Notre Dame undergrad (math); JD, Indiana University at Bloomington; 1st Lieutenant, US Army.; private practice in corporate and securities law; Assistant AG in Tennessee for consumer protection and securities; Blue Sky Securities Commissioner, Tennessee; private practice, bankruptcy and corporate law.
I have had a lifelong interest in economics. For most of my career, that interest was practical, focused on the problems in front of me. Lately I have been more interested in economics as a theory, especially its impact on the lives of people like those I met in my bankruptcy practice, and on the politics of money in the US. I also enjoy reading philosophers, starting in college and steadily expanding my reading ever since. I wrote at FireDogLake for a number of years.
Generally, I think the problem facing the US is the dominance of neoliberal discourse. I think it clouds the vision, and limits the kinds of problems that can be identified and solved. For example, the existence and danger of climate change can easily be identified in a scientific discussion. However, the problem does not fit the neoliberal discourse because science insists that the pursuit of individual and corporate self-interest will lead to devastation. In neoliberal discourse, the pursuit of self-interest always leads to Eden.
The neoliberal project has two prongs. One is the police function of crushing dissent and alternative views. The police function is provided by government agencies and private and institutional actors. The counterpart is the economic system , which is operated by government and by private and institutional actors. Some of these actors operate in both spheres. I focus on the second prong.
Recently I saw Ian Read, the CEO of Pfizer, on CNBC explaining that the Pfizer/Allergan merger would enable the combined companies to spend more on research and development of new drugs. He also confirmed that Pfizer raised prices on at least 105 drugs for no apparent reason. You can watch a small part of the […]
Previous posts in this series: The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 1: Introduction. The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 2: Antisemitism The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on the Tea Party The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 3: Superfluous Capital and Superfluous People The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on The Commons Capitalism Versus The Social Commons (published at Naked […]
Previous posts in this series: The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 1: Introduction. The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 2: Antisemitism The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on the Tea Party The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 3: Superfluous Capital and Superfluous People The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on The Commons Capitalism Versus The Social Commons (published at Naked […]
Previous posts in this series: The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 1: Introduction. The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 2: Antisemitism The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on the Tea Party The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 3: Superfluous Capital and Superfluous People The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on The Commons Capitalism Versus The Social Commons ======== Please note: […]
Previous posts in this series: The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 1: Introduction. The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 2: Antisemitism The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on the Tea Party The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 3: Superfluous Capital and Superfluous People In Part 3, I discussed two problems created by unrestrained capitalism, superfluous wealth and superfluous people. […]
Previous posts in this series: The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 1: Introduction. The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 2: Antisemitism The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on the Tea Party In Part 2 of The Origins of Totalitarianism Arendt discusses the history of European Imperialism, primarily focused on England, France and Germany. “Expansion is everything,” said Cecil […]
As I noted in this post, Arendt says that the great frauds and swindles of the 1870s led to the rise of Antisemitic political parties in Germany, Austria and France. The Grimdungsschwindel in Germany and Austria involved public offerings of investments in what we would call start-ups corporations in railroads, mining, steamships, docks, and so […]
Previous posts in this series: The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 1: Introduction. In section 1 of The Origins of Totalitarianism, titled Antisemitism, Arendt describes the history of the Jews in Europe. Beginning with the rise of the nation-state in the late 18th and early 19th centuries most, Jews who were long-term residents of nation-states were […]
The Origins of Totalitarianism is Hannah Arendt’s analysis of the rise of totalitarian governments, the Nazis under Hitler in Germany and the Communists under Stalin in Russia. It was published in 1951, though it was largely completed in 1945. In its original form it focused primarily on Nazism, and as more detail emerged about Stalinist […]
Previous posts in this series: The Great Transformation: Mainstream Economics and an Introduction to a New Series The Great Transformation Part 1: The Market The Great Transformation Part 2: More on Markets The Great Transformation Part 3: Neoliberalism Before It Got Its New Name The Great Transformation Part 4: Reaction and Counter-Reaction To Self-Regulating Markets […]