Archive

“Structural analysis to uncover global trends is what Goodhart and Pradhan’s book does. I’m not sure I completely recommend it, as it gets a little technical in spots, but I certainly recommend learning more about their analysis. (You can hear them interviewed in the podcast, “Economics & Beyond with Rob Johnson.”)” — William Watson

Carbon pricing still has the potential to be a powerful tool contributing to emissions reductions, but it is clearly no panacea.

“Anyone with a pulse knows that in the US today the system is rigged in favour of the wealthy and powerful. One particularly illuminating paper published this month by the Institute for New Economic Thinking quantifies the problem. Building on a persuasive 2014 data set, it shows that when opinion shifts among the wealthiest top 10 per cent of the US population, changes in policy become far more likely. Using AI and machine learning, INET academics Shawn McGuire and Charles Delahunt delved deep into the data. They found that considering the opinions of anyone outside that top 10 per cent was a far less accurate predictor of what happened to government policy. The numbers showed that: “not only do ordinary citizens not have uniquely substantial power over policy decisions; they have little or no independent influence on policy at all”.” — Rana Foroohar, The Financial Times

“A new international analysis by the Institute for New Economic Thinking found countries such as South Korea and New Zealand that focused on lockdowns early on in the pandemic, rather than preserving their economies, have gained control over the virus and are now seeing their economies grow, in contrast with the dire economic circumstances currently in the U.S.” — Mike Lugwig, Truthout

Targeted Measures and Subsidies for Cost Effective COVID-19 Abatement

“All of us, if we get old enough, need to be taken care of.”

“Former Obama-era OSHA Director Dr. David Michaels and Harvard Medical School professor Gregory Wagner also released a white paper outlining immediate steps that OSHA could take to stop the spread of COVID in the workplace. The steps range from issuing an emergency workplace standard to increasing fines to involving community groups in helping target non-compliant employers to use the power of OSHA’s public affairs to publicly shame corporations that won’t comply with COVID regulations. Go to the Institute for New Economic Thinking to check out their 11-part proposal to fight COVID in the workplace under a Biden Administration” — Mike Elk

“Her omission understates drug spending by almost one-third, or about $145 billion. She claimed most drugs are developed in pharmaceutical firms, but funding from the National Institutes of Health contributed to all 356 new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010 to 2019. Drug corporations take a handoff after the most risky research is done and a drug shows promise.” — David Mitchell

What is the current situation in private indebtedness in the U.S.? Recent ideas suggest that excessive levels of debt are an obstacle to a quick recovery and sustained economic growth.

Robert Johnson, the head of the progressive Institute for New Economic Thinking, calls the Biden task force a “real good group.” But he then asked: “What power will they really have … after the power of money bends the best designs in a self-interested direction?”

By fully utilizing the power of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), President Biden could take meaningful steps to keep workers safe during the pandemic, even without Congress’s help

“Dina Srinivasan, a fellow with the Thurman Project at Yale University, noted how Google’s dominance in both search and display advertising are interrelated. Google’s power in the search market is not irrelevant to the advertising business, she noted in a recent academic paper.” — Ronan Shields

“The role of money in US politics is fundamental. A recent updating of earlier research, released by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, confirms that the views of the top decile of the population largely determine policy. The inevitable frustrations of the rest give the parties their passionate voting blocs.” — Martin Wolf

Some nations have embraced new technologies, while others seem ill-prepared. What accounts for this difference?

When segregationists fought against school integration, libertarian economist James Buchanan saw an opportunity for his private education plan

“Their new working paper, just published by the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York, gives a rigorously technical analysis of what these tools reveal, and the Institute’s research director, Thomas Ferguson, has helpfully fashioned an introduction to — and a historical context for — the McGuire-Delahunt analysis that lay readers will find easily accessible. Ferguson, himself a pioneer in social science research on political decision making, points out that “the idea that public opinion powers at least the broad direction of public policy in formally democratic countries like the United States has been an article of faith in both political science and public economics for generations.” —Sam Pizzigati

“Conveniently for present purposes, Naked Capitalism posted a piece by political scientist Thomas Ferguson on the determinants of political decision making— that is, on the ‘product’ that elected representatives produce. The punchline: ‘money,’ as defined by the interests of corporate executives and oligarchs, is the overwhelming determinant of ‘political’ outcomes. Advancing the public will— the liberal explanation; or the public interest, the explanation offered for representative democracy, have no bearing. The longstanding practice of fitting political outcomes into these theoretical frames to ‘explain’ public policies is scientific malpractice given Mr. Ferguson’s findings.” —- Rob Urie

“It looks as if Joe Biden will win a very tight electoral college victory against arguably the worst president in history in the midst of a deadly pandemic and crippled economy the incumbent has bungled disastrously. How could this election even be close? ROB JOHNSON, Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), and I talk about how we got here and what it’s going to take to move forward. As long as both parties depend on Wall Street and the 1% for funding, our real challenges - climate change, restoring the middle class, healthcare, systemic racism, etc.- will never truly be dealt with.” —- Terrence McNally

What are the 100 most pertinent economic questions facing our global societ?

William Lazonick, president of the Academic-Industry Research Network and a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, who has devoted much of his research to the topic of buybacks, has written that the rule change “in effect gave corporations license to use open-market repurchases to manipulate the market.” … In an interview, Lazonick told Retail Dive, “These distributions to shareholders, particularly buybacks on top of dividends, are at the expense of keeping people employed, rewarding them for the work they’ve done, and investing in new products and processes.”

New INET research shows once again that it’s large firms and the 1%—not the “median voter”—who drive U.S. policy

“Third, U.S. taxpayers foot a huge portion of the bill for basic science leading to new drugs. The National Institutes of Health is the single largest source of biomedical research in the world. In fact, NIH funding contributed to research associated with every single new drug approved by the FDA from 2010-2019, totaling $230 billion according to a recent report.”

In this paper we analyze the Gilens dataset using the complementary tools of Random Forest classifiers (RFs), from Machine Learning.

In this interview, Dr. Vera Songwe, economist and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa reflects on the ways that African governments have handled COVID-19, the role of the Continental Free Trade Agreement in turbo-charging future growth, the vital role of infrastructural investment and mobilising domestic resources for building forward better and greener.

“Executives have an interest in getting the stock price up and price gouging customers is one way they can do this,” said William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at University of Massachusetts and co-founder of the Academic-Industry Research Network. While many drug companies argue that they use their vast profits to fund ongoing pharmaceutical innovation, Lazonick said, “we’ve shown that most of these companies don’t do that.” Instead, the soaring prices fuel soaring stock prices and executive pay, which is often based largely on that price.” — INET Grantee William Lazonick

“Alberto Baccini, an economist at the University of Siena in Italy, says that people assessing research should be aware that the process can have an influence on academics’ behavior. ‘For each research assessment, you can find some behavior that changes in a way that is not desirable for society,’ he says. A 2019 study conducted by Baccini and colleagues found that researchers in Italy have been citing their own work or that authored by other researchers based at Italian institutions more frequently in response to a 2010 policy that is used to make decisions on promotions based on the number of citations researchers accumulate.” — INET Grantee Alberto Baccini

“Obviously, there’s serious work to be done in changing cultural norms. Dealing with this disrespectful activity requires a versatile toolkit. … Fortunately, cultural norms can change. Challenges to traditional patriarchy and outdated workplace behavior, like the #MeToo movement, are already shifting notions of what is acceptable. Lesley Stahl has been a respected journalist for 50 years. Which means she likely knows better than anyone else that gaining a seat at the table doesn’t mean much if you can’t be heard over the din.” — INET Senior Research Analyst Lynn Parramore

“In his speech, Xi pledged to uphold support for the Greater Bay Area initiative, and the Shenzhen plan includes specific measures to create employment and housing opportunities for Hong Kong’s young people. Driving forward the development of an economy as large and complex as China’s is a monumental feat in the best of times – not least because there are no models to emulate. Amid hostile external conditions, the challenge is even greater. But with the Shenzhen plan – and the broader adaptation and implementation of the city’s successful reforms – China may well be able to meet it.” - INET Expert Andrew Sheng, member of Commission on Global Economic Transformation

George Soros explains why there is no mathematical equation that can define humanity.

Unregistered lobbyists, including former members of Congress, are a key resource for lobbying firms

Unregistered lobbyists, including former members of Congress, are a key resource for lobbying firms

In the future, how will work be different, what jobs are most at risk, what jobs are likely to grow?

David Mussington, a leading expert on cybersecurity, reveals what’s worrying him, from Facebook to foreign interference.

Dr. Ming Lin spoke out about Covid safety at his hospital and was fired. He’s fighting back against a system that put profits over human life.

What is the current situation in credit markets? Will an overhang of debt on corporate balance sheets slow down the recovery from the COVID recession and be a drag on investment going forward? Does the COVID recession still have the potential to turn into a broader financial meltdown?

A summary of INET’s latest Future of Work episode

A tribute to stories and legacies of great economic thinkers like Kari Polanyi Levitt, Nancy Folbre, Dierdre McCloskey, Anwar Shaikh, Axel Leijonhufvud, James Crotty, Luigi Pasinetti & Marcello de Cecco

Dans le cadre de cet entretien, Mr. Mossadeck Bally, C.E.O, Azalai Hotels Group et membre du GRAIN (Groupe de Réflexion, d’Actions et d’Initiatives Novatrices) revient sur les impacts économiques de la pandémie du COVID-19 sur son groupe hôtelier, le rôle du secteur privé malien dans le plan de relance économique, l’emploi des jeunes et les solutions qui doivent être apportées à la crise politique au Mali.

In this interview, Mr. Mossadeck Bally, a Malian businessman and CEO of Azalai Hotels Group and member of GRAIN (Group of Reflection, Actions and Innovative Initiatives) discusses the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on his hotel group, the role of the Malian private sector in the economic recovery plan, youth employment and the solutions that must be provided to the political crisis in Mali.

The combination of technological disruption and economic globalization have resulted in stagnating wages, middle class job losses, and declining labor power in many developed countries. How did this happen and how could we respond?

Lance Taylor responds to William Janeway’s essay on John Maynard Keynes and Frank Ramsey. Janeway then offers his response.

We need to get smarter about how we think about climate change and its impacts.

Are there aspects of modern technology, made possible by unprecedented computing power and connectivity, that make them distinctively different from previous eras? If so, what are the implications?

Lance Taylor and Özlem Ömer respond to Andrew Smithers’s final comment on their working paper

The third and final round of response from Andrew Smithers on Lance Taylor’s INET working paper on the alleged “global savings glut.”

In this interview, Folashadé Soulé and Camilla Toulmin discuss with Edward K. Brown, Senior Director, Research and Advisory services at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) based in Accra, Ghana, on the effects of COVID-19 on regional integration and economic transformation in Africa, and the role of ACET and African think tanks in advising African governments respond to the crisis.

Technology has coevolved with human societies and played critical roles in past social and economic transformations. From the invention of steam engines to the use of electricity, technological changes were responsible for boosting productivity gains and increasing standards of living. But what really is technology? Is it an external force outside our control, or do we have a say in its direction, development, and deployment? These questions were undoubtedly made more urgent with the rapid advancement in digital technologies of late.

New book by Sarah Chayes reveals the country’s descent into a level of corruption usually associated with places like Nigeria and Afghanistan

INET explores how technological and economic changes are affecting employment

Human societies have always coevolved with technology, but how can we think of technology? Is it an external force outside our control, or do we have a say in its direction, development and deployment?

Persistent changes in unemployment have lasting consequences for income distribution

Our findings confirm the existence of a negative relationship between labor market slack and the wage share, and we find no tendency to return to a ‘normal’ unemployment rate associated with a stable wage share.

An INET organized panel under the auspices of the 2020 Trento Economic Festival

An INET organized panel under the auspices of the 2020 Trento Economic Festival

Like master illusionists, bank accountants conceal losses from federal regulators, putting the whole economy at risk

The study seeks to explain why the instruments of central banking inevitably break down over time.

Access to finance was supposed to reduce inequality, and make us all better off. Why hasn’t that happened?

INET’s co-founder reviews new books about John Maynard Keynes and Frank Ramsey

Advancements in automation and artificial intelligence are quickly reaching tipping points, yet our policies, institutions and mindsets are woefully outdated. What will work look like in the future, and how do we secure a future that works for all?

A discussion with Lance Taylor and Özlem Ömer, authors of INET’s new book Macroeconomics Inequality from Reagan to Trump

For thirty years after the Civil Rights Act, a sizable share of white Southerners still voted Democrat. That changed when the party embraced trade deals that hurt American workers.

How NAFTA led to GOP dominance of the American South

Racial inequalities of wealth and income are pervasive. This episode of Debt Talks will feature a conversation with four prominent experts on the persistence of racial inequalities of wealth and income and the role of financial markets in shaping them.

Why freeing American households and businesses from crippling private debt would be a boon to the economy. Article reposted from DemocracyJournal.org.

This first book in the new INET and Cambridge University Press book series, Studies in New Economic Thinking, shows that wage repression—far more than monopoly power, offshoring, or technological change—has driven rising inequality.

In a new book from Cambridge University Press, Lance Taylor reveals that wage repression — far more than monopoly power, offshoring or technological change — is driving rising inequality.

Claudia Sahm dares to call out systemic bullying and harassment that drives out talent and compromises science. Perpetrators are not happy.

The promise of globalization is built on a lie, designed to spread risk while concentrating reward.

Wage Repression, Asset Price Inflation, and Structural Change Caused Rising Macroeconomic Inequality for Fifty Years from before Reagan through Trump.This is a summary of a new book that is being published as part of a new book series with Cambridge University Press.

Amid debates over costs—and profits—from a coronavirus vaccine, a new study shows that taxpayers have been footing the bill for every new drug approved between 2010 and 2019

Amid debates over costs—and profits—from a coronavirus vaccine, a new study shows that taxpayers have been footing the bill for every new drug approved between 2010 and 2019

Why are we creating an education shortage?

During this interview, Professor Kako Nubukpo, Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Lomé, Togo and former Minister of Prospective and Evaluation of Public Policy of Togo considers the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis and its repercussions on monetary policy and fiscal reforms underway in West and Central Africa today.

Dans le cadre de cet entretien, Pr Kako Nubukpo, Doyen de la Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion (FASEG) de l’Université de Lomé au Togo, et ancien Ministre de la Prospective et de l’Evaluation des politiques publiques du Togo, revient sur l’impact économique et social de la crise du COVID-19 au Togo et sur ses répercussions sur les politiques économiques dont les réformes monétaires et fiscales en cours en Afrique de l’Ouest et Centrale.

Lance Taylor provides a second and final response to Andrew Smithers’ criticism of his working paper on the role of the “Global Savings Glut”

Andrew Smithers responds to Lance Taylor’s rebuttal.

“Good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure.”

A debate between Lance Taylor and Andrew Smithers on the alleged “global savings glut.” Smithers responds to Taylor’s INET working paper, to which Taylor then offers a rebuttal. A second round of the debate is now included as well.

Financial commentator Andrew Smithers responds to Lance Taylor’s INET working paper. You may also read Taylor’s response to Smithers’s comment here.

Lance Taylor responds to Andrew Smithers’s comment on his INET working paper, “Germany and China Have Savings Gluts, the USA Is a Sump: So What?”

Consolidation in the dairy industry has created separate, inflexible supply chains for consumers and commercial markets. When COVID killed commercial demand, perfectly good milk and cheese was wasted.

The rise of the Knowledge Based Economy and subsequent Data Driven Economy has created a new world in which the basis of wealth and power is derived from control of these intangible assets, alongside creating a new kind of social and political space in which both our public and private spheres are technologically reshaped. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated these transformations that permeate our world and has amplified their effects.

Consolidation in the dairy industry has created separate, inflexible supply chains for consumers and commercial markets. When COVID killed commercial demand, perfectly good milk and cheese was wasted.

A lot has changed since our taxes and benefits were designed, and the consequences of delaying reform are rising.

Global carbon emissions could fall by an estimated 5.5% in 2020 as a result of declining industrial production in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But if the change is not systemic these effects may be fleeting, and the changing climate could put hundreds of millions of lives, trillions of dollars of economic activity, and the world’s physical and natural capital at risk.

A “global saving glut” was invented by Ben Bernanke in 2005 as a label for positive net lending (imports exceeding exports) to the American economy by the rest of the world. However, there is a more plausible explanation for the persistent trade imbalance between the US and its major trading partners.

An alternative look at the “global savings glut”

While policymakers around the world are in fire-fighting mode, trying to keep the economies in their charge running and the mysterious pandemic under control, the global terrain beneath our feet is shifting. Which countries will emerge as winners and losers in the new global landscape?

Despite post-2008 regulations, the boom-bust credit cycle continues to run wild

Despite post-2008 regulations, the boom-bust credit cycle continues to run wild

Chioma Agwuegbo of TechHer Nigeria, talks to Folashadé Soulé and Herbert Mba Aki about how the pandemic is impacting young people in Nigeria, especially young women, and how African youth are tackling the crisis.

Mainstream economics ignores historical and structural factors by design

Margaret Heffernan’s new book “Uncharted” warns against giving up the power to shape our destiny to gurus and gadgets promising false certainty.

When people recognize just how dangerous covid is, they worry more about the economy

In this conversation with Folashadé Soulé and Camilla Toulmin, Pr Njuguna Ndung’u, a Kenyan economist, Director of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), a pan-African organization devoted to the advancement of economic policy research and training in sub-Saharan Africa, and former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (2007-2015) analyses how the pandemic creates more fragility in African economies, but also how reforms could be implemented during this crisis; and the urgent need for investment in strong health institutional capacities

That’s the amount of buybacks U.S. corporations funneled to shareholders during the past decade—rather than invest in technologies for the common good. This article is being published jointly by INET and The American Prospect

The success of projects for pandemic preparedness and response depends on the strength of government-business collaborations.

Technology has played a critical role during the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitating remote work and automating certain pandemic responses. But it has also accelerated technological adoption, and the “future of work” may now be the present.

Colleges and universities need to be saved, not only from financial ruin, but also, all too often, from themselves.

Rob Johnson is not your average economist, and this is not your average economics podcast.