According to mainstream thinking, economic slumps are caused by various shocks. This means that these slumps are caused by unexpected events, which by implication are not known beforehand. Obviously if causes behind various shocks cannot be known in advance, it makes sense to look at various symptoms of the emerging economic slump. Based on the symptoms, experts could introduce measures to prevent the economy from declining into an economic recession.
Though rarely stated the nuclear family—as opposed to the extended family or clan—played a seminal role in the growth of Western capitalism. Success in a modern economy requires us to trust strangers and think creatively. These traits were nurtured by the individualistic ethos of the medieval nuclear family. Not only were nuclear families, child-centered, but there was no obligation for parents to provide children with an inheritance. As such, children were motivated to plan long-term and work hard.
Many socialists think that protectionism benefits the poor. But these views deviate from the free trade tradition that can be found in some corners of socialist thought. Like liberal economists in the nineteenth century, some socialists also argued that protectionism served the interests of corrupt entrepreneurs. The forgotten contribution of socialists to the free trade tradition is clearly fleshed out in an article titled “Marx and Manchester: The Evolution of the Socialist International Free-Trade Tradition, c.1846-1946,” featured in The International History Review.
In recent years, there’s been a movement among the American Left to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. This is under the assumption that having a minimum wage helps workers and makes corporations pay their fair share. However, this is the opposite effect of a minimum wage, especially one that high. It keeps low-skilled (often black or other ethnic minority) workers from finding employment, forcing them to depend on government, and leads to closures of small businesses (especially black-owned businesses) which benefits corporations.
Despite President Biden’s criticism of virtually every aspect of the U.S. establishment he has long been a part of, and whose policies he frequently played a principal part in authoring, as well as his stated intention of enacting sweeping reforms during his presidency, one part of the U.S. establishment is clearly safe from any such revisitation or revision: the military industrial complex.
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US senator Elizabeth Warren claimed last week that bitcoin uses too much electricity. In doing so, she makes a judgment about the “correct” amount of electricity use. But it raises the question of who is entitled to make such a judgment.
A common rhetorical tactic is to change the definition of a key word in a debate to fit a preferred conclusion. This tactic is now being used by President Biden and other lawmakers in support of an anticipated $2 trillion infrastructure bill they are expected to propose by arguing that the definition of “infrastructure” should be expanded to include anything remotely connected to the economy.
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