TL;DR: economists are still stuck in the idea of the market as a perfect force for reaching optimal outcomes. They’re ignoring the simple fact that businesses are putting prices up purely to increase profits. And that they can do this because the economic ideal of perfect competition (where many small firms compete with near-identical products) does not exist. We have a small number of very powerful businesses—oligopolies—in nearly every market for consumer-facing goods.
They’re ignoring the simple fact that businesses are putting prices up purely to increase profits.
This is incorrect. Yes, greed exists, but it always exists. Even in classical capitalist economics, inflation comes when supply can’t keep up with demand. Fiat currencies floating globally, rampant money printing, global shortages and supply chain issues plus corporate greed starts to show a clearer picture
Nice work. It does trouble me that there’s such an orthodoxy in economics going through so much of government.
The theory so often fails, so why not use different theory? It’s frustrating when it’s people’s livelihoods at stake.
I actually don’t think I’ve seen that many economists (the progressive ones at least) who haven’t been making the case for some sort of windfall tax on profits. The Australia Institute have been all over this for years now. Even the more centrist / conservative economists admit there needs to be some sort of intervention to regulate competition in the market. Pretty sure it was the IMF who came up with the approach for calculating how much profit driven inflation there is. Anyone who doesn’t recognise this is either on the payroll or selectively ignoring huge chunks of data / evidence.
We are generally taught that there’s a balancing act going on between inflation and interest rates, but that’s not really true. There’s a balancing act going on between inflation and unemployment - and interest rates are the way to control unemployment. When the government says that inflation is too high what they’re saying is that too many people have money and the way to fix it is to get a few tens or hundreds of thousands of them fired.
I don’t know if that’s true. They want to get people spending less. Being unemployed is one reason you might spend less. Having high mortgage repayments is another reason.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-25/the-rba-wants-more-unemployment-lets-applaud-it/102506500
It’s well known that interest rates cause the unemployment level to rise, the RBA governor even covered it in a speech recently (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/22/rba-reserve-bank-australia-unemployment-inflation) and they have a page explaining it (https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/explainers/nairu.html).
Even though it’s been suggested and documented that our current inflation issues are driven by corporate price rises and lingering pandemic supply issues, the government outsources the responsibility for interest rates to the RBA - but the only tool they have is monetary policy.
Related: it’s shown that full employment benefits everyone, but it benefits the least advantaged most https://grattan.edu.au/news/when-unemployment-falls-disadvantaged-workers-benefit-most/ so there really is a dichotomy between corporate profits and social wellbeing.
The inflation is, quite simply, because we’ve been printing money since the early 2000’s, and the shit hits the fan eventually. Every time any company fails due to massive corruption, it’s bought out with printed money. …that, and, the covid “please don’t riot” checks. Fiscal irresponsibility and corruption, plain and simple.
Free market capitalism is a myth - capitalism doesn’t work without a separation of corporate and government interests, and in free market capitalism, the government gets bought.
Economists aren’t really in denial, they are just doing their job of giving a false sense of scientific legitimacy to the plan the ruling class will enact anyways: discipline labor, cut social spending, bail out finance when they inevitably crash.
Aye, there’s a reason economics is called “the dismal science.”
Because it is not a science.
A founding principle of economics is that people make rational economic decisions…
Pure Economic is a science, but popular implemented Economic is a pseudoscience at best. It has been corrupted by commercial interests.
Different types of science are derivative of other forms of science. Physics is just applied Mathematics, Chemistry is applied Physics, Biology is just just applied Chemistry, Psychology is just applied Biology and Mathematics is applied Psychology.
Pure Economics is an amalgam of Psychology and Mathematics.
Economic Rationalism is a oxymoron because Economic relies on irrational psychology and is subject to change based on observations.
Pure Economic is a science _
A statement is not a fact. Prove your statement.
Pure Economics is an amalgam of Psychology and Mathematics.
This implies Psychology thinks people are rational, it does no such thing.
Economic Rationalism is a oxymoron because Economic relies on irrational psychology
You are almost there:
Economics is a science is a oxymoron because Economics relies on irrational people being rational.
