"As a result, we just have to hope that whoever ends up running Britain’s economy isn’t as foolish as he pretends to be." Krugman
Just as we have to hope that the person running Texas isn't either.
BOOMERBUSTER
OLD CELLO
Saturday, May 9, 2015
RE MY POSTS RE INFLATION DEFLATION BOTH RED HERRINGS SEE PIKETTY CONVERGENCE
Convergence, a topic he avoids like the plague. Not destabilizing to Piketty.
Here he let this slip out: p 649, fn 22: 'furthermore inflation depends...especially international wage and price competition, which is currently damping down inflationary tendencies while driving asset prices higher.'
re Convergence: 'Never in the history of human conflict has so much been given away to so many by so few for so little so quickly.' This blog.
For him, convergence is a mechanical, and frankly, natural economic process resulting from largely mechanical globalization; whereas divergence, although mechanical, is exacerbated by political aberrations and needs economic and political treatment.
Convergence, apparently, needs no treatment, and is, moreover, not mechanically susceptible to it.
What was either mechanical or natural about the recovery of Europe and Japan? What mechanical about the Marshall Plan? Why then wasn't the Morgenthau Plan as mechanical or natural as the Marshall Plan? The French wanted the Morgenthau Plan after all.....
What was mechanical about the IMF, World Bank, Bretton woods, etc.?
What has been mechanical about the rise of China?
In fairness to Piketty, he does at many places point out that there is nothing natural or spontaneous about certain economic phenomena re how shocks have been handled, etc., and that politics and other social sciences play a greater role than encompassed by mere economics. I was glad to see that he advocates a return to political economy.
Steingart said it best, in certain passages in The War For Wealth: nothing.
Terms search: Piketty, inflation deflation, 800 pound gorilla
re Convergence: 'Never in the history of human conflict has so much been given away to so many by so few for so little so quickly.' This blog.
For him, convergence is a mechanical, and frankly, natural economic process resulting from largely mechanical globalization; whereas divergence, although mechanical, is exacerbated by political aberrations and needs economic and political treatment.
Convergence, apparently, needs no treatment, and is, moreover, not mechanically susceptible to it.
What was either mechanical or natural about the recovery of Europe and Japan? What mechanical about the Marshall Plan? Why then wasn't the Morgenthau Plan as mechanical or natural as the Marshall Plan? The French wanted the Morgenthau Plan after all.....
What was mechanical about the IMF, World Bank, Bretton woods, etc.?
What has been mechanical about the rise of China?
In fairness to Piketty, he does at many places point out that there is nothing natural or spontaneous about certain economic phenomena re how shocks have been handled, etc., and that politics and other social sciences play a greater role than encompassed by mere economics. I was glad to see that he advocates a return to political economy.
Steingart said it best, in certain passages in The War For Wealth: nothing.
Terms search: Piketty, inflation deflation, 800 pound gorilla
GREAT TOPIC GREAT POST AND LAST PARAGRAPH
"...The post-Second World War generation has thrown away much of our parents' legacy, including the legacy of strong, popularly elected governments acting on behalf of the people. Here and across the Atlantic, the looming question is whether our societies can hold together and function effectively without such states."
Regarding 'strong' democratic governments, I think he is talking here mainly about European governments, the West in general, not the US government, which has always prided itself on being a weak government.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Saturday, May 2, 2015
CLASSIC ECONOMISTS JOUST CARTOON
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2010/11/cartoon-mise-en-scene-daumier-economist.html
Friday, May 1, 2015
THE ANCIENT ROMANS' INQUIRY
"What is there there worth having?"
Given such a rubric, would ancient Romans have invested South Vietnam, had it been on their periphery, and tried to hold it?
Why?
Would they have invaded Korea, had it been on their periphery, and tried to hold it?
Why?
Given such a rubric, would ancient Romans have invested South Vietnam, had it been on their periphery, and tried to hold it?
Why?
Would they have invaded Korea, had it been on their periphery, and tried to hold it?
Why?
YOU CAN'T READ THIS ONE OFTEN ENOUGH
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-other-incalculable-blunder-bigger.html
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
THE NIXON SHOCK AND THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
Grand strategy for dilettantes....
More analogies than one would at first see.
More analogies than one would at first see.
RE PIKETTY DIVERGENCE CONSTIPATION
If you have had too much wealth and income divergence exploration, from a left globalist, how about a laxative or purgative addressing convergence, the 800 pound gorilla at the other extreme of globalization, both engendered by Western Globalization?
I recommend Steingart's The War for Wealth
Steingart was less prone to candy coating than Piketty is.
While I disagree with him on many things, Steingart is at least willing to acknowledge and play the civilization card, the trump card in the 21 St Century world.
At present, it seems to me that the only 'holders' of such cards are the Sinics, the Slavs, the Hindus, and to some extent, the Muslims. I do not count the Jews as a civilization at the present time.
You will note that these are all at war, here or there, with each other, over civilizational issues.
The modern state of Israel, though not a civilization by any means, tries to act as one. Of course, it is an armed camp in the Islamic Middle East.
I recommend Steingart's The War for Wealth
Steingart was less prone to candy coating than Piketty is.
While I disagree with him on many things, Steingart is at least willing to acknowledge and play the civilization card, the trump card in the 21 St Century world.
At present, it seems to me that the only 'holders' of such cards are the Sinics, the Slavs, the Hindus, and to some extent, the Muslims. I do not count the Jews as a civilization at the present time.
You will note that these are all at war, here or there, with each other, over civilizational issues.
The modern state of Israel, though not a civilization by any means, tries to act as one. Of course, it is an armed camp in the Islamic Middle East.
Monday, April 27, 2015
STULTIFERA NAVIS MINNOW ODYSSEY GLOBALIZATION APORIA
CARTOON:
Scylla divergence, Thurston Howell
Charybdis convergence, Gilligan
Scylla divergence, Thurston Howell
Charybdis convergence, Gilligan
Sunday, April 26, 2015
RE GRAND STRATEGY FOR DILETTANTES
like me.
Let's assume, for a moment, that recent developments hail some understandings. What are they?
China is saber rattling in East and South Asia. It is also moving into Africa with abandon.
Russia is doing so in the Baltic and Ukraine, and elsewhere unknown to me.
What do you think these things mean?
Let's assume, for a moment, that recent developments hail some understandings. What are they?
China is saber rattling in East and South Asia. It is also moving into Africa with abandon.
Russia is doing so in the Baltic and Ukraine, and elsewhere unknown to me.
What do you think these things mean?
SEE DK CURRENT POST
"...Emphasizing issues like women's rights and human rights generally assumes that the world is in a relatively stable state already--and it is not...." DK
I quite agree.
With respect to domestic politics, it is indicative of what has always characterized American politics, issue and interest group fragmentations, tending toward drift in the larger scheme of things.
We have mostly just had drift, one of Nevins' favorite terms.
That was the kind of weak, high officials' numbers, high officials' turnover, amateur, federated republic that the founders thought best.
I quite agree.
With respect to domestic politics, it is indicative of what has always characterized American politics, issue and interest group fragmentations, tending toward drift in the larger scheme of things.
We have mostly just had drift, one of Nevins' favorite terms.
That was the kind of weak, high officials' numbers, high officials' turnover, amateur, federated republic that the founders thought best.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
CONVERGENCE
Is the stake in the heart of those, like Piketty, who believe in globalistically and progressively taxing global elites to fight intra national and inter national income and wealth inequalities, divergences, while nevertheless leaving global free trade convergences untouched.
The average person in the West has much more to fear from average income and wealth convergence, due also to globalization, than from income and wealth divergence.
Excuses, agendas, ideologies, and methods for raising the standard of living for poor people everywhere are legion.
It is a long list: war alliances, free trade including unilateral tariff reductions etc, missionary work and missionary aid including health organizations etc, governmental foreign aid, public development aid, technology transfers both private and public, gifts, favors, peace time alliances, investments, technological innovation not well protected, development funding, etc.
We have used them all.
If you raise their standard of living, and there are a whole lot more of them than of you, you eventually, in the not too distant future, lower yours by some very substantial amount. Don't take my word for it...look it up. It is also exacerbated by population pressure, which globalization has enabled, and by resource scarcity, same and related causes.
The average person in the West has much more to fear from average income and wealth convergence, due also to globalization, than from income and wealth divergence.
Excuses, agendas, ideologies, and methods for raising the standard of living for poor people everywhere are legion.
It is a long list: war alliances, free trade including unilateral tariff reductions etc, missionary work and missionary aid including health organizations etc, governmental foreign aid, public development aid, technology transfers both private and public, gifts, favors, peace time alliances, investments, technological innovation not well protected, development funding, etc.
We have used them all.
If you raise their standard of living, and there are a whole lot more of them than of you, you eventually, in the not too distant future, lower yours by some very substantial amount. Don't take my word for it...look it up. It is also exacerbated by population pressure, which globalization has enabled, and by resource scarcity, same and related causes.
RE PIKETTY THE WEST AND LEFT AND RIGHT GLOBALIZATION
He mainly touches on inequality.
This is what he calls divergence. He wants less divergence, (hence more global convergence).
That is the economists' pet, at least those on the so called left.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room of globalization, however,
and the one those on the right are most afraid of,
if they have any sense,
because they have most fostered it,
and it is the most harrowing,
is the opposite,
a topic he is reluctant to face head on except in passing:
global convergence.
The right elite, the upper centile, want plenty of divergence, which coincidentally, also implies global convergence of average income and wealth.
If you are a liberal economist, you suffer from the failings of both poles of the discipline, more or less, and just drift along with globalization, willy nilly.
Economics has truly been the doomsday discipline of the West,
regardless of which side you are on.
This is what he calls divergence. He wants less divergence, (hence more global convergence).
That is the economists' pet, at least those on the so called left.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room of globalization, however,
and the one those on the right are most afraid of,
if they have any sense,
because they have most fostered it,
and it is the most harrowing,
is the opposite,
a topic he is reluctant to face head on except in passing:
global convergence.
The right elite, the upper centile, want plenty of divergence, which coincidentally, also implies global convergence of average income and wealth.
If you are a liberal economist, you suffer from the failings of both poles of the discipline, more or less, and just drift along with globalization, willy nilly.
Economics has truly been the doomsday discipline of the West,
regardless of which side you are on.
Friday, April 24, 2015
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