Beyond Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft: The Foundations for Ethical Political Humanist Social Science

A piece that I wrote for The Hampton Institution: A Working-Class Think Tank has been posted.

Here is a snapshot:

It is pertinent to recognize that social reality is not an aura of perceived characteristics, of which there lays no unifying substance that could account for coherence. There is an evident danger in oversimplifying things. The attempt of this paper is to promote an approach to social science that engages issues concerning social ontology; that is, epistemic positions in regards to the means by which to uncover underlying interconnecting structures that constitute the manifestation of certain types of social reality. In this sense, the very notion of society itself amounts to an immensely complex entity - the broad functioning of which cannot be captured by obscure models of positivistic simplification.

Pragmatism does not tell us about the existence of anything. By not grasping the essence of human behavior that exhibits interconnections, we as human beings are left mystified about the world in which we live in. As such, "the attempt to define some underlying reality beneath the ever-changing surface of human phenomena, to delineate the common psychobiological structure of man, to specify the common blueprint of the human animal." (Wolf, 1974 [1964]: 33) We must abandon our Hegelian selves; social scientists have a responsibility to illuminate the intersections of the latent and visible content of human endeavor such that intelligible conclusions of human social life can be holistically developed.

Read rest here

Unemployment Insurance Extensions Haven't Expired With Long-Term Unemployment So High

Following the last post (see here and here), it is worth pointing out that over the course of preceding recessions since 1957, Congress has not let long term unemployment insurance to cease with sustained high unemployment. 

By Heidi Shierholz

Four and a half years after the official end of the Great Recession, there is still a gap in the labor market of nearly 8 million jobs. With job opportunities so weak for so long, workers have gotten stuck in unemployment for unprecedented lengths of time. The share of the workforce that is long-term unemployed is nearly twice as high today as it was in any other period when Congress allowed an extended benefits program to expire. The figure shows the share of the labor force that has been unemployed for more than six months. In the Great Recession, that share rose to more than two-thirds higher than the previous record set during the downturn of the early 1980s. It has since come down significantly, but it is still above the previous record. Today’s long-term unemployment crisis is no mystery; it is exactly what we would expect given how long our labor market has been as weak as it has. It is not the fault of individual unemployed workers failing to exert enough effort or flexibility in their job search.

Read rest here

The labor market is still way worse than the official numbers suggest

While in Washington politicians discuss about extending or not unemployment benefits, and Dems for the first time in a while seem to have a winning argument on pro-labor policies (not just unemployment benefits, but also the minimum wage, as noted by Mark Weisbrot here), the rate of unemployment when one counts the total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons continues to be close to 9%.

This is very far from full employment, which should be the central economic goal of any left of center government.

Foster & Magdoff: The Plight of US Workers

By Fred Magdoff & John Bellamy Foster

Modern capitalism, sociologist Max Weber famously observed early in the twentieth century, is based on “the rational capitalistic organization of (formally) free labor.” But the “rationality” of the system in this sphere, as Weber also acknowledged, was so restrictive as to be in reality “irrational.” Despite its formal freedom, labor under capitalism was substantively unfree.This was in accordance with the argument advanced in Karl Marx’s Capital. Since the vast majority of individuals in the capitalist system are divorced from the means of production they have no other way to survive but to sell their labor power to those who own these means, that is, the members of the capitalist class. The owner-capitalists are the legal recipients of all the value-added that is socially produced by the labor in their employ. Out of this the owners pay the wages of the workers, while retaining for themselves the residual or surplus value generated by the social process of production. This surplus then becomes the basis for the further accumulation of capital, leading to the augmentation of the means of production owned by the capitalist class. The result is a strong tendency to the polarization of income and wealth in society. The more the social productivity of labor grows the more it serves to promote the wealth and power of private capital, while at the same time increasing the relative poverty and economic dependency of the workers.

Read rest here

For more extensive analyses on the plight of the US working class, see here

Barbarism on the Horizon: An Interview With István Mészáros

by Eleonora de Lucena

Lucena: Mr. István Mészáros, you are coming to visit Brazil to talk about György Lukács. As a profound expert of the work of the philosopher, how do you evaluate the importance of his ideas today? 

Mészáros: György Lukács was my great teacher and friend for twenty-two years, until he died in 1971.  He started publishing as a politically conscious literary critic almost seventy years earlier, moving toward the discussion of fundamental philosophical issues as time went by.  Three of his major works in that field -- History and Class Consciousness (1923), The Young Hegel (1948), and The Destruction of Reason (1954) -- will always stand the test of time.  His historical and aesthetic studies on great German, French, English, Russian, and Hungarian literary figures continue to be most influential in many university departments.  Moreover, he is also the author of a monumental aesthetic synthesis which, I am sure, will see the light one day also in Brazil.  More fortunately, his equally monumental volumes on the problems of the ontology of social being are being published right now in this country by Boitempo Editorial.  They address some vital issues of philosophy which also have far-reaching implications for our everyday life and ongoing struggles.  What is less well known about Lukács's life is that he was directly involved at high levels of political organization between 1919 and 1929.  He was Minister of Culture and Education in the short-lived revolutionary government of 1919 in Hungary, which emerged from the great crisis of the First World War.  In the Party he belonged to the "Landler Faction" -- indeed he was its second in command.  This faction -- named after Jenö Landler, who was a leading trade unionist before becoming a high-ranking party figure -- tried to pursue a broader strategic line, with much greater involvement of the popular masses.  Lukács was defeated in direct politics in 1929.  However, way back in 1919, in one of his articles (you can find it quoted in my book on Lukács now published by Boitempo), he warned that the communist movement could face a great danger when "the proletariat turns its dictatorship against itself."  He proved to be tragically prophetic in this warning.  In any case, in all of his public roles, political as much as theoretical, one can find his great moral stature always in evidence.  Nowadays we read so much about corruption in politics.  One can also see Lukács's importance as a positive example, showing that morality and politics not only ought to (as Kant advocated it) but also can go together.

Read rest here.

Augusto Graziani's contributions to economics

(1933-2014)

Augusto Graziani one of the leaders of the Italian Circuitist School has passed away. Below the abstract of the recent paper on Graziani's contributions to economics by Riccardo Bellofiore published in the Review of Keynesian Economics (ROKE).

"The article gives an appraisal of Augusto Graziani's thought as a heterodox structural Keynesian. Graziani has always challenged the basic assumptions of orthodox theory by rejecting the initial definition of the economic and social world as being populated by identical individuals, where consumers are sovereign, technology is exogenous and money is neutral. Since the 1970s, Graziani's efforts have aimed at rebuilding on solid foundations the line of inquiry that sees capitalism as a ‘monetary economy of production’. Authors such as Schumpeter and Keynes, and before them Wicksell and Marx, were all key influences on Graziani's work. This theoretical attitude shaped Graziani's studies on the Italian economy within the European and the global landscapes. We are confronted here with an idea of state intervention where demand policies are not separated from supply-side policies, and are indeed embodied in a structural design to redefine the composition of production with great attention to the quality of labour. He reminds us that economic theory has to put at the heart of its discourse not the ‘imperfections’ of the market, but rather the ‘normality’ of power and conflict, not only between labour and capital, but also between fractions of capital, and between capitalisms."

Full paper is available here.

Restoring Shared Prosperity: A Policy Agenda from Leading Keynesian Economists

 New book edited by Tom Palley and Gustav Horn. From the blurb:

The economic recovery in the US since the Great Recession has remained sub-par and beset by persistent fear it might weaken again. Even if that is avoided, the most likely outcome is continued weak growth, accompanied by high unemployment and historically high levels of income inequality. In Europe, the recovery from the Great Recession has been even worse, with the euro zone beset by an unresolved euro crisis that has already contributed to a double-dip recession in the region. This book offers an alternative agenda for shared prosperity to that on offer from mainstream economists. The thinking is rooted in the Keynesian analytic tradition, which has been substantially vindicated by events. However, pure Keynesian macroeconomic analysis is supplemented by a focus on the institutions and policy interventions needed for an economy to generate productive full employment with contained income inequality. Such a perspective can be termed “structural Keynesianism”. These are critical times and the public deserves an open debate that does not arbitrarily or ideologically lock out alternative perspectives and policy ideas. The book contains a collection of essays that offer a credible policy program for shared prosperity, rooted in a clear narrative that cuts through the economic confusions that currently bedevil debate.

Contributions by Richard L Trumka, Thomas I Palley, Gustav A Horn, Andreas Botsch, Josh Bivens, Achim Truger, Jared Bernstein, Robert Pollin, Dean Baker, Gerald Epstein, Damon Silvers, Jennifer Taub, Silke Tober, Jan Priewe, John Schmitt, Heidi Shierholz, William E Spriggs, Eckhard Hein, Heiner Flassbeck, Gerhard Bosch, Michael Dauderstädt.

The book is available for $8.35 at AMAZON.COM (USA), for Є5.52 at AMAZON.COM (EUROPE), and £4.64 at AMAZON.COM(UK). A free PDF is available HERE.

Arslan Razmi on South-South trade and the limits to wage-led growth

Another presentation from the same session at the ASSA in Philadelphia. Arslan extends (Power Point here) the so-called Neo-Kaleckian model to show that destination of exports matter. He suggested that in this kind of model the limit to wage-led growth does not come from the conventional negative effect of wages on external competitiveness (real exchange rate appreciation, as in Robert Blecker's famous 1989 paper), but as the result of the negative effect of higher wages on capacity utilization and investment in the "homogenous" good sector (tradable, but price taking sector that he suggests might characterize South-South trade).

European Amnesia: Lithuania Considers Euro Adoption

 

Well, it is quite apparent that the euro crisis had done little to transform the sociology of knowledge concerning inherent problems related to common currencies; Lithuania is on track towards adopting the Euro. Read here. A related post on the issue can be seen here.

PS: Euroization is similar (wrt consequences for countries in the periphery) to the process of dollarization - see here.

Amitava Dutt on South-South Integration at the ASSA

Amitava Dutt presented a paper (Power Point here) on South-South integration. While Amitava emphasizes the importance of South-South relations he remains more skeptical than most.

Austerity Explains Extremely Weak Recovery From Great Recession

Recovering from the Great Recession has been accompanied by the slowest growth of public spending following lower troughs of the business cycle since World War II. Read more here.

Art Laffer: "I Was Wrong About Inflation." No Kidding!

Arthur Laffer said that: "Usually when you find the model this far off, you've probably got something wrong with the model, not that the world has changed... inflation does not appear to be monetary base driven." For the whole story go here.

PS: For an heterodox analysis of money and inflation, see here.

Lessons Unlearned: Latvia Adopts Euro

Latvia officially adopted the euro to start off the new year. The prime minister has noted that although this is not necessarily a guarantee towards economic prosperity, it's an opportunity...I deem it a death sentence - For more on the sinking ship that is the euro, see here.