Oxfam Study: Six Reasons to be Outraged (tags)
Whether inequality harms or benefits was disputed for a long while. It could motivate individuals to more effort and stimulate growth, one side believed. It takes the chances for education and development from those who are poorer, the other said... Money buys power.
Overdue farewell to dogma (tags)
Mainstream economics did not see the crisis coming – and so far it has not done much to overcome it. However, at least in the USA, a rethink has started.
Liberating the Economy from Prejudices (tags)
Economics is not an immutable unchangeable fate but a human system where changing rules changes outcomes. James Galbraith and Joseph Stiglitz are two well-known economists who question the myths of conventional economics, the self-healing, efficient and deregulated market
Book Review: "The Greatest Predatory Attack of History" (tags)
The 1933 Glass-Steagal law created a firewall between commercial and investment banks and prevented speculators from gambling with the money of savers. Restoring Glass-Steagal would restore trust and public spirit. Profit-making is not profit-maximizing; speculating is not investing.
Neoliberalism as a Variety of Social Darwinism: Ten Million More Unemployed (tags)
Social cuts are a danger for democracy..When fear of social descent or collapse seizes the middle class, the danger grows that exclusion-ideologies may gain acceptance like racism, nationalism or social Darwinism..The economic future is given away on the altar of an ideology that raises location competition to the leitmotif of political-economic policy.
To give a credit to a customer, a bank doesn't need to take the savings of another cutomer from its vaults. It creates the money out of nothing. In a countermove, the bank must deposit money with the central bank. There is a debate whether the creation of money can be left to the banks.
Dominant Economy Pretends Its Breakdown Was Unforeseeable (tags)
The consensus of the past two decades on how the macro-economy functions is shattered. The breakdown of the dominant economy is a consequence of the financial crisis, the "great shock."
Submissiveness Toward the Finance Markets (tags)
Finance market transactions must be made more expensive. Finance market critics warn of a casino capitalism. Are businesses only objects of speculation for global invewstment capital?
Do We Need a New Social System? (tags)
Only half of all employees today (in Germany) enjoy the old standard job.. The erosion of normal working conditions has been underway since the middle of the 1970s.. The basic income is the answer to the precariousness of working conditions.