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The 21st Century Economy–A Beginner’s Guide (Vintage)

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The 21st Century Economy–A Beginner’s Guide (Vintage)

• ISBN13: 9780307387905
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A comprehensive guide to understanding today’s global economy from the author of the bestselling A Beginner’s Guide to the World Economy.

While reporting on today’s world, business and mainstream media alike use terms and mention trends that even the savviest consumer may find baffling. In his latest book, Randy Charles Epping uses compelling narratives and insightful analogies to clearly and concisely explain the rapidly changing way business is done in the twenty-first century, without

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Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse

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Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse

• ISBN13: 9781596985872
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• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

If you are fed up with Washington boondoggles, and you like the small-government, politically-incorrect thinking of Ron Paul, then you’ll love Tom Woods’s Meltdown. In clear, no-nonsense terms, Woods explains what led up to this economic crisis, who’s really to blame, and why government bailouts won’t work. Woods will reveal:* Which brave few economists predicted the economic fallout–and why nobody listened
* What really caused the collapse
* Why the Fed–not taxpayers–should have to an

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How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes

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How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes

How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes uses illustration, humor, and accessible storytelling to explain complex topics of economic growth and monetary systems. In it, economic expert and bestselling author of Crash Proof, Peter Schiff teams up with his brother Andrew to apply their signature “take no prisoners” logic to expose the glaring fallacies that have become so ingrained in our country?s economic conversation. Inspired by How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn?t?a previously publis

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Economy, high travel costs keep some Wisconsin fans away

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Economy, high travel costs keep some Wisconsin fans away
The poor economy and high Labor Day weekend travel costs probably kept some Wisconsin fans away from the UNLV game this year, but Sam Boyd Stadium still was just about 4,000 short of a sellout, school officials said.
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Economy 101: Jobless Rate Widens for Black Workers
Economy 101: Rising unemployment hits some workers harder as job seekers flood into the market Unemployment – Employment – Business and Economy – Job Search – Canada
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Obama: Economy Better Off After Efforts- YOU DECIDE: What the Fix?
Faced with an economy that won’t kick into gear, President Obama nonetheless took to the airwaves Saturday, telling Americans — particularly the middle class — they’d be worse off without his economic policies.
Read more on Fox News

Crisis in World Economy and the Proposed New Model for Sustainable Development

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Crisis in World Economy and the Proposed New Model for Sustainable Development

Crisis in World Economy and the proposed New Model for sustainable development.

The ongoing turmoil in world economy raised the doubt that present model of capitalism cannot be sustained for environmental and social reasons. Respected thinkers and scientists have pointed to this reality. Now we should look ahead to a new system that is sustainable and humane. Otherwise whatever wealth is created would be wiped out by environmental disasters and social upheavals. Whole system is complicated by lack of transparency. It is not clear where all the money gets invested. Hedge funds are cloaked in secrecy- even bailout money has disappeared with no effect to the economy. Even now nobody knows which are the real bad toxic assets, so stock market is also not recovering.

In this treatise some key issues in this crisis are discussed and a new  model is proposed that will engineer a balanced global society  globally conscious, active and sustainable.   

Regarding overpaid CEOs

Let us ponder over some news those captured the attention across the globe. Washington Mutual Chief Executive Alan Fishman could walk away with more than 18 million dollar in salary, bonuses and severance after less than three weeks on the job as golden parachute from flight WaMu in danger, according to the terms of his employment agreement. Lehman Brothers was handing out 23 million dollar to three executives just days before it collapsed. It paid 2.5 BILLION dollar bonus fund after failing. CEO of American Express saw his pay go up much more than double although shares price nosedived. Hewlett Packard CEO destroyed half the wealth of her investors and yet still earned almost 100 million dollars in total payments. Exactly same is the case with Informix Software CEO. The list goes on and on. It means what?  This isn’t a diatribe against CEO pay. Point is failure has become a recipe for financial success of CEOs especially in America by virtue of their intelligent manipulation and abuse of power.  Martin Whitman, economist and the great advocate of capitalism opined that apart from corruption another reason as to why a free market situation is probably doomed to failure is very exorbitant levels of executive compensation.

 Regarding free-market economy

I do not think free market is really free. Those who say they favor a free market are speaking in a relative term.  In an absolutely free-market economy, all capital, goods, services, and money flow are unregulated by the government. There is simply no free market yet, given the degree of state intervention in even the most capitalist of countries. For example US government took an 80% stake in AIG in return for an 85 billion dollar investment to save the company. Recent news of Citi bank is being given a bail out package of 326 billion dollars and Jaguarâ??s requirement of 1 billion pound for sustaining economic meltdown are significant. Under pure capitalist theory, none of these actions should’ve been taken; the government should have stood by idly while the economy tanked. So how can a free market be free if it’s regulated?  The fall out of free market economy such as black Market, underground economy, Drug trade essentially justifies governmentâ??s intervention to remedy the situation and establishes the argument against free market as an impractical ideal that engenders vested wealthy interests. Experiments in absolute adherence to free market principles evince signal failures in Military, Road, Health Care, Civic Amenities, Education, R & D etc. Free- market economy is a fantasy – outside of the bounds of reality in a complex system with opposing interests and different distributions of wealth. Time and again world is realizing this fact is a harder way. Hence I align with those critics who are in favour of a planned economy  as advocated by socialism and who associate markets with greed  as the basis of capitalism. I believe it is inherently immoral. More over one practical objection is that free market economy does not take into account the externalities i.e. effects of transactions that affect third parties, such as the negative effects of Global Warming that brought world to Apocalypse in foreseeable future. I guess that in well-run industrial economies like Japan, Singapore and China, there is marriage between government and the private sector, each benefiting from the other. Any temporary prosperity on an extremely austere free market concept can crumble like a pack of cards, like it happened in USA.

Regarding Nationalisation and regulation.

 What does the US federal government taking control of financially crumbling mortgage holders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a bail out package of staggering 800 billion?  Why on the earth Fed and other regulators are coming into the picture particularly for some of those that got overextended with the subprime and other kind of mortgage debt? Nationalization occurs when full or partial control is taken of private financial institutions, usually to avert a crisis. Scandinavian nations successfully averted an economic meltdown through nationalization in the early 1990s, and in recent times. US government is taking similar actions. It looked at the global fallouts and how politically they will be viewed by the world powers. So they bailed out finance industries, but not agreeing so easily to the auto industry. these issues are interlinked with power, military, oil.

 Regarding mortgage financing

It was the proponents of Capitalism who supported advantage of loan facilities and low interest rates for houses to be owned by people at low income group. There was enormous marketing effort to dupe people into it.  Logic was simple. If one buys house, he will also buy complimentary household goods like furniture, Fans, AC, Cars etc. creating a demand pull in the economy. Banks also extended the moratorium on interest and principle up to 5 years to convince the borrowers. When crisis occurs, should we brand common people as â??lazy bummersâ?? Similarly it is unfair to blame the common investors for lost speculative fortune when Stock Market is institutionalized by system as a socially and ethically valid means of income.

Regarding targeting CEOs

In our capitalist system, you’re free to earn what you can, and what the market will bear- this logic does not hold water since big companies are increasingly depending on public money for a bail out. Hence I support newest trend of shareholders in raising questions and putting pressure on boards and compensation committees to make sure compensation is fair but not excessive. The interesting News was that US Law Makers asked blunt questions to CEOs like Wagoner, Nardelli, Mulally of GM, Chrysler and Ford who came to the Capital Hill with a begging bowl for 25 Billion of Tax Payers money, when each one of them preferred to fly in their individual Private Jets, when as many as 24 non stop flights fly daily from Detroit to Washington. Lifestyle and salary should definitely be a valid question when companies are using public money. That is why companies are facing “say on pay” resolutions from shareholders. The board of directors should have taken this role, but instead they normally abdicate it. Most CEOs considers keeping board members happy as their primary duties. For example taking the board members on an all-expenses paid trip to a five-star international resort, allowing his compensation to spiral out of control, which is nothing but intelligent corruption and abuse of power.

Myth regarding the CEOsâ?? â??sheer value-addâ?? in the corporate world.

For a company to become successful entails billions of variables, which are oftentimes beyond the ambit of human ability of one individual. Even with our full regard on Narayanmurthyâ??s ability, we must accept Infosisâ??s success was primarily on account of flattening effect of world by Internet revolution in 92.  Jerry Yang, co founder of Yahoo, considered to be a great CEO, had to step down amid mounting pressure from investors after he botched takeover talks with Microsoft Corp. and failed to broker an online advertising agreement with Google Inc. Many CEOs were rated highly for certain techno bubble, which turned out to be utterly divorced from any business purpose whatsoever. Of course there is positive effect too- it attracts lot of investment and accelerates the pace of innovation. The trophy cases of HP CEO with so many industry awards and accolades were crucified for her destructive reign of terror with “Silicon Valley greed.” Hence it is fundamentally wrong to empower one individual so much for the success and failure of an organization. In Japanese and Chinese model, system is ascribed more powerful than an individual.  Once CEOs become all-powerful, their executive staff is reluctant to challenge them. Instead, the natural tendency is for these dominant leaders to become cocooned from reality. They are told only what they want to hear and hear only what they want to be told. Sequestered from the rest of the company, they lose the pulse of the business eventually.

Regarding Capitalism vs. Socialism

By virtue of the extremely clever indoctrination, a spin-off of media advertising especially of US kind, our thought process is getting clouded driving us towards more personal interest, freedom and power than social responsibility. Do we really need large waves of money sloshing daily around the planet for benefit of only a few, waves often generated by speculation capable of dislocating economies? Do we need larger and larger corporations which concentrate economic power into fewer and fewer hands? When seen in this light, capitalism has a shadow side. Economy in its root sense means acquiring the basic material things we need to lead a human life: food, shelter, energy, etc. But this is something quite different than a quest for a so-called higher standard of living. This really is the unending quest for a higher level of consumption. Our material needs are finite. After a certain point we are simply embellishing them. Then we begin to distort them making them the carriers of our own disordered desires.  Recent news of bra and panty for men in Japan is the right example for such disorder. We need shelter but we don’t need 50,000 square feet trophy homes when billions of people canâ??t even afford a shanty. Now we are living in a time when we donâ??t even feel shame. We have become so much closeted within ourselves that even with the back up of enormous fortune, we feel unsafe with the slightest possibility of economic meltdown.  Capitalism propels us to become shameless consumers and run our lives according to the design of the contemporary social machine, which foreshadows world destruction, whereas our true nature favours a life closer to nature. If American Capitalism is a kind of religion with its own dogma, then its God is Money and its driving force is Greed.  The fall out of this ruthless system is obscenities of unemployment, homelessness and economic insecurity and hence is not sustainable in its present form. The whole system is designed to make fewer and fewer people richer and richer at the cost of resources of the multitude. It definitely operates below the level of consciousness and no longer works for us.  I understand one very simple thing â?? goods and services generated in an economy must be shared equitably in a population. Otherwise those who will be deprived will take resort to unethical or socially unacceptable means- theft, dacoity, terrorism, drug, killing, cheating, narrow politics and what not.   Recent examples of everyday terrorism, Piracy, Mao attacks, dark killing are the pointers to this fact.   

Even in USA people are facing dark side of capitalism when blue collar Americans have been losing jobs because of outsourcing and off shoring in the mask of progress for real intention of more profit.  What is the social damage? Skills for manufacturing a certain product developed over the years are getting lost in the society.  Capitalist countries use capitalist ideals as a matter of convenience.  When Government owns hospitals, libraries, transportation systems, utilities, army, Navy, Air Force, forests and national perks- yet, who would call these institutions examples of socialism?  Socialism means a government in which the people collectively own and democratically operate the industries and social services through an economic democracy by ending the waste, duplication and inefficiency of capitalist industries. Under capitalism the industries operate for one purpose â?? profit maximization. As per Capitalism profit is also a cost, cost of staying in the business. Under Socialism goods are produced for use and to satisfy the needs of all the people. Under this system everyone could live comfortably with no giant gaps between rich and poor. Is it not really humane? Just because a system is not strictly as per lower merits of human nature say greed, it should not be rejected. Socialism talks about higher sense of our human values and existence.  After Industrial resolution act 1956 in India, socialistic pattern of economy in India has produced wonderful developments in sectors till seventies. Hence we can infer that Socialistic system can produce wonderful results under certain conditions and social environment.  However I do agree classical form of Socialism may not take into account of the Individual brilliance and creative pursuit, which is probably its one of its weaknesses.

The New Model

Having said this, we should find out whether there can be a balance between the two systems and what kind of mechanism society should develop so that one can approximate the ideals of good life in his individual life and in the life of community of which he is a member. I feel it is possible to have our modern global economy while being socially, culturally & environmentally responsible at the same time. Society has go through a difficult paradigm shift in personal values, which will instill a degree of awareness in our mind as opposed to the blind, materialistic way we are living.

I have thought of one model that will engineer a balanced global society that is globally conscious, active and sustainable. Way out is to lead humanity by the collective wisdom of most talented people in a society or country- a kind of meritocracy.  Mechanism to harness collective wisdom will be -say for any policy and contentious issue, opinions of most eminent people of the country will be  collected by a network of computers and looking into the wisdom of eminent people who are most knowledgeable on the subject under consideration, decision can be made in real time. Their services can be hired at a cost; they can be selected based on the track record etc. Decisions can be taken in National forum if discussion and debate are warranted. Experiments, research and its implications can be interpreted by eminent people only and that is why collective wisdom as instrumentality for decision support system may be a model worth trying for. One may argue country does not need only dry knowledge culled from books. There must be leaders to make certain things happen. Yes leaders are required. But a leader can be chosen by collective wisdom, which should be supremely empowered. A leader will resort to collective wisdom for at least for major decision. The collective wisdom is likely to veer country to right direction. Humanity has to go though different experiments and whatever evolved as better model will be accepted and perfected in course of time. We should never be blind to state that capitalism or the socialism is the right system with dogmatic finality.

Essays on Political Economy

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Essays on Political Economy

This is a reprint of the 1869 first edition in English, which was translated from the Paris edition of 1869.

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Can Tax Cuts Help Improve The American Economy?

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Can Tax Cuts Help Improve The American Economy?

Writer:  Darren Ng

Op-Ed

Can Tax Cuts Help Improve the American Economy?

In this paper, I intend to pursue a discussion which fundamentally affirms the relative benefits of Senator Barack Obama’s plan to increase taxes, in view of the telling need to rescue the American economy, against the disadvantages of Senator John McCain’s proposal to push for tax reductions. I intend to take cue from the manner by which these two senators have capitalized on the current state of the American economy to proffer their respective views on the economy. Surely, the American people are a witness to the epic battle between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, especially in respect to the contrasting stance they took on thorny issue of tax levies; i.e., while Senator Obama has staunchly supported the concept of keeping the American economy afloat through a tax increase scheme, McCain has, on the other hand, espoused the more populist tax-reduction approach. Through this brief paper, I intend to prove that Senator Obama’s proposal to relatively increase taxes is what the American society needs right now, so as to restore the people’s confidence in the state of the economy.

I must admit that I am hardly surprised at all to see that Senator McCain’s proposal for tax cuts has been gleefully welcomed by a majority of the Americans, who feel that they are to become the direct beneficiaries of such a program. As far as McCain himself is concerned, he believes that by lowering taxes, he would be able to stimulate the economic trends of the country. In an article by a political reporter named Abdon Pallasch, she reports that according to Douglas Holz-Eakin, adviser to the McCain camp, the latter’s proposed tax policy is essentially a “job-first plan that keeps small businesses in the game” (SunTimes). But what McCain’s tax reduction scheme unfortunately undermines is no less than the wellbeing of the already battered American economy. I have reasons to believe McCain’s tax-cut scheme would end up benefiting the rich enterprises with large sum of money inasmuch as tax cuts would give them more money to invest more on than place their assets on commodity consumption and/or providing services. There is only a need to show why and how.

In order to explain why tax cuts would most probably not yield considerable benefits for the American economy, I find it appropriate to cite the principles which enable economist to measure the economic growth of a given country. Under normal circumstances, a country’s economy is measured by rate of its Gross Domestic Product – “the goods and services produced and consumed in the private, public, domestic and international sectors of the economy” (Frumkin 114).  And what determines the real expansion of GDP, according to The World Book Encyclopedia, can be summed in the following: private consumption, investment expenditures, government purchases and total value of exports. Put in other words, personal consumption and expenditures – i.e., for food, clothing, cars and household appliances – contribute directly to a given economy. Second, the expenditures of business enterprises, specifically when they spend for buildings, machineries and tools, also keep the economy robust. Third, the government’s public spending relative to education, healthcare or social services is also crucial. And last, the summary cost of a country’s export is likewise constitutive of real GDP growth and value (WBE 382).

I feel the need to further underscore the fact that financial investments – i.e., those investments placed in bonds, stocks or trust funds – by big businesses do not translate to real GDP growth rate and value. This is because they do not actually fall into the category of goods or services produced by a country. This is where I believe tax cut proposals fall short of stimulating a given economy. Since tax cuts proposals yield greater returns for big business than they do for average American families, then it is highly likely that these tax benefits shall be translated to financial investments, which in turn would leave the GDP growth as is. The academic entry from The World Book Encyclopedia is very crystal about the fact that “consumption” is a direct determinant of GDP growth. Without it, there can be no driving force to get the economy back in shape from a serious slump.  In fact, according to Kogan Richard – a critic of tax-reduction schemes – since “the economy expands so much as a result of tax cuts that it produces the same level of revenue as it would have without the tax cuts” (Kogan), then there is no point at going through the risky business of tax cuts that can leave the economy scathed from yet another crisis. And if tax cuts would not translate to real GDP growth, then we have all the more reasons to believe that the converse holds true – i.e., that increasing taxes can in fact stimulate the American economy; specifically, a relative increase in tax cuts can provide greater stimulus not only for private consumption, but even more so for public spending.

To this end, it would be insightful to look at the wisdom of Senator Obama’s economic roadmap. On the one hand, raising taxes may not look rosy for average Americans; but it certainly would give big corporations more reasons to spend for projects that may qualify them for tax incentives. This usually happens when they contribute a part of their revenues to funding certain projects, say construction of roads and schools, which would benefit the people in the long run. In the process, they could have these expenses lined up for tax exemptions. The point here is that increasing taxes would encourage, if not force big businesses to spend for goods and services. When they are spared from taxes, they would tend to keep their resources, and have them re-diverted to non-measurable financial investments. On the other hand, increasing taxes would also stimulate public spending – i.e., those types of spending entered into by the government on behalf of the people. This is because the continued inflow of tax levies would ensure that the greater American public would benefit from the government’s provision of basic services such as education, healthcare, and social services, among many notable others.

Now, since it would appear that Obama’s tax increase would benefit the American economy by way of stimulating large-scale private and public spending, I wish to therefore propose that, in order that the plan may not hurt average Americans, the government under the leadership of Barack Obama must implement a discriminate tax increase scheme. This means those big enterprises, as well as those who belong to the upper classes of the American society, are the ones to be levied with more taxes in the next few years. This is certainly far from being unfair. Instead, it would ensure that those who are capable of spending for goods and services are given welcome avenues to jumpstart the growth of the GDP.

For such reasons, I wish to briefly conclude that Obama’s tax plan – which is to increase taxes for the rich, and keep them the same for the rest – is the most viable solution for our battered economy right now. With a significant increase in taxation, the government can inspire large-scale spending so as to keep the economy afloat. Conversely, I strongly disagree in McCain’s tax cuts, as his proposal cannot promise to stimulate private or public spending on goods and services. In the final analysis, I find it imperative to remind the ever passionate Senator McCain of the fact that taxes constitute the backbone of the great American economy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Essays on Political Economy

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Essays on Political Economy

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

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