ارشيف Economic Sense

The Conflicting Economic Lessons of Amazon versus Tesla during the Corona Episode

Collectively, the net worth of the world's 500 richest people grew about $1.8 trillion last year, according to Bloomberg. Initial reports, in early October 2020, had said they got $813 billion richer. As it turns out, there is a TRILLION dollars more to that. Small potatoes! After all, what's a trillion dollars in the history of the [...]

Price Gouging and Profiteering Does NOT Exist According to Most Economists

  Raising prices of essentials prohibitively during emergencies or periods of crisis does not exist according to most economists.  The market is all about charging what the market will bear, according to them.  So if a retailer can charge $20 for a loaf of bread pending an imminent Corona virus lockdown, for example, then more power to [...]

Environmentalism, Corona Curfews, and the Poor: It’s the Economy, Stupid!

  Environmentalism, for all it’s worth, has always sounded stand-offish for the poor generally, and the poor in poorer countries particularly.  Where people need jobs, health, education, infrastructure, housing, and more than a subsistence wage, sounding off worries about endangered species, coral reefs, dolphins caught inadvertently in [...]

Billionaires Get About A Trillion Dollars Richer During 2020 with NO Trickle-Down Effect in Sight

According to Time on Oct. 6, 2020, "despite the global economic shock, the world’s 500 richest people are a combined $813 billion richer now than they were at the beginning of the year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index", and 2020 is not even over yet. The largest accumulation of wealth took place in the technology and [...]

Two Equations which May Help Explain Why Prices Rise and the US Dollar Appreciates in War-torn Countries under Siege.. Syria as a Case in Point

For people living in countries torn by war, then besieged by stifling sanctions, the issue of rising prices and depreciating local currencies is a very emotional subject which impinges on the very core of their livelihood and the livelihood of their families. Yet it is precisely such dire situations which require an objective understanding of [...]

Real versus Financial Capital: the Fundamental Disequilibrium Destabilizing the Macroeconomy Today

    Technically speaking, the capital value of a publicly-traded firm is equal to the value of its shares, i.e., the value of its market stock. For example, if company X has 1000 stocks (shares outstanding) in circulation, and each is worth $100, then the capital value of that little firm is worth $100,000 if someone wants to buy [...]

Imperialism without Colonies: Even More Relevant after All these Years

  "Imperialism without Colonies" is actually the title of a book by Harry Magdoff whose chapters were written in the sixties and the seventies of the twentieth century. However, the concept conveyed in that book of an imperialism that prefers not to undertake extended occupations has become ever more relevant with the passage of time. It [...]

A Neoclassical Approach to Surplus Value Theory

    Using standard neoclassical textbook microeconomics, one can show that surplus value emerges from consuming labor power by firms even under the strict conditions of perfect competition and diminishing returns to labor. Starting from the first-order conditions for maximizing a profit function, equilibrium in the labor market [...]

Nanotechnology: For Whom, against Whom?

  “Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Nanotechnology estimated at US $54.2 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$126.8 Billion by 2027” (Globe Newswire, July 15, 2020). Over the last couple of decades, nanotechnology products and devices have become ballooning multi-billion dollar markets. [...]

Mining Outer Space: The Moon is Open for Business

  This concerns mining outer space for precious minerals, like gold, silver, and platinum, as well as phosphorus, antimony, zinc, tin, lead, indium, and copper which are much needed for industrial and food production, and which are expected to be depleted on planet earth in the next 50 years (see "Earth's natural wealth: an audit" in New [...]

Will Robots Replace the Working Class in the not-so-distant future?

Over the last few years, robots have taken over hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and the services sector, primarily in the automotive, electrical, and electronics industries. The photo attached to this post shows a robot working in a hospital. According to one study in May 2020, " the number of robots in use worldwide multiplied [...]

Whatever Happened to the Aggregation Problem..

  One of the biggest challenges before neoclassical economics remains the so-called "aggregation problem" raised by Piero Sraffa and Joan Robinson decades ago which makes a production function for the whole economy highly untenable. The problem is that most neoclassical conclusions are based on a general production function for the whole [...]

Will Cryptocurrencies Undermine the Hegemony of the US Dollar and the International Banking System?

Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoins and kindred mint, are essentially computer programs that create "exchange value" in virtual space. Although the US dollar value of one bitcoin, as the predominant form of cryptocurrency, has been fluctuating wildly over the last few years (or even months and weeks), a bitcoin stands today at somewhere [...]

Is the Concept of Scarcity Compatible with the Knowledge Economy?

  To the extent economic growth nowadays is driven mainly by innovation embodied in human capital and technology, much more than it is driven by traditional factors of production, such as labor, land, and physical capital, the concept of scarcity itself is perhaps becoming increasingly outmoded. Whereas factors of production are expended [...]
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