Economists - just Idiot Savants?

It makes the blood boil when one reads about highly (overpaid?) economists sitting in tenured positions in Academia suggesting outright thievery as their preferred solutions to our economic problems. Debt repudiation and wealth taxes are not the only solution to the problems that indebted nations face. The debt mountain can be reduced the same way it has been built up - by small incremental changes over a long period of time, decades, not years. Deficit spending really came into fashion during the 1970s - on the advice of an earlier generation of  Idiot Savants. That the Nobel prize is now being awarded for what in many cases is only a thinly-disguised for of quackery devalues the prizes given to those for 'hard' science. And let's not even remember the Peace Nobel prize awarded to Obama!

Summers regurgitates tired old macro cliches

Guessing what the 'correct' or 'true' natural interest rate is may be a worthwhile passe temps for tenured university professors like Larry Summers but it is of little use to explain/solve the pressing economic problems of our time. Such as Unemployment or Inequality. Both have little to do with macro economic mumbo jumbo but a lot with poorly designed policies and laws. Note the circular congratulations to Stanley Fischer etal - the world of 'celebrity' economists is a small one, but maybe a larger talent pool would not be such a bad thing, given the unhealthy trends in the world economy.

Economics for simple Minds - Unions are bad for Growth (Stelzer)

Economics is not an exact science, if it is a science at all. For that reason ideological prejudices are often hidden in simple statements such as this one: 'A Union revival that will hurt Growth' (Irwin Stelzer, The Weekly Standard). 
Unions may well have created all sort of economic and political havoc but before one makes the statement one should first check the facts: was economic growth really slower when union 'power' was higher? And what about the distribution of the growth? What is growth worth if only a very small minority benefits - today's equivalent of the Robber Barons and their hangers-on?

Growth at any Price no longer sustainable

The Economic and Media Commentariat is still wedded to the 'Growth at any Price' model. But there should be realisation that population growth as the major force behind GDP growth should be discounted and we should prepare for (at best) a static world population and realistically a drop in population. Naturally, the corporate world does not want this to happen, basically it operates on the principle 'apres nous le deluge', the investment community cheers it on on the chase for ever-higher sales, profits (and bonuses for the top dogs). I am far from being an enemy of the free markete/capitalist model but sometime the penny has to drop. Maybe focus should be more on making the model work in a more efficient way with the spoils distributed in a fairer way. Better schools and health care for all do not have to burden the environment.

Quantitative Easing: Smart, Smart, Stupid

Advocacy of Quantitative Easing is the bankruptcy declaration of Economics as we know (or knew) it, however large the crowd of 'respected' or 'celebrity' economists and market pundits. "It takes very smart people to think it up but that doesn't mean it isn't stupid" (Hunter Lewis, Mises Daily)

Letta's demeaning trip to Berlin

The absurd reality of the Euro-Zone is revealed by the report that the new head of Italy's government is hurrying to make a trip to Berlin (to have his plans approved by Merkel?). Mussolini in his declining years was reduced to a similar humiliation. In the meantime German industry kills off the competition that is locked into the Euro straight-jacket.

Euro-Bonds, Sinn and Soros - the overlooked danger

Always interesting when some heavyweights are fighting it out. My main answer to the problems with the Euro is simple: one should never have embarked on this half-baked - and undemocratic - experiment. But to advocate Euro-Bonds as the solution is overlooking one important risk: what would happen if one of the member countries would want to leave the Eurozone after a large volume of these bonds has been created? Would we see the equivalent of the American Civil War in order to bring a recalcitrant nation to heel if the citizens are unwilling to continue to shoulder the burden created by profligate states?