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Created
Mon, 16/06/2025 - 23:22
Behavioral models often take as a starting point a standard economic model and reinterpret the model as a description how the person thinks and feels. Next, an (often compelling) case is made that many of the assumptions are unrealistic because humans cannot perform the difficult mental tasks embodied in the formalism. The mistake or bias […]
Created
Mon, 16/06/2025 - 22:00

“The leaders of the Group of 7 nations—Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States—now will have to confront the fallout from another war in the Middle East: increased instability, surging oil prices and the possibility that Iran will respond with new terror attacks around the world.”
New York Times

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In preparation for this year’s summit, we, the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, had an extremely chill, productive, and in no way tense meeting a couple of weeks ago in Banff, Alberta, and we just want to reassure the global community that, no matter what you may have heard, everything is great. Smooth sailing. Couldn’t be better.

Created
Mon, 16/06/2025 - 18:04
Since we began the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) project in the mid-1990s, many people have asserted (wrongly) that the analysis we developed only applies to the US because it is considered to be the reserve currency. That status, the story goes, means that it can run fiscal deficits with relative impunity because the rest of…
Created
Mon, 16/06/2025 - 07:29

“We’re back,” I tell the room. It’s January 21, 2029, and I can barely contain my excitement. “America is back!” I expect applause, but there is none. I try again, louder this time. “After four long years, America is finally back! We’re ready to resume our international obligations!” The members of the U.N. Human Rights Council are looking in every direction — except at me. I feel a tug on the sleeve of my suit jacket. I glance down and note that the representative from Morocco is passing me a slip of paper. All I see are numbers. “This is… a bill?” She nods. “Your international obligations.” “Fifty-two billion dollars?” “Four years of non-payment of U.N. contributions.  We rounded it... Read more

Created
Mon, 16/06/2025 - 07:22

It was all the fault of Scandinavian social democracy. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Sweden became a global centre for music piracy largely through a perfect storm of universal and high quality broadband, well-funded music education, and assertive personal privacy laws. Something had to be done. Record industry CEOs talked about the Nordic […]