In the U.S.
Liberation day
It’s not April Fool’s Day (1 April). But it might as well be, as later today U.S. President Donald Trump announces another barrage of tariffs on imports into the U.S. in what Trump calls ‘Liberation […]
Author: Michael Roberts
China
China’s Third Plenum directed toward quality growth and improved living standards
The Third Plenum of the Communist Party of China ended last week. The Third Plenum is a meeting of China’s Communist Party Central Committee, composed of 364 members, which discusses China’s economic policy for the […]
China
China’s unfair ‘overcapacity’
The recent nonsense issued by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on China’s ‘overcapacity’ and ‘unfair subsidies’ to its industries is particularly pathetic. As Renaud Bertrand put it: “The so-called threat of China’s ‘industrial overcapacity’ is […]
Around the world
Pakistan’s misery continues
Pakistan has a general election on 8 February. It will decide on the next government of the world’s fifth-most populous nation and the governments of its four provinces — Punjab, Singh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. […]
China
Xi meets Biden
This was the only second face-to-face meeting during the Biden presidency. It seems the aim was to clarify just how close the U.S. and China are to conflict over Taiwan and other security issues, as […]
Around the world
1.2% of adults have 47.8% of the world’s wealth while 53.2% have just 1.1%
Every year, I bring to the attention of readers of my blog the results of the latest Credit Suisse Wealth Report. It is produced by economists Anthony Shorrocks (with whom I graduated at university), James […]
Capitalist crisis
Food, trade and slumpflation
The latest measure of U.S. consumer price inflation for July actually showed an uptick in the year-on-year rate to 3.2% from 3% in June. That is mainly a result of comparison (‘base effects’, they are […]
Around the world
Britain’s royal rip-off
Today in Britain, King Charles III will be crowned in a ‘coronation’. All the other remaining monarchies in Europe (Scandinavia, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain) don’t bother with a coronation, but the British monarchy has had a […]
In the U.S.
The wage price spiral refuted
Do ‘excessive’ wage rises lead to rising inflation and thus drive economies into a wage-price spiral? Back in 1865, at the International Working Men’s Association, Marx debated with IWMA Council member Thomas Weston. Weston, a […]
Capitalism and Marxism
Life expectancy and human development in the 21st century
Life expectancy is one of the best measures of human development. In hunter-gather societies, on average, about 57-67% of children made it to 15 years. Then 79% of those 15-year-olds made it to 45 years. Finally, […]