Political Economy category archive
My American Dickens 0
Though their styles are very different (Dickens, in particular, illustrates what can go wrong when writers are paid by the word), I must admit that Hemingway is my American Dickens. Though I’ve tried, I’ve never been able to finish anything he wrote.
Full Disclosure:
I have managed to read some of Dickens’s short stories, but I’ve never succeeded in wading through one of novels except for A Tale of Two Cities a la Classics Illustrated.
The Social Safety Not 0
The Inky reports on the trickled-on in these viral times. A snippet:
And now there is a whole new category of people — gig workers, independent contractors, and self-employed people like Cruse. The federal government’s $2.2 trillion economic relief package for the first time extended unemployment aid to cover those workers when they lose their jobs. Yet most states have yet to update their systems to process these applications.
The New Normalcy 0
Methinks Alby has a point.
Not to mention all the folks who have lost employment, income, and savings.
The Wall-Eyed Piker, behind Closed Doors 0
At The Japan Times, Brad Glosserman makes a convincing case that Donald Trump’s “American First” impulse and its related policies whims, such as his farcical trade wars, represent the resurfacing of a recurrent American theme: “isolationism,” the notion that the country–one founded, ironically, on exports such as tobacco and cotton–could somehow exist in a vacuum alone from the rest of the world.
He goes on to argue that the coronavirus pandemic has showed nor only the practical fallacies of this notion, but also its moral and intellectual bankruptcy. Here’s a snippet:
Follow the link for the rest.
Taking Stock 0
Writing at the Idaho State Journal, Mike Jones wonders when the stock market became such a big deal that certain politicians have become willing to ask old folks to sacrifice their lives for the Dow-Jones Average. A snippet; more at the link:
I still don’t know much about how the stock market works. Based on the little bit I have studied it, I surmise investing in stocks is a lot like betting on horse races — both are fixed, you just have to be lucky and guess the fix correctly.
And, in more news of taking stock . . . .
Masked Marauding 0
Farhad Manjoo investigates why an item so simple as a medical face mask is suddenly unobtainable, and the answer is all about the next quarterly report. It’s what Harry Shearer’s guest on Le Show, Matt Stoller, referred to as the “financialization” of business.
Here’s a bit; follow the link for the rest.
I am sorry to say that digging into the mask shortage does little to assuage one’s sense of outrage. The answer to why we’re running out of protective gear involves a very American set of capitalist pathologies — the rise and inevitable lure of low-cost overseas manufacturing, and a strategic failure, at the national level and in the health care industry, to consider seriously the cascading vulnerabilities that flowed from the incentives to reduce costs.
The New Gilded Age 0
Did you know that cheerleading competitions are controlled by a monopoly?
Listen to Harry Shearer’s interview of Matt Stoller, author of Goliath.
(If you’re impatient, know that it opens with the cheerleading story.)
The Hand of the Market Fees 0
The owner of an importing business explains how Donald Trump’s puerile trade wars are endangering his business. A snippet:
The Abandoned 0
Alternet reports on the growing incidence of deaths of working class American from suicide, alcoholism, and substance abuse and suggests that they are symptoms of a larger sense of despair from having been left behind abandoned by the economy, even as the rich get richer and richer. Here’s a bit; follow the link for the rest.
To make matters worse, Leonhardt and Thompson assert, the U.S. suffers from “by far the world’s most expensive health care system”— which “acts as a tax on workers” and “fails to keep many people healthy” either physically or mentally.
How Stuff Works, Gypsy-Cabs-with-an-App Dept. 0
At NJ.com, Edward Escobar explains the con behind the gagged “gig” economy. A nugget:
A Modest Proposal 0
At AL.com, Alabama Republican John Meredith has a suggestion for the Republican Party:
Follow the link for his reasoning.
Spin Cycle, Tariffs Dept. 0
David explains how tariffs work. It’s not how Donald Trump claims they work, despite the Trumpettes’ spin.
Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich 0
Gene Nichol offers a primer on Trumponomics.
“The Rich Are Different from You and Me” 0
Paul Krugman describes how.
Back to the Future 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear imagines George Bailey’s Bedford Falls three quarters of a century later.
It ain’t purty, folks.