Author: Travis Fast

This chapter is divided into three sections.  The first section examines the origins of the neoliberal policy consensus at the OECD.  The fist major rupture in the hegemony of the Keynesianism (neoclassical synthesis MKI) at the OECD came with the … Continue reading →

Me, I like heretics.  Sure hanging out with heretics and being a heretic is fraught with danger: a certain tendency towards a merely reactionary or contrarian stance, a pension for wasting time by reinventing the wheel and merely convincing yourself … Continue reading →

Well a strange lull has fallen on the battle field this evening as the respective sides dig in and at least one side licks its wounds.  To keep reading click here Filed under: Canadian Politics

Well a strange lull has fallen on the battle field this evening as the respective sides dig in and at least one side licks its wounds.  To keep reading click here Filed under: Canadian Politics

Economists frequently argue that taxing the produce from the family garden is a good idea – for example, see these papers/posts making the case for taxing food in the US,  Canada, and New Zealand. read the rest here. Filed under: … Continue reading →

In the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-2008 there was much talk from within and without the economics profession about what went wrong.  Many on the outside of the profession viewed the crisis as the result of the slavish … Continue reading →

I can’t, and it has gotten worse.  Sure I used to get my i’s and e’s backwards frequently but the difference between there and their or lose and loose almost never.  It is now a pathological subterfuge on my part.  … Continue reading →

It is official the NDP now has a former Liberal as the head of their party.  Not so bad.  The liberals have a former dipper as the head of their party.  I think the looser in all of this is … Continue reading →

It is odd.  No other discipline in the social science gets away with being considered by the media as a jack of all trades as the economist does.  Think about it.  If you go to a neurosurgeon with a question … Continue reading →

CBC’s the Current had an excellent segment on Dutch Disease and what to do about it.  The set-up was quite good.  First they interviewed an economist about what Dutch disease actually is and to what extent it applies to Canada.  … Continue reading →

After being moved to an entirely different server RPPE.ORG is back up.  The great migration begins again. Filed under: Canadian Politics

Number 1.  Mainstream economics and heterodox economics To be consistent it should be homodox economics and heterodox economics.  Those with routine knowledge of Latin would find nothing nefarious in such a distinction. Although we do have other names.  Why not … Continue reading →

Number 1.  Mainstream economics and heterodox economics To be consistent it should be homodox economics and heterodox economics.  Those with routine knowledge of Latin would find nothing nefarious in such a distinction. Although we do have other names.  Why not … Continue reading →

At one point I believed this: The ontology of capitalism which animated the multifarious reform projects was quite distinct from that which underwrites the neoliberal vision. In Keynes’ classic formulation, as set out in the General Theory, capitalist economic systems … Continue reading →

OK time to get off the fence.  There are presently two visions of social democracy at play within the NDP.  One that wants to drag the NDP further to the neoliberal centre and one that wants to take a pause … Continue reading →