Political Economy category archive
The Stock Market Is Not the Economy 0
The Bonddad Blog has an informative article explaining why the stock market can do well while the overall economy is hurting.
The short version is that the stocks of certain large tech companies have boomed because of their usefulness in a work-and-study-from-home-during-the-pandemic environment. In contrast, the portions of the economy that affect and are peopled by everyday persons (that is, not what is sometimes referred to as the “investor class”) are suffering, along with the persons who live in and depend on them.
The long version is at the link.
Afterthought:
I need a new tube for one of my bicycle tires, so, late last week, I headed out to my local bike shop, where I’ve been trading since I moved to these parts, only to find that it was gone. The two stores on either side of it in the little shopping center were also closed.
Persons who can afford boats to parade in are not worrying about catching up with last month’s rent because the restaurant or store they used to work in has closed.
Stray Question 0
PoliticalProf raises an interesting point.
Malpracticing Medicine without a License 0
Talya Miron-Shatz is fed up with politicians making medical decisions. A snippet:
“American Exceptionalism” 0
The United States has most recently demonstrated its exceptionalism by its abject failure to contain COVID-19.
I can’t summarize or excerpt his piece and do it justice. Just go read it for yourself.
Bombshells
0
At the Idaho State Journal, Mike Murphy posits that recent “bombshell” books about Donald Trump, such as those by Mary Trump and John Bolton, are hardly bombshells by any definition, maybe not even firecrackers or squibs.
He suggests that anyone who has followed Donald Trump’s career already knows what Donald Trump is.
A snippet (emphasis added):
Which is really sort of a head scratcher since one definition of the term bombshell is “an overwhelming surprise, a shocking revelation.” Since none of the claims describing the president’s behavior in any of the books come as the teeniest bit of a surprise to informed individuals, labeling any of the books as a bombshell is classic hyperbole.
(Brain skip fixed.)
Tales from the Front 0
A caller tells Thom of her experiences at the demonstrations in Portland, Oregon. (It should come as no surprise that her story differs from the picture painted by Attorney-General Lowering the Barr.)
The Miscount 0
The unemployment numbers that the BLS released last week were significantly lower than the actuality.
Again.
It does appear to have been an honest SNAFU, complicated by new unemployment situations resulting from layoffs and closures due to COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders. Nevertheless, the Trump administration’s (and Fox News’s) crowing about the figures released last week has been demonstrated to be wholly unwarranted.
A snippet (details of the SNAFU at the link):
I find it quite credible that it was an error, rather than an intentional lie, especially as the BLS voluntarily–er–regretted the error.
We live in strange times and many persons are in unprecedented (un)employment situations.
Prerequisite 0
At The Roanoke Times, retired professor of economics George McDowell suggests that those who would “reopen” the economy must first understand how it works.
I commend his article to your attention. No attempt to excerpt or summarize it would not do it justice.
Aside:
After you read the article, you will know more about economics than our preside–oh, never mind.
(Misplet wrod correxed.)
Deficit Pending 0
As state and municipal revenues have cratered in these viral times, Republicans are balking at any federal effort to ameliorate suffering and penury for states, municipalities, and persons.
At the Portland Press-Herald, Greg Kesich points out that there are other deficits on which the party of Scrooges turns its back. Here are a couple of his examples; follow the link for more.
There is a long-term debt that comes with every lost opportunity for a child to learn, and every person who can’t afford to see a doctor. But we have been trained to think that cutting school funding and health care programs – the inevitable result of a “smaller government” – is sound fiscal management instead of calling it what it really is: recklessly borrowing from the future to get us out of our present crisis.
What If They “Reopened the Economy” and No One Came? 0
Ed, at Gin and Tacos, thinks that is a very real possibility.
Here are some bits from his post:
(snip)
The truth is that people are afraid, and with good cause. They are afraid of unnecessary risk.
(snip)
The other reality that is becoming all too clear is that the “slow drain” theory of capitalism and consumer spending is delusional. That is, demand and consumption haven’t been pent up for 8 weeks and once the clog is cleared, it will come bursting forth in torrents. . . . The lack of spending is from tens of millions of people losing their jobs, having their hours reduced, or being in fear of losing their jobs in the near future.
I commend the entire article to your attention.
And, for related reading, economist Austan Goolsbee is not sanguine.
Supply Change, Reprise 0
The Washington Monthly explores why, even as we as shoppers are greeted by shortages and empty shelves at our grocery stores, farmers are dumping milk and killing livestock because they are unable to get them to market.
They pose this questions; follow the link to see how they answer it:
(Syntax error corrected.)
Turning Trickles on Wall Street 0
Thom discusses the path from trickle on economics to our botched response to COVID-19.
Supply Change 0
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an interesting analysis of how COVID-19 has affected the supply chain and why we are seeing shortages in grocery stores.
There’s more to it than hoarders and preppers and closed processing plants (closed, natch, due to managerial cupidity). Here’s one bit; follow the link for the list:
Consumers are home in dramatically higher numbers.
So tens of millions of households are buying from local stores for meals and needs that had been served away from home in pre-crisis days.
House of Cards Three-Card Monte
0
Writing at AL.com, Howard Bankhead argues that the economy pre-COVID-19 was not anywhere near as good as pols and pundits were saying, and that the pandemic as revealed its fundamental weakness. Here’s a bit:
My own theory is that for far too many persons the economy inhabits on short street in lower Manhattan where at one time stood a wall.
Stray Thought 0
It is quite clear that the very very rich, ensconced in their multiple houses, ginormous yachts, and do-nothing sinecures, have no clue about what life is like for the rest of us.
“Define Your Terms” 0
Atrios defines “reopen the economy.”