The Ayn Rand revival of 2009With bailouts, salary caps and health care reform, 2009 has been a year of Big Government in the US — sparking a renewed interest amongst the country’s Right in the libertarian, free-market philosophies of Ayn Rand.
Economics
Megalogenis: What The Communist Manifesto can teach us about Australia’s economy
George Megalogenis revisits his university “required reading” list and finds many of the predictions made in Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto have borne fruit in the Australian economy of today. Let the ruling classes tremble!
The economics of war: 1 soldier = 20 new schools in Afghanistan
Nicholas Kristof crunches the numbers on the war in Afghanistan: the cost of every additional soldier stationed in the country could pay for 20 new schools there. It’s not just value for money, it’s a better investment, too.
It’s still hard being a bear: good alternative theory?
Neoclassical economics is dead, declares Steve Keen. If there is a “winning” economic theory out there, it must be one that argues that government action alone can help an economy recover from a crisis.
Has economics stopped working?
Did economists fail to predict the coming financial crisis as Paul Krugman controversially argued? Or was the problem that the research existed — but there wasn’t a way to communicate it to those in power? Joshua Gans takes a look at economic soul searching.
Why households must save to save the economy
Keynes’ Paradox of Thrift says that if everyone starts saving during a recession then reduced demand can make things worse. So spending has traditionally been encouraged. But a new IMF paper challenges the theory.
It’s (still) hard being a bear: good economic theory
While the financial rescue has worked, the expected recovery afterward can’t happen — because there’s almost no-one left who will willingly take on any more debt, writes Steve Keen.
The economics of happiness
H = f (P, Y, X, ε) — that’s the formula for predicting people’s happiness as a function of their income, the public good and other observable data. And according to Arik Levinson, happiness data that can be used to work out the monetary value of public goods.
The invisible hand of power: how the Federal Reserve keeps economists silent
The US Federal Reserve’s network of influential and powerful scholars, economists and consultants has the country’s economists too scared to make any real criticisms of the central bank, a Huffington Post investigation has found.
Measuring global economic growth — from space!
Scientists have developed a way to estimate a region’s GDP growth by tracking satellite images of the area’s night-time lights — more more lights on means citizens have more cash to spend and consumer goods to power.
Tackling obesity with economics
Want to solve the obesity epidemic? Instead of relying on the notoriously unscientific diet industry, maybe it’s time to give economists a shot, says Andrew Leigh.
Cage match 2: Steve Keen weighs in on house prices
Economist Steve Keen weighs-in on yesterday’s housing-price cage match, defending a “historical analogy” he made suggesting house prices might fall.
Rudd’s essay: an economist’s take
The Prime Minister’s latest published essay prompted this detailed response from economist Steve Keen.
Oh, the economics you’ll find in Dr Seuss!
Why The Lorax teaches us about property differentiation, what Green Eggs and Ham has to say on supply and demand, The Cat in the Hat’s lessons in industrial relations, and more hidden economic theories in the works of Dr Seuss.
The top 25 eco-wonk blogs
The Wall Street Journal has compiled its top 25 economics blogs for the overly wonkish among us.
Pope’s economic analysis is on the money
The Pope’s recent encyclical on the economy is “without doubt the most articulate, comprehensive and thoughtful response to the financial crisis that has yet appeared” writes Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman Brian Griffiths.
Ask the economists: we’re ahead of the curve
The national accounts data was released this morning and Crikey spoke to some of our brightest sparks to interpret the data.
From slums to a shining town on the hill
The citizens of Kaputei, an eco-town rising from the plains south of Nairobi, finally own something that has eluded them their whole lives: a flushing toilet.
In defence of taxes
Taxes aren’t bad, says Joseph Heath, they’re just misunderstood.
Why the poor pay more
In America, having no car, no washing machine and no checking account means things cost more for the poor than the middle class. The Washington Post explains why.
Rethinking risk in America
The financial and economic crises stem from basic misjudgments about the nature of risk. It’s time Americans learnt to distinguish “risk” from “uncertainty”, says Mark Schmitt.
Re-writing the Great Depression
Economists look back to the Great Depression and find that everything we think we know about it is wrong — but this could be good news.
The Geithner plan: a Crikey wrap
Wall Street appears to have given US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s $1tn toxic assets plan the thumbs-up, with the Dow surging nearly 500 points on Monday. But what do the pundits think?
Rundle: we are all Swedes now
The global elite don’t have a clue what to do about this economic crisis, writes Guy Rundle.
