There is a notable ‘Guardian’ article by Will Hutton on the the crashes of the Boeing 737 Max 8 and the pervasive capture of the American state by corporate interests, where he highlights the bonfire of regulations (where have we heard that before?) that has led to reductions of funding of the Federal Aviation Administration to… Read more
Category:
Neoliberalism
Chickens and Hayek
I strongly recomment a listen to The Inquiry – How did we mess up antibiotics? A part of the story involves chickens. The figure below is from businessinsider. Clearly, there is something not natural going on here. Back in 1989 I went on a trek in the far north of Thailand. In the villages, chickens… Read more
An outbreak of sense?
The Guardian ran a striking headline on Thursday last: Scrap laws driving privatisation of health service, say NHS bosses . I confess I did a double-take. If this is for real then it has to be heartily welcomed. [They are] proposals which, if taken forward by ministers – who are supportive – would unwind and… Read more
MMT is perhaps gaining hold in the US as there are some very spurious arguments against it
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has received further criticsm in the US – perhaps particularly because that seems to be where it is (can we hope?) gaining a hold. Britain is still mired in the all-consuming provincial business of Brexit. This is a writer on ‘Medium’: “…the treasury can only spend by first ensuring it has… Read more
Estate ‘rent’ in New Towns
Once upon a time there was a new town to the East of Exeter called Cranbrook (not to be confused with the – now smaller – town in Kent). Here they thought they paid council tax for public services – as indeed, they do. But, watch out, they don’t cover the services still provided by… Read more
The Housing Road to Serfdom – a postscript
In case you imagined from the previous piece that all housing roads to serfdom are just for renters, I should point out that mortgagors are also able to journey on the same road. ‘Halifax’ is quoted as indicating that: the number of first-time buyers taking out mortgages has nearly doubled in a decade, from 192,300… Read more
Debunking hyperinflation and challenging inflation
I see Tim Harford of the Financial Times has challenged, even if ever so gently, the neoliberal bogeyman of inflation in his recent article. So wary is he, that it starts: “Perhaps it is rash to say so” Still, he continues, “but I think we can set aside fears of hyperinflation in an advanced economy… Read more
Suggested requirements for a properly functioning Monetary system based on MMT in the UK
It is interesting that Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University, and president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, who is a great Modern Monetary Theory ‘MMT’ (Charles Adams’ summary here) and Job Guarantee Advocate, seems to be rather opposed to the Warren Mosler and Bill Mitchell idea that exports are like a… Read more
Travelling to work – and flying away
This is a map of the proportions of people who travel to work on public transport, by walking or by bicycle (click to enlarge) as against those who don’t. (acknowlegement @davidottewell) This shows an extremely small number of ‘good boys’ in a large class – limited to London, Brighton, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge…. Read more
Worthless of the world unite
There is a lovely ‘Le Monde’ quote that “The elites talk about the end of the world while the people talk about the end of the month.” And that indeed would appear to be a predominant complaint of the ‘gilets jaunes’. Macron has enhanced the impoverishment of the people whilst the rich have been granted… Read more