My last post dug into the challenge of equilibrium in economics. It’s an analytical lens, inherited from physical scientist Isaac Newton. When an economist invokes equilibrium and then looks through that lens only, doing so may obscure other aspects of emerging problems in actual economies. Laissez-faire economists were unable to cope with Great Depression problems […]
Read More
The Great Recession has also become the Great Divider, not unlike the Civil War. Now as then, America’s new great divide splits along a fault line pitting big losers against big winners, politically and economically. Such is the root cause of America’s cultural warfare. Tragically, many who call themselves winners are what capitalismincrisis.org names as […]
Read More
Four more years for President Trump? It may happen. But, how come? Well, his base loves him. Republican politicians fear him. Trump’s fans cheer when he sticks his finger in the collective eye of their perceived enemy: moderate and liberal America. Ironically, Trump’s agenda flies in the face of what we should be doing to […]
Read More
American Exceptionalism. That’s the head-in-the-sand term used by Trump Republicans to justify Independence Day intransigence. We’re an exceptional country they claim, because of their values; their stuff. Because they say, America honors free markets and laissez-faire social policy. Granted, our nation has been exceptional in many important ways. But where are we now? Has their […]
Read More
These words, from center-left Brookings scholar Richard Reeves. Among experts, he’s far from alone regarding concern, even pessimism. Why so? Do you remember the Great American Dream? It used to be the notion that each generation would live better than any generation that had gone before. But it now appears to be in intensive care. […]
Read More
The boiled frog story was huge at the yellow brick church on 27th Street in Ogden, Utah. The Sawyer kids entered dutifully during the 1950’s, but without parents. Others had moms and dads accompanying them. I felt unsupported, trying to figure out how the world worked; how I should act within it. There were important […]
Read More
Now is the moment of the Creeps. Who are they? Where are they? Maybe you get the creeps just listening to their nonsense. If your politics are moderate to liberal, chances are that’s true. Creeps are the follow-on to the “Chicken Little” people who peaked during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Remember their sloganeering? Did […]
Read More
Who’s afraid? As Republican President Richard Nixon observed almost five decades ago, we’re all socialists now, essentially. See Tip 22. If you haven’t checked out a primo short on how socialism works, take a look at People in Denmark Are Much Happier Than People in the United States. Here’s Why. Indeed, U.S. socialism may also be called American corporate […]
Read More
Our world is changing, making it crucial to “own” publicly when one doesn’t know objectively, but merely thinks they know, subjectively. For contemporary Americans who post on the Internet, this comes down to public courage to say they “believe” but “don’t know” when one is a believer and not a knower. In the Trump era […]
Read More
I’m a moral philosopher, cut from similar cloth with First Economist Adam Smith, to use a maxim from long ago. Smith might have saluted French President Emmanuel Macron at the 100th commemoration of the armistice ending World War I. Nationalism is betrayal of patriotism, said Macron in stern rebuke to the tribalism of President Donald […]
Read More