Economists From The United States

"[[w:Humanistic economics|[H]umanistic economics]] advocates a creation of a capitalism with a human face. That requires a paradigm shift... away from a rat race, [away from] a social Darwinistic economy with a few winners and many losers."

"He thinks a kinder and more just capitalism is possible, one that empowers people and enables them to live with less fear and uncertainty. He claims that this encompasses zero unemployment, zero inflation, zero trade deficits and zero government debt. It is a strong claim... Unfortunately, Komlos does not structure his book accordingly, but is rather too caught up with extensively criticizing the mainstream. I suspect he is pushing at open doors... There is no extensive elaboration of how this better system of the four zeros could be achieved and maintained. ...[T]here is no attempt there to make and prove the claims that trade deficits are best eliminated. ...[I]t is very much to be hoped that he will undertake to show, in a focused way, that the alternative, kinder economics is indeed possible. I suspect that he will have to water down some of his claims, but I can be convinced otherwise."

"I am advocating... a new paradigm of humanistic Rawlsian economics which puts human beings at the center... and not income, not growth, not GNP..."

"[M]ainstream economics is fundamentally flawed [and] ignores the elephant in the room, which is the real existing economy."

"[T]he current system depends too much on luck. If you choose your parents right and you live in a decent neighborhood, you can grow up and become a productive member of the society... and John Rawls argues that... [luck] cannot be the basis of a just society."

"Taxes are not all bad. ...[T]axes are used for infrastructure investments, for schooling, for basic research, and to bail out markets when they go haywire."

"means that many processes are non-reversible... Poor people who go to poor schools... can't get into college and their whole life course is messed up..."

"[M]arkets were not made in heaven... and they are helping the privileged, as they are constituted today."

"Rawls says... let's design an economy... in such a way that you would be willing to enter that society at random. That's a just society... You don't know your position in it. You don't know whether you're smart or dumb. You don't know your skin color. You don't know your gender. You don't know your parents. You don't know anything about yourself. ...[In that case] we wouldn't design a society like it is today. You would make sure that there is an equitable distribution of power.... that the power is not concentrated... that there is countervailing power, that wealth is not concentrated..."

"[The need for [j]ustice [and morality] is innate in human beings, and mainstream economics neglects [ethics,] justice [and morality]."

"Future generations cannot influence our decisions today unless we approach the problem from a moral perspective."

"[J]ustice is as important as efficiency."

"The growth-at-any-price perspective does not consider... distribution: economic growth will not help the destitute, the uneducated underclass, or the majority of those... unemployed."

"Pain... plays a major role in my thinking. I advocate its minimization."

"Greenspan and Benjamin Bernanke... ignored the evidence because they were blinded by their ideology and the infallibility of the markets. They were prisoners of their own ideology."

"If one does not subject... ideology to empirical evidence... ideology becomes dogma."

"[E]conomics cannot be purged of ideology..."

"[E]conomics—despite the extensive use of mathematics—will not be a rigorous discipline until it is based... on verifiable empirical evidence."

"[Oligarchs] are spending a lot of money on lobbies to influence government, and... the laws are made to benefit those that already are privileged."

"[T]here are better ways to measure progress than in terms of money."

"[C]hildren who are attending dysfunctional schools in dysfunctional neighborhoods, people... unable to catch their bearings in... the IT revolution and globalization, the working poor... trapped in a culture of poverty... ought not be treated like machines without feelings."

"[R]andom allocation at the start of life cannot... be the basis of a good society."

"Most of the models pertain to perfect competition. Forget about it! The default model should be or monopoly."

"Although scientists have been interested in the study of human height from a medical, biological, or anthropological point of view for centuries, economic historians became aware of the implications of quantifying al status only recently."

"[I]f we're not able to shift our paradigms, if we are stuck in the Arrow–Debreu world, then we're going to become the neoserfs of the oligarchs. Just like Aldous Huxley predicted in his novel, a Brave New World"

"[O]ur starting point should not be Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, but his Theory of Moral Sentiments... that we possess an innate empathy toward our fellow human beings. Morality and ethical principles... We ought not expunge these from the economics canon."

"[E]conomics ought to aspire to... a just society... in which compassion is as important as efficiency, if not more so."

"Status seeking is important. Relative incomes matter... Mainstream... economists said inequality was not a problem, and that's how we got an oligarchy [and populism]."

"The ideological commitment to "," ...has brought us to our current, precarious situation."

"[T]eachers of economics should admit... that while markets do well in some circumstances they only do so within an appropriate institutional framework and... in others... [they] often tip the stream of benefits toward a few insiders."

"[T]he economy should minimize suffering, while enhancing human dignity and self-worth."

"We're not s. We live in a society and we're influenced by social forces, social processes, and that's not included in the DSGE models."

"The US became a dual economy... which generated a lot of despair. Half the population is doing well and the other half is getting by... or getting by in very difficult circumstances... Trump would not have won otherwise in 2016. That's the basis of the Trump revolution... against... the political elite, the foreign policy elite, the intellectual elites."

"So why were economists so wrong? The problem is that economics is an axiomatic theory, it's deductive, based on assumptions almost all of which are false [with] too many omitted factors, and they don't care about contradictions. They don't care about people killing themselves... That's not an economic problem."

"The economic playing field is not level."

"The Gallup poll says that half of the population is doing well, 52%... thriving, but the rest are either struggling or suffering... 44% struggling means that they have a very difficult time meeting their obligations. That's not a good economy."

"[F]our economists have received Nobel Prizes for Behavioral economics... [T]hat should be the default model. ...Forget about rationality. That's a silly assumption."

"IQ, intelligence quotient is normally distributed. ...The smart can take advantage of those with low IQ. That's not going to be the basis of a good economy and a good democracy if if people take advantage of one another. ...That's especially true of an educational system that is mediocre for a goodly portion of the population."

"The character is formed during the first few years of life, and the corporations have an impact on the way we think... so ... is not realistic, because producers spend an incredible amount of money in order to condition children and youth to drink Coca-Cola, to depend on the iPhone, to go to hamburger joints, to McDonald's... So adult economics, forget it! You've got to start the analysis with children, and that means that tastes are endogenous [determined within the economic system! ...The assumption of exogenous tastes is toxic.]"

"Wealth is... political power... and that's how we got from a democracy, to an oligarchy, to a plutocracy. Economists forgot completely about the need for countervailing power... and the oligarchs have taken over..."

"[H]ousing prices had doubled by 2005 in 10 years time, which would have made sense if incomes had also increased substantially, but they didn't."

"Deregulation was supposed to make the economy more efficient... but instead it led to the financial crisis... and Blackboard Economists did not even see the crisis coming when it was around the corner."

"[A]cademics and politicians continue to sing the praises of abstract markets as if... descended... from heaven while maintaining... silence about the fact that without government help, countless... corporations would have landed in the dustbin of history."

"The meltdown of 2008 was a wasted crisis... because the homeowners were not bailed out. The financial sector was bailed out, the banks... the bankers... but... 8 million homeowners were thrown out of their homes."

"I hope the present volume can... improve the teaching of economics by presenting a real-world perspective as opposed to the fantasy world of mainstream textbooks."

"[A] kinder and more just economic system is... one that is embedded in a truly democratic society that not only empowers people but enables them to live their daily lives with less uncertainty, less manipulation, less taking advantage of... weaknesses, and less fear that their lives could collapse like a house of cards. This capitalism... envisions... zero unemployment, zero inflation, zero trade deficits, and zero government deficit over the business cycle."

"Usually the relationship between the true unemployment rate and the official unemployment rate is 2:1."

"The new normal is what I call Bailout capitalism because Ben Bernanke put a lot of money [creation of $trillions by the Federal Reserve] into the financial sector."

"Here is the , 2008... the assets of the Federal Reserve is under $1 trillion... and within weeks you have more than a doubling of the assets of the Federal Reserve, and then comes 2 and... 3 and by that time you're at $4 1/2 trillion... and then... comes the Covid crisis and we're up to $7 trillion. Now... that kind of a Capitalism is unsustainable. ...[N]o wonder that there is asset inflation as a consequence... and the stock market went through the roof."

"[H]ousehold incomes... weren't going up. You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to figure out that something's not right with that."