Bine Kordež

V nastopu pred tednom dni je finančni minister izpostavil zanimivo dilemo:

ali si bomo (zaradi boljših rezultatov gospodarstva) zvišali plače ali pa dopustili, da se del tega rezultata prelije v večje zaposlovanje, predvsem mladih.

Pri tako postavljeni dilemi seveda ni nobenega dvoma o tem, kaj je pravi odgovor. Zagotoviti nova delovna mesta, na prvem mestu za množico nezaposlene mlajše generacije, mora biti seveda prioriteta. Vendar pa na žalost ni nujno niti preveč verjetno, da bodo nižje (ali enake) plače resnično omogočile več novih delovnih mest. Nadaljujte z branjem→

This 80-minute documentary focuses on the growing “wealth gap” in America, as seen through the eyes of filmmaker Jamie Johnson, a 27-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. Johnson, who cut his film teeth at NYU and made the Emmy®-nominated 2003 HBO documentary Born Rich, here sets his sights on exploring the political, moral and emotional rationale that enables a tiny percentage of Americans – the one percent – to control nearly half the wealth of the entire United States. The film Includes interviews with Nicole Buffett, Bill Gates Sr., Adnan Khashoggi, Milton Friedman, Robert Reich, Ralph Nader and other luminaries.

Makroekonomska zgodovina zadnjih 30 let. Kako sta Samuelsona in Friedmana zamenjala Lucas in Arrow. Kako se je makroekonomska politika spremenila in kdo so bili glavni akterji. So bile spremembe na bolje ali slabše? To najbrž ni pravo vprašanje v luči velike nestabilnosti, ki so jih te spremembe ekonomske politike povzročile. Zanimiv esej Davida Warsha:

… For the old lions, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman, the ’80s meant a bittersweet departure from the center stage of economics after forty years of dominating the scene. The two had entered their sixties; neither was out of steam. But the leaders of the next generation had become apparent:  Lucas, in macroeconomics; Kenneth Arrow in nearly everything else.

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• The Triumph of Backward-Looking Economics – Paul Krugman
• An Indicator of Tribalism in Macroeconomics – Paul Romer
• The Fed Should Remember the 90s – Paul Krugman
• 99 percent Utopia and money – Branko Milanovic
• Helicopter Money, Independence and Unlearned Lessons – EconoMonitor
• Why the Fed Should Hold Off on Raising Rates – The New Yorker
• Revealed Preferences: Fed Inflation Target Edition – David Beckworth
• 5-Year Deflation Probability Moves Off Zero – macroblog
• The Relation Between Stock and Currency Returns – Bank Underground
• Full-Time Work Is Harder to Find – Justin Fox
• The Key Role of Conservatives in Taxing Carbon – Greg Mankiw!
• GMO regulations in the US and EU – Jayson Lusk
• The Art of Capital Flight – Kenneth Rogoff
• Letter wars, and how policy is made – Simon Wren-Lewis

Kriza in Slovenija. Zdi se, da smo delali veliko zadev narobe, od privatizacije, kreditiranja tajkunov in hladokrvnega obravnavanja nasedlih naložb. Kje smo naredili napake, da je bilanca pod črto slaba?

Vprašanja lahko stlačimo v nekaj vrstic, odgovor pa je zelo kompleksen, ker bi morali pogledati vseh zadnjih 25 let, kje smo delali napake. Prva napaka je bila v nedokončani privatizaciji, kar je tudi najbolj usodno za našo zgodbo. V prvem valu privatizacije v 90. letih smo z notranjim odkupom dobili lastnike podjetij, ki so nekatera še danes uspešna. Menedžerji nekaterih podjetij, denimo Kolektorja, BTC in drugih, so poceni odkupovali delnice »svojih« podjetij, ki so bile močno podcenjene. Če zanemarimo moralni vidik te privatizacije in pogledamo samo ekonomski vidik, je bila zadeva vzdržna – obresti, ki jih plačujejo menedžerji za kredite, so bile dejansko nižje od donosa podjetja. Ker je bil donos višji, se je menedžerski odkup sam financiral.

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Slika utopljenega 3-letnega sirskega dečka Aylana Kurdija, ki ga je naplavilo na obalo Turčije, je – upam – do kosti pretresla tudi najbolj trdokože prebivalce zahodne civilizacije. Lahko bi bil moj ali vaš otrok … če bi se usoda poigrala z geografijo našega rojstva. Toda glede na debate, ki smo jih imeli zadnje tedne s kolegi in prijatelji, nisem prepričan v uvodni stavek. Kajti večina kolegov je do begunskega vprašanja ne samo imuna, pač pa celo ognjevito prepričana, da gre za problem beguncev, ki zaradi razvojne neuspešnosti “njihove civilizacije” sedaj invadirajo “našo”, superiorno civilizacijo. Predlogi za “rešitev” begunskega problema pa so temu ustrezno in po vzoru Viktorja Orbana segali od tega, da jih je treba “zapliniti že tam spodaj”, zaustaviti z visokimi zidovi ali postreljati pred našo mejo. In to iz ust sicer zelo inteligentnih ljudi. Ki jih je obšla empatija in človečnost.

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What is less well-known is that the seminal advocate for the free-market economy, Adam Smith, was aware of economic inequality and offered one of the first critiques of the complications it introduces into social and political life.  

Smith originally published the “Wealth of Nations” in 1776 as a rebuke to the mercantilist system that had taken hold in Britain. But he had already established his intellectual reputation in 1759 as the author of “The Theory of Moral Sentiments.” Because the philosophical founding father of modern capitalism devoted considerable thought to the problem of economic inequality, Smith’s insights can shed some much-needed light on our contemporary struggle with the issue.

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