The deal emerging from the Senate is a lousy one. Let me count the ways.

See on www.huffingtonpost.com

It may look cute and cuddly, but the latest generation of the Fiat Panda is ready to kick some butt

See on www.guardian.co.uk

Goals and Purpose of Real Political Economy Notes Notes, sources, and perspectives on real political…

See on realpolecon.tumblr.com

Britain’s biggest supermarket has paid out £28m flying executives around the world in private jets since 2005

See on www.guardian.co.uk

Building societies, credit unions and co-operatives benefit as anger over scandals turns to action

See on www.guardian.co.uk

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS Constanza Vieira BOGOTA, Dic 20 (IPS) – Colombia’s large-scale agricultural producers and peasant farmers managed to listen to each other for the first time about the core cause of the…

See on globalgeopolitics.net

A review of Norbert Häring and Niall Douglas, Economists and the Powerful (London: Anthem Press, 2012). “Whom the gods would destroy, they first…

“This abusive character of wealth and power is not what mainstream economic models describe. That is why economic theory is broken. The concept of diminishing marginal utility implies that the rich will become more satiated as they become wealthier, and hence less addicted to power. This idea of progressive satiation returns gets the direction of change wrong, denying the basic thrust of the past ten thousand years of human technology and civilization.”

“Today’s supply and demand approach treats the economy as a “market” in a crudely abstract way, as quantities of goods (already produced), labor (with a given productivity) and capital (already accumulated, no questions asked) are swapped and bartered with each other. This approach does not inquire deeply into how some people get the capital to “swap” for “labor.” To top matters, this approach gets the direction of technological growth and basic business experience wrong, by assuming conditions of diminishing returns and diminishing marginal utility. The intellectual result is a parallel universe, whose criterion for economic excellence is merely the internal consistency of its abstract assumptions, not their realism.”

See on michael-hudson.com

If ever there was a time to press progressive priorities this would be it. So, this will be a true test of who he is and what he believes. Let’s see what he does. You shall know him by his works.

See on www.huffingtonpost.com

For a change, progressives can give thanks to the G.O.P. crazies this year.

See on www.nytimes.com

See on www.bls.gov

U.S. banks representing more than half the industry’s assets need an additional $840 billion in cash on hand to cover short-term obligations if financial markets seize up again, according to a study. (@Numerologynow: Deservedly so…

See on www.bloomberg.com

By Sam Pizzigati

The essence of greed? Simple. Greed amounts to taking more than you need when you already have enough — and others don’t. Who among us, by this yardstick, rate as our greediest? Those greediest would be those who have the wherewithal to take whatever they want — and deny others the basics they need.

We abound in these greedy. Most of them wear power suits and dart in and out of the executive suites that sit high atop America’s most elegant corporate towers. Year in and year out, these greedy grab ungodly rewards for their own labor — and deny their employees anything close to decent compensation for theirs.

See on inequality.org

European Union authorities will decide in the coming weeks and months whether to start a politically sensitive investigation into unfair trade practices by the Chinese network-equipment manufacturers Huawei Technologies Co.

See on online.wsj.com

Private-equity firms are feeding at the debt trough again.

Debt levels in leveraged buyouts are nearing those of the last credit bubble, once more enabled by yield-hungry buyers of leveraged loans.

Demand for leveraged loans began picking up in the second half of the year. Individual investors began piling into floating-rate funds that buy the loans, adding to demand from the rejuvenated market for collateralized loan obligations, pools of loans to “junk”-rated companies that helped fuel the pre-crisis credit bubble.

See on blogs.wsj.com

The Great Recession of 2007-2009 has seen the Federal Reserve push the federal funds rate to almost zero, hitting the so-called zero bound. In light of this condition the Federal Reserve has engaged in two rounds of quantitative easing (QE), a policy whereby a central bank buys long-term government bonds and private sector financial assets particularly mortgage related products).

See on www.topwonks.org

Amazon Review:

This book provides a collection of short essays detailing the causes of the economic crisis and the failure of the economics profession to foresee and explain it. An old adage is “The winners get to write history” and that is proving true in the current moment. Open any major newspaper and the op-ed page contains articles by the same economists and policymakers as before the financial crash of 2008. One myth the winners are looking to promulgate is the crisis was not predicted and not predictable. This claim has a purpose as it excuses the economics profession from its catastrophic intellectual failure. The book challenges this “winners’ version of history” by showing the crisis was predictable and foreseen. The articles provide easy access to both theoretical and policy controversies that continue to be important, and they also show little has been done to fix the root problems. The academy is a club and it resists change because club members benefit from their intellectual monopoly. This monopoly means politicians are all fed roughly the same policy diet. Politicians are also subject to the pull of money and money likes the existing mainstream economic paradigm. Together, this constitutes a powerful sociological system that is hard to crack. Part of cracking it is exposing the failure of economists by showing the crisis was foretold and predicted.
See on www.amazon.com

“International corporations use “free market” capitalism ideology to justify globalization and create a “world-market-state.” Supposedly, “free market” capitalism makes America’s economy efficient and, therefore, far more prosperous. In practice, however, international corporations promote laws based on “free market” capitalism—for their own benefit.

“Economists, for 45 years, promote laissez-faire “free market” capitalism doctrine of reducing the size of government through deregulation, privatization of government services, and globalization. Economists tell us that using now efficient markets to manage the economy, rather than politicians, will dramatically increase US wealth. However, recent scientific research and real-life economic results disprove this myth. Instead, evidence shows that deregulated “free market” capitalism policies are damaging the US economy…”
See on www.economicpopulist.org

Now, for a little perspective on the scary deficit.

See on www.nytimes.com