economics | The Blogora

economics

Submitted by Michael Faris on March 30, 2009 - 8:19am

Speaking in Brasília at a joint press conference with Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, [Brazil's President] Mr Lula da Silva told reporters: "This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing."

Happy Days Are Here Again

Submitted by Adria on October 19, 2008 - 2:03pm

Lee Sustar critiques the bailout plan of 2008.

Trained Incapacities and The Housing Market Crash

Submitted by Jim Brown on August 20, 2007 - 9:26am

Stories about the housing market "meltdown" have got a lot of people thinking: How did no one see this coming? Well, this story from the New York Times is one of many inquiries into this same question, and I'm wondering if Burke's discussion of "trained incapacities" (borrowed from Veblen) doesn't offer one way of explaining what's happened. Something about the "disciplinary knowledge" of mortgage lending seems to have blinded people to some really basic facts (such as, people with low income will have a hard time paying off their home loan.)