Economics
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Lagaan & Game Theory
I've given up on the idea that anybody really knows what they're doing regarding this economic crisis, so for me figuring out the best course to take is a question of gaming the possibilities. I see Obama as in a similar position to Bhuvan, the hero of the terrific Bollywood film Lagaan–it's among other things
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Quote of the Day: Michael Lind
In Salon in which he talks about the South's strategy to reduce the country to its primitive, neo-feudal level of doing things: I can hear the objections already: "We agree that the South's beggar-thy-neighbor and race-to-the-bottom strategies should be thwarted — but the methods that you suggest, a high national minimum wage, greater equalization of
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The Anti-Majoritarians
Jonathan Chait in TNR: In February 2006, the conservative journal Policy Review published an essay that was shockingly heretical, though perhaps unintentionally so. In it, Carles Boix of the University of Chicago argued that there is a link between democracy and economic equality: In an unequal society, the majority resents its diminished status. It harbors
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Redfining the American Dream
"The income gap between the rich and the rest of the U.S. population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself," then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in 2005. WaPo Obama's appeal to the middle class is an appeal to the "the proletariat,"
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Quote of the Day: Daniel Larison
It is easy to talk about principle when there is no crisis happening and no risk attached to standing on principle. The real test comes when holding fast may actually cost something. Holding to a principle, if it means anything, means that you value it more than mere self-interest, satisfaction or comfort. A lot of
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Wall Street Week
I don't have a lot to say about the momentous events taking place this week with regard to American financial markets except to repeat some things I've said frequently before. It's a complicated mess–and of course some kind of government intervention is necessary–but it boils down to some fundamental ideas. One is that the people
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The Post-American World (Updated)
I found the Fareed Zakaria interview with Charlie Rose very helpful: Zakaria is hardly a man of the left. He supported the war, but now believes it was a horrible mistake. He’s pro free trade. At some point when we have sane leadership, we can get into a deeper discussion of trade policy. It’s a
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Greenspan vs. Klein
Listen to Democracy Now interview of Alan Greenspan conducted by Amy Goodman and Naomi Klein, the author of the recently released book entitled The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. I’ve uploaded the podcast just below–the interview starts at about the ten-minute mark: Download democracy_now_monday_september_24_2007.mp3 It interests me that Greenspan considers Bill Clinton a
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Controlling the Narrative: Economics
"The field is getting much more empirical," he tells me matter-of-factly. (Christopher Hayes quoting economist Jesse Shapiro in "Hip Heterodoxy") You mean economics wasn’t empirical before? Would never have guessed. Haye’s article is worth a read, and the discussion of it at TPM Cafe is worth some time as well. It’s worth it to get
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Corporations & the Commonweal
William Greider has an interesting piece about retired IBM exec Ralph Gomory’s ideas about multinational corporations and the public interest. Gomory is a free-trade heretic, and he supports the common-sense idea that free trade is not a simple win-win as free-trade enthusiasts insist. He has written a book entitled Global Trade and Conflicting National Interests–in