What is Old School Economics?
2024-09-27
The phrase “old school economics” is often used positively or approvingly by many, but is rarely explained. What is this school and where is it located? You can be sure that it is not what is taught in most college classrooms today. It’s definitely not Keynesian or Marxist economics. But what is it?I often hear the phrase “old school economics” in response to, for example, a government bureaucrat who says we need to increase unemployment to fight inflation, or when some mainstream financial commentator says, “bad news is good news” where the bad news is for workers and taxpayers but is good news for Wall Street or government. Politicians and left-wing economists will often say “a weak dollar is good for the economy” or that “we” need to borrow and spend our way out of the economic mess
Reich vs Reality: Free Markets Work Best
2024-07-25
Robert Reich recently asserted that “free markets” aren’t neutral or free, are actually shaped by those who wield power. Reich believes that government powers have been subverted by private interests- this part of his analysis is actually true in many cases. Reich hopes for some sort of miracle whereby countervailing government powers will work in the public interest to suppress greedy monopolists- this part of his analysis is delusional and dangerous.Reich ignores the reality that governmental involvement in the economy of each nation varies. Some countries, like North Korea, have government run economies. Other nations, like Taiwan and Ireland, have far less governmental involvement in their economies. Scholars in several think tanks have estimated the degree of economic