The Plutonomy—AI Edition—and the Coming Crisis
Driven by speculative finance, stagnant wages, and AI hype, today’s tech-heavy economy mirrors the fragile plutonomy that collapsed into the Great Crash of 1929.
73 articles
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Structural Adjustment, Here and There
Dear Dr. Dollar: What are the similarities and differences between structural adjustment in the rest of the world/Third World and structural adjustment in the United States? --Vicki Legion, San Francisco, Calif.
Abolishing the Fed is No Solution to a Real Problem
Dear Dr. Dollar: Is the Federal Reserve, the Fed, as important to the operation of the economy as it seems? How does it work? If it is so important, how can anyone take seriously politicians such as Ron Paul, who calls for the Fed's abolition? --Tom Prebis, Cleveland, Ohio
How important is Citizens United?
Dear Dr. Dollar: People in the Occupy movement and many others are quite concerned about “corporate personhood,” and especially about
Are Low Wages and Job Loss Inevitable?
Dear Dr. Dollar: The main narrative that I hear in mainstream press is that U.S. workers are being undercut
Why Do They Oppose More Stimulus?
Dear Dr. Dollar: Why are conservatives, especially wealthy conservatives, against stimulating the economy through the government’s deficit spending? Don’
Why the Loss of Manufacturing Jobs?
Dear Dr. Dollar: Many times I have read (in writings by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, for example) or
"Pressure from the Bond Markets"
Dear Dr. Dollar: With the crisis in Greece and other countries, commentators have said that governments are “under pressure from
Empire and Entitlements
Dear Dr. Dollar: In his book Colossus (2004), Niall Ferguson argues that a major problem with Social Security and Medicare
Dear Dr. Dollar:
I learned in my economics classes that in a market economy, problems tend to be self-correcting: when a recession starts, demand weakens; then prices drop, people and firms start to buy more and the economy picks up again. So why don't we see this kind of self-correction now? Why does it seem as if
Dear Dr. Dollar:
Isn't the "bailout" of Wall Street like having a rotten tooth extracted? The extraction is very unpleasant, but it beats the alternative. Even if the dentist charges an unreasonably high fee, I am still going to pay and have the job done. Later I will worry about taking better care of my teeth. So s
Dear Dr. Dollar:
U.S. activists have pushed to get foreign trade agreements to include higher labor standards. But then you hear that developing countries don't want that because cheaper labor without a lot of rules and regulations is what's helping them to bring industries in and build their economies. Is there a w