Glenn Stevens, Oz's Alan Greenspan?

"The risk he [Glenn Stevens] faces is that, if doomsayers such as Steve Keen are right this time, Stevens could go down as Australia's Alan Greenspan - the man who fuelled the US housing bubble that ended up blowing up its economy." (Michael Janda)

Last Tuesday (August 2) the RBA decided to lower interest rates to a historical minimum of 1.5%, in an attempt to inject some oomph into the flagging Australian economy.

Steve Keen: Oz Headed for Recession.

Prof. Steve Keen is back and predicts Australia is heading for a recession next year, reports the ABC's Elysse Morgan.

Morgan reminds us that Keen famously lost a bet, a few years back, after producing a prediction that never materialised: the Australian housing bubble, according to Keen, was about to burst and prices would fall.

This time, at least in Morgan's online report, there is no reference to housing prices.

So, Who is a Capitalist?

“By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour.

“By proletariat, the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.” (Manifesto of the Communist Party. Chapter I. Footnote 1, see also)

The quote above offers a clear answer to the question in the title. A careful reading suggests the key concept is that of private property of the means of production.

Kwak: Orthodox Mysteries of Money.

"One of the great metaphysical ideas in economics is expressed by the word 'value'." (Joan Robinson)

James Kwak (Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, columnist at The Atlantic, co-founder of "The Baseline Scenario" blog, and running "James Kwak") is no heterodox economist.

Recently Kwak demonstrated his orthodox credentials in "Economics 101, Good or Bad?" (May 13th), where he offers his interpretation of the critique Paul Krugman and others have made of economics teaching (i.e. "101ism").