I am increasingly convinced that we are at the cusp of the biggest revolution in macroeconomics in at least 60 years. Over the last decade, the number of studies that have empirically investigated theories developed by neoclassical economists like Milton Friedman or Robert Lucas and rejected them has grown tremendously. Just like evidence-based medicine has led to the demise of previously common treatments, empirical studies of markets will in my view lead to a revolution in macroeconomics over the coming decade that will make many of the things we take for granted today obsolete.
A very interesting piece with some odd observations. Blaming conservative governments for the weakening of wage bargaining leverage of organised labour is missing the point. The unions in the 1970s at least in the UK and to my knowledge in the USA were aggressively anti-prosperity and abused their power through the increasingly supine political parties that they were bankrolling. Their dreadful influence on the business climate and their overall antagonistic and highly selective advocacy was screaming for corrective action and it was - at least in the UK - the TUCs overplaying its hand in the 78/79 Winter of Discontent that finally pushed Britain into political counter-action and brought Margaret to power. A combination of advances in industrial techology and most importantly allowing China to dump 800 million jobs on the world labour market at 1/30th of the price of western labour did the rest.
A very interesting piece with some odd observations. Blaming conservative governments for the weakening of wage bargaining leverage of organised labour is missing the point. The unions in the 1970s at least in the UK and to my knowledge in the USA were aggressively anti-prosperity and abused their power through the increasingly supine political parties that they were bankrolling. Their dreadful influence on the business climate and their overall antagonistic and highly selective advocacy was screaming for corrective action and it was - at least in the UK - the TUCs overplaying its hand in the 78/79 Winter of Discontent that finally pushed Britain into political counter-action and brought Margaret to power. A combination of advances in industrial techology and most importantly allowing China to dump 800 million jobs on the world labour market at 1/30th of the price of western labour did the rest.