The Density Delusion

By Edward Ring
08/20/2019
For decades, American workers have watched as their ability to enjoy middle class lifestyles erodes away. Conventional explanations abound. American industry in the immediate aftermath of World War II was uniquely unscathed, and with a near monopoly on global manufacturing, it was able to pass much of the ample profits on to workers. It wasn’t...

TAGS: California, California Environmental Quality Act, Edward Ring, financialization, government pensions, Housing, UC Berkeley, United Nations

Government Unions and the Financialization of America

By Edward Ring
05/24/2016
Financialization – “a pattern of accumulation in which profit making occurs increasingly through financial channels rather than through trade and commodity production.” –  Greta Krippner, University of Michigan (source Wikipedia) If you want one word to describe the biggest threat to the American economy, “financialization” would be the prime candidate. This is a threat that...

TAGS: financialization, public sector unions

The Hypocrisy of Public Sector Unions

By Edward Ring
03/15/2016
During the industrial age, labor unions played a vital role in protecting the rights of workers. Skeptics may argue that enlightened management played an equally if not greater role, such as when Henry Ford famously raised the wages of his workers so they could afford to buy the cars they made, but few would argue...

TAGS: education reform, financialization, government unions, pension reform, Public sector pensions, public sector unions, public unions, Vergara case

Where's Genuine Economic Growth Going to Come From?

By Martin Hutchinson
09/22/2014
“We wanted flying cars, and they gave us 140 characters,” said venture capitalist Peter Thiel in 2011. He put his finger on a central dilemma of the New Economy: its innovations can make money (usually through redirecting advertising sales), but they add little or nothing to the overall stock of human knowledge or long-term happiness....

TAGS: economic growth, financialization, Peter Thiel