Political Economy category archive

Detail here.

At Asia Times, Juan Cole looks at the “Arab spring” in the light of economics, arguing forcefully that the economic causes of rebellions in North Africa and the Mediterranean rim have been under reported.

Here’s a bit:

In the “glorious 30 years” after World War II, North America and Western Europe achieved remarkable rates of economic growth and relatively low levels of inequality for capitalist societies, while instituting a broad range of benefits for workers, students, and retirees. From roughly 1980 on, however, the neo-liberal movement, rooted in the laissez-faire economic theories of Milton Friedman, launched what became a full-scale assault on workers’ power and an attempt, often remarkably successful, to eviscerate the social welfare state.

(snip)

In the global South, countries that gained their independence from European colonialism after World War II tended to create large public sectors as part of the process of industrialization. Often, living standards improved as a result, but by the 1970s, such developing economies were generally experiencing a leveling-off of growth. This happened just as neo-liberalism became ascendant in Washington, Paris, and London . . . .

Egypt and Tunisia, to take two countries in the spotlight for sparking the Arab Spring, were successfully pressured in the 1990s to privatize their relatively large public sectors. Moving public resources into the private sector created an almost endless range of opportunities for staggering levels of corruption on the part of the ruling families of autocrats Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunis and Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. International banks, central banks, and emerging local private banks aided and abetted their agenda.

Not that we’ve seen any such corruption and opportunism on our own shores in the last 30 years.

Crashing credit default swaps, Batman, good heavens no.

More like this, please.

Officials in Santa Cruz county, California, have cut all ties with Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase after an examination of both organizations’ histories of cash settlements over fraud allegations.

Santa Cruz Treasurer-Tax Collector Fred Keeley said Thursday evening that the banks, which were handling some of the county’s bond investments, had engaged in unacceptable practices that should alarm any official charged with handling public dollars.

“There seems to be no limit to the greed of some of our nation’s largest banks,” Keeley said . . . .

One of the things that keeps the banksters going is that persons keep going to them. Since all they care about is money, the only consequences that will get their attention must involve money (or perhaps jails).

So far, we have reinforced their recklessness and duplicity: we keep giving them more money for doing the same things all over again once more.

Still holding its own (emphasis added):

The Real Estate Information Network reported that 866 existing homes were sold last month, down 8.2 percent from September but up 12.6 percent from October 2010. It was the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year sales volume increases.

Distressed sales in all of Hampton Roads still played a major factor in the market last month, accounting for 33 percent of October’s sales. Those sales include foreclosures and sales by homeowners whose homes are worth less than the balance of their mortgage.

Under 400k. It’s not clear how from the story how many persons are still out of work but no longer eligible for unemployment compensation, but it’s likely a lot.

Jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 390,000 in the week ended Nov. 5, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for 400,000 new claims. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls decreased, while those getting extended payments rose.

(snip)

Today’s data showed the four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, fell to 400,000 last week, the lowest since April, from 405,250 the previous week.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits fell by 92,000 in the week ended Oct. 29 to 3.62 million. They were forecast at 3.68 million.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

The Nation:

The real choice for America is between austerity and accountability. Proponents of austerity in countries around the world argue that those who have been hardest hit by economic instability must sacrifice (see Ari Berman, “How the Austerity Class Rules Washington,” for a dissection of how the austerity class rules the Beltway). Proponents of accountability argue that those responsible for the instability—banksters, hedge-fund managers, CEOs—should shoulder the greatest burden.

The problem with accountability here is that the folks who crashed and burned the economy are, as my father would have said, fundamentally no account.

The only account they count is bank account.

Via Balloon Juice.

Republicans want you to forget their legacy.

Under 400k for the first time in weeks, but not by much:

Jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 397,000 in the week ended Oct. 29, the fewest in a month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 49 economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a drop to 400,000. The total number of people on unemployment benefit rolls decreased to a six-month low.

Fewer dismissals, a precursor to bigger gains in payrolls, may help sustain the spending by households that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Federal Reserve officials yesterday projected that it will be 2013 before the jobless rate drops below 8 percent.

Eugene Robinson runs the numbers:

Overall, in inflation-adjusted dollars, average after-tax household income grew by 62 percent during the period under study, according to the CBO. This sounds great — but only until you look a little closer. For those at the bottom — the one-fifth of households with the lowest incomes — the increase was just 18 percent. For the middle three-fifths, the average increase was 40 percent. By contrast, look at the top 1 percent of earners. Their after-tax household income increased by an astonishing 275 percent.

If Americans were to realize they’ve been the victims of Republican-style redistribution — stealing from the poor to give to the rich — the whole political atmosphere might change.

One more time, Truman was correct.

Click for a larger image.

Click for a larger image.

First-time jobless claims decreased by 2,000 to 402,000 in the week ended Oct. 22, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a drop to 401,000. The number of people collecting unemployment benefits fell in the prior week by 96,000 to 3.65 million, the fewest since September 2008.

No doubt putting more money in Goldman’s Sacks will fix this.

One of the most disheartening things I have learned over the years is that there is far more wife (and husband) beating that goes on–and more persons who turn a blind eye to it–than my very safe and stable upbringing led me to believe.

Teabaggers going Galt to fight the Red Menace.

Tea Party Nation sent to their members today a message from activist Melissa Brookstone urging businesspeople to “not hire a single person” to protest the Obama administration’s supposed “war against business and my country.”

Words fail me.

Via the Bob and Chez Show.