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Best economics blogs and websites in 2025 | LARS P. SYLL
Mainstream economics has sadly made economics increasingly irrelevant to the understanding of the real world. Trying to contribute to making economics a more realist and relevant science, yours truly launched this blog in March 2011. Now, fourteen years later and with millions of page views, yours truly’s blog is ranked on Top 100 Economics Blogs…
Universalism vs woke tribalism | LARS P. SYLL
You may argue that theory is secondary: of course woke activists seek solidarity, justice, and progress. Their struggles against discrimination are animated by those ideas. But they fail to see that the theories they embrace subvert their own goals. Without universalism there is no argument against racism, merely a bunch of tribes jockeying for power.…
Keynes on the importance of ‘causal spread’ | LARS P. SYLL
No doubt exists that an entirely different subject has taken over control when it comes to education in scientific methodology in almost the entire field, namely statistics ... The value of the statistical regulatory system should of course not be questioned, but it should not be forgotten that other forms of reflection are also cultivated…
Top 25 Heterodox Economics Books | LARS P. SYLL
Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867) Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Joseph Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development (1911) Nikolai Kondratiev, The Major Economic Cycles (1925) Gunnar Myrdal, The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory (1930) John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory (1936) Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (1944) Paul…
Multiculturalism | LARS P. SYLL
When a liberal society faces the question of granting special privileges, immunities, and political autonomy to one cultural group ... it cannot compromise on fundamental human rights. Furthermore, those who understand liberal democracy as itself a way of life grounded in a distinct moral faith cannot in good conscience agree to allow schools or the government…
Debunking mainstream economics | LARS P. SYLL
An economic theory that does not go beyond proving theorems and conditional ‘if-then’ statements — and does not make assertions and put forward hypotheses about real-world individuals and institutions — is of little consequence for anyone wanting to use theories to better understand, explain or predict real-world phenomena. Building theories and models on patently ridiculous…
School as an emancipatory space | LARS P. SYLL
We live in an unequal society where inequality is increasing in many areas, especially regarding income and wealth. The differences in living conditions for different groups, in terms of class, ethnicity, and gender, are unacceptably large. In the world of education, family background still has a significant impact on pupils’ performance, and it becomes even…
Marx’s theory of value and the ‘transformation problem’ | LARS P. SYLL
Few thinkers have had as profound an impact on the world as Karl Marx. Despite the century and a half since his death, his ideas remain highly relevant. A topic that often surfaces when discussing Marx’s seminal economic work -- Capital -- is the so-called 'transformation problem.' An online debate has recently emerged regarding how…
Those damn murderers | LARS P. SYLL
Day after day, the Israeli regime reveals its brutal face as starving children become deliberate targets. For over 75 years, Israel has pursued a policy marked by systematic displacement and colonisation. Palestinian families have been driven from their homes, their land confiscated, and their future stifled under the iron grip of occupation. What remains are…
Poem of the atoms | LARS P. SYLL
. O day, arise! The atoms are dancing. Thanks to Him the universe is dancing. The souls are dancing, overcome with ecstasy. I'll whisper in your ear where their dance is taking them. All the atoms in the air and in the desert know well, they seem insane. Every single atom, happy or miserable, Becomes…
Krugman’s philosophy of economics | LARS P. SYLL
Alex Rosenberg, professor of philosophy at Duke University and a leading figure in economic methodology, offers a thought-provoking critique of Paul Krugman's economic philosophy in an article published in 3:AM Magazine. Rosenberg writes: Krugman writes: "So how do you do useful economics? In general, what we really do is combine maximization-and-equilibrium as a first cut…
Functional stupidity | LARS P. SYLL
. Bonhoeffer warned of societies where individuals surrender their moral and intellectual autonomy to authoritarian leaders or dogmatic ideologies. Viewed through this lens, Trumpism appears to embody the very perils Bonhoeffer predicted -- demanding ideological conformity while marginalising independent moral judgment, elevating political expediency over truth and fostering a climate of reflexive allegiance, where critical…
Time | LARS P. SYLL
Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. To simply assume that economic processes are ergodic and concentrate on ensemble averages -- and hence in any relevant sense timeless -- is not a sensible way for dealing with the kind of genuine uncertainty that permeates real-world economies. Ergodicity and the crucial distinction between time averages…
Marx’ transformationsproblem | LARS P. SYLL
Socialismens ABC är en fördjupningspodd från Katalys. Den inledande serien fokuserar på Karl Marx' liv och idéarv. Få tänkare har haft ett så genomgripande inflytande på världen som Karl Marx. Trots att det har gått ett och ett halvt sekel sedan hans död, är hans idéer fortfarande högaktuella. I avsnitt fem av serien diskuteras Marx'…
Stefan Nilsson (personal) | LARS P. SYLL
. På besök i vår huvudstad kunde jag som vanligt numera inte låta bli att gå förbi Stefan Nilssons gravplats på Katarina kyrkogård. Stefans korta sorgsna toner -- som jag ofta spelar när jag sitter och skriver eller läser -- har under flera år blivit en del av min vardag. Stefan skrev den sorts musik…
Sweden and the Euro: A Decision That Still Stands the Test of Time | LARS P. SYLL
Twenty-two years ago, Swedish citizens were asked whether they wanted to join the eurozone. Of the 83% of registered voters who participated in the referendum, nearly 57% voted 'no.' The result came as a complete shock to the Swedish establishment. All major political parties and business organisations had backed the euro. Despite the 'yes' side…
Marx’ Grundrisse | LARS P. SYLL
Socialismens ABC är en fördjupningspodd från Katalys. Den inledande serien -- där bland andra Sven-Eric Liedman, professor emeritus i idé- och lärdomshistoria, medverkar -- fokuserar på Karl Marx liv och idéarv. Få tänkare har haft ett så genomgripande inflytande på världen som Karl Marx. Trots att det har gått över två sekler sedan hans födelse…
Foucault’s neoliberalism | LARS P. SYLL
Although somewhat critical of its reductive elements, Foucault found certain attractive features in the ideal or programmatic form imagined by American neoliberalism, namely, that it envisages a kind of regulation outside sovereign, disciplinary, and biopolitical forms, that it regulates without the fabrication of subjectivities and in a manner that optimizes difference and tolerates minority groups…
Judith Butler — a severe case of postmodern mumbo jumbo | LARS P. SYLL
. The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian…
Den svenska lågkonjunkturen | LARS P. SYLL
Regeringens misslyckade hantering av ekonomin beror i grunden på en felaktig diagnos av inflationen. Inte av dess orsaker utan av lämpliga botemedel. Det konventionella sättet att bekämpa inflation utgår ifrån att den beror på överhettning som behöver nedkylas med räntehöjningar. Inflationen som uppstod i spåren av pandemin och kriget i Ukraina berodde på utbudsstörningar, men…
“Det glemmer jeg aldrig. Aldrig.” | LARS P. SYLL
https://youtu.be/-XYS9m9uO_g?si=n5XK4QHddirmex2b&t=2013 Inom vetenskapen är mod att följa upplysningens motto och Kants diktum — Sapere Aude! Att använda sitt eget förstånd, att ha modet att tänka själv och ifrågasätta vedertagna uppfattningar, auktoriteter eller ortodoxi. I våra dagliga liv är mod förmågan att konfrontera rädsla, som när man står inför de mäktiga och inflytelserika – att inte…
Hicks on neoclassical ‘uncertainty laundering’ | LARS P. SYLL
To understand real-world ‘non-routine’ decisions and unforeseeable changes in behaviour, ergodic probability distributions are of no avail. In a world full of genuine uncertainty — where real historical time rules the roost — the probabilities that ruled the past are not necessarily those that will rule the future. When we cannot accept that the observations,…
Why left is not postmodern or woke | LARS P. SYLL
. As argued by Susan, the universalist ideas of the Enlightenment are still relevant, despite the numerous criticisms that have been levelled against them. The Enlightenment was characterised by a spirit of exploration that led to new discoveries in both science and culture. Rather than promoting a narrow worldview, it encouraged people to question assumptions…
Debunking the hyperinflation scam | LARS P. SYLL
. Hyperinflation -- a rapid and uncontrolled surge in prices that destroys the value of money -- is often wielded as a warning against excessive government spending or monetary expansion. Cases like Weimar Germany, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela loom large in policy discussions. Yet for nations that issue their own sovereign fiat currency, hyperinflation is far…
Why is Scandinavia the Most Gender Equal Place in the World? | LARS P. SYLL
Weak ideals of seclusion yielded high female employment, while a culture of associations and industrialisation enabled the working class to extract concessions. Under the Social Democrats, wages were compressed, while media championed egalitarianism. Thus even though women cluster in more low-paid jobs, their wages are still relatively high. Furthermore, if everyone is equal, no one…
Regering och riksbank hanterar inflationen fel | LARS P. SYLL
Precis som i övriga världen handlar dagens svenska inflation delvis om att en del företag och kapitalägare vill passa på och öka sina vinstmarginaler utan att det i någon egentlig mening föreligger reala kostnadsökningar som ‘berättigar’ detta. Den typen av i ‘smyg’ höjda priser blir allt lättare att genomföra i takt med att inflationsförväntningar stiger.…
Stoppa skattefinansierade friskolor | LARS P. SYLL
I Sverige år 2025 låter vi friskolekoncerner med ofta undermålig verksamhet få plocka ut skyhöga vinster – vinster tagna av vår skattefinansierade skolpeng. Tyvärr är denna misshushållning med våra skattemedel ingalunda något nytt och det har under senare år föga förvånande också kommit en jämn ström av krav på ökad kontroll, tuffare granskning och inspektioner.…
Does the national debt matter? | LARS P. SYLL
Most people have a very personal view of the nature of debt. We know that high levels of debt and deficit spending at the household level are not sustainable. At some point, household debt has to be paid back. If a household is unable to do so, its debt will have to be renegotiated. It…