Sometimes a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

2006 Foreclosure Rates

 click on map to enlarge

2007 Foreclosure Rates

 click on map to enlarge

Guess what folks, there is a new economy!    I'll bet you didn't know that just as much as stock evaluations and profit didn't matter in the dot con era.

At the helm of the Obama plan is the Chicago School of Economics, heavily promoting behavioral economics..

Aha, if we all just made the right choices, none of this bad shit would be happening right?  A new article, Obama's Geek Economist, in the MIT Technology Review, gives some foreboding hints at what we could expect in economic policy for an Obama administration.  We're being told (sold), we need a new economist for the new economy.

As I recall our economy is a very old story and it's called labor arbitrage.

Obama subscribes to a distinctive set of economic theories developed at the university [of Chicago], and to a corresponding set of policy prescription

It's Friday Night! Party Time!

Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

This weeks video clip theme is William Greider. Greider is a fantastic journalist and author who covers economics, trade and markets. Now while some economists have criticized him now that it is 2008, maybe he was more dead on than they care to admit? He goes into great depth, certainly the most detailed analysis that is not written for an Academic audience. Greider is the Cassandra of globalization, as being advanced in practice.

On Wal-Mart and the model of cheap labor-cheap prices:

The Persnickety Populist Presents.... The Populist Politician Pick of the Week.

The Election season is upon us.   With all of the pontificatin' and politickin', who really has the United States national interest, the middle class, and working America in mind really when it comes to policy? 

Tough to figure out eh?

Most Populists want dramatic trade policy change based on sound economic and labor economics theory. Most Populists want a removal of corporate corruption from government. Most Populists want representatives to actually represent what their constituents want. Finally, most Populists want American workers placed front and center in any policy strategy.

Each Week, until the election, The Economic Populist will overview candidates who are particularly strong in trade, economic, labor positions.

In the previous post, The Euphoric Drug of Profit, I asked the simple question, should pharmaceutical drugs be for profit at all? They are life saving compounds after all, something for the public welfare and good.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), funds billions of taxpayer dollars in public research.

Before 1980, the results of publicly funded research, often performed at United States universities, was considered public domain (de facto).

Some of the problems with this scenario were:

• basic research was not taken to product and final development
• funding basic research does not fund the 75% additional costs of bring results to use by the general public