Thinking Outside the Box

[This was a response I posted at the New York Times on May 6, 2012, in response to an outrageous article I had read in the Times Magazine that day, written by Adam Davidson, a fine reporter on economic issues otherwise, about a new book by a certain Edward Conrad, a self-made Wall Street millionaire who also worked for a time at Bain Capital with Mitt Romney -- which reveals some rather startling insights into the true world views that such people can hold. It is a testament to the lessons of history, when madmen in positions of power have delusions of grandeur, such as Nero, Hitler, George W. Bush...and now Edward Conrad.] Given the outrage that Mr Edward Conrad's pompous article has caused within one day of its appearance, I hope the dear man realizes how out of touch with reality he is. (1,857 comments at the end of the day of publication; oh ho! Well done!) I also hope he realizes with what a resounding thud of inconsequence his book will make within the economic community....

[This is a comment I posted at Market Place on March 28, 2012 in reaction to a series of stories that they did on the effect that increasing use of robots is having on the economy. I point out that they are missing the bigger picture...] As much as I have enjoyed David Brancaccio's reporting over the years, I have to comment that he (or his writers, I cannot tell which) are missing a much bigger story about what is going on here -- and it will have dramatic consequences for our economy, and broader society, if it is not recognized, resisted and reversed. More than the hollowing out of middle class jobs, the imperative to shrink labor costs at all costs has become the drumbeat of modern capitalism, creating what economists refer to as "increasing structural unemployment." What this means is increasing unemployment, decreasing aggregate demand, a shrinking tax base, etc; in short, a vicious downward spiral. (If only the Occupy Movement would start making these connectio...

[This is an online post that I made on December 7, 2011 to the environmental economics class that I teach online at Front Range Community College, in our General Discussion forum, where I post things to keep up my students' interest, outside of the required material. It is a sort of end-of-year sendoff note, meant to encourage my students that what they learned in this introductory course still contains powerful ideas that are currently completely absent from mainstream economics courses, such as those thought by Dr Mankiw....] Hello class, Here is another article that I thought would be of interest, if you have the time.... It is from last Sunday's New York Times editorial pages (Dec 4, 2011), where Prof Gregory Mankiw (pronounced man-queue), who's a frequent contributor, wrote an artilce titles " Know What You're Protesting ." In it, he talks about how some of his students (5-10%) recently staged a walkout on his class, Economics 10, in sympathy with the...

[This is a comment that I made on a guest commentary in the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper on Nov 6, 2011, titled " The Occupy movement and Prop. 103 ", which would have increased sales taxes slightly over the next few years in Colorado to help make up the budget shortfall in funds for public education, but which was defeated 2-1 in the Nov 1 election. I thought the author's analysis rather missed the point, and felt compelled to write this in response.] The entire point of this well deserved commentary is contained in the sentence: "The defeat of Proposition 103 should serve as a clarion call for all of us who believe we need more robust public institutions for our democracy to survive." I agree; but the author's argument contains some serious flaws, resulting in an incorrect analysis of what's wrong. We already have several institutions whose explicit purpose is supposedly to protect our democracy: namely, the US Congress, the US Supreme Court and ...

[This was a comment I posted at slashdot.org today (October 12, 2011) in response to a solicitation about what people thought about the Occupy Wall Street movement. As you can see, I have some pretty strong views on the matter, which I believe are well supported by history! --Rick] I have not read all of the many interesting comments here , but a text search tells me that no one has yet mentioned the issue of corporate personhood; but it deserves mention, because it is the Achilles heel in the legal armor that corporations have used to rise to prominence in our economy -- and deserves to become a more prominent part of the hue and cry at OWS events. (I've seen it as part of their demands, but not very prominently.) This singular fact is well known to some in the progressive activist community -- Thom Hartmann, Amy Goodman, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Hedges, Van Jones, to name a few -- but not to the mainstream media, much less the American public. The main activity center trying to...