New ideas in economics and the social sciences

Blair Fix

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How the Rich Get Richer

I’ve gotten rid of ads on Economics from the Top Down

Greetings readers. For some time now, I’ve been uncomfortable with the fact that WordPress (who hosts this site) inserts ads into the content. It’s annoying. But more importantly, it goes against much of what this blog stands for. My goal in this blog is to do

 science

— to dispassionately look at the evidence. Having ads cheapens (or at least distracts from) this goal. So for some time, I’ve been thinking about getting rid of ads.

No More Ads

Are interest rates a neutral policy variable? Or are they a tool for class warfare? It turns out that the evidence speaks for itself. Here are three ways that higher interest rates redistribute income.

Download: PDF | EPUB [I]nterest rates are, first and foremost, a distributional variable that affects the income shares of various social groups. — Louis-Philippe Rochon &amp; Mark Setterfield (2007) When I read about monetary policy, I have a rule of thumb. Every time I see the phrase

 interest rate

, I replace it with the term

 wage rate

. Then I ask myself whether the discussion still makes sense. Often, it does not.

How Interest Rates Redistribute Income

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Billionaires Are So Predictable

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="9520" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/10/23/the-american-housing-crisis-a-theft-not-a-shortage/rent_poor_cover/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?fit=3000%2C2700&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="3000,2700" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="rent_poor_cover" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?fit=300%2C270&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?fit=723%2C651&amp;ssl=1" />I test if the US housing crisis could be solved by taking money from the rich and handing it too the poor. Spoilers ... it would work.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/10/23/the-american-housing-crisis-a-theft-not-a-shortage/">The American Housing Crisis: A Theft, Not a Shortage</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Your browser does not support the audio tag. Download: PDF | EPUB | MP3 | WATCH VIDEO

 The U.S. has a shortage of 7.3 million rental homes affordable and available to renters with extremely low incomes.

— National Low Income Housing Coalition If mainstream economics teaches us one lesson, it’s that when something becomes unaffordable, it’s because of a shortage. And that brings me to the US housing crisis.

The American Housing Crisis: A Theft, Not a Shortage

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=800%2C800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="7728" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/12/29/top-posts-of-2023/tmpaxgnsdau/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?fit=1280%2C1280&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="1280,1280" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="tmpaxgnsdau" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?fit=723%2C723&amp;ssl=1" />I spent the better part of 2023 debunking the idea that higher interest rates down-regulate inflation. Here were the top 5 posts.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/12/29/top-posts-of-2023/">Top Posts of 2023</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Well, another year of blogging is over. For me, it was a year of research themes. I spent the first half of 2023 debunking interest-rate orthodoxy. Then I spent the second half of the year studying the world’s billionaires. Here were the top 5 posts: Do High Interest Rates Reduce Inflation?

A Tour of the Jevons Paradox: How Energy Efficiency Backfires

It has been an … interesting month. But I did manage to finish a small project.

Greetings readers. It’s been an interesting month for me, what with Toronto dealing with an explosive 3rd wave of COVID, and me trying to get work done while my 5-year-old daughter does ‘school’ from home. Life has been, shall we say, interesting. Then, two weeks ago my appendix decided it was time to rupture. That put me in the hospital for a few days, and then home in bed for a few more. I’m now almost fully recovered.

RECASP Back Catalogue Now in Full-Text HTML

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=800%2C800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="8287" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/bitcoin_cover-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?fit=2560%2C1707&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="2560,1707" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="bitcoin_cover" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?fit=723%2C482&amp;ssl=1" />Yes, the Bitcoin network uses loads of energy. But so does mainstream finance. So which system is more energy intensive? In this post, I do the math.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/">Is Bitcoin More Energy Intensive Than Mainstream Finance?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Download:  PDF | EPUB  When it comes to Bitcoin, there’s one thing that almost everyone agrees on: the network sucks up a tremendous amount of energy. But from there, disagreement is the rule. For critics, Bitcoin’s thirst for energy is self-evidently bad — the equivalent of pouring gasoline in a hole and setting it on fire. But for Bitcoin advocates, the network’s energy gluttony is the necessary price of having a secure digital currency.

Is Bitcoin More Energy Intensive Than Mainstream Finance?

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="7988" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/padlock/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?fit=1080%2C720&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="1080,720" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="padlock" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?fit=723%2C482&amp;ssl=1" />I take a dive into the world of software and look at the problem of managing dependencies. From the Unix design, we've inherited many problems. Can we nix them with 'Nix'?
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/02/17/nixing-technological-lock-in/">Nixing Technological Lock In</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Download: PDF | EPUB Tech development is often portrayed as an open road — a smooth freeway of continuous progress. But the truth is that the road of technology is more like a suburban street, paved with numerous unmarked dead ends. To see one of these dead end, look at

 roads

themselves. As a method for moving people, roads work well … until you fill them with millions of cars.

Nixing Technological Lock In

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=800%2C800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="7699" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/desouza_cover-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?fit=8184%2C6424&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="8184,6424" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="desouza_cover" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?fit=300%2C235&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?fit=723%2C568&amp;ssl=1" />Building on Regan Boychuk's work, I take a quantitative look at how newspapers in Canada's oilpatch censor the reporting of environmental journalist Mike De Souza.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/12/22/massaging-the-message-how-oilpatch-newspapers-censor-the-news/">Massaging the Message: How Oilpatch Newspapers Censor the News</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Download: PDF | EPUB In their book

 Manufacturing Consent

, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky argue that the mainstream media functions largely as a propaganda arm for the state. When the war drum beats, the corporate media tows the government’s line, censoring facts that don’t fit the official narrative. Outside of war, media bias is typically less overt. But to the careful observer, it can still be discerned.

Massaging the Message: How Oilpatch Newspapers Censor the News

Yes you should read ‘Scale’. No, don’t believe everything it says.

For several years, people have been urging me to read Geoffrey West’s book

 Scale

, claiming that his work overlaps with my own. Having read the book, I largely agree (with some caveats below). Geoffrey West is a physicist who’s become famous for studying ‘scaling’ effects across life on Earth. What is ‘scaling’? It’s best explained through an example. Figure 1 (taken from West’s book) shows how animals’ metabolism varies with body mass.

A Review of Geoffrey West’s ‘Scale’

Tidyquant is a nifty R package for get stock-price data.

They say that knowledge is power. Well, in capitalism, knowledge is also money … but only if you keep it under lock and key. Hence, researchers who study capitalism are often faced with a dilemma: the best data is kept behind a hefty paywall. The only way to get access is if your institution pays for a subscription. And if you’re not lucky enough to work for a university, you’re out of luck.

Tidyquant: An Open-Access Tool for Studying the Stock Market

My thoughts on the state of corporate power in the US.

I recently had a lively Twitter debate with Jonathan Nitzan, Shimshon Bichler and Cory Doctorow

 1

about the future of big corporations in the United States. The debate was prompted by Doctorow’s piece ‘End of the line for Reaganomics’, which I reposted on capitalaspower.com. Doctorow argues that we may be witnessing a sea change in the way governments treat big corporations.

How Dominant are Big US Corporations?

A rapid-fire post about Nitzan and Bichler’s buy-to-build indicator.

Today I’m trying a different type of post — one that’s not a deep dive, but instead, a rapid-fire summary of an important topic. My inspiration comes from Cory Doctorow, a sci-fi author who runs an old-fashioned links blog that he syndicates across the internet. (At last count, it’s on pluralistic.net, Twitter, Mastodon, and Medium). I read Doctorow’s blog daily, as he writes consistently excellent commentary on political economy.

A Brief History of the Buy-to-Build Indicator

I discuss the ongoing research into the capital-as-power model of the stock market.

Over the last year, I’ve watched with horror and amusement as health agencies around the world flip-flopped their advice on how to deal with COVID. My horror comes from knowing this flip-flopping breeds mistrust in science. But I am (morbidly) amused because I know that uncertainty is a basic part of real research. For the public, ‘science’ tends to mean authoritative knowledge.

With Great Power Comes Great Fear

I crunch the numbers on COVID vaccines. No surprises … they’re going overwhelmingly to rich countries.

Around the world, rich countries are celebrating as their COVID numbers fall. Their success is no mystery — it’s because of a massive rollout of COVID vaccines. While we should celebrate the development of these vaccines, their

 deployment

highlights the tyrannies of capitalism. Most of the basic research for COVID vaccines was funded by the public. Yet their manufacture is controlled by Big Pharma.

The Quant Case for Open-Access COVID Vaccines

I take a detailed look at the quantitative ritual that orders our social world.

There’s something mysterious about finance. The symbols are arcane. The math is complex. The practitioners are impressively educated. And the stakes are high. All of this gives finance the veneer of higher truth — as if quants are uncovering a reality not accessible to the rest of us. In a sense they are. But the ‘reality’ is not what you think. When you look at stock-market numbers, they do point to a truth about the world.

The Ritual of Capitalization

Some exciting personal news. In July, I will be starting a postdoctoral fellowship at York University. I’ll be studying the hierarchical origins of income inequality. Some of you might be asking — what’s a ‘postdoc’? Well, it’s a position that universities invented in the 1970s to give PhD graduates a job while they waited for professorial positions.

Once More Into the Fire of Academia

What’s the most pernicious scientific idea ever? I’d give first prize to eugenics and second prize to human capital theory.

If there was an award for the most pernicious scientific idea ever, what theory should get first prize? I would vote for eugenics, a theory that claims we can ‘improve’ humanity through selective breeding. If there was a second prize, I’d give it to human capital theory.

The Rise of Human Capital Theory

Have humans always been egalitarian? The evolutionary evidence suggests not.

Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762 In his epic 18th-century treatise

 Discourse on Inequality

, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that inequality is an ill of civilization, created by private property. If you roll back the clock on civilization, he claimed, you should also roll back inequality. Rousseau was probably both right and wrong.

The Deep History of Human Inequality

Here’s the manuscript for a new piece in The Mint Magazine about the language of economics.

A few months ago, I went down a rabbit hole analyzing word frequency in economics textbooks. Henry Leveson-Gower, editor of

 The Mint Magazine

, thought the results were interesting and asked me to write up a short piece. The

 Mint

article is now up, and is called ‘Power: don’t mention it’. What follows is my original manuscript. If you’ve ever taken Economics 101, then you’re familiar with its jargon.

Power … and the Dialect of Economics

I explore the power struggle behind ‘free speech’.

They say that Americans love two things: freedom … and guns. The trouble with guns is obvious. The trouble with freedom is more subtle, and boils down to doublespeak. When a good old boy defends his ‘freedom’, there’s a good chance he has a hidden agenda. He doesn’t want freedom for everyone.

Free Speech For Me, Not You

Let’s move all textbooks to the Creative Commons.

Today a rant about

 textbooks

. Every year governments spend billions of dollars on public education, teaching students knowledge that was itself created by publicly funded research. Yet each year, university students must pay anew for this information by purchasing high-priced textbooks. It needn’t be this way. Most university textbooks are written by tenured (or tenure-track) professors.

Why Are Most Textbooks Still Proprietary?

I look at the degrowth that might be achieved by eliminating inequality.

Pity the billionaires. High in the towers on Billionaires’ Row, life is hard. The pencil-thin buildings groan as they sway in the wind, keeping penthouse dwellers up at night. Water pipes break, ruining posh décor. And elevators are unreliable, interrupting billionaires’ highly productive lives. So reads Stefanos Chen’s recent piece about the pitfalls of sky-high living.

Radically Progressive Degrowth: Reducing Resource Use by Eliminating Inequality

The talk version of my recent paper on degrowth.

This week I had the good fortune to talk with Rok Kranjc and Michel Bauwens about my research on degrowth and hierarchy. The full discussion will be available in a month or so at the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on an Equitable and Resilient Society (which supported this research).  For now, here is my presentation. I discuss ideas from the paper Living the Good Life in a Non-Growth World: Investigating the Role of Hierarchy.

Living the Good Life in a Non-Growth World — The Talk Version

I discuss the advantages of writing technical documents in plain text. And I give you resources to learn how to do it.

As a scientist, I spend much of my time writing. Over the years I’ve experimented with a panoply of writing tools. This week I thought I’d share what I’ve learned. While you can ultimately write on any device that records your words, a good tool makes writing less painful. For a lot of people,

 the

writing tool is Microsoft Word (or some similar word processor). If it works for you, great.

Why and How I Write Scientific Documents in Plain Text

This is the first of two essays written for (and supported by) the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on an Equitable and Resilient Society. These essays investigate the role that hierarchy plays in driving inequality and unsustainability. This piece introduces the facts of hierarchy.

Living the good life in a non-growth world: Investigating the role of hierarchy

A hellish year is over and a vaccine is rolling out. Let’s be thankful for science.

We’ve finally reached the end of 2020, a year that many people are happy to forget. In the history books, 2020 will be known for little besides the Covid pandemic. Fortunately, the end of this disaster is in sight. With multiple vaccines starting to roll out, it looks like 2021 will be a better year. Speaking of vaccines, I’ve been racking my brain to find things to be thankful for this holiday season. It’s not easy.

As 2020 Ends, Let’s Celebrate Science

Peak oil was all the rage a decade ago. Now nobody’s talking about it. The funny thing is, it’s still happening.

Do you remember peak oil? It was all the rage a decade ago. Now, almost no one is talking about it. The funny thing is, the problem never went away. If anything, it’s gotten worse. In this post, I take a deep dive into peak oil. I show you that the peak in the production of conventional crude oil isn’t some distant prospect.

Peak Oil Never Went Away

I built a bot that counts word frequency. Here’s what it says about the language in economics textbooks.

It’s been 20 years, but I still remember the feeling. It was a mix of curiosity and unease. I was curious because I was learning something new. But I was uneasy because something didn’t sit right. The place was Edmonton, Alberta, circa the year 2000. The situation? My first encounter with economics:

 Econ 101

. Interestingly, I can’t remember much of the course content.

Deconstructing Econospeak

Check out the new and improved Capital as Power Forum.

Nothing says 1990s like an ‘internet forum’. Nothing says 2000s like a ‘blog’. And nothing says 2010s like ‘social media’. As we contemplate how social media is ruining our society, let’s hearken back to a simpler day. Yes, I’m writing this on a blog. But today I want to talk about internet forums — specifically the Capital as Power Forum, which has recently relaunched.

The Capital as Power Forum Lives Again!

Here’s a tale about empirical work that demonstrates a simple rule: the deeper you go, the harder it gets.

This post begins with a sigh. For the last month, I’ve been working on a project that analyzes word frequency in economics textbooks. I’d hoped to have the final write up done by now. But I don’t … for reasons explained here. I’m calling this post ‘Working with Google Ngrams’. But even if you’re not interested in ngrams (i.e. word frequency), there’s useful information here.

Working With Google Ngrams: A Data-Wrangling Tale

Exciting news!

 Capital as Power

— the seminal text written by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler — is now available for free as both an epub and online book. Full disclosure: the typesetter was yours truly. What’s

 Capital as Power

? And why did I make a free ebook version? Read on to find out. You must unlearn what you have learned

 1

I don’t talk much on this blog about my personal journey.

Free Capital as Power Ebook

The effects of class struggle, it seems, are written in the most unlikely of places: the

 stock market

.

It was a Thursday in August when all hell broke loose. The place was Logan County, West Virginia. The year was 1921. Over the next week, one million rounds of ammunition would be fired. Up to a hundred people were killed. All told, it was the largest armed uprising since the American Civil War. Yet you’ve probably never heard of it. That’s because the battle was a

 labor dispute

. It was called the Battle of Blair Mountain.

How the History of Class Struggle is Written on the Stock Market

In 1957, Herbert Simon proposed that CEO pay had a simple explanation: it stemmed largely from rank in a hierarchy. His model was largely forgotton. Here’s a second look.

Last fall, I wrote a short article for The Mint Magazine about how income relates to hierarchy. The Mint, if you’re not familiar, does great work promoting pluralist thinking in economics. Check out their on-going Festival for Change — a festival devoted to building a better economy. Back to my aricle. I submitted a manuscript called ‘A Second Look at Hierarchy’. It got published in The Mint as Down to Size. Here’s my original manuscript.

A Second Look at Hierarchy

The US is in uncharted territory. Never before have stocks been so high relative to wages. Here’s what it means.

If you listen carefully, you can hear Jeff Bezos getting richer. There’s the sound again. Another billion in Bezos’ coffers. Let’s put some numbers to this sound of money. Since 2017, Bezos’ net worth has grown by about $4 million per hour — roughly 500,000 times the US minimum wage.

 1

This accumulation of wealth would be absurd during normal times.

Stocks Are Up. Wages Are Down. What Does it Mean?

IQ tests have always bothered me. They claim to measure ‘general intelligence’. I think this is bullshit.

Donald Trump took an IQ test … you’ll never guess what he scored! Apologies. That was my attempt at clickbait.

 1

Now that I’ve hooked you, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. No, not Donald Trump. Let’s talk about

 IQ

. For as long as I can remember I’ve been skeptical of measures of ‘intelligence’. The whole procedure rubbed me the wrong way.

Why ‘General Intelligence’ Doesn’t Exist

I’ve always been baffled why ‘modern monetary theory’ is called a

 theory

. I don’t mean this in a disparaging way. As far as theories of money go, I think modern monetary theory (MMT for short) is the correct one. But having a correct theory of money is a bit like having a correct theory of traffic lights. Traffic lights (like money) are a social convention.

Why Isn’t Modern Monetary Theory Common Knowledge?

In a new video, Jonathan Nitzan demolishes the neoclassical theory of prices. Here’s a summary and some consequences.

Prices are caused by supply and demand, right? So say neoclassical economists. If you’ve bought their fairy tale, I recommend you watch the video below. In it, Jonathan Nitzan demolishes the neoclassical theory of prices. It’s a master lesson in how to deconstruct a theory. An error occurred. Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser. Here’s the 100-word summary.

Supply and Demand Deconstructed

The rise and fall of empires is written in the language of energy. Let’s have a look at this ‘energy book’ and see why America won’t be ‘great’ again.

They called him the

 ‘Little Emperor’

. Romulus Augustus — better known as Romulus ‘Augustulus’ (‘Little Augustus’) — was the last Western Roman Emperor. He assumed the throne at the age of 16 during a period of unprecedented strife. There had been 8 emperors in the previous 20 years. Like his predecessors, the Little Emperor’s reign was short. It lasted less than a year.

Why America Won’t Be ‘Great’ Again

I dissect how neoclassical economics treats (neglects) natural resources, and discuss ways to fix it.

If it is very easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then there is in principle no “problem”. The world can, in effect, get along without natural resources.

— Robert Solow, 1974 In the distant future, aliens come to Earth. They find a planet devoid of life. Looking closer, the aliens see that life on Earth

 was

once abundant, but was wiped out by a mass extinction.

Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?

I discuss my research on income and hierarchy with Steve Keen and Phil Dobbie

Last week, Steve Keen and Phil Dobbie were kind enough to invite me on their Debunking Economics Podcast. We discussed my research on income inequality and hierarchy. You can listen to the episode here: An error occurred. Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser. You can also listen at Steve’s patreon page. Some back story.

Guest on the Debunking Economics Podcast

Sometimes scientists fall victim to a base human instinct — the need to conform. When they do, we need revolutionary scientists to put science back on track.

Science is miraculously improbable. To work, it must fight against a deep human instinct — our desire to

 conform

. As social animals, humans are built to do as others do. Why? Presumably because it’s advantageous. In our evolutionary past, conformist groups beat out non-conformist groups. And so here we sit, a conformist species.

The Challenges of Doing Revolutionary Science (Part 1)

Politics determine government size, right? Yes and no. I show here that there’s more to government size than just politics.

Governments are different than firms, right? Perhaps not. In Part 1 of this series, I argued that when it comes to size, governments behave like they’re ‘just another firm’. In this post, I’m going to extend the evidence. I’ll first show you that as economies develop, governments get bigger. Then I’ll explain this trend using the ‘government-as-firm’ model.

What if the Government is Just Another Firm? (Part 2)

Governments are different than firms, right? Maybe not. When it comes to size, governments behave like they’re just another firm.

I have a confession. I’m a political economist by trade, but I spend most of my time reading outside my discipline. I read about physics, cosmology, biology … the list goes on. Basically, if it’s not political economy, I read it.  Usually this reading doesn’t relate to my own research. I do it because I love science. But every so often lightning strikes and I discover a scientific idea that begs to be applied to political economy.

What if the Government is Just Another Firm? (Part 1)

When it comes to income, economists ask the wrong question. So they get the wrong answer.

You can’t get the right answer when you ask the wrong question. This truism, I’ve come to believe, explains much of what is wrong with economics. When it comes to studying income, economists ask the wrong question. Economists, I argue, have mostly asked:

 is income fair

? The problem is that this is a

 moral

question, not a scientific one. It has no scientific answer.

Understanding Income: You Can’t Get There from Here

It’s a perennial problem in science. How do you know when someone’s a crank?

I confess that I have a recurring nightmare. In it, I realize that everything I’ve ever written about economics is wrong. Neoclassical economics is not, as I’ve repeatedly claimed, a pile of bullshit. In this nightmare, neoclassical economics is

 correct

. And as a strident critic of neoclassical theory, I realize the horrible truth.

 I’m a crank

! I wake up in a cold sweat, wondering if I’m wasting my life.

How Do You Spot a Crank?

Wages correlate with firms’ sales per worker. Does this mean that productivity explains wages? The answer is no.

Does productivity explain income? I asked this question in a previous post. My answer was a bombastic

 no

. In this post, I’ll dig deeper into the reasons that productivity doesn’t explain income. I’ll focus on wages. The evidence Let’s start with the evidence trumpeted as proof that productivity explains wages. Looking across firms, we find that sales per worker correlates with average wages.

Productivity Does Not Explain Wages

I use the Ontario Sunshine List to shed light on how income grows with hierarchical rank.

Income, I’ve come to believe, is shaped largely by rank within a hierarchy. If you’re at the top of a hierarchy, you’ll earn a handsome sum. But if you’re at the bottom of a hierarchy, you’ll earn a pittance. As a hard-nosed scientist, I’m always looking for ways to test this hypothesis.

Some Sunshine on the Ontario Job Hierarchy

Income in the US military follows the power ethos — to each according to their social influence.

In How Hierarchy Can Mediate the Returns to Education I examined the pay structure of the US military. I found that hierarchical rank is (by far) the strongest determinant of military pay. Here I want to show you that there is a regularity to military pay. In the US military, income is proportional to the number of subordinates one controls.

The Power Ethos in the US Military

For all that it purports to say, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fails to explain anything relevant about the world.

I’m reposting here an article that Erald Kolasi and I wrote for Mint Magazine. The article discusses the problems with ‘real’ GDP and possible alternatives for measuring economic activity. The published version is under a paywall, so I’m posting our (unabridged) manuscript here.

Why We Should Abandon Real GDP As A Measure of Economic Activity

Has the digital revolution made wealth non-material?

Has wealth gone digital? Both critics and cheerleaders of capitalism claim it has. The critics see non-material wealth as a problem. Digital wealth, they say, is

 fictitious

. It’s lost touch with reality. The cheerleaders of capitalism see the same thing as a boon. Non-material wealth, they say, will decouple the economy from physical constraints. So the economy can grow forever! Which side is right? Neither, in my opinion.

Has Wealth Gone Digital?

It’s time to put economics in line with the rest of science. We need a theory of resource distribution that accepts our evolved sociality.

The biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky famously wrote that “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”. I propose a corollary in economics:

 nothing in economics makes sense except in the light of human social evolution.

[1] I explore here how the evolution of human sociality can help us understand how we distribute resources. Although economists like to deny it, humans are social animals.

An Evolutionary Theory of Resource Distribution (Part 1)

In some countries, the top 1% share of income has increased while the Gini index has decreased. Here’s how it can happen.

In Problems With Measuring Inequality, I discussed how inequality is an ambiguous concept. The problem, in short, is that a single metric can never capture every aspect of a distribution of income. Much like we cannot tell the shape of an object from its perimeter or area, we cannot tell the shape of the distribution of income from a single metric of inequality. From this fact arise some seeming paradoxes.

When Inequality Increases and Decreases at the Same Time

The social sciences, I’ve come to believe, don’t have a coherent concept of causation. To talk about ‘causation’ we need to have a boundary on cause and effect. I reflect on what this means for studying causation.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking about causation in the social sciences. As with many instances of reflection, this was prompted by rejection. A political economy journal recently rejected a paper that I had submitted. The paper (available here) studied the correlation between hierarchical power and income.

Rethinking Causation in the Social Sciences

We often talk about inequality using a single number — usually the Gini index. But the reality is that inequality is complex. To study inequality, we need to use multiple metrics.

Economists often talk about income inequality the same way a doctor would talk about a child’s height. Just as a doctor would say “Sylvia continues to grow taller”, economists say things like “US income inequality continues to grow”. (Full disclosure, I’m sure I’ve said similar things).  On the surface, there seems to be nothing wrong with this type of pronouncement.

Problems With Measuring Inequality

In the United States, the income share of the top 1% is tightly related to the share of corporate dividends in national income.

In this post, I’m going to celebrate an anniversary of sorts. It’s been 4 years since I stumbled on a striking relation between inequality and capitalist income. In the United States, the income share of the top 1% is tightly related to the share of corporate dividends in national income. Over the last four years, I’ve developed a model that explains this relation.

Inequality and Capitalist Income

Citation counts are similar to social media “likes” — they are always positive. But what if we had negative citations?

Scientists live and die by their scientific ‘impact’. For the uninitiated, ‘impact’ is a measure of a scientist’s contribution to their field. While there are many measures of scientific impact, almost all of them focus (in some way) on

 citations

. So if more people cite your papers, you have more scientific ‘impact’. The idea behind counting citations is that they quantify other people’s engagement with your ideas.

What If Scientific Impact Could Be Negative?

Marx thought that private property was the cause of capitalism’s social ills. But when Marx’s ideas were put in action, they were disastrous. I discuss what went wrong.

Karl Marx is probably the most important social scientist in history. But while his influence is beyond compare, Marx’s legacy is, in many ways,

 disastrous

. Few thinkers have inspired so many people to commit crimes against humanity. Think of Stalinist gulags. Think of the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s, which may have killed as many people as the Holocaust.

The Allure of Marxism … And Why It’s a Mistake

Gregory Clark proposes that the differential reproduction of the rich led to the industrial revolution. He’s probably wrong.

I thought I would spark some controversy by reviewing Gregory Clark’s “A Farewell to Alms”. Clark offers a social Darwinist theory of why the industrial revolution occurred in England. Most social scientists will likely dismiss Clark’s arguments as absurd. I will say off the bat that I think Clark’s thesis is wrong. But it contains an uncomfortable grain of truth that we need to acknowledge.

A Review of  Gregory Clark’s “A Farewell to Alms”

An update to “The The Growth of Hierarchy and the Death of the Free Market”. I show you which countries are which.

In The Growth of Hierarchy and the Death of the Free Market, I looked at how the number of managers grows with energy use. The growth of managers, I argued, signalled the death of the free market. As countries develop, they replace small-scale competition with large-scale hierarchy. My analysis culminated in the figure below, which compares the management share of employment to energy use per capita.

The Growth of Managers: An Update

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="10285" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/01/31/partisan-politics-and-the-road-to-plutocracy/partisan_cover/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?fit=3000%2C2700&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="3000,2700" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="partisan_cover" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?fit=300%2C270&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/partisan_cover.png?fit=723%2C651&amp;ssl=1" />In this essay, I take a deep dive into the history of American plutocracy and its conspicuously Republican roots.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/01/31/partisan-politics-and-the-road-to-plutocracy/">Partisan Politics and the Road to Plutocracy</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

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Partisan Politics and the Road to Plutocracy

Can a service transition help us reduce carbon emissions? The evidence says no.

Let’s talk sustainability. Unless you’re an anti-science crank, you probably agree that we’ve got a problem with carbon emissions. We need to drastically cut emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change. On this we should all agree. The question that’s open for debate is

 how

to cut emissions. I think we actually know very little about how do to this.

Can A Service Transition Save the Planet?

As societies use more energy, business firms tend to get bigger. Here’s how it happens.

In this post, I’m going to return to the relation between energy and institution size. When we left off last time (in Groping in the Dark), I had described my struggle to understand how the size of firms and governments changes with energy use. It took me years of empirical muckraking to discover four stylized facts.

Energy and the Size Distribution of Firms

Yesterday I was reminded of what got me interested in economics. I’ll preface this by saying that I make my living as a substitute teacher in Toronto. It’s not glamorous, but it pays the bills. It gives me time to do research from outside academia.  When I’m in high school classrooms, I always browse the posters on the wall. It’s funny what you see. You find things (both good and bad) that you’d never see in institutions of ‘higher learning’.

Where’s the Barefoot  Revolution in Economics?

Contrary to what neoclassical economists claim should happen, economic growth seems to involve less ‘free market’ and more hierarchy.

Do you believe in free markets? Do you think that unfettered competition is the best way to organize society? If so, this post is intended to shake your faith. No, I’m not going to argue that free markets are bad. Instead, I’m going to show you some evidence that may disturb you. I’m going to show you that as societies develop, they kill off the free market and replace it with a command economy. Let me be clear about what I mean.

The Growth of Hierarchy and the Death of the Free Market

In science, being wrong is call for a celebration. Now that you think I’m crazy, let me explain. Science is about the search for

 truth

. Logically, this means we should celebrate when we are

 right

. But here’s the catch. How do we know when we are right? We can’t. Science is about

 conditional

truth. We have ideas that we

 think

are right because they have not yet been proven wrong.

Let’s Celebrate Being Wrong

Real GDP is key to macroeconomics. But is it a valid measure of economic scale?

In this post, we’re going to go down the rabbit hole looking at the severe problems with real GDP. I am honored to have coauthored this research note with Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler. Jonathan teaches political economy at York University in Canada. Shimshon teaches political economy at colleges and universities in Israel. All of Bichler &amp;

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