I verkligheten är bostadsmarknaden otryggare. Arbetsmarknaden är osäkrare. Välfärdsstaten har försvagats. Klimatet förändras snabbt. Samtidigt är de geopolitiska spänningarna större än under kalla kriget. Allt detta påverkar såväl prisbilden som våra allmänna livsvillkor. För att inte tala om våra barns framtid. Mot denna bakgrund behöver vi fråga oss om det är rimligt att det är […]
economics
Given that economic pedagogy is unrealistic and that economic research and economics profession have lost credence and trust in solving the problems of people and planet, how can I as an instructor take a few classes for undergrads on the question as to what is the right way of pursuing knowledge and engaging responsibly with […]
Ninety years ago Keynes could congratulate Great Britain on finally having got rid of the biggest ”barbarous relic” of his time — the gold standard. He lamented that advocates of the ancient standard do not observe how remote it now is from the spirit and the requirement of the age … [T]he long age of […]
The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in […]
Behavioral economics is still ‘in a relationship’ with orthodox economics and, in a relationship, one makes compromises … We all know how stubborn the other side in this relationship is: standard economics will always ‘rationalize’ behavior wherever it can and will only recognize ‘irrationality’ when there is clear and convincing evidence of it. Understandably, behavioral […]
During the recent inflationary episode, the RBA relentlessly pursued the argument that they had to keep hiking interest rates, and then, had to keep them at elevated levels, well beyond any reasonable assessment of the situation, because wage pressures were set to explode. They claimed their business liaison panel was telling them that wages were…
Jonung är professor i nationalekonomi och borde vilja få igång hjulen i Sverige. Men istället ägnar han sig åt märklig historieskrivning. I en rad artiklar och föredrag (DN 8/5) menar han att socialdemokratin har förstört landet … 1980-talet, när vi börjar avreglera bankerna, var vi inte liberala, menar han. Liberalismen börjar, passande nog enligt Jonung, […]
Mercantilist ideas still resonate in current economic practices. Modern ‘management’ of exchange rates by governments, trying to steal a competitive advantage for exports and accumulate foreign exchange reserves, harks back to mercantilist notions of boosting exports to accumulate gold and silver. Tariffs, import quotas and other measures to control trade and support domestic enterprises are […]
Economic theory is built on equilibrium assumptions. Perhaps this term once connoted the rest point of a dynamic process. But in modern parlance, an equilibrium assumption posits a relation between the beliefs and behavior of different agents without explicitly describing a process which causes this relation to hold. Competitive equilibrium assumes prices clear markets, without […]