22/04/2019

Les excédents commerciaux de l'Allemagne ... nous imposent l'austérité via l'euro

Pourquoi les erreurs européennes dans le traitement de la crise financière de 2008 sont les racines de la guerre commerciale entre les Etats-Unis et l’UE...

Lire... 

26/09/2018

Reinventing liberalism for the 21st century



IN SEPTEMBER 1843 James Wilson, a hatmaker from Scotland, founded this newspaper the Economist. His purpose was simple: to champion free trade, free markets and limited government. They were the central principles of a new political philosophy to which Wilson adhered and to which The Economisthas been committed ever since. That cause was liberalism.
Today liberalism is a broad faith—far broader than it was to Wilson. It has economic, political and moral components on which different proponents put different weights. With this breadth comes confusion. Many Americans associate the term with a left-wing belief in big government; in France it is seen as akin to free-market fundamentalism. But whatever version you choose, liberalism is under attack.    Read on...

07/01/2018

Mario Vargas Llosa: Confessions d'un libéral

Point de vue. En Europe et en Amérique latine, assumer son libéralisme est source de raillerie. L'écrivain Mario Vargas Llosa ose le revendiquer.

Afin d'expliquer ma position politique, je crains qu'il ne suffise pas de dire que je suis un libéral. Le terme lui-même suscite une première complication. Selon la personne qui l'utilise et l'endroit où elle le prononce, le mot « libéral » revêt des significations différentes.

07/11/2017

Barnaby, better to walk before we run | Bill Mitchell


Today I have been thinking about the macroeconomics textbook that Randy Wray and I are writing at present. We hope to complete it in the coming year. I also get many E-mails from readers expressing confusion with some of the basic national income concepts that underpin modern monetary theory (MMT). In recent days in the comments area, we have seen elaborate examples from utopia/dystopia which while interesting fail the basic national income tests of stock-flow consistency. Most of the logic used by deficit terrorists to underscore their demands for fiscal austerity are also based on a failure to understand these fundamental principles. So once again I provide a simple model to help us organise our thoughts and to delve into the elemental concepts. It is clear that in order to come to terms with more complicated aspects of MMT, one has to “walk before they can run”. So its back home today. Read on...

And more reading on this:
  1. A simple "business card" economy or where business cards are the money.
  2. What causes mass unemployment?
    Functional finance and modern monetary theory
     
     

06/11/2017

Nouvelle théorie monétaire


La nouvelle théorie de la monnaie se base sur le fait que monnaie fiduciaire, dans un pays, peut désormais être souveraine et non attachée à aucune autre unité de valeur, physique comme l'or, ou une monnaie de référence comme le dollar, ou un panier de monnaies. Les états peuvent ainsi produire toute la monnaie qu'ils veulent pour faire fonctionner leur économie, dans la limite des ressources disponibles, et selon la volonté de leur population décidée par voie démocratique. Ce peut être une société avec un état minimum, ou une société avec un état plus gros et plus redistributeur de richesse ou carrément un état socialiste. Suite...

03/11/2017

A land of plenty: New-Zealand after the end of World War II


This excellent film documents capital's opposition to full employment in New-Zealand promised  to those who served in WWII and the subsequent abandonment of that  employment guarantee.

A propos du revenu universel, solution à la crise économique et de l'emploi. Job guarantee - Wikipedia

A job guarantee (JG) is an economic policy proposal aimed at providing a sustainable solution to the dual problems of inflation and unemployment. Its aim is to create full employment and price stability, by having the state promise to hire unemployed workers as an employer of last resort (ELR).[1]
The economic policy stance currently dominant around the world uses unemployment as a policy tool to control inflation; when cost pressures rise, the standard monetary policy carried out by the monetary authority (central bank) tightens interest rates, creating a buffer stock of unemployed people, which reduces wage demands, and ultimately inflation. When inflationary expectations subside, these people will get their jobs back. In Marxian terms, the unemployed serve as a reserve army of labor. By contrast, in a job guarantee program, a buffer stock of employed people (employed in the job guarantee program) provides the same protection against inflation without the social costs of unemployment, hence potentially fulfilling the dual mandate of full employment and price stability.[1]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_guarantee

02/11/2017

Welcome to heteconomist: MMT and the Crisis | heteconomist

The global economic crisis, and government policy responses to it, have sparked controversy and debate. Many claim that the deficit expenditures undertaken in countries such as the US and Japan will impose higher tax rates and interest rates on future generations, and some fear a collapse in the dollar and runaway inflation. The problems faced by Greece, Ireland, Spain and other vulnerable members of the European Monetary Union are interpreted as omens of the fate about to befall the US and other nations unless fiscal austerity is imposed and public debt dramatically reduced. Read more...

27/09/2016

The Failure of Multiculturalism | l'échec du multiculturalisme

Thirty years ago, many Europeans saw multiculturalism— the embrace of an inclusive, diverse society—as an answer to Europe’s social problems. Today, a growing number consider it to be a cause of them. That perception has led some mainstream politicians, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to publicly denounce multiculturalism and speak out against its dangers. It has fueled the success of far-right parties and populist politicians across Europe, from the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands to the National Front in France. And in the most extreme cases, it has inspired obscene acts of violence, such as Anders Behring Breivik’s homicidal rampage on the Norwegian island of Utoya in July 2011.

«La France périphérique» de Christophe Guilluy: la géographie est un sport de combat | Slate.fr



Avec La France périphérique, publié à la mi-septembre, Christophe Guilluy reprend la croisade qu’il a entamée il y a plus de dix ans avec la publication de l’Atlas des nouvelles fractures sociales avec Christophe Noyé, et poursuivie en solo en 2010 avec un court essai, Fractures françaises, qui avait largement inspiré les termes du débat de la campagne présidentielle de 2012, comme la fameuse «fracture sociale» avait été au centre de celle de 1995.
Depuis une vingtaine d’années, ce consultant spécialiste de l’analyse territoriale, géographe de formation, sillonne le pays de mission en conférence, en marge du milieu universitaire. Il est devenu en quelques années l’un des experts les plus écoutés des élus et de leurs collaborateurs dans les territoires, mais aussi l'un des auteurs les plus controversés dans les disciplines de la géographie et de la sociologie urbaines, ce qu'on appelle parfois les urban studies.