NEW Ideas from Dead Economists

https://www.academia.edu/7099629/NEw_Ideas_from_Dead_Economists

 

 

2

Table

 

of 

 

Contents

 

Title

 

Page

 

Copyright

 

Page

 

Foreword

 

Preface

 

to

 

the

 

Revised

 

Edition

 

Acknowledgements

 

CHAPTER

 

I

 ‐

Introduction:

 

The

 

Plight

 

of 

 

the

 

Economist

 

CHAPTER

 

II

 ‐

The

 

Second

 

Coming

 

of 

 

Adam

 

Smith

 

CHAPTER

 

III

 ‐

Malthus:

 

Prophet

 

of 

 

Doom

 

and

 

Population

 

Boom

 

CHAPTER

 

IV

 ‐

David

 

Ricardo

 

and

 

the

 

Cry

 

for

 

Free

 

Trade

 

CHAPTER

 

V

 ‐

The

 

Stormy

 

Mind

 

of 

 

John

 

Stuart

 

Mill

 

CHAPTER

 

VI

 ‐

The

 

Angry

 

Oracle

 

Called

 

Karl

 

Marx

 

CHAPTER

 

VII

 ‐

Alfred

 

Marshall

 

and

 

the

 

Marginalist

 

Mind

 

CHAPTER

 

VIII

 ‐

Old

 

and

 

New

 

Institutionalists

 

CHAPTER

 

IX

 ‐

Keynes:

 

Bon

 

Vivant

 

as

 

Savior

 

CHAPTER

 

X

 ‐

Milton

 

Friedman

 

and

 

the

 

Monetarist

 

Battle

 

Against

 

Keynes

 

CHAPTER

 

XI

 ‐

The

 

Public

 

Choice

 

School:

 

Politics

 

as

 

a

 

Business

 

CHAPTER

 

XII

 ‐

The

 

Wild

 

World

 

of 

 

Rational

 

Expectations

 

and

 

Behavioral

 

Economics

 

CHAPTER

 

XIII

 ‐

Dark

 

Clouds,

 

Silver

 

Linings

 

Notes

 

Index

 

 

Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes

https://www.academia.edu/10903079/Big_Three_in_Economics_Adam_Smith_Karl_Marx_and_John_Maynard_Keynes

BIG DATA IS BIG BROTHER
Google to buy stake in ADT in home security push for $450 million

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google is picking up a 6.6% stake in ADT Inc (ADT.N) for $450 million, betting on the home security company’s strong customer base and an army of technicians to drive sales of its Nest devices.

ADT shares nearly doubled to hit a high of $17.2 and traded well above their IPO price of $14 for the first time since going public in 2018, briefly valuing the company at about $13 billion.

The investment gives ADT the backing of a high-profile technology partner and broadens its services business. In return, Google gets access to about 6.5 million customers, strengthening its presence as it competes with Amazon.com’s (AMZN.O) Ring and Boston-based SimpliSafe, among others.


ADT said on Monday that the two companies would work on ways to package popular Google products like Home Mini, Nest Thermostat and Nest Wifi with ADT’s strength in installation and maintenance.

“Later this year, we will begin integrating Google devices and make them available for installations to our customers,” ADT Chief Executive Officer Jim DeVries told Reuters.

“We will exclusively support Nest products,” DeVries said, adding that the companies will build products together and start rolling them out next year.


The companies will commit an additional $150 million each for co-marketing, product development, technology and employee training, ADT said.

Google will buy 54.7 million newly created Class B shares of ADT for $8.22 each with no voting rights, the Boca Raton, Florida-based company said in a filing.

Founded in 1874, ADT is backed by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC, which owns 83.5% of the company, according to Refinitiv data. Apollo had taken ADT private in a nearly $7 billion deal in 2016.

POST COVID-19 ROBOTS ARE COMING FOR TYSON JOBS

Tyson Foods names new CEO as coronavirus raises costs

Banks, a former executive at Google-parent Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) experimental research division, will help the company integrate more technology into operations

(Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) named its president, Dean Banks, as its new chief executive on Monday as the meatpacker faces unprecedented disruptions from the COVID-19 outbreak.

FILE PHOTO: Tyson Foods brand frozen chicken wings are pictured in a grocery store freezer in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S. May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

Tyson said Banks will replace 37-year company veteran Noel White in October as it reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales. The company predicted the pandemic will increase operating costs and hinder sales volumes into next year.

Uncertainty over the reopening of the economy confronts Banks, who joined Tyson’s board in 2017 and became president in December 2019.

Tyson Foods wants China to lift ban on U.S. plant with COVID-19 cases

Chairman John Tyson said Banks, a former executive at Google-parent Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) experimental research division, will help the company integrate more technology into operations and focus on employee health.

The novel coronavirus has infected thousands of U.S. meatpacking workers and led to temporary meat shortages as processors like Tyson, JBS (JBSS3.SA) and Smithfield Foods [SFII.UL] closed slaughterhouses in April and May. Plants have reopened, but absences among workers who are afraid of getting sick continue to limit output.
Tyson said it faces reduced demand from restaurants and food-service outlets that has not been offset by stronger meat sales at grocers. The company predicted its chicken and prepared foods segments will suffer lower sales volumes in the last fiscal quarter.


In the third quarter ended June 27, Tyson’s chicken unit reported an adjusted operating loss of $120 million, compared with income of $237 million a year earlier.

“Our level of future growth is dependent on away-from-home eating occasions, which will be impacted by communities opening up and potentially reclosing,” White told analysts on a call.

JP Morgan said it expected the leadership change, although it may spook some investors. Shares were up about 1%.

Tyson’s quarterly sales fell to $10.02 billion from $10.89 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $10.56 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.


Excluding items, Tyson earned $1.40 per share, beating analysts’ estimates for 94 cents.

Tyson said direct costs related to COVID-19 were about $340 million, including employee testing and personal protective equipment.


Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Steve Orlofsky

Judge rejects Trump restrictions on coronavirus sick leave for employees

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday voided parts of a Trump administration rule that restricted paid sick leave and emergency family leave for potentially millions of workers affected by the coronavirus.

Ruling in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan said the Department of Labor overstepped its authority in denying eligibility for benefits to several groups of workers.

The rule was adopted in April to implement the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which made as many as 61 million employees eligible for up to two weeks of paid sick leave and 12 weeks of mostly paid emergency family leave.
Congress passed that law with goals of encouraging employers not to slash payrolls, in part because they would be reimbursed through tax credits, and not forcing affected employees to choose between their jobs and their health.

Oetken struck down a provision in the rule letting some employers deny paid sick leave if the economic downturn resulted in their having no work available for affected employees.

The judge also invalidated what he called the rule’s “vastly overbroad” definition of “health care provider,” which the government conceded could keep people like English professors, librarians and cafeteria managers from obtaining benefits.

Oetken also voided provisions that workers obtain employer consent for intermittent leave and document their reasons for sick leave in advance. Other provisions were allowed to stand.
“The court acknowledges that the DOL labored under considerable pressure in promulgating the final rule,” Oetken wrote. “But as much as this moment calls for flexibility and ingenuity, it also calls for renewed attention to the guardrails of our government. Here, DOL jumped the rail.”

Neither the Labor Department nor James’ office immediately responded to requests for comment.

The case is New York v U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-03020.


Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown

KEEP SCHOOLS CLOSED

Mexican TV / RADIO networks to provide home learning for students as schools stay shut

DON'T HAVE COMPUTER ACCESS FOR LEARNING LETS GO OLD SCHOOL 

WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL WE LISTENED TO CKUA SCHOOL ON THE AIR RADIO PROGRAM (A PROGRAM ON THE AIR FROM THE FORTIES TILL RALPH KLEIN) 

AS WELL AS WATCHING EDUCATIONAL TV ON ACCESS TV NOW THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

Anthony Esposito

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican students will be educated in the next academic year through a home-learning program broadcast by major networks such as TV Azteca until a drop in coronavirus infections allows for schools to be reopened, the government said on Monday.

The decision to keep the nation’s schools closed after the Aug. 24 start of the academic year reflects stubbornly high infection rates and deaths in Latin America’s second-largest economy.

The plan was announced by the education minister, Esteban Moctezuma, who was flanked by top executives of Azteca, Televisa and other networks at President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s regular morning press conference.

When the 2020-2021 academic school year kicks off “it will begin as distance learning because the conditions don’t exist to do it in person,” Moctezuma said.

“We are obliged to look for alternatives, to look for answers so that girls, boys and youths continue to have access to education,” he said.


Before joining the government, Moctezuma was a senior executive at the charitable arm of the Azteca group.

Some 94% of Mexican households have a television, but in areas of the country without a television signal or internet access, students will be able to take classes over the radio, the education minister said.

Mexico has the third-highest coronavirus death toll in the world, with 47,746 deaths and 439,046 known cases.

“The pandemic represents one of the greatest challenges of our time,” Moctezuma said.

The government aims to restart in-person learning once the traffic-light system used to measure how widespread coronavirus is falls to the green light level, which is the lowest.


Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Paul Simao

KEEPING THEM HONEST

Insurers face possible British action over calculation of pandemic payouts

LONDON (Reuters) - Insurers that do not treat customers fairly when calculating payouts for business interruption due to the coronavirus crisis will face action by Britain’s markets watchdog.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has taken eight insurers to court over business interruption policy wordings, which the insurers say do not cover the pandemic, with a ruling expected in mid-September.

But the case does not address how any resulting claims payments would be calculated, the FCA said on Monday.

“We may intervene and take further actions where firms do not appear to be meeting our expectations and treating their customers fairly,” the FCA said in a statement.


Some insurers were making deductions for government loans - which businesses had received as a result of the pandemic - when calculating payouts.

The FCA said this could be appropriate but insurers should not take a one-size-fits-all approach and make uniform deductions.

“Insurers are likely to need to consider individually the precise details of the policy, the claim and the use and application of the government support the policyholder received,” the FCA said.

Similar wordings to those in the test case were used by more than 60 insurers and could affect 370,000 policyholders, the FCA has said.

Insurers are already paying claims on some business interruption policies. The Association of British Insurers said its members expected to pay 900 million pounds in such claims this year due to the pandemic.

Analysts said a win for the FCA could take the size of those payments to billions of pounds.

The FDA has now banned more than 100 hand sanitizers that are potentially deadly



Passengers in an airport terminal wearing face masks. Image source: AP Photo/Joan Mateu

By Yoni Heisler @edibleapple

August 3rd, 2020

The FDA over the weekend expanded its list of hand sanitizer brands to avoid due to the presence of methanol, a substance that is toxic to humans when absorbed through the skin.
Methanol can cause a number of serious health issues, including blindness.
The FDA in recent weeks has identified more than 100 hand sanitizer products to be avoided.


The last thing anyone wants to worry about — especially in the middle of a global pandemic — is whether or not using a bottle of hand sanitizer might result in a trip to the hospital. It admittedly sounds bizarre, but the FDA in recent weeks has banned dozens of hand sanitizers due to the presence of methanol, otherwise known as wood alcohol.





Methanol is especially toxic when absorbed through the skin and has been found to cause a myriad of serious health issues. Some of the health problems identified by the FDA include permanent blindness, seizures, and vomiting. There have even been some tragic instances where children, who upon ingesting hand sanitizer with methanol, have died.



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The FDA adds:


Consumers who have been exposed to hand sanitizer containing methanol should seek immediate treatment, which is critical for potential reversal of toxic effects of methanol poisoning. Substantial methanol exposure can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death. Although all persons using these products on their hands are at risk, young children who accidentally ingest these products and adolescents and adults who drink these products as an alcohol (ethanol) substitute, are most at risk for methanol poisoning.


The FDA notes that shoppers looking to pick up hand sanitizer should only purchase products that contain at least 60% ethyl alcohol. In turn, the FDA has expanded its list of offending hand sanitizer brands to include “subpotent” products with an insufficient amount of ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol, the “active ingredients in hand sanitizer products.”


As a result, the FDA’s list of hand sanitizer brands to avoid has swelled and now encompasses more than 100 distinct products. Most of the offending brands are manufactured in Mexico which should ideally make them somewhat easy to identify on the off-chance you see any lingering on store shelves.


The most recent additions to the FDA’s list of hand sanitizers to avoid include:
NEXT Hand Sanitizer manufactured by Albek de Mexico SA de CV
TriCleanz Tritanium Labs Hand Sanitizer manufactured by Tritanium Labs USA LLC
Sayab Antisepctic Hand Sanitizer 100 manufactured by JG Atlas Comercios SA de CV (Mexico)
TriCleanz manufactured by Incredible Products SA de CV (Mexico)
GelBact Hand Sanitizer manufactured by Incredible Products SA de CV (Mexico)


Hand sanitizer products manufactured by Healthy Foods & Nutrition Lab de Mexico SE de CV were also found to contain an insufficient amount of ethanol alcohol.





Some additional hand sanitizer products that were added to the FDA’s banned list in July include:
Born Basic ANTI-BAC HAND SANITIZER
Scent Theory KEEP CLEAN Moisturizing Hand Sanitizer
Scent Theory KEEP IT CLEAN Moisturizing Hand Sanitizer
Lux Eoi Hand Sanitizing Gel to the consumer level
Grupo Insoma’s Hand Sanitizer Gel Unscented, 70% alcohol
Transliquid Technologies’ Mystic Shield Protection Hand Sanitizer
Soluciones Cosmeticas’ Bersih Hand Sanitizer Gel Fragrance Free
Soluciones Cosmeticas’ Antiseptic Alcohol 70% Topical Solution Hand Sanitizer
Tropicosmeticos’ Britz Hand Sanitizer Ethyl Alcohol 70%
All-Clean Hand Sanitizer
Esk Biochem Hand Sanitizer
CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol
Lavar 70 Gel Hand Sanitizer
The Good Gel Antibacterial Gel Hand Sanitizer
CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol
CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol
CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol
Saniderm Advanced Hand Sanitizer


The FDA notes that it’s also taking measures to help stop the aforementioned products from even making it into the United States in the first place. A full list of offending hand sanitizer products can be viewed here.