-
Archives
- September 2021
- August 2021
- February 2020
- April 2019
- March 2019
- December 2017
- November 2017
- July 2017
- January 2017
- November 2016
- May 2016
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- March 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- December 2010
-
Meta
Author Archives: pilkingtonphil
The Left-Wing Case For High Oil Prices
In a previous post I outlined the debate over whether speculation is playing a role in the oil market. While I didn’t really make a case there as to which side of the fence I fall on — although it … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy
Leave a comment
Oil Price Speculation: An Interesting Battle
Over the past decade or so a silent war has waged between sometimes obscure, and sometimes not so obscure, parties. The war is over what has caused the run-up, since 2003, of oil prices. I’d actually been fairly interested in … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Theory
1 Comment
Economics as Social Organisation: Why We Should All Be Relativists
What if all the world’s inside of your head Just creations of your own? Your devils and your gods All the living and the dead And you’re really all alone? You can live in this illusion You can choose to … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy, Psychology
Leave a comment
Keynes on Parts and Wholes
I never really liked doing jigsaw puzzles as I always found it a bit boring. But many people seem to find it a fascinating endeavor. Whatever you personally think of jigsaw puzzles, however, consider for a moment their aim and … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy, Psychology
5 Comments
Born Blind: Lars Syll, Uncertainty and the Question of Truth Versus Relativism
“Blindness” — by Muchanu Designs Lord Keynes over at the excellent Social Democracy for the 21st Century blog has drawn my attention to a series of posts by the Swedish Post-Keynesian economist Lars Syll on probability and economics. This is … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy, Psychology
13 Comments
What is a Liquidity Trap?
Perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a term in any language is that it loses completely its meaning and becomes a sort of floating signifier that can attach itself to any old nonsense. Such is the case today … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Theory
7 Comments
Fischer Black Redux: The Impossible Circularity of a Metaphysical Argument
In the last piece on Fischer Black we saw how he created, in his own mind, an entity called “noise” which, for him, explained all the shortcomings of the world. But such raises an important question: shortcomings in the face … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy, Psychology
Leave a comment
Fischer Black, Noise and the Encounter With The Trickster
In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. — Wikipedia Mathematics is often thought of … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy, Psychology
1 Comment
False Profit: How Paul Krugman’s Comments on Monopoly Distract From the Important Issues
Paul Krugman recently wrote a column for the New York Times in which he argued that profitability in contemporary capitalist firms in the US is presently coming from monopoly rent rather than from production. Krugman points to the growth of … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Theory
Leave a comment
Nazism and Neoliberal Mythmaking, Part III: The Descent into Primitivism
In the first two parts of this series we saw first of all how Germany after the Second World War needed a reconstruction myth to sweep away the horrors of the Nazi past and yet, at the same time, avoid … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Theory, Philosophy, Politics
1 Comment
Fixing the Economists 