Everyone’s reviewing Dean Baker’s False Profits. I contribute. I strongly recommend the book, agreeing with D^2 that it’s important that he names the guilty men, reminds you that they’re guilty, and keeps on naming them. (In fact, if anything, he drowns the fish – if you weren’t sure if there had been a housing bubble,…
Read More bubblesStumbling Chris notes that, unusually, productivity has fallen sharply in the UK during the recession, and works through various possible explanations without really hitting on anything. He wonders if real-business-cycle theorists might have a point, and the recession be triggered by a real underlying fall in productivity. In the comments, I suggested that if there…
Read More in which we accidentally rediscover KondratievI’m surprised more people didn’t pick this up, but the Guardian quietly confirmed all the rumours about cash points and BACS payments nearly not making it through the banking crisis. Here’s the story: The Guardian has learnt that a year ago the City regulator was so concerned about customers’ fears over the soundness of RBS…
Read More sorry funds are not available, we’ve got you by the ballssorry funds are not available, we’ve got you by the ballsMore fake consensus. “It’s like a three ring circus in here!” Here’s Chris Dillow, making the excellent point that the promises of cuts are significantly less than the average errors on forecasts of the budget balance. Here’s Samuel Brittan making the excellent point that the cure for the budget deficit is economic recovery. Here’s Economic…
Read More false consensus, part twoIf it’s possible to get Americans to start a string of minor riots in order not to have at least $80bn worth of national healthcare, surely it must be possible to start a good row about whatever it is the Conservatives have in store for us? We stand to lose at least that and more.…
Read More first mover advantageJohn Quiggin blogs about his zombie economics book, specifically the chapter on the efficient market hypothesis. This can be summarised as the doctrine that the current price of a security contains all the publicly available information about it. There is a debate about the degree of predictive power this has and the scope of its…
Read More picking a curveLynne Featherstone MP: for workers’ representation, against managerialism, for Iraqi employees. WIN. More seriously, I’m increasingly convinced by the argument that the fundamental driver of the economic crisis is the falling labour share of national income. This was J.K. Galbraith’s take on the Great Depression; despite the roaring 20s, wages had been flat for years.…
Read More some MPs considered beneficialThe oldest trick in the book of tatty British industry. When times turn tough, find anyone who’s been caught innovating, and sack them. Hence the Obscurer gets rid of Simon Caulkin’s management column, part of their generally excellent business section’ s highly reliable opinion page with William Keegan. But I suppose it leaves more space…
Read More tattyJust to finish off this gruelling series, I wanted to flag Kilcullen’s take on Afghanistan and opium. In short, his argument is that counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics in Afghanistan are identical; the poppy mostly grows where the Taliban are, it provides something up to 50% of the movement’s income, and it is anyway impossible to do…
Read More Accidental Guerrilla, Part 4: Kilcullen on DrugsResistance – The Essence of the Islamist Revolution is Alistair Crooke’s survey of modern Islamist thought. It would be clearer to say it is a couple of books occupying the same space; one would be a history of Islamist thought since the origins of the Iranian Revolution, with a polemic for greater understanding of such…
Read More Review: Alistair Crooke, “Resistance: the essence of the Islamist revolution”