Jobs Now Event January 19

Economics should be a public service discipline.

The conversation about what I want to do with my life came up recently. The short answer to that is that I want to have a career in public service. I was lucky to stumble into UMKC and find a department that supports a public service attitude toward economics. This is rare according to the New York Times.

Just a Reminder

“The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

 “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

-Thomas Jefferson.

National Defense Authorization Act

Learn More, Call your Congressman.This is unconstitutional.

Khan Academy: Topics of Relevance

Khan Academy has a few helpful sections for people who want to understand economics: The following is a list of the various economics related topics on the site, and my opinion of the sections I have seen. Each of these has between 10 and 60 videos. Each video is about 10 minutes. This is a great way to get through some pretty dense material at your own pace. Khan makes it easy.




Banking and Money: Textbook style topics related to the technical side of Money and Banking which is commonly taken by students who study business, economics, political science, finance or other related topics. If you want to know about money though, check out the UMKC Department of economics blog on Modern Monetary Theory. Khan does go into detail about how money is created, which give insight into the financial crisis.


Credit Crisis: Topics directly related to the 2008 credit crisis. Explains the various "financial instruments" we keep hearing so much about: Credit Default Swaps, Mortgage-backed securities etc. This is only part of the story, but Khan tells it well.


Current Economics: This topic is mostly applications of economic theory and some explanations of trade issues tied to current events at the time he filmed the original lectures.  Its good, but mostly studies the kind of things we have to study before we can get started disputing the typical assumptions of standard economic theory. (Which offer little connection to reality, completely theoretical, but most people who study economics at an introductory level are only exposed to this junk) Khan is good about raising questions where the theory doesn't hold up, though he may not explore them, just plant a seed of doubt.



Currency: All about international currency exchange. Useful, tangent to the topic at hand, but not completely unrelated.


Finance: Macroeconomics. I have not watched any of these yet.

Geithner Plan: Debunking Timothy Geithner. This one is particularly important and there are only a handful of videos.


Paulson Bailout: Khan comes out against the Paulson Bailout.


Valuation and Investing: I have not seen these either. Building blocks and case studies on the financial analysis and valuation of public equities.


Venture Capital and Capital Markets:  I have not watched any of these. All of the sources of funding (capital) for a business.

Wall Street The Great Jobs Killer presented by Bill Black: UMKC Student Union Theatre. Nov 29th 2011

Police Brutality is Our Weapon Too.

Another victory for the Occupy movement!

The general sentiments of Occupy are certainly a radical departure from the status quo. Occupy is essentially an indictment of our recent cultural developments where the free market has been idealized to the point of dogma, the power elite has taken control of our democracy, and policies are judged by their philosophical and political "correctness" rather than their ability to achieve social justice. It is expected that those who benefit from the status quo will act irrationally to protect their status. Though police brutality is intended to demoralize and break up the Occupy Movement, I expect it will only galvanize the movement and bring new supporters to the protests.

So long as the police brutality has not totally suppressed the power of the people (think Nazi Germany) it is just another part of the process of radical reforms (think Civil Rights).  The moral high ground is very important to any social movement. Beating up and pepper spraying  kids, interfering with the freedom of the press, targeting young women, and using psychological intimidation are not generally tolerated or appreciated by the middle and lower classes. There aren't many issues that bring the 99% to consensus, I think the country still has the moral fiber to recognize the danger of police brutality and act/vote/protest accordingly.

Richard Wilkinson: How Economic Inequality Harms Societies

What is Money Anyway?

This week in my Institutional Economics class we pondered the question... What is Money Anyway? It turns out, this question occurs to most everyone who studies the economy long enough. This American Life and Planet Money correspondents published "The Invention of Money" where they came up with the answer that money is fiction.  L. Randall Wray argues in "An Irreverent Overview of the History of Money From the Beginning of the Beginning Through the Present" that the key to understanding money is recognizing its origins in the concept of debt. I have come to the conclusion that money is not fiction, but it is not exactly fact either. Money is what we make of it, and we have really made a mess!

Should Be Illegal, But It's Not

Members of Congress get financial information as part of their jobs. If they worked in the financial sector, using that information to improve their stock portfolios would be a crime. Instead, congressional stock portfolios significantly out perform the market, but this is just another perk on Capital Hill. Another example of how the market is not free, it is rigged.

How to Create a Job, How to Kill a Job, and Who is Doing What.

A "This American Life" investigation: How to Create Jobs.  This story calls to my mind the concept of Cognitive Dissonance and is evidence that the condition is pervasive in politics. Sadly, this story also explains why Oklahoma, my home state, is stealing more jobs than any other state.
 

Special Event Announcement:

Wall Street, The Great Jobs Killer!  

Is Capitalism the Problem? and Debate Started by Big Oil Soccer Mom

What should the conversation be? Some say capitalism itself is the problem. I'm of the opinion that Capitalism doesn't exist, there has never been a functional capitalist economy. Subsidies, Bailouts are just two examples where the label capitalism does not apply to our economic system.

Also, today I saw a picture on my Facebook that was troublesome, and it brings me to discuss a point made by my Institutional Economics professor, Linwood Tauheed. The point is that Wall Street Occupiers should not be attacking the real economy, should not be striking against businesses and putting regular people out of work. Yes, historically, labor has had grievances with industry, and they should be able to engage in collective bargaining to get what they need to support their families.

But the financial system no longer needs industries to profit in order to make money, they can make money by betting against corporations (hedging) who make stuff when their workers go on strike. Tauheed's second point was that if the Occupy movement wants to grow, we must get regular people on our side, this will not be accomplished by attacking companies that provide good jobs (I am not talking about Walmart here) but real good jobs. Occupiers as a group need to know a lot more about how the economy works before we alienate the workers we want to help.

Our discussions need to take into consideration that the movement as it stands is not representative of the people we hope to help. There must be more community outreach and inclusion. We do not want the soccer moms against us. But we also need to find a way to reach out to transportation workers, employed persons, and minorities. 99% is a lot, but the spectrum of people included in the 99% have not yet been represented within the movement.

Another Tauheed suggestion: Occupiers should spend the winter using the Obama campaign techniques to organize house parties, discussion groups, library events etc. for the purpose of gaining popular support over the winter and showing up in force in the streets come spring.

An Institutionalist on World Food Markets

Notice the last part of this interview transcript about world food markets. Peter Timmer is what I think of as an institutionalist.  I have no idea if he identifies with that label. I but when I trace the underlying logic of his statements I categorize them under institutionalism.

Two Types of Corporations

There are those that make, and those that take. There are still decent people running corporations in this country. They leave their fortunes to socially productive non-profit organizations, they make cool stuff, and we mourn them when they die. We must remember them when we are inditing the other corporations, the ones that only take take take.

Who are the ones that take?

Mostly these corporations are banks and large insurance companies. Sometimes they are the Wal-Marts of the world; union busters who hold cities hostage in corporate welfare bidding wars for the 'good jobs' they will bring to the community, only to take them somewhere else when the tax abatement wears out. Sometimes they are chemical companies who patent genomes, intimidate farmers, and produce toxic food products. Sometimes they are pharmaceutical companies who knowingly manufacture drugs that cause more hurt than harm. Sometimes they are in mortgage financing, energy, telecommunications, publishing, or private military contracting; but they all have one thing in common... a powerful lobby with a mission to create government policy that supports profits above: families, public health, democracy, social justice, economic justice, education, civil rights, private property, security, prosperity, and every other American Value I can think of.

This country needs to make things again, To do so we need to form democratically controlled corporations, where the workers own the corporation, and every worker has a vote in all corporate policy decisions. I call for a political action to support the growth of 100% employee owned companies. Democratic control of production is proven to be a successful business model. I propose instituting government policies that reward employee and family owned businesses and penalize publicly traded companies and companies that get larger than a few thousand people (three thousand has been successful in the Basque region of Spain (see Mondragon).

Occupier Ammunition

More evidence that the American people were swindled.Who pays taxes? Not corporations.

Realities and Inspirations for Occupiers

During my senior year, Bob Darcy oversaw my independent study course. He wanted me to use grassroots campaign techniques to achieve his dream of getting Murray Hall renamed renamed for Clara Luper.

OK? What? Who?


Clara Luper: Oklahoman, Civil Rights Leader, Teacher, Radio Host, Activist, My Hero.

Bob Darcy: Political Science Professor, Oklahoma State University

"Alfalfa" Bill Murray: Oklahoma's Depression era Governor, a notorious racist, achieved the honor of having his name on the building under dubious circumstances.


The following an exert from my biography of Clara Luper, which appears in the African American National Biography, Published By Harvard University Press, Edited by Henry Louise Gates Jr

Luper, Clara (3 May 1923- 8 June 2011) Teacher, Activist, Writer, was born Clara Sheppard; one of five children born to Ezell and Isabel Sheppard in Okfuskee county Oklahoma. Violence against blacks and extreme segregation practices were common in rural Oklahoma...

In January 1957 Luper became the Oklahoma City NAACP youth council Advisor. She wrote and directed a play about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the non-violence philosophy. The NAACP youth council performed “Brother President” that May for Negro History Week. A national NAACP representative saw the play and invited the group to come to New York to perform at an upcoming NAACP rally. In St. Louis they experienced their first integrated meal and continued to enjoy integrated services throughout their stay in New York. The trip changed the group forever; returning home they immediately began negotiations to desegregate public accommodations in Oklahoma City.

Luper had a talent for organizing and inspiring young people. She told them they had a responsibility to become engaged in the struggle for civil rights. After writing letters and asking businesses to integrate for more than a year, the group voted to take action. On August 19, 1958 the NAACP youth, age 6-17, staged a sit-in at Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City. The police and the press watched as white patrons threatened and insulted the group, but the NAACP youth followed “Martin Luther King’s Non-Violent Plans,” the foundation of their non-violence training (Luper 10). Over the next six years Luper lead the NAACP youth and hundreds of their supporters through non-violence training workshops, sit-ins, lay-ins, marches and a boycott. They were spit on, stepped on, slapped, arrested and attacked by a chimpanzee but remained non-violent. One by one, eating establishments integrated. In July of 1964, the Oklahoma City sit-in campaign declared victory.

In 1959 Ezell Blair attended the NAACP national convention where he heard Luper speak about the Oklahoma City Sit-ins. In 1960, Blair participated in a sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina, often described as the first civil rights sit-in. (Bond, 16-20 July 2006) Luper marched with Dr. King at Selma, Alabama and the youth council filled two busses for the 1963 March on Washington. The Oklahoma City NAACP youth council was voted best in the nation many times under Luper’s guidance. Despite her success with the youth, there were occasional tensions between Luper and the state and national NAACP leadership...

I won't be the first person to draw parallels between Occupy and the Civil Rights movement. I think it is important that occupiers have successful models to look towards when formulating strategies for protest. But I want occupiers to recognize, plan for, and accept is that this effort will take years. We must overhaul our legal, political, financial, and government institutions. It has taken over 100 years for the corporatocracy to achieve this much power and influence. The highest echelons of society have consistently pursued policies that would serve their interests. While we have turned our problems over to people who are in their pockets.

There are many examples where progress is under attack, where victories have been hollowed or overturned. The American People must decide to be consistently politically active and to make every effort to become fully informed about our institutions. We must decide what our values are and what we want institutions to accomplish. Then we must provide the incentives necessary to get people to act in a way that makes more people better off. We must be prepared to do whatever it takes, indefinitely, if we expect accomplish the changes we chant about.

Information Can Be Galvanizing: This Story is Why I Decided to Become an Economist

 The Giant Pool of Money

Listening to this story for the first time, I realized that I needed to learn more about economics. I felt that my B.S. in Political Science left me unprepared to deal with the biggest political problem of our generation: Corporate Power.

Testing Keynes: The Stimulus

I'm thinking this is not what Keynes was advocating.

Starting Now: I will compile and publish free resources to help occupiers get the education they need to make positive changes in public policy.

I have been following Occupy Wall Street and Occupy KC movements over the past several weeks, and finally, I have decided to get involved. I spent yesterday creating this blog, a poster and some handbills. I will compile resources to help the occupiers get a free technical and theoretical economics education.

I am a currently working toward my Master's in Economics at UMKC; I think this puts me in a good position to assist occupiers in learning enough about economics to effect positive policy change. I hope I am anyway, my stated purpose for getting a degree in economics is... to influence the enactment of public policies that grow the middle class.  Full disclosure, the first 8 hours of work I do for this effort will be counted toward my community service requirement.