“If, in 1970, you invested $100 in a fund tracking the S&P index, then by 2023 the investment would have grown to $22,000, far more than it would have in other assets such as real estate or government and corporate bonds. Case closed, right? Put your money into an index fund and simply leave it there.”
“Topics include functions of capital markets and financial intermediaries, asset valuation, fixed-income securities, common stocks, capital budgeting, diversification and portfolio selection, equilibrium pricing of risky assets, the theory of efficient markets, and an introduction to derivatives and options.”
“Topics include functions of capital markets and financial intermediaries, asset valuation, fixed-income securities, common stocks, capital budgeting, diversification and portfolio selection, equilibrium pricing of risky assets, the theory of efficient markets, and an introduction to derivatives and options.”
The Ghosts of Max Weber in the Economic History of Preindustrial Europe
“References to Weber in the literature on preindustrial Europe published by economists during the last fifty years show that the more economists have rehabilitated culture as an autonomous force of economic change, the more they have heralded Weber as a precursor of their endeavors. The casting of Weber in such terms, moreover, has gone hand in hand with a decline, rather than an increase, in conversations between economists, sociologists, historians, and other humanists and social scientists interested in the role of culture in the formation of modern economic life.”
Trivellato, Francesca. “The Ghosts of Max Weber in the Economic History of Preindustrial Europe.” Capitalism: A Journal of History and Economics 4, no. 2 (2023): 332-376. https://doi.org/10.1353/cap.2023.a917621.
How much of national income goes to the richest 1%?
“You might expect these numbers to be strongly correlated to a country’s level of economic development. But this isn’t always the case. In the United States, for example, 1% of its population takes home 21% of national income. This is relatively high globally.”
How much of national income goes to the richest 1%?
“You might expect these numbers to be strongly correlated to a country’s level of economic development. But this isn’t always the case. In the United States, for example, 1% of its population takes home 21% of national income. This is relatively high globally.”
I see that Penguin are reissuing Karl Polanyi's Great Transformation as a Penguin Classic.
About time; for many critical political economists Polanyi has been one of the key figures underpinning work on social forces in economics.
The last re-release (the 'third edition') had a high profile forward by Joseph Stiglitz, this edition has a forward by well known Polanyi scholar Gareth Dale.
If you only read on book on economics this year, make it the Great Transformation.
Kicking around an idea for "fixing" US complex/abuse-prone partnership tax regime:
one Trade or Business tax that applies to all businesses, in whatever form incl. self-employment
C corporation law applies EXCEPT dividends not taxable
Rate equal to highest individual income tax rate
Everybody gets one layer of tax. Self-employed can get benefit of lower individual rates by paying compensation (deemed in case of sole prop) No basis moving or other shenanigans.
How the World Ran Out of Everything by Peter S. Goodman, 2024
How does the wealthiest country on earth run out of protective gear in the middle of a public health catastrophe? How do its parents find themselves unable to locate crucially needed infant formula? How do its largest companies spend billions of dollars making cars that no one can drive for a lack of chips?
Having a college education shapes women’s work and family trajectories—including their marriage, parenting, and employment patterns—but the effects of education differ among Black, Latina, and white women, according to new research.
Four tips to avoid being bamboozled by political statistics and data
With a plethora of elections around the world in 2024, voters considering their options can expect to be presented with all kinds of numbers and statistics aimed at giving credibility to various claims from various parties. But data, graphs, percentages and surveys can be misleading or manipulated.
So here are four things to remember if you’re trying to navigate what’s behind the numerical spin – or what Mark Twain (and others) referred to as “lies, damned lies and statistics”.
50 years ago, economists claimed capitalism is the font of freedom and prosperity. They advocated everything be privatized. Universities were one target.
It's time to compare claims made then with today's reality. If you're in academia, you probably know where this is going..
I was fiddling around online recently and came across the trope that there's some kind of housing shortage in the US. Jeeze Louise! I thought we'd solved that forever ago. This guy 'splained it in '92:
(Some) ignorant leftbros: "Class first! No idpol!"
Scholars of right wing politics/economics: "All these right-wing thinkers are much more comfortable thinking about the blurred lines between sexual and economic politics than many thinkers on the left. And they understand that Keynesianism rests on a certain kind of sexual contract. Any challenge to this order—whether it be an escalation of wage or benefit claims, or the flight from sexual normativity, or unmarried women claiming welfare benefits—disrupts the fiscal and monetary calculus on which Keynesianism rests."
Above remark from "The Extravagances of Neoliberalism", an interview of Melinda Cooper (author of "Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance") by Benjamin Kunkel, in The Baffler.
“ One look at this chart should be sufficient to understand why the Great Crash of 1929 was both great, and a major cause of the Great Depression which followed it, and why levered speculation, rather than rational calculation, dominates the behaviour of asset markets.”
Remember folks, mainstream economists assert that 3C warming is OKEY-DOKEY. They also put universities on a commerce footing and lobbied for debt based higher education.
They also say they are a scientific discipline, because they believe that humans operation on a rational basis. Of course, they demonstrate evidence regarding that assertion.