Catfish and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.- News and views for Tuesday 17 December 2013

News and views noted along the way.
2013-12-16_catfish
  • Battle Of The Bottom Feeder: U.S., Vietnam In Catfish Fight – “Negotiators hoped to have the TPP trade deal wrapped up by the end of the year, but that’s not going to happen. There are still many outstanding issues — like catfish — that need to be resolved.”
  • Fed Stimulus Blunted as Software Replaces Hardware
  • Why Inequality Matters – “In my view … the really crucial role of inequality in economic calamity has been political… What do the pre- and postcrisis consensuses have in common? Both were economically destructive: Deregulation helped make the crisis possible, and the premature turn to fiscal austerity has done more than anything else to hobble recovery. Both consensuses, however, corresponded to the interests and prejudices of an economic elite whose political influence had surged along with its wealth.”
  • The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder – “The Number of Diagnoses Soared Amid a 20-Year Drug Marketing Campaign.”
  • Secular Stagnation: Back to Alvin Hansen – “Here are some words from Hansen’s 1938 speech that ring true to me today: … ‘The problem of our generation is, above all, the problem of inadequate private investment outlets. What we need is not a slowing down in the progress of science and technology, but rather an acceleration of that rate. Of first-rate importance is the development of new industries. … Some small recovery must indeed arise sooner or later merely because of the growing need for capital replacement. But a full-fledged recovery calls for something more than the mere expenditure of depreciation allowances. It requires a large outlay on new investment, and this awaits the development of great new industries and new techniques. But such new developments are not currently available in adequate volume’…”

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