- The market does not do anything. All actions in the marketplace are taken by market players, which include producers, consumers, investors, and government. The market consists merely of the rules and mechanisms agreed upon/used by market players to facilitate and govern their interaction. All statements by economists about ‘The Market’ are obfuscations to draw attention away from the very real people actively pursuing their very real interests in the marketplace.
- Opposition to capitalism does not imply opposition to a market: even all communist systems relied on the market, albeit under different rules. The rules of any given market are not natural or eternal phenomena, but are the products of historical developments (political economy).
- Man’s rationality has been thoroughly debunked for decades now. Any model that insists on that assumption is false. Insisting otherwise does not make it true. To maintain it for so long and so intransigently cannot be innocent – I am way past believing in honest mistakes.
- By isolating their discipline from politics (I suppose in an effort to eradicate Marx), economists have doomed themselves to irrelevance. Any true and useful account of the economic system must include the interplay between economics and power. All market players are also players in the political system, and economic power (money) and political power (influence) are exchangeable.
- Marketing based capitalism is incapable of determining the real needs of society. (For that matter: how does a system based on rational human action reconcile itself with marketing and advertising?). It necessarily serves the needs of the individual (profit) first. The needs of society can only be determined in the political arena. All major advances have been enabled by public policy (nuclear power, space flight, universal health care), while market capitalism brings us gadgets, intellectual property rights, and 5-layered toilet paper.
- It is naive to deny the class struggle. The working class might not realize it, but they are victims in a relentless war. Global wealth distribution statistics cannot be interpreted in any other way. Corporate money buys politicians and policies to enrich the wealthy and enforce their control over society.
- Capitalism is inefficient and wasteful. It is incapable of allocating resources sustainably.
- All major depressions in western capitalism have been caused by the financial sector. It is irresponsible not to nationalize all financial institutions.
- The crisis in American capitalism is fundamental and cannot be solved by bailouts or stimulus alone. America needs to demonstrate in the short term that it is capable of real decisive action: not another war, but meaningful financial reform, bold action on climate change, and fulfilling its international obligations. Failure to do so will lead to an irreparable loss of confidence in the post-WOII economic and political world order.
- The problems facing the world are too severe to trust in free-market capitalism for solutions.
OK, not all economists are irremediable – see Paul Krugman’s eloquent post expressing his despair at the extend of our problems, but also sounding a note of optimism about the costs of action. I can only stress his conclusion: “So the time for action is now. O.K., strictly speaking it’s long past. But better late than never. “