Political Economy category archive
A Day’s Work for an Hour’s Pay 0
Sam and his crew dismantle the Republican double-talk on the minimum wage.
The Mess with Texas, Electric Boogaloo Bamboozle Dept.
0
Paul Krugman explains the flawed reasoning behind the failure of the electricity industry in Texas. A snippet:
In fact, some people see nothing wrong with what happened in Texas in the past week. William Hogan, the Harvard professor widely considered the architect of the Texas system, asserted that drastic price increases, while “not convenient,” were how the system was supposed to work.
But kilowatt-hours aren’t avocados, and there are at least three big reasons why pretending that they are is a recipe for disaster.
Follow the link for those three big reassons.
The Courage of Their Conniptions 0
Gwynne Dyer is an optimist thinks that there’s hope for the Republican Party.
Here’s a bit of the straw at which she grasps. Follow the link for the rest of the broom.
The following day, in an open vote on whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a fanatical Trump loyalist, should keep her seat on several congressional committees despite her ugly and certifiably crazy views, the very same Republican members of the House voted to keep her in place by 199 to 11.
(snip)
The Republican members of Congress may be weak and cowardly, but most are not wicked. In an open vote, they felt they had to back Greene, because otherwise Trump’s loyalists back in their home districts would ensure that they never got elected again. But they’d love to dump him if they could do it safely.
The Stock Market Is Not the Economy, Crooked Wheel Dept. 0
Drew Magary took a flyer on the Robinhood app and ended up with very little john, which led him to form a theory about how the stock market works is worked. (Warning: Language.)
Individual stocks may go way up or way down, but the market itself only knows one trajectory. They’ll never let the whole market sink even if certain stocks eat curb. When the pandemic hit, what was the first thing legislators worried about? It wasn’t you. It wasn’t your favorite mom-and-pop pad Thai joint. It was the market. Who’d the legislators bail out in 2008 when the banks collapsed? Not you. The banks. Why? To keep the market up. They’ll never let it fail. All of their interests, regardless of party, coalesce within it. Hence, the average American’s best way to survive the vagaries of the market is to invest in ALL the corruption, not in bits and pieces of it.
That means index funds.
Rosy-Colored Glasses 0
Paul Krugman is an optimist.
Even though what he says is true, the falsehoods have become too deeply ingrained to be dislodged by something as trivial as evidence.
An Accidental Truth 0
David Farmer has a Pence-ive thought.
Drop. Bucket. 0
Aside:
I wish people would get their terms correct. These are not “stimulus” checks. They are relief checks.
An Authority on Authoritarianism 0
Thom and his guest discuss the workings of authorianism.
Courting Disasters 0
In denying Pennsylvania Republicans’ efforts to retroactively exclude mail-in (aka, “absentee”) ballots from the tally of the recent election, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court went so far as to use the word “farcical” in their ruling.
The Stock Market Is Not the Economy, One More Time 0
The editorial board of the Bangor Daily News explains. A nugget:
More at the link.
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*Heather Boushey, president and CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
The Stock Market Is Not the Economy, Part Tertillion 0
Bob Peckman explains at The Roanoke Times. Here are some of his main points; follow the link for an exploration of each.
Why are we among the world losers? Do not say that Trump was sabotaging our country. . . .
From Trump’s recently revealed comments, I think we can assume that he was telling reassuring lies to avoid upsetting the economy.
(snip)
Trump knows nothing about the economy of a society, only how a business can take money FROM society.
Aside:
Notice that the author said “take money,” not “make money.” Methinks that choice of wording was quite deliberate.
The Whitelash 0
Darcia F. Narvaez explores the human cost of what she refers to as “movement conservatism,” which is defined in detail in the opening of her article. She cites several specific examples from the research of Jonathan Metzl (citation at the link), arguing that the policies are rooted in racism, but ultimately rebounded to harm the white voters who supported them.
Follow the link for very specific examples, and, as you do, remember the words of Lyndon Johnson.
(Broken link fixed.)