What else is missing: I was encouraged, in reading the comments on Tyler Cowens' piece, by the number of people mentioning cutting the work week. Dean Baker doesn't mention that idea, although he has at times in the past, pulled along by Tom Walker and Robert Skidelsky. Those comments by Cowens' readers wouldn't have been made as frequently a year ago, and almost never before that. People are beginning to figure it out, though economists remain unwilling to face it, and/or support permanent war instead.
Stiglitz, Kuttner, Warren, mayor De Blasio and scores of others have books, lists, programs, essays on how to fix inequality and/or jobs. This Dean Baker piece is in that group. Haven't seen any of these recommending cutting hours. In a correction after Tom Walker sent this link, Baker took out "the second Don't" from his headline. Boy, that drops his analysis into the conspiracy camp. Gene On May 16, 2015, at 10:25 AM, Tom Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > what's missing... > > Don't Be Sure that Powerful People Don't Want the Economy to Return to Normal > CEPR.net by [email protected] (Dean Baker) 6:00 am > Tyler Cowen warns readers in his Upshot piece that we may be entering a new > era in which growth is weak and the bulk of the workforce, including those > with college degrees, see stagnant or declining wages. The warning is well > taken, but what's missing is a serious discussion of the policies that are > driving this outcome. ... > > http://www.cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/don-t-be-sure-that-powerful-people-don-t-want-the-economy-to-return-to-normal > > > On Fri, May 15, 2015 at 8:06 PM, Ian Murray <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > From: [email protected] > > > > > Ian, > > > > I believe he does say that, i.e. that his theory of the economy was the > > Marginalist's story unconnected, and never connected to the real economy, > > and thus false. The essence of the "Marginal Revolution" is that the market > > works. Works to smoothly bring the economy to full employment, with goods > > and services priced at marginal cost, including the prices of inputs to > > production. And, of course, with people paid their marginal product. What > > else is the "Marginal Revolution" that Cowen has been evangelizing for? > > > > And yet today, in the NYT, he tells us that the economy is not conforming > > to his theory. So he is saying the theory isn't working but his past view > > was that it did work and that the "free market" saw to that. Of course it > > never worked, despite his preaching. > > > > And by the way: Cowen's description of how and why universities switched to > > adjunct professors is a new lie, at least new to me. > > > > Gene > > =========== > > Gene, > > It's a huge gap from the incorrectness of a theory to "everything I believe > about economics is a lie." > > Capitalism is not a theory any more than an electron or a mitochondria is a > theory. So the marginalist's theory of capitalism is incorrect; so what? > Those who wish to get rid of capitalism seem to waste their time in the > sandbox of economics; the sandbox of law is where the harder work needs to be > done. Indeed, even the unexplicated connections between-within the two > sandboxes are as nothing compared to the variety of unexplored ways of > critiquing markets and the ways human beings [mis]treat each other and the > planet are available to us that might motivate human beings to adapt and > create a world with much less suffering. > > Waiting for, and hoping to bring about, the ontological turn in political > economy, so that a robust *political ecology* discourse might motivate the > exhausted, uncoordinated and interminably frustrated anticapitalists left on > the planet. > > E. > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > > > -- > Cheers, > > Tom Walker (Sandwichman) > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
