James K. Galbraith has published a very eye-opening article Dismal Economics. I was almost discouraged from signing up for a free subscription that allowed me to see a couple of articles a month on Project Syndicate. Here is the introduction.

Although neoclassical economics relies on assumptions that should have been discarded long ago, it remains the mainstream orthodoxy. Three recent books, and one older one, help to show why its staying power should be regarded as a scandal.

He then goes on to review 4 books. There are so many revelations in this article, that I cannot quote them all. One of the first ones I came to is:

It was this latter group that shifted the discipline’s focus from social classes (landlords, capitalists, workers) to individual units (households, firms) and declared that these units interacted to maximize not “surplus” but “utility” and efficiency. The marginalists also introduced a “sophisticated” mathematical technique to the field: namely, the differential calculus, with which one can show that maximum efficiency is reached when firms are small and competitive, as this tends to reduce profits to zero.

He then goes on to criticize some of what I have always considered to be bêtes noires of Economics, but even criticizes some of my idols. The critique of my idols has opened my eyes to things about them that I have missed noticing before.

I am going to have to decide which of these books to read first,

Mason Gaffney and Fred Harrison, The Corruption of Economics, Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers Ltd., 2006 (first published 1994).
Stephen A. Marglin, Raising Keynes: A Twenty-First-Century General Theory, Harvard University Press, 2021.
Alessandro Roncaglia, The Age of Fragmentation: A History of Contemporary Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Robert Skidelsky, What’s Wrong with Economics?: A Primer for the Perplexed, Yale University Press, 2020.

The socialist programs pay for things that do not make money by themselves, but they build the infrastructure that the capitalism in our society needs to grow the economy. One benefit of socialism is that it provides what the economy needs despite the fact that no single private company can make a profit from these activities.

China’s economy is growing so fast not because they are cheating. It’s just that China is making the investments that the USA refuses to make. China is industrializing while the USA de-industrializes. What actually wise capitalist thinks that our de-insdustrialization is good for the society as a whole? They all know that it is the most profitable path for individual companies in the short term. In the long term, after all value has been sucked out of USA companies, there will only be a tiny, shrunken USA economy.

What the USA is doing has been likened to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

For anybody who thinks they read in the above paragraphs any support for the lack of democracy in China, the truth is that what you think you read is a fantasy of your own mind. Just because I support investing in infrastructure like China does, in no way means I support everything else that China does. Don’t let your hot head make you see things in my post that are not there.

I can actually tell the difference between what I like, and what I don’t like. I wish more people had that ability.

Bernie Sanders explained the purpose of his reconciliation efforts.

In the midst of the many long-ignored crises that our budget reconciliation bill is attempting to address, let’s be completely honest: we will not have one Republican senator voting for it. Tragically, many Republican leaders in Congress and around the country are just too busy continuing to lie about the 2020 presidential election, undermining democracy by suppressing voting rights, denying the reality of climate change, and casting doubts about the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines. That is their focus at this moment.

That means that the 50 Democrats in the US Senate, plus the vice-president, will have to pass this most consequential piece of legislation alone. And that’s what we will do. The future of working families is at stake. The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. That is my focus at this moment.

Now is the time.

This effort will take the inflation pressure off of our current path. The Federal Reserve is pumping trillions of dollars into the economy in a futile effort to prevent a stock market and economic crash. The money is mostly going to the rich who boost stock prices by insisting corporations buy back their shares. None of this increases the productive capacity of our economy. If we were to shift that money creation intro investments in the productive capacity of the economy, then the economy would actually grow with the money pumped in.. With the current policy, the economy is shrinking while the money gets pumped in.. This is what leads to inflation.

Are we going to stand for Democrats not backing Bernie on this? How could any consideration be more important than this?