James Renquist

Dirigiste, social-democrat.

[Dirk Ehnts @DEhnts]

"Most Belgians do not want the Federal Government to change the country's automatic wage indexation, increase VAT or cut defence spending to reduce the country's budget deficit. Instead, they want a wealth tax, according to the latest Grand Barometer survey."

The people have spoken.
https://t.co/pDkEUV0vLT

[Relearning Economics @RelearningEcon]

Free markets don't create prosperity by themselves. Profits, investment, wages, credit, and institutions do the heavy lifting.

[Relearning Economics @RelearningEcon]

The return to the gold standard after the Civil War is often presented as a triumph of sound money. The reality was more complicated.

Yes, prices fell between the 1870s and 1890s. But falling prices do not automatically make people better off. Much of America was heavily indebted. Farmers, small businesses, and railroads had borrowed in nominal dollars. As prices and incomes fell, those debts became harder to repay because the dollars owed grew more valuable over time. This was not simply a refund to savers. It was also a transfer from debtors to creditors.

The period was marked by repeated financial crises, including the Panics of 1873, 1884, 1893, and 1896. Banks failed, unemployment surged, and economic activity contracted. Many contemporaries argued that tying money creation to gold constrained the financial system's ability to accommodate a rapidly industrializing economy.

Even economists who favor low inflation often acknowledge that persistent deflation can create problems. Falling prices increase the real burden of debt, discourage investment, and can trigger debt-deflation dynamics later analyzed by Irving Fisher.

The political movements for silver coinage and monetary expansion were not merely demands for perpetual inflation. They reflected a genuine conflict over who would bear the costs of restoring pre-war price levels. Creditors generally benefited from deflation. Debtors generally did not.

The lesson is not that inflation is good or that deflation is bad. The lesson is that monetary systems create winners and losers, and the gold standard was no exception.

[Qasim Rashid, Esq. @QasimRashid]

If you can’t tax billionaires and trillionaire because “its unrealized gains until they cash out,” then stop letting them leverage that wealth for loans, as collateral, or as equity.

If it’s not real enough to tax, it shouldn’t be real enough to leverage.

This is why we say the system is rigged in favor of the super wealthy. Abolish billionaires, tax them out of existence, protect working people.

[Tax Justice UK @TaxJusticeUK]

Why are our public services struggling?

"...while 99% of us are paying, in total, 40% to 50% tax on our incomes, billionaires are paying a rate equating to 25% at most. As for wealth, the situation is much worse."

https://t.co/Qy01cm7chk

[Sky News @SkyNews]

BREAKING: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced a social media ban for under-16s.

Live updates: https://t.co/Jxi67uC5Qk

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

The Pentagon, despite a $1 trillion budget, is full of waste, fraud and abuse. It is, in fact, the only federal agency that can’t pass an independent financial audit. And now Trump wants $500 billion more in military spending.

CONGRESS MUST JUST SAY NO.

[Socialdemócrata @SocDemCHL]

Clarísimo Velasco.

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

Karl Marx was right when he said;

capitalists are their own gravėdiggers; that they repress wages yet seek to maximize profits, eventually workers can’t buy whats produced and the system starts coming to a halt.

[theeleven @Westydoodah]

The Conservatives took a national debt at 62% in 2010 and left it at 94% of GDP in 2024.
They have no right to challenge anyone on economics.

[Darren Quinn | Modern Money Economist/Educator @AusMMT]

THE PURPOSE OF TAXES
Why do we pay taxes?
It's not to "fund" government spending.
A sovereign government doesn't need our money.
Taxes serve three main purposes:
1. They create demand for the currency.
2. They allow the government to manage inflation by reducing private spending power.
3. They can be used to discourage undesirable activities (e.g., carbon tax) and redistribute wealth.
Thinking of taxes as a tool, not a funding source, is a revolutionary shift.
https://t.co/nGXXn7fuxL #MMT #ECON

[Dr. Pablo Barrecheguren 🧠 @pjbarrecheguren]

Es irrelevante debatir si los multimillonarios crean riqueza o no, el punto importante es que se la quedan toda.

[Jeff Mitchell @Jeff_J_Mitchell]

Since 2008, "almost all of the increase in wealth in the United States has gone to the top ten per cent, and really to the top one per cent. That wealth consists in getting the rest of the economy into debt. The result is that the economy is overloaded with debt."

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

The case for Labour to introduce a wealth tax has never been stronger.

99% of us are paying, in total, 40% to 50% tax on our incomes, billionaires are paying 25% at most.

2% levy on fortunes above £100m could begin to reverse decades of rising inequality
https://t.co/mN9aNRfKCd

[Relearning Economics @RelearningEcon]

The post-Keynesian growth cycle doesn't begin with central banks distorting a mythical natural interest rate. It begins with the normal functioning of capitalism itself.

Businesses invest because they expect profits. Investment creates income, income creates demand, and demand encourages further investment. Growth feeds on itself.

As the expansion continues, unemployment falls and labor markets tighten. Workers gain bargaining power. Wages begin rising faster as firms compete for scarce labor.

Higher wages are not a distortion. They are a predictable consequence of successful growth. But rising wages can compress profit margins. As profits come under pressure, firms become more cautious. Investment slows.

At the same time, businesses and households often turn to debt to maintain growth. Banks are eager to lend because recent success makes risk appear low. Credit expands, asset prices rise, and optimism becomes self-reinforcing.

The longer stability persists, the more fragile the system becomes.

What began as productive investment gradually shifts toward speculation. Rising debt commitments require continued growth to remain sustainable. The economy becomes increasingly dependent on expectations that cannot all be fulfilled.

Then reality intervenes. A slowdown in profits, rising debt burdens, falling asset prices, or declining investment can trigger a wave of deleveraging. Spending falls. Layoffs begin. Income declines. The boom turns into a bust.

The crisis was not caused by an external distortion imposed on an otherwise stable system.

The boom itself created the conditions for the bust.

This was the insight of Richard Goodwin. It was the insight of Hyman Minsky and formalized by @ProfSteveKeen Cycles emerge from the interaction of wages, profits, investment, employment, and debt.

Capitalism does not require policy mistakes to become unstable.

Its internal dynamics are often enough.

[Dirk Ehnts @DEhnts]

Der Aufstieg des Faschismus in Deutschland folgte auf eine Wirtschaftskrise (Depression) mit einer Deflation - die Hyperinflation der 1920er Jahre war deutlich vorher. Ursächlich für den "Großen Crash von 1929" war die private Verschuldung der goldenen Zwanziger, nicht die "Staatsverschuldung". Wer Angst schürt vor Finanzkrisen sollte daher auf die private Verschuldung schauen. Diese stand sowohl 1929 wie auch 2008/09 im Zentrum des Geschehens.
https://t.co/k8tmGKOfPj

[Dirk Ehnts @DEhnts]

Central bank independence should be understood as independence from the banking sector and not the government. The biggest conflict of interest is located there, with higher interest rates benefitting banks and the rich.

[Chubby♨️ @kimmonismus]

Welcome to the permanent underclass, graduates.

joke aside: China is rapidly restructuring higher education for the AI era: from 2021 to 2025, universities cut or suspended 12,200 "obsolete" undergraduate programs and launched 10,200 new ones, reshaping over 30% of all degree programs.

The goal is to shift away from less job-aligned fields like arts and languages toward tech-focused disciplines tied to China’s industrial strategy, future industries, and worsening graduate unemployment crisis.

China is going all-in on AI, including in science. A significant proportion of scientists already come from China today.

By the way, it will be interesting to see how the situation regarding access for Chinese researchers and Fable 5 plays out in the future.

[Shahin Ashkiani @shaahin_a]

Do you know that if you don't find employment it is probably bc your demanded wage is higher than the equilibrium wage? So it is your fault and you have to make yourself cheaper?

This is what a LSE advanced macro textbook teaches us

[Relearning Economics @RelearningEcon]

You don't save first and then create investment. In a modern monetary economy, investment comes first.

Firms invest when they expect sales and profits. Banks create credit to finance that investment, generating new deposits in the process. The act of lending creates the purchasing power that makes production possible.

Savings are not a pool of money waiting to be lent out. At the aggregate level, savings largely emerge as a result of investment and income creation. One person's spending becomes another person's income, and income generates saving.

Interest rates do not coordinate a fixed supply of savings with a demand for investment. Investment depends primarily on expectations, profitability, demand conditions, and access to credit. A low interest rate can help, but it cannot make firms invest when they see no customers.

Modern banking does not transfer existing savings from patient households to ambitious entrepreneurs. Banks create deposits when they make loans. The constraint is not prior saving, but creditworthiness, profitability, regulation, and the willingness of banks to lend.

Economic downturns occur not because people consume too much and save too little. They occur when profits weaken, debt burdens rise, expectations deteriorate, and investment slows. What looks like excessive consumption is often the consequence of an economy attempting to maintain demand in the face of insufficient income growth.

The challenge for a capitalist economy is not encouraging more abstinence and delayed gratification. It is maintaining sufficient demand, productive investment, financial stability, and income growth to keep resources fully employed without generating unsustainable debt dynamics.