 1.6 million (12.1 per cent) without enough work
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=48864http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=48864

Russia and China are “more than allies” — The Saker

Ok, there is is. They totally get that the US and UK aided by the rest of Five Eyes (Canada, Australia, and NZ) are actively trying to take them down.

The Vineyard of the Saker
Russia and China are “more than allies”
The Saker

http://thesaker.is/russia-and-china-are-more-than-allies/

TASS
Russia and China act like a bloc as relations with United States worsen - New York Times

https://tass.com/world/1376281

Economics as a community — Andrew Gelman

 One factor in the economics community hanging together on the normal paradigm is the assumption that economics is a natural science like physics rather than a life science or a social science?

Another factor may be group think?

There may be many other factors, too, but these come to mind.

Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
Economics as a community
Andrew Gelman | Professor of Statistics and Political Science and Director of the Applied Statistics Center, Columbia University

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2021/12/15/economics-as-a-community/

Bill Mitchell — Sunak–(bad) comedian of the year

It’s Wednesday and I load up other things to do on this day and thus write less here. I also am in the process of moving offices at the University – and after some 18 years in different locations, I am now returning to the Social Sciences Building where I first had an office when I came to the University from Adelaide. Which feels sort of okay, given by opposition to economics being treated as a business discipline. But thanks to a deal I made with the University in 2007, my research centre left the ‘business faculty’ and went out on our own. Hence, my office doesn’t have to be with the other economists, which I am happy about. This morning, I read the most stupid thing I think one could ever read about economics. It came from a UK Guardian article (December 14, 2021) – Sunak warns over multibillion cost of booster programme – where the Chancellor basically disqualified himself from office. Once we get through the trauma of that sort of news, I promise there is some great music to finish with....

"Freshman error." It's the real resources, stupid, not funding by the currency sovereign.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Sunak – (bad) comedian of the year
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=48861

See also

Richard Murphy piles on.

Tax Research UK
Rishi Sunak – a man who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing
Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2021/12/15/rishi-sunak-a-man-who-knows-the-cost-of-everything-and-the-value-of-nothing/

Russia-China alliance at the tipping point M. K. Bhadrakumar

 I would assess that it is now beyond the tipping point. Russia and China are all but declared allies• at this juncture. In addition to a formal alliance and as a concomitant, the nightmare scenario for the US and allies is that Russia and China pool military technology and manufacturing capabilities. In addition, Russia has the natural resources, especially energy, that China needs and is otherwise potentially deprived of by the US Navy disrupting its maritime trade. 

India Punchline
Russia-China alliance at the tipping point
M. K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service

https://www.indianpunchline.com/russia-china-alliance-at-the-tipping-point/

See also

ª Peskov just used the A-word.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will hold online talks on Wednesday to discuss a range of pressing international issues, among other topics, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

"The situation in international affairs, especially on the European continent, is very tense, and it should, of course, be discussed by the allies, [namely] Moscow and Beijing. We see very aggressive rhetoric emanating both from NATO and the US, something that we should also discuss with the Chinese side", Peskov told reporters.

He added that Wednesday's virtual negotiations would also see the two presidents exchange views on regional issues and full-fledged China-Russia collaboration....

Sputnik International

Putin, Xi Plan to Discuss 'Aggressive Rhetoric' From US, NATO During Wednesday Talks

https://sputniknews.com/20211214/putin-xi-plan-to-discuss-aggressive-rhetoric-from-us-nato-during-wednesday-talks-1091516955.html

Also at SI

Majority in US Expect Increased Tensions With China, Want Military Conflict Avoided - Poll

https://sputniknews.com/20211214/majority-in-us-expect-increased-tensions-with-china-want-military-conflict-avoided---poll-1091520474.html

Medvedev: US Move to Exit ABM Treaty Prompted Russia to Improve Defence Industry, Create New Weapons

https://sputniknews.com/20211214/medvedev-us-move-to-exit-abm-treaty-prompted-russia-to-improve-defence-industry-create-new-weapons-1091520386.html

TASS

Putin, Xi Jinping to discuss strategic partnership via video conference on Dec. 15

https://tass.com/politics/1374555

Seven Replies to the Critiques of Modern Money Theory — Eric Tymoigne

Modern Money Theory (MMT) has generated considerable scrutiny and discussions over the past decade. While it has gained some acceptance in the financial sector and among some politicians, it has come under strong criticisms from all sides of the academic spectrum and from conservative political circles. MMT has been argued to be both fascist and communist, orthodox and heterodox, dangerous and benign, unworkable and obvious, and unrealistic and clearly nothing new. The contradictory aspects of the range of criticisms suggest that there is at best a superficial understanding of the MMT framework. MMT relies on a well-established theoretical framework and is not inherently about changing the economic system; it is about changing the policymaking praxis to implement a given public purpose. That public purpose can be small or large and can be conservative or progressive; it ought not to be narrowly determined but rather should be set as democratically as possible. While MMT proponents tend to favor a public purpose that deals with what they see as major drawbacks of capitalist economies (persistent nonfrictional unemployment, unfair inequalities, and financial instability), their policy proposals do not lead to a major shift of domestic resources to the public purpose. If a major increase in government spending is implemented, MMT provides some guidance on how to do that in the least disruptive manner by drawing on past economic experiences. The point is to implement the public purpose at a pace that recognizes the potential constraint that comes from domestic resource availability and potential inflationary pressures from bottlenecks, rising import prices, and exchange rate depreciation, among others. In most cases, economies have more flexibility than what is admitted. In all cases, when monetary sovereignty prevails, the fiscal position and the public debt are poor metrics for judging the viability of a public purpose and its pace of implementation.

As such, applying MMT to policymaking does not mean that a government ought to be encouraged to record fiscal deficits or that the relation between the central bank and the treasury ought to be radically changed to allow direct financing. The fiscal balance is not a proper policy goal because it leads to irrelevant or incorrect policymaking and because it is largely outside the control of policymakers. The financial praxis of monetarily sovereign governments already conforms to MMT. Central banks and treasuries routinely coordinate their financial operations. Some governments have allowed direct financing of the treasury by the central bank; others have not but have developed equivalent ways to coordinate their fiscal and monetary operations that work around existing political constraints. Such routine coordination ensures an elastic financing of government operations that at least deals with domestic resources and is not intrinsically inflationary....

Levy Economic Insititute
Seven Replies to the Critiques of Modern Money Theory

Eric Tymoigne | Associate Professor of Economics at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon; and Research Associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

https://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/seven-replies-to-the-critiques-of-modern-money-theory

The US has consistently applied double standards on democracy and human-rights issues. — Sun Xi

On December 9 and 10, US President Joe Biden held a virtual Summit for Democracy with representatives from 108 selected countries. The summit was intended to forge a common agenda to strengthen democratic institutions, but unfortunately it became paradoxical.

Democracy in the US is mainly a political tool to satisfy its own political goals and interests, but not the interests of the majority of people, which should be the core meaning of democracy. The US has always claimed to be the role model and best teacher of democracy, but ironically it may be one of the most authoritarian countries in the world, when looked at from a global perspective.

History speaks for itself. The US and its allies have been responsible for military operations in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The US does not hesitate to use brutal practices, including invasions, against other countries in the name of democracy and human rights, but in reality for the sake of Washington’s own political and economic interests.

The US has consistently applied double standards on democracy and human-rights issues....

Similarly to a double standard of justice and law domestically. 

Asia Times
The US has consistently applied double standards on democracy and human-rights issues.
Sun Xi, a China-born alumnus of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, is an independent commentary writer based in Singapore. He is also founder and CEO of ESGuru, a Singapore-based consultancy firm specializing in environmental, social and governance issues.

https://asiatimes.com/2021/12/the-paradox-of-us-democracy/

Collected Works of Warren Mosler

Website

Collected Works of Warren Mosler
http://www.collectedworksofwarrenmosler.com/http://www.collectedworksofwarrenmosler.com/

Political Philosophies and Positive Political Psychology: Inter-Disciplinary Framework for the Common Good — Masaya Kobayashi

This manuscript explores the relationship between positive psychology and political philosophy, revealing an inter-disciplinary approach that speaks to the concerns of the common good. Since positive psychology has been expanding its reach into social and political spheres, its relationship to philosophical arguments has been worthy of exploration. Positive psychology is associated with utilitarianism, and aspects of hedonic psychology. However, an alternative concept of eudaimonic well-being has enabled this psychology to have links to other political philosophies. Therefore, this manuscript provides an overview of contemporary political philosophies: first, it discusses the debate between liberalism and communitarianism, and secondly, it summarizes the subsequent developments of liberal perfectionism, capability approach, and deliberative democracy. Then, the configuration of these political philosophies is indicated by the figure of two axes of “individual/collective” and “ethical/non-ethical.” The following section compiles the inter-relationships between the conceptions of citizenship, justice, and well-being, regarding the main political philosophies: egoism, utilitarianism, libertarianism, liberalism, communitarianism, and conservatism. Utilitarianism is associated with happiness, while liberalism and libertarianism rely on the concept of rights, which is almost equal to the idea of justice. Accordingly, utilitarianism is a philosophy of well-being, while liberalism and libertarianism are philosophies of justice. However, there is little connection between well-being and justice in these philosophies because the two kinds of philosophies are incompatible. The latter kind criticizes the former because the maximization of happiness can infringe on people’s rights. Moreover, these philosophies do not particularly value citizenship. In contrast, communitarianism is intrinsically the political philosophy of citizenship most attuned to increasing well-being, and it can connect an idea of justice with well-being. The final part offers a framework to develop an inter-disciplinary collaboration. Positive psychology can provide the empirical basis of the two axes above concerning political philosophies. On the other hand, the correspondence makes the character of political philosophies clearer. While libertarianism and liberalism correspond to psychology as usual, utilitarianism and communitarianism correspond to positive psychology, and the latter can be regarded as positive political philosophies. This recognition leads to the interdisciplinary framework, enabling multi-disciplinary collaboration, including work with the social sciences, which could benefit the common good.

Frontiers in Psychology
Political Philosophies and Positive Political Psychology: Inter-Disciplinary Framework for the Common Good

Masaya Kobayashi | Professor of Political Philosophy, Public Philosophy, and Comparative Politics Graduate School of Social Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.727818/full

The Summit for Socialist Democracy — Charles McKelvey

Capitalist democracy" is an oxymoron, capital (ownership) being favored institutionally over land (environment, ecology) and labor (most of the people). Capitalism is the economic system of plutocratic oligarchy not actual democracy — government of, by and for the people. The economic system that correlates with actual democracy is socialism. Social democracy is a mixture of the two.

In response to the imperial circus, the Friends of Socialist China and the International Manifesto Group organized The Summit for Socialist Democracy. The participants in the December 11 panel were:

Radhika Desai, Professor at the Department of Political Studies, and Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, and coordinator of the International Manifesto Group;

Danny Haiphong, socialist activist and journalist, Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China;

Cheng Unfu, Professor, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;

Carlos Ron, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America, Venezuela;

Luna Oi, Marxist-Leninist popular educator and blogger, Vietnam;

Kiyul Chung, Professor, Tsinghua University, China; Korea University, Tokyo, Japan; former visiting professor, Chinese Academic of Social Sciences; fighter for Korean unification;

Roland Boer, Professor of Philosophy, Dalian University of Technology, China; Visiting Professor, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;

Ju-Hyun Park, writer organized with the Nodutdol network for Korean Community Development, a fourth generation Korean-American organization;

Isabel Monal Rodríguez, Director of the Department of Marxist Studies, Academy of Sciences of Cuba;

Zhai Guoqiang, Professor, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;

Layla Brown, Assistant Professor, Northeastern University, USA, and radical black podcaster; and

Elias Jabbour, Professor, Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil.

Biden's Summit for Democracy is a rather transparent attempt to end-run the UN to legitimate the "rules based order" dictated by the US as a replacement for international law.

Danny Haiphong maintained that Biden’s Summit was an attempt to legitimate the unilateral claim of the United States to establish the rules for the international order. The Summit is consistent with the U.S. strategy of cloaking its exploitative and aggressive policies under the guise of democracy. He noted that the Biden administration has repeatedly hyped a distinction between autocracy and U.S.-led democracy, and its allies were summoned to give credibility to the U.S. vision. Biden’s Summit is nothing more than a projection of the narrow form of democracy championed by the world’s foremost imperialist hegemon.

This is an interesting article for those interested in political economy as the basis for macroeconomics. Against this background, conventional economics in the West and some so-called heterodox economics assumes capitalism as either the natural state or the optimal system, which is a gratuitous assumption.  It assumes that liberal (Western) democracy, especially Anglo-American democracy, is the sole legitimate form of democracy, whereas the literature of political philosophy, political theory, and political science shows otherwise.

Knowledge, ideology, and real socialism in our times

The Summit for Socialist Democracy
Charles McKelvey

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2761684730989137546/1912310394308377856#

See also

Yet these pronouncements miss the mark because they share a flawed definition of democracy. To be more precise, they mistakenly equate liberalism with democracy, thereby rendering liberal democracy the only form of democratic governance. This is wrong.

Katehon

The failure of liberal democracy and the rise of China’s way

Eric Li

https://katehon.com/node/80859

Related

Arcane laws stand in the way of direct democracy in the US. The tipoff is that the vote is not determined by the majority of voters as was established initially in the US Constitution, showing that the intent of the founders was not to create an actually democracy but rather a simulacrum of one.

The Philosopher's Stone
I SAW IT ON TV
Robert Paul Wolff | Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2761684730989137546/1912310394308377856#

See also

MI6 strikes again?

Another cartoonishly ridiculous anti-China propaganda piece has been published in the western mass media, this time by The Guardian, which at this point could arguably be labeled the single most destructive promulgator of empire propaganda in the western world. It is authored by Simon Tisdall, who could most certainly be labeled the single most destructive promulgator of empire propaganda at The Guardian....

CaitlinJohnstone.com
Absurd Guardian Article Declares China World’s Only Imperialist Power
Caitlin Johnstone

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/12/14/absurd-guardian-article-declare-china-worlds-only-imperialist-power/

Also

Counterpunch
Wealth, Capitalism and Ideology

Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/14/wealth-capitalism-and-ideology/

Bill Mitchell — Teaching disadvantaged adults about child development is an effective way to reduce inequality

Some recent research highlights the point I have made in the past that who your parents are matters for your future prospects. We all make choices as we emerge into the adult world, but the constraints that are dished up to us by our parents are in many cases more important in determining our future outcomes than the choices we make. The mainstream neoclassical explanation for income differentials focus on the choices – for education, training, and other career development pathways. From a policy perspective, I think it is more sensible to focus on the constraints as they are in many cases fairly easily altered by sensible government intervention. However, in the real world, not only are the constraints that individuals face conditioned by the circumstances that they are born into, but those circumstances also influence the choices the individuals make. Recent research has found that educational programs for parents in disadvantaged situations to show them what determines child development not only improves the lives of the adults involved but also delivers much better outcomes for their children. They are able to make better decisions which, in turn, improve the environment in which they are learning and building their skills. The policy implications are clear....

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Teaching disadvantaged adults about child development is an effective way to reduce inequality
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Putin’s coup In India Will Shock The U.S. — Simon Watkins

Not only economic but also strategic.

Oilprice
Putin’s coup In India Will Shock The U.S.

Simon Watkins

Major Cuts in Military Spending Are the Best Way to Revive Our Democracy — W. J. Astore

I am not sure about the best way, but cutting military spending would be a step in the right direction for many reasons.

It [the military budget] would focus on actual defense, on preventing wars, and above all, on scaling down our gigantic military. It would involve cutting that budget roughly in half over the next few years and so forcing our generals and admirals to engage in that rarest of acts for them: making some tough choices. Maybe then they’d see the folly of spending $1.7 trillion on the next generation of world-ending weaponry, or maintaining all those military bases globally, or maybe even the blazing stupidity of backing China into a corner in the name of “deterrence.”...

Bracing Views
Major Cuts in Military Spending Are the Best Way to Revive Our Democracy
W. J. Astore, Lieutenant Colonel (USAF ret.), taught at the Air Force Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, and currently at the Pennsylvania College of Technology

China’s Coming Property Correction: A Managed Soft Landing — Houze Song

The coming property correction is inevitable, and the extent of the impact on the overall economy depends highly on how it is managed. Just as the Chinese government has managed Evergrande’s default process, we implicitly assume that Beijing will demonstrate relative competence in mitigating systemic risks as part of the property correction.

As such, our baseline scenario is reasonable if not deliberately more aggressive on the downside. For instance, our projection does not account for property demand from replacement of aging property nor factors like monetary easing. Even without accounting for those positive offsets, the overall growth impact is actually similar to that during the US-China trade war.

Therefore, so long as Beijing manages this process well, the Chinese economy will manage through the property correction. Of course, a hard landing is possible if this correction is mismanaged or spins out of control. We will examine the financial risks associated with a hard landing in a future analysis.

Lots of numbers.

MacroPolo

China’s Coming Property Correction: A Managed Soft Landing

Houze Song

Modi and His Brand of Hindutva Are Direct Descendants of the British Raj and its Policies — Arjun Appadurai

Keeping up with India.

Many of his policies draw from Imperial rule and treats dissidents as a threat, just as the British did.

The more things change, the more they remain the same?

The Wire (India) ?— OpEd
Modi and His Brand of Hindutva Are Direct Descendants of the British Raj and its Policies
Arjun Appadurai

Bill Mitchell — Central banks are resisting the inflation panic hype from the financial markets – and we are better off as a result

Regular readers will know that I think the current inflationary phenomenon is transitory. They will also know that I see the continual claims by financial market economists that central banks have to increase interest rates now to avoid an accelerating inflationary episode as having little economic content and lots of self interest content. If rates go up, they win their bets and the more they can bully authorities to do their bidding the more certain their bets become profitable. I am glad that central banks around the world are resisting that game of bluff. In previous periods, they have not resisted and have handed the financial speculators (the top-end-of-town) massive and unjustified profits and forced millions of workers to endure joblessness. It is also interesting that the mainstream press is starting to work that out too. Some progress....

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Central banks are resisting the inflation panic hype from the financial markets – and we are better off as a result
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=48850

Related

Zero Hedge
Morgan Stanley: As Uncomfortable As It Can Be To Admit Defeat, Here We Are

 Seth Carpenter, global chief economist at Morgan Stanley

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/morgan-stanley-uncomfortable-it-can-be-admit-defeat-here-we-are

Why Tariffs On Chinese Solar Panels Failed — Rystad Energy

If the object was to limit imports from China the tariff was successful. If to stimulate domestic production, the tariff was a miserable failure. Imports just shifted to other Asian countries.

• The US is on track to import a record 27.8 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV panels in 2021
• U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar modules have not had the desired effect
• Direct shipments from China fell as a result of the tariffs, but domestic producers haven’t managed to fill the gap

Oilprice
Why Tariffs On Chinese Solar Panels Failed
Rystad Energy

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Why-Tariffs-On-Chinese-Solar-Panels-Failed.html

Zero Hedge — DHL Is Keeping Pace With The Holiday Rush By Adding 1,500 New Robots

 This is actually a big step forward although labor is unlikely to view it that way. 

This is what is supposed to happen in the case of technological innovation. Humans should not be doing these jobs if unnecessary.

This is disposable labor rather than necessary labor, i.e. needed for social reproduction. Disposable labor can be either redirected using an employer of last resort policy or subsidized to increase leisure. (See Sandwichman (Tom Walker) at econospeak on disposable time). 

Zero Hedge
DHL Is Keeping Pace With The Holiday Rush By Adding 1,500 New Robots
Tyler Durden

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/dhl-keeping-pace-holiday-rush-adding-1500-new-robots

Ramesh Chandra On Nicholas Kaldor And Circular Cumulative Causation — V. Ramanan

Kaldor quote. Free trade leads to inequality by favoring endowments, i.e. developed regions over emerging ones.

Although the post doesn't mention it, America took advantage of protectionism under the 19th. c. American System and then switched back to imposition of the British System after becoming dominant in the 20th c.

The Case for Concerted Action
Ramesh Chandra On Nicholas Kaldor And Circular Cumulative Causation
V. Ramanan

School of Life - Why we should feel sorry for High Achievers

It is a measure of our collective delusion that we are so ready to be proud of high achievers and so slow to detect the wound that powers them on.

https://youtu.be/BmcM6InBjM4

A Guardian article on the threat from modern monetary theory was quite staggeringly wrong. This is the rebuttal. — Richard Murphy

These claims are wrong. They are either not what MMT says or the telling is distorted. For the record, MMT actually says is quite different....

Tax Research UK
A Guardian article on the threat from modern monetary theory was quite staggeringly wrong. This is the rebuttal.
Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum

Bidenflation

 

Sleepy Joe getting absolutely hammered by the “inflation!” schtick….

WATCH: CBS reports on Bidenflation and how wages have been “wiped out by skyrocketing costs.”

Expenses for the typical American family up $4,000 from last year. pic.twitter.com/Ae1HbMQfgA

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 11, 2021

Summers on “inflation”

 

Summers finally applying MMT….

Obama and Clinton economist Larry Summers: Prices will be "higher in 2022 and 2023 with [Biden's] Build Back Better.” pic.twitter.com/golNm5m7ls

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 11, 2021

John Roberts warns his fellow justices against Texas nullification: ‘Our constitutional system is at stake’ — Raw Story

Chief Justice John Roberts cited two cases from early constitutional law with a dire warning as the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday delivered a ruling on the near-total ban on abortion passed by Republicans in Texas.

In an opinion where he concurred in part and dissented in part, Roberts was joined by Justices Sonia Sotamayor and Elena Kagan.

"The clear purpose and actual effect of S. B. 8 has been to nullify this Court’s rulings," Roberts wrote, listing the legislative name of the Texas bill.

"It is, however, a basic principle that the Constitution is the 'fundamental and paramount law of the nation,' and '[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is,'" Roberts said, citing the landmark 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison that established the principle of judicial review.

"Indeed, '[i]f the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery,'" he continued, citing United States v. Peterson from 1809 that determined state legislatures can't overrule federal courts.

"The nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake," Roberts wrote.

The Chief Justice gets it right, but the decision is not the only problem. The fundamental problem is court-packing, which lends overwhelming credence to the perception that justice is not impartial in the US but rather political. Liberals are suffering the brunt of this now but it was conservatives under the Roosevelt court. As result, conservatives now feel justified in taking their turn. Many conservatives probably view Roe v. Wade as payback for Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

The end-result is, however, weakening of the American legal and political systems. The country is already dangerously divided, not only politically, but also with respect to perception of reality. These world views are incompatible, minds are made up, and therefore something has to give to prevent a downward spiral. The court system is the last bastion of constitutional liberties and justice.

AlterNet
John Roberts warns his fellow justices against Texas nullification: ‘Our constitutional system is at stake’

Raw Story

https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/john-roberts-texas-aboriton/

Still Flying Blind after All These Years: The Federal Reserve’s Continuing Experiments with Unobservables — Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and L. Randall Wray

Institute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray contend that the prevailing approach to monetary policy and inflation is influenced by a set of concepts that are a poor guide to action. In this policy brief, they examine two previous cases in which the Federal Reserve misread the data and raised rates too soon, as well as the evolution of the Fed’s thought and practice over the past three decades—a period in which the central bank has increasingly turned to unobservable indicators that are supposed to predict inflation. Noting that their criticisms have now been raised by the Fed’s own members and research staff, the authors highlight the ways in which we need to rethink our overall framework for monetary and fiscal policy. The Fed has far less control over inflation than is presumed, they argue, and, at worst, might have the whole inflation-fighting strategy backwards. Managing inflation, they conclude, should not be left entirely in the hands of central banks.

Levy Institute

Still Flying Blind after All These Years: The Federal Reserve’s Continuing Experiments with Unobservables

PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF NO. 156 | December 2021

Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Institute President  and L. Randall Wray, Senior Scholar 

A rebuttal to the Guardian monetary theory article – Peter May

Peter May goes through Satyajit Das's points one by one and finds them wanting.

Progressive Pulse
A rebuttal to the Guardian monetary theory article

Peter May

http://www.progressivepulse.org/economics/a-rebuttal-to-the-guardian-monetary-theory-article

The Decoupling Prophecy — Yu Yongding

China’s current role in the global economy might not be exactly what the United States envisioned when it supported the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization 20 years ago. But, in its own way, China is fulfilling the promise of that step, and it will most likely continue to do so, as long as the US lets it....

Project Syndicate
The Decoupling Prophecy
Yu Yongding, a former president of the China Society of World Economics and director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, served on the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China from 2004 to 2006

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-wto-anniversary-no-economic-decoupling-by-yu-yongding-2021-12