This essay is about the polycrisis, whereby the global order is afflicted by simultaneous crises impacting economics, politics, societal relations, geopolitics, and nature. The essay uses the metaphor of “bad apples” versus “bad barrel” to explain the argument. The “bad apples” explanation views the polycrisis as a series of idiosyncratic crises, and it leaves the free market ideal intact and absolves capitalism. The “bad barrel” explanation sees the polycrisis as being systemically produced, and it contests the free market ideal and identifies capitalism as the driving cause. The Neoliberal era (1980 – present) has surfaced the polycrisis, and the crisis openly revives Luxemburg’s question of “socialism or barbarism?” There is much to be done if society is to avoid a repeat of barbarism. That includes persuasively explaining capitalism’s flaws, articulating the future of socialism, and breaking the chokehold on politics that blocks surfacing these issues. The Chinese proverb is “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That is true, but we should also seek to ensure the first step is in the right direction. Acknowledging the polycrisis and recognizing it is a product of capitalism’s “bad barrel” does both.
Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
Capitalism and the polycrisis: bad apples or bad barrel?
Saturday, July 11th, 2026Argentina’s labor reform: back to the past
Friday, January 30th, 2026The research note below is by my friend, Argentine economist Rubén Lo Vuolo. There are two features I especially value about it: (1) It shows it is a myth that the era of Neoliberalism is over and retreating. (2) Lo Vuolo’s “language” is analytically accurate and powerful, and it is strikingly different from that of progressive advocates and economists here (in the US & Europe).
“Warren Buffett, one of the most renowned billionaire financiers in the world, is well known: “Of course there is a class struggle, but it is my class – the class of the rich – that is waging this war. And we are winning it.” The labor reform project promoted by the Argentine Executive Branch is proof of this. It is not something new, much less something modern as it is claimed, but one more link in a process that seeks to take labor relations back to the nineteenth century to submit the labor force to the designs of the capitalist class.”
The environmental crisis is driven by class interest
Thursday, December 18th, 2025Below is a link to an article by Argentine political economist Rubén Lo Vuolo on the environmental crisis in Argentina. He forcefully links the crisis with class interest. In my view, that is how it must be situated and analyzed, and that is the only way we will succeed in reining it in. Unfortunately, that framing of the crisis is insufficiently articulated in much heterodox analysis, especially of the Post Keynesian variety.
Latin America is one of the regions most affected by extreme weather events, registers the highest number of crimes against planetary health defenders, and uses collective natural resources for the benefit of affluent minorities. The Argentine government is a promoter and accomplice of these demonstrably harmful actions.
How the IMF and US helped loot and entrap Argentina with debt
Monday, October 13th, 2025Argentina is back in the news with renewed financial turmoil spurred by President Milei’s poor political standing. That poor standing is the product of anger with Argentina’s dire economic performance and massive corruption within Milei’s administration, and it augurs poorly for his party’s performance in the forthcoming October 2025 election.
In response, the IMF and US have jumped into action to save Milei’s government. The IMF had already provided a $20 billion bailout in April 2025. Now, the US government has provided another $20 billion (in the form of a central bank currency swap line). Furthermore, the US has expressed willingness to provide additional stand-by credit and even purchase Argentine government debt.
The media has focused on Argentina’s long troubled financial history, the difficult inflation situation President Milei inherited, and President Trump’s political affinity with Milei. However, that fails to explain why the IMF and US have provided such huge assistance to Argentina, given its lack of credit worthiness.
The support for Milei should be understood as a continuation of past lending to Presidents Macri (2015-2019), and Menem (1989-1999). The purpose is to entrench Neoliberalism in Argentina and entrap it with dollar debt. It is supported by local elites because they are the beneficiaries of Neoliberalism, and they also get to loot the Argentine state via the process of debt entrapment.
(more…)Post Keynesian economics today: would Antonio Gramsci be cancelled?
Friday, August 8th, 2025This summer I have been reading selections from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. The Gramscian construct of cultural hegemony is brilliantly insightful and something every political economist should be aware of. The notebook entries are also very akin to blogs in construction and length.
Given my recent suspension by the Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES) for posting an announcement of an article on the political economic impacts of the Ukraine war (“The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly”), that has prompted me to wonder if Gramsci would have also been banned had he posted his notebook entries from his prison cell? Sadly, the answer seems to be “Yes”.
(more…)The Kuznets curve versus cycles: rethinking the determination and long-run evolution of income distribution
Thursday, August 7th, 2025This paper presents a theory and model of long-run cycles in income inequality. The model explains the historical pattern of income distribution identified by Kuznets (1955) and Piketty (2014). It breaks with conventional marginal product theory which claims functional income distribution is determined by the technological conditions of production. Instead, it emphasizes the role of socio-political forces that shape and drive fluctuations in the level of popular political organizations, which then impact distribution. That impact includes assessment and attribution of productivity contributions. The model provides a framework for interpreting the historical evolution of income distribution and inequality, and for reflecting on current conditions and possible future developments. The core message is twofold. First, socio-political developments matter for income distribution. Second, if those developments are cyclical, income distribution will also exhibit cyclicality.
For 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 may 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…)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