Tag Archives: Economics

Structural unemployment and working poverty are not inevitable

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The plight of structural unemployment and gaggles of working poor, it appears, are here to stay. But are they the inevitable consequence of economic liberalisation?

They are not. If we balance the burden of economic transformation on labor and capital, and strengthen progression, we can have it both: near full employment and open borders.

 

Mindestlohn, DGB, 2009

The sentiment is right, but the policy is flawed.

 

No, the answer is not a minimum wage. No, it’s not protectionism. No, it won’t hurt growth. But yes, it will require fundamental reform, hard work and international cooperation.

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Low-Carbon Tech, an Infant Industry in Need of Protection

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How to react to global warming? How do wean ourselves off that harmful oil – and still prosper?

I maintained that we’d better be safe with Sinn‘s fears of a Green Paradox than sorry without him, notwithstanding the uncertainties of his argument.

Economist Hans-Werner Sinn is no easy read for a green German: he pretty much pulls german and European green policy into pieces. Much of his critique is plausible, if unsettling: without international cooperation, much of our unilateral efforts may be in vain.

But there’s one thing where I wholeheartedly disagree with Sinn: low-carbon technology, for the time being, does indeed require subsidies.

Renewables / via Flickr, originally uploaded by Chad Johnson

Renewables / via Flickr, originally uploaded by Chad Johnson

Yes, it may be hard for states to pick winners, but low-carbon technology still needs infant industry incubation, if it is to sustain us in the near future.

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The Copenhagen Game

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The Big Ask is on: These days, the leaders of the world convene in Copenhagen for the 15th time to address that “greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen“: Climate Change.

Will they ward off that Tragedy of the Commons of our time? We don’t know.

They are playing games in Copenhagen. Not of the entertaining kind, but of the intricately interdependent kind.

The Green Paradox is one of those intricacies: are we reckoning without our fossil-fuel supplying hosts? What are their stakes?

Let’s get the rules straight. Then let’s see what we can do to improve our collective odds for a cooler planet.

And while we’re at it, let’s level out this playing field.

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