The Death of Representation
We hear a lot of talk about how desirable it would be to have bi-partisan legislation. Oddly, however, a piece of legislation can be...
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Contrary to the Neoclassical Model of Competitive Markets, Wages are not Set Naturally
Some small businesses, primarily restaurants, including fast food chains, still complain that they cannot find workers because of...
Mainstream Economics Too Often Ignores the Power Imbalance in Labor Markets
As the nation begins to emerge from the pandemic and the economy improves, it might behoove us to reflect on the so-called “natural”...
The Argument that Labor Shortages are Due to Additional Unemployment Benefits is Overly Simplistic
The latest jobs report is weak noting that there are labor shortages, and that employers are having a hard time filling jobs. Of course...
The Real Consequences of Globalization that Nobody Discusses
We hear a lot about globalization and the toll it has taken on workers’ earnings, their jobs, and overall inequality over the last few...
The Elites' Opposition to the Senate Filibuster Reflects Nothing but their Contempt for Democracy
The elites that claim the filibuster in the Senate violates the principles of democracy now seek to end it, not because they really want...
The Real Casualty of Rising Income Inequality is the Middle Class
The Meltzer-Roth model of the median voter theorem has long held that the median voter effectively chooses the size of the government....
It is Time to Apply the Fifth Amendment to Losses Suffered by Business Owners and Workers
State officials have been hiding behind a fiction that businesses are shuttered and people are out of work because of a pandemic. This is...
More than a $15 an hour Minimum Wage, the Nation Needs a Serious Wage Policy
As part of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, the minimum wage is expected to be raised to $15.00 an hour. Whether this should be part...
The Wages of Hubris
The more things change, the more they stay the same. A new administration has taken power, and it appears to be the usual politics of...
The Median Voter Theorem may Offer a Better Understanding of Polarization
One version of the median voter theorem holds that the greater the distance between the median voter’s income and the average income of...
The Congress that Couldn’t Care Less about the Public
There are a couple of models of representation. The first model is where the elected representative, say a member of Congress, serves as...
The 2016 Election Was No Aberration
In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, there is a question that looms large. Was the 2016 election an aberration? Or did it...
Red States Cannot See Wage Inequality in the Same Way that Blue States Can
I have written in this space in the past about how polarization in America is really about a tale of two economies and their respective...
Bad Polling Can Also be a Form of Voter Suppression
We have heard a lot in recent years about voter suppression. Voter ID laws, for example, are an effort to suppress the vote. Because poor...
Congress’s Constitutional Obligation to Compensate Workers for Job Loss
It is the eve of the 2020 election and still no agreement has been reached on a second coronavirus relief bill. The Democrats still hold...
If Only We Had a Meaningful Discussion About Taxes
As we move into the two final weeks of the 2020 election, we are once again hearing about taxes. The Trump people claim that Biden will...
The Roots of Polarization Lie in the Labor Market
In his new book, The New Class War, Michael Lind suggests that American society could best be divided into the managerial elites who are...
The Next Supreme Court Justice will be Critical to Workers and the Survival of the Middle Class
In the wake of the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the selection of the next Supreme Court justice has enormous implications....
In Defense of Varieties of Capitalism (VOC)
In the current campaign for the presidency, we hear quite often that the choice before us is between capitalism and socialism. Or worse,...