This statement is submitted in connection with the Joint Committee’s deliberations on the European Union’s (EU) legislative proposals COM(2025)122 and COM(2025)123. Those two measures aim to increase EU member state military expenditures and weapons production. They raise multiple serious concerns regarding the merits thereof, including gravely exacerbating the existing Ukraine conflict and making a peace settlement even more difficult to achieve. They will also contribute to cementing the EU on a path of massively increased military expenditures, which will inevitably displace and diminish other forms of needed government spending owing to the fiscal constraints confronting member states. Worst of all, they could contribute to EU member states becoming directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, thereby bringing the conflict inside the EU. Consequently, Ireland should vigorously oppose the two measures as they are neither in Ireland’s national interest nor in the collective interest of the European Union.
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The Case Against European Union Rearmament Spending: statement to the Irish Parliament re EU Proposals COM(2025)122 and COM(2025)123
Wednesday, June 18th, 2025For the record: a final word on being cancelled Post Keynesian style
Friday, June 6th, 2025(1) The Post-Keynesian Economics Society (PKES) committee has posted a second more detailed public statement seeking to justify my suspension. In my view, their new statement further obscures the issue and is even more misleading.
The only thing that matters is did the article (“The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly”) which triggered my suspension violate the listserve rules?
The committee has persistently avoided that question as the article is clearly compliant, being economics related and widely published. Now, the committee invokes a history that introduces double jeopardy and may also reveal additional past wrongdoing on its part.
(more…)A Niemöller moment: more on being cancelled Post Keynesian style
Saturday, May 31st, 2025Last week I e-mailed a note titled “Goodbye pluralism: cancelled Post Keynesian style” which detailed my suspension by the Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES). That suspension unjustly sanctioned me for an earlier e-mail announcement of my article “The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly”.
The PKES has now responded, claiming I violated its list-serve rules. I welcome their response. It creates an opportunity both to remedy this injustice and to reverse an intolerant turn within the PKES’s rules of discourse. That turn is the much more important issue and it should concern all.
But first, I must address the PKES response, which I believe is disingenuous about the real reason for my suspension. In my view, that reason is the desire of pro-Ukrainian sympathizers to ban discussions of the Ukraine conflict which challenge the Western establishment’s anti-Russian narrative. If my article had been about Keir Starmer’s Labour government fiscal austerity it would not have been sanctioned.
(more…)Goodbye pluralism: cancelled Post Keynesian style
Monday, May 26th, 2025At the end of March, I sent a brief e-mail notice of my article “The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly”. The article has been published and re-posted in multiple places, including being translated into Spanish and Italian.
It describes the political economic costs incurred by Europe owing to the war; the political economic interests driving Europe’s stance on Ukraine; the false narratives used to drum up popular support; and the likely further political and economic costs from Europe’s deepening turn to militarism in the name of Ukraine.
In response, I was notified by the Post-Keynesian Economics Society (PKES) that I had been cancelled and my right to communicate with colleagues via the PKES list-serve had been suspended for three months.
The decision is triply deplorable. First, this is a time when free speech is under grievous attack and we should all defend it. Banning political economic analyses of the Ukraine war that criticize the Western establishment is the opposite. It places one in the company of those who argue for banning critique of Zionism or Israel on grounds that it is antisemitic.
Second, freedom of speech is especially precious to academics and the PKES is a network that connects academics.
Third, pluralism is a core claim of Post Keynesian economics and the ban is an affront to pluralism. It is easy to preach pluralism but difficult to practice it, as that requires tolerating views one may not like.
I hope readers will share this note and it prompts debate about the current fragility of pluralism in heterodox economics and society.
The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly
Monday, March 24th, 2025In her book The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, the historian Barbara Tuchman explores the perplexing question of why countries sometimes pursue policies that are fundamentally contrary to their own interests. That question has acquired renewed relevance as Europe has now enlisted in a deepening march of folly over Ukraine.
Failure to reject the march of folly will have grave consequences for Europe, but doing so is a huge political challenge. It requires explaining how Europe has been harmed by its Ukraine policy; how Europe stands to be further harmed by doubling-down on that policy; how the march of folly has been sold politically; and why the political establishment persists therewith.
(more…)Germany’s election & why it is important to understand the Ukraine War
Sunday, February 2nd, 2025I urge you to watch this YouTube mini documentary (30 minutes). If that is too long, watch just the segment from 10:30 -12:00 (1.30 minutes).
Jeffrey D. Sachs – Understanding the Ukraine conflict – Brave New Europe
Every German should watch this before voting in the February election (and every European should watch in advance of future elections).
The establishment has lied to all of us. Perhaps worst of all are the German Greens, led by Annalena Baerbock. Today’s German Greens are neither Green nor for peace (the explanation of that transformation is a standalone story).
We must act now, or the far-right will exploit the crack caused by the establishment’s lies about Russia & Ukraine.
Fortunately, in Germany the BSW (Bundis Sarah Wagenknecht) Party provides an alternative. In most other countries (like the UK) the situation is more difficult because no party is challenging the lie.
The Ukraine – Russia war is the foremost issue facing Germany. The Social Democrats have fundamentally misunderstood the geopolitical causes of the war, and they show no sign of change. They are captured by the US/NATO Neoconservatives, and Germany and Europe suffer therefrom. The economic and social damage is huge, both now and in terms of lost future prosperity from a Europe that included Russia as an economic partner.
The political situation is akin to a Gordian knot, and the cleanest cut of that knot is with the BSW sword, even if it is not perfect. Failure to cut the knot will allow the AfD to make further gains, and that is the worst outcome.
N.B. For those wanting additional argument & evidence, I have written a research paper titled “The Ukraine – Russia war explained”.
The Ukraine – Russia war explained: how the US exploited internal fractures in the post-Soviet order (plus lessons for Georgia)
Sunday, November 10th, 2024This paper explores the deep causes of the Ukraine – Russia war. It argues that the war has both internal and external causes. The internal causes are rooted in the way the Soviet Union disintegrated. The external causes relate to how the US exploited the fractures in the post-Soviet order to advance its geopolitical agenda aimed at establishing US global hegemony. The war has devastated Ukraine. The capture of Ukrainian politics by extremist nationalists prevented a compromise that addressed the political and demographic reality of post-Soviet Ukraine. In doing so, the nationalists made Ukraine a sacrificial pawn in the US project seeking global hegemony, with fateful consequences that may yet worsen further. Georgia’s frozen conflict with Russia has some structural similarities. That said, Georgia can avoid Ukraine’s fate by choosing a path of non-alignment. That will not be easy as the US is likely to try and sabotage that path, as non-alignment tacitly challenges US hegemony.
We still ask if 80 years ago they (ordinary Germans) knew?
Tuesday, October 29th, 2024Watch this and ask yourself if you know:
Varieties of capitalism and societal happiness: theory and empirics
Wednesday, September 25th, 2024This paper investigates the impact of different varieties of capitalism (VoC) on societal happiness. It begins with a critique of Neoclassical welfare economics which emphasizes Pareto optimality, and it argues for focusing on reported societal happiness. The paper identifies five VoC. Using a sample of twenty-six high-income countries drawn from the 2020 World Happiness Report, the paper shows societal happiness is systematically impacted by variety of capitalism type. Social Democratic economies report higher happiness levels. The US benefits from its standing as global economic hegemon, but it still reports lower happiness than Liberal and Social Democratic economies owing to its adverse societal relations. The public policy implication is the Social Democratic variety of capitalism produces greater societal happiness. More generally, happiness analysis can fill a gap in VoC theory and strengthen it by providing an operational form of welfare analysis. Making happiness the focus of attention will also likely change how economists interpret economies, which stands to change both economic theory and policy.
Neoliberalism and the Drift to Proto-Fascism: Political and Economic Causes of the Crisis of Liberal Democracy
Saturday, September 7th, 2024Neoliberalism is a political economic philosophy consisting of two claims, one economic and the other political. The economic claim is laissez-faire is the best way to organize economic activity as it generates efficient outcomes that maximize well-being. The political claim is free markets promote individual liberty. This article argues both claims are problematic. The evidence from the Neoliberal era shows Neoliberalism has undercut shared prosperity and unleashed illiberal forces that threaten liberty. The article distinguishes between the first political turn which established Neoliberal political hegemony, and the second political turn toward proto-fascism now underway. The second turn is being driven by a collection of factors which have created a demand for proto-fascism and weakened the defenses against alt-right ideas. Those factors include socio-economic disembedding, institutional destruction and political disembedding, increased economic inequality that tilts political power, transformation of attitudes to government and governance, transformation of economic identity, and behavioral transformation that celebrates sociopathic egotism. The Third Way’s capture of center-left politics means liberal elites occupy the political place that should be held by true opponents of Neoliberalism. Those elites obstruct the politics needed to reverse the deep causes of the drift to proto-fascism. Ironically, that makes them a real danger.
Keywords: Neoliberalism, proto-fascism, disembedding, inequality, identity, behavior