Category: Economics

Peter Frase has an excellent post today about the way media outlets frame so-called labor shortages. According to theorists of the free market, when a certain employer or industry can no longer attract workers at a certain compensation level, that employer or industry needs to offer more compensation. There is no labor shortage in such… Continue reading The myth of jobs Americans wont do

Sara Horowitz wrote in favor of co-ops and mutualist enterprises at the Atlantic today. The thrust of her post is that co-ops can replace and improve upon current models of promoting the social good. In a sort of rebuttal, Matt Yglesias argues that increasing co-ops would reduce growth and increase inequality, something that he admits… Continue reading Co-ops can decrease inequality

Chris Dillow of Stumbling and Mumbling pulled the curtain back on the nature of unemployment under capitalism: capitalism requires that there be not just unemployment but that the unemployed be unhappy. I say so for three reasons: 1. Capitalism requires an excess supply of labour in order to bid down wage growth and industrial militancy.… Continue reading Unemployment is a structural problem in capitalism

Since Romney admitted earlier this week that his tax rate is around 15% because his income is primarily from capital gains, the capital gains tax debate has fired up again. The traditional argument for a low capital gains tax is that it is necessary to encourage investment, but this argument is not well-supported. When people… Continue reading The right-wing’s unjustified obsession with the capital gains tax

Mitt Romney has recently suffered attacks for his tenure as head of a buyout firm called Bain Capital. During Romney’s time there, Bain Capital purchased a number of struggling companies and laid off scores of workers in an effort to turn the companies around. This is, in essence, what buyout firms do. They take over… Continue reading Bain Capital and the social safety net