{bit.ly/weaCCT} Economists do not understand inflation. Daniel K. Tarullo. Former Governor, Federal Reserve Board should surely be in a position to know. I will list some key conclusions from his paper with the revealing title: Monetary Policy Without a Working Theory of Inflation : We do not, at present, have a theory of inflation dynamics that works… Read More Class-Conflict Theory of Inflation
Bergmann Barbara R The Economists’ Voice, 2007, vol. 4, issue 2, 1-4 Abstract: How do economists know what they know? In a call for a new empiricism Barbara Bergmann asserts that economists mainly make it up. Summary of article: The paper starts by explaining how biologists studied bottle-nose dolphins for thousands of hours, in order to arrive… Read More Bergmann: Needed, A New Empiricism
After the Global Financial Crisis, there has been a lot of re-thinking about Monetary Policy, as one might expect. In fact, in light of the magnitude of the failure, re-thinking efforts have been much less than proportional. There are many, many, different strands of thought, and personally, I do not have clarity on what needs… Read More Summary of Stiglitz on Monetary Policy
[bit.ly/WEAquo] This is an assorted collection of quotes I have found useful from time to time in different contexts. I am putting them all together for my own reference, as well as for the benefit of others who may find them similarly useful to make points. See also: More Quotes Against Economics, and Romer’s Trouble With Macro… Read More Quotes Critical of Economics
This post is a continuation of ET1%: Blindfolds Created by Economic Theory, We show how the Invisible Hand theory appears to be neutral but actually favors the top 1%. As quoted and refuted in my earlier post on “Failures of the Invisible Hand“, Mankiw writes that: “The reason for excellent functioning of decentralized market economies… Read More The Invisible Hand
Introduction — I wrote this essay a while ago, and I am adding this preface here to explain more about WHY I wrote it: Preface: A central problem of our age is the turning of “means” into “ends”. It is obvious that money, by itself, is not a source of pleasure – it is a… Read More The Secrets of Happiness
Whereas conventional economics takes the nature of man as fixed and exogenous, Islamic teachings consider humans to simultaneously possess the potential for being better than angels and also for being worse than animals. Given this dual nature of man, the focus of Islamic teachings is to invite towards the good, and to discourage and prevent… Read More Islamic Economics: Transforming Humans
This is the second lecture on Understanding the Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard — shortlink: bit.do/azifa2 — we start with a Summary of First Lecture The first lecture discusses the Keynesian theory that the exact level of money in an economy is critically important – too little leads to recessions, while too much leads… Read More International Financial Architecture: Part II
In previous parts of this article (Understanding Macro I & Understanding Macro II), we have described how strict financial regulation and Keynesian prescriptions for full employment brought prosperity for the masses, but reduced corporate profits. This last part describes the successful counter-attack by corporations which reversed this state of affairs, causing a massive rise in… Read More Understanding Macro III: The Rule of Corporations
[bit.do/azifa] Lecture 1 on Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard, on Friday 4th May 2018 in AR Kemal Rm at PIDE, by Dr. Asad Zaman, VC PIDE. 1hr 20m Video Lecture. Shortlink for Lecture 2: bit.do/azifa3 – 1hr lecture for general public (non-economists): Understanding International Finance. 3100 word summary of lecture:
WEA Pedagogy Blog 