For financial journalists, pinpointing the source of the next meltdown is no easy task. The ones who did so pre-2008 were few. Yet today seems to be different. Read the business press and you'll get the impression there's a consensus as to the next recession trigger: profligate borrowing by corporations. The near-zero interest rates for much … Continue reading Sounding the Alarm on Sounding the Alarm on Corporate Debt
Category: Blog post
The Problem With The Child As Customer
Much of what Jeff Bezos does has been innovative; otherwise he wouldn't be the richest person on earth. But in other respects he's been a fairly conventional businessman. In his recent announcement that he'd be deploying around 1.2 percent of his current net worth to help homeless families and children, Bezos joined a long tradition … Continue reading The Problem With The Child As Customer
Markups Everywhere
The biggest question in economics today is whether capitalist competition still delivers the goods -- specifically, whether it delivers them at a price not excessively above the costs of production. If competition is strong, companies can't charge too much more than what they spent on labor, materials and overhead; otherwise, someone else would swoop in, … Continue reading Markups Everywhere
Owen Davis 