Link to: https://hypothes.is/a/lV19ytGBEe2ynWMu34UKUg

This depreciation is done at the lowest level of exchange and caused the system to collapse rather quickly. What level is our current exchange done at such that the inequalities are pushed up multiple levels making the system seem more stable? How is instability introduced? How could it be minimized?

Our current system is valued both by time and skill (using the measure of payment per hour).

Compare this with salespeople who are paid on commission rather than on an hourly basis. They are then using their skill of sales ability and balancing time (and levels of chance) to create their outcomes, but at the same time, some of their work is built on the platform that sales management or the company provides. Who builds this and how do they get paid for it? Who provides sales leads? How is this calculated into the system costs?

How do these ideas fit into the Bullshit Jobs thesis?

Davies, R., & Sweney, M. (2021, November 26). FTSE 100 hit by biggest fall since June 2020 amid new variant fears. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/26/travel-and-aviation-shares-tumble-over-new-covid-variant-fears

PANDEMIC SHOCKS, FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, MARKETS AND BEHAVIOURS Tickets, Tue, Dec 15 2020 at 17:00 | Eventbrite. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2021, from https://www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-pandemic-shocks-financial-institutions-markets-and-behaviours-131361717433?utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&aff=estw&utm-source=tw&utm-term=listing#

21st Century Economics (USA)

Economic Theory of a Market Economy, Characteristics, Pros, and Cons

Americans and the World believe or want to believe that the United States is built upon a Market Economy.

Historical context validates a classic Market Economy theory as directed by our Founding Fathers and Constitution. We clearly do not have a pure Market Economy today (2021).

• To Big to Fail - (Bailouts)
• Farm Subsidies
• Political Influence (money, lobbying, tenure)
• Government Agencies
• Military/Industrial Complex
• Federal Reserve (Central Banking)
• Social Security
• Medicare
• Other

Most Americans lump (through education) the concept of economics and government together, into 3 basic categories; Capitalism, Socialism and Communism.

The U.S. is a Capitalist Nation with a corresponding market economy.

Is this statement Fact or Hypothesis ?

Can we still rely on textbook economic models in the 21st Century?

Business, A. T., CNN. (n.d.). The economy as we knew it might be over, Fed Chairman says. CNN. Retrieved 18 November 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/economy/economy-after-covid-powell/index.html

I can't help but see this definition and think it needs to be applied to economics immediately. In particular I can think of a few quick examples of economic anomie which are artificially covering up a free market and causing issues within individual communities.

College Textbooks: Here publishers are marketing to professors who assign particular textbooks and subverting students which are the actual market and consumers of those textbooks. This causes an inflated market and has allowed textbook prices to spiral out of control.

The American Health Care Market In this example, the health care providers (doctors, hospitals, etc.) have been segmented away from their consumers (patients) by intermediary insurance companies which are driving the market to their own good rather than a free-er set of smaller (and importantly local) markets that would be composed of just the sellers and the buyers. As a result, the consumer of health care has no ability to put a particular price on what they're receiving (and typically they rarely ever ask, even more so when they have insurance). This type of economic anomie is causing terrific havoc within the area.

(Aside: while the majority of health care markets is very small in size (by distance), I will submit that the advent of medical tourism does a bit to widen potential markets, but this segment of the market is tiny and very privileged in comparison.)

Writers spend an awful lot of time focused too carefully on the free market economy, but don't acknowledge a lot of the major benefits of the non-free market parts which are undertaken and executed often by governments and regulatory environments. (Hacker & Pierson, 2016)

Nelson, E., & Merced, M. J. de la. (2020, October 2). September Jobs Report Shows Slowdown in Recovery. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/02/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus

Exclusive: In Russia, a black market for HIV drug to try on coronavirus. (2020, April 20). Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia-hiv-exclusi-idUSKBN2220W1

GDP main aggregates and employment estimates for the second quarter of 2020: GDP down by 11.8% and employment down by 2.9% in the euro area. (n.d.). Retrieved September 9, 2020, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-press-releases/-/2-08092020-AP

9 top real estate and proptech investors: Cities and offices still have a future. (n.d.). TechCrunch. Retrieved September 7, 2020, from https://social.techcrunch.com/2020/09/03/9-top-real-estate-and-proptech-investors-cities-and-offices-still-have-a-future/

Jed Kolko on Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved September 7, 2020, from https://twitter.com/JedKolko/status/1301865629591334912

GDP and employment flash estimates for the second quarter of 2020: GDP down by 12.1% and employment down by 2.8% in the euro area. (n.d.). Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-press-releases/-/2-14082020-AP

Baker, S. R., Bloom, N., & Terry, S. J. (2020). Using Disasters to Estimate the Impact of Uncertainty (Working Paper No. 27167; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27167

Lowrey, A. (2020, March 31). We Need to Start Tossing Money Out of Helicopters. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/we-need-start-tossing-money-out-helicopters/608968/

Ludvigson, S. C., Ma, S., & Ng, S. (2020). Covid19 and the Macroeconomic Effects of Costly Disasters (Working Paper No. 26987; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w26987

Alfaro, L., Chari, A., Greenland, A. N., & Schott, P. K. (2020). Aggregate and Firm-Level Stock Returns During Pandemics, in Real Time (Working Paper No. 26950; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w26950

Coibion, O., Gorodnichenko, Y., & Weber, M. (2020). Labor Markets During the COVID-19 Crisis: A Preliminary View (Working Paper No. 27017; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27017

Baqaee, D., & Farhi, E. (2020). Supply and Demand in Disaggregated Keynesian Economies with an Application to the Covid-19 Crisis (Working Paper No. 27152; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27152

Mulligan, C. B. (2020). Economic Activity and the Value of Medical Innovation during a Pandemic (Working Paper No. 27060; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27060

Giglio, S., Maggiori, M., Stroebel, J., & Utkus, S. (2020). Inside the Mind of a Stock Market Crash (Working Paper No. 27272; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27272

Gormsen, N. J., & Koijen, R. S. J. (2020). Coronavirus: Impact on Stock Prices and Growth Expectations (Working Paper No. 27387; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27387

Céspedes, L. F., Chang, R., & Velasco, A. (2020). The Macroeconomics of a Pandemic: A Minimalist Model (Working Paper No. 27228; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27228

Correa, R., Du, W., & Liao, G. Y. (2020). U.S. Banks and Global Liquidity (Working Paper No. 27491; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27491

Immigrant Key Workers: Their Contribution to Europe’s COVID-19 Response. COVID-19 and the Labor Market. (n.d.). IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. Retrieved August 7, 2020, from https://covid-19.iza.org/publications/dp13178/

Elenev, V., Landvoigt, T., & Van Nieuwerburgh, S. (2020). Can the Covid Bailouts Save the Economy? (Working Paper No. 27207; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27207

The Effect of Business Cycle Expectations on the German Apprenticeship Market: Estimating the Impact of COVID-19. COVID-19 and the Labor Market. (n.d.). IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. Retrieved August 5, 2020, from https://covid-19.iza.org/publications/dp13368/

Integrating Social Insurance and Social Assistance Programs for the Future World of Labor. COVID-19 and the Labor Market. (n.d.). IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. Retrieved August 5, 2020, from https://covid-19.iza.org/publications/dp13258/

MikeFarb on Twitter: “What the he’ll is going on in the Stock Market. GDP dropped by 32.9%(a disastrous number)and over the last 3 trading days the NASDAQ is up over 300 Points! Never mind the Pandemic and Rampant Unemployment. https://t.co/e6aK5qJ5Lt” / Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved August 4, 2020, from https://twitter.com/mikefarb1/status/1289524802550546432

Unemployment Paths in a Pandemic Economy. COVID-19 and the Labor Market. (n.d.). IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. Retrieved July 29, 2020, from https://covid-19.iza.org/publications/dp13294/

Labour Markets in the Time of Coronavirus: Measuring Excess. COVID-19 and the Labor Market. (n.d.). IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://covid-19.iza.org/publications/dp13529/

Kargar, M., Lester, B., Lindsay, D., Liu, S., Weill, P.-O., & Zúñiga, D. (2020). Corporate Bond Liquidity During the COVID-19 Crisis (Working Paper No. 27355; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27355

How Europe can emerge stronger out of the coronavirus crisis. (n.d.). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 25 July 2020, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/resilient-european-economy/

Boustan, L. P., Kahn, M. E., Rhode, P. W., & Yanguas, M. L. (2020). The Effect of Natural Disasters on Economic Activity in US Counties: A Century of Data. Journal of Urban Economics, 103257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2020.103257

Wagstyl, S. (2020, June 5). Wealthy investors ride the storm. https://www.ft.com/content/895c6c85-a85e-4786-8d7e-7d32e612e08a

Strategy, E. (2020, April 23). Coronavirus: Impact and challenges [What Think Tanks are thinking]. European Parliamentary Research Service Blog. https://epthinktank.eu/2020/04/23/coronavirus-impact-and-challenges-what-think-tanks-are-thinking/

Sign of the times? One part is about economics as the discipline of decision-making. Economists often claim that their work is about any risk/benefit analysis and isn’t purely about money. But the whole thing is still about “resources” or “exchange value”, in one way or another. So, it could be undue influence from this way of thinking. A second part is that, as this piece made clear at the onset, “education is big business”. In some ways, “education” is mostly a term for a sector or market. Schooling, Higher Education, Teaching, and Learning are all related. Corporate training may not belong to the same sector even though many of the aforementioned EdTech players bet big on this. So there’s a logic to focus on the money involved in “education”. Has little to do with learning experiences, but it’s an entrenched system.

Finally, there’s something about efficiency, regardless of effectiveness. It’s somewhat related to economics, but it’s often at a much shallower level. The kind of “your tax dollars at work” thinking which is so common in the United States. “It’s the economy, silly!”