Evonomics.com

Capitalism's Case for Abolishing Billionaires - Evonomics Adam Smith wanted to keep the power of the rich in check.

"Smith did talk about the invisible hand. But he also wrote about the “invisible chains” that structure people’s lives. He & his revolutionary friends understood that wealth inequality could become a type of invisible cage. He taught his readers a simple lesson: keep the power of the rich in check."

Both Pope Francis and economist @mazzucatom.bsky.social are highly critical of neoliberal forms of capitalism that have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the great majority of people." Read more: international.la-croix.com/news/ethics/...

Stock buybacks are one of the biggest scams in economic history—yet most people don’t know they exist. That’s why we made Trillion Dollar Heist, a comic that breaks it all down: buff.ly/4b9VvMl

What’s the biggest corporate scam YOU think people should know about? Leave your reply in the comments 👇

Announcing a New Paradigm for Economics and Beyond - Evonomics One thousand critiques of neoclassical economics are not going to be effective unless the critiques hang together.

If the dominant economic paradigm of our time is built on false assumptions about the nature of humans and societies, is it possible to fix it by tinkering with policies and laws?
Or would we be better off to build a new paradigm, based on reality?
evonomics.com/announcing-a...

#sustainability

The economic evidence is clear: electing Republicans leads to increasing income and power concentration in fewer hand. Blair Fix presents striking historical data showing the rise of extreme inequality following Republican control of state legislatures. economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/01/31/p...

In 2023 alone, the 19 richest American families captured a full 1% of US wealth — up from 1.2% to 2.2%.

US household total assets: $180T. So ~$1.8T went to 19 families: ~$100B each. Received for just…owning stuff.

$100B is a stack of hundred-dollar bills 68 miles high.

bsky.app/profile/stev...

Author Steve Roth: "If you’re thinking that they “deserve” all that wealth and all that income just for owning stuff, because they’re “makers,” think again: between 50% and 70% of U.S. household wealth is “earned” the old-fashioned way: it’s inherited." Read more: evonomics.com/insanely-con...

Sources:
After 1982: Forbes 400 Rich list
1957: Fortune magazine Rich list
1913: Forbes rich list for 1918 (aged back to 1913 using overall US equity prices and John D. Rockefeller estimated wealth of $900 million in 1913)
Total wealth denominator: US Financial Accounts

Longer-term perspective on the rise of US oligarchy.

Source: Economist Gabriel Zucman

Curing Economics’ Addiction to Unreal Theories - Evonomics A Review of Ricardo’s Dream, by Nat Dyer

Biologist David Sloan Wilson: "Ricardo's dream was to discover economic laws as universal and mathematically tractable as Newton’s laws of motion. He became so mesmerized by his models that he gave them priority over the more complicated real world—just like the neoclassical economists of today."

The Amazing Arab Scholar Who Beat Adam Smith by Half a Millennium - Evonomics Neoclassical economists created a false narrative of the history of economics.

Interesting paper on the thought of Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), precursor of Keynesian economics, neglected figure of the history of economic thought – the “stepfather of economics” – by @evonomics.bsky.social.

evonomics.com/amazing-nort...

It makes moral and economic sense to tax rent-seeking. Read more: evonomics.com/a-tax-that-l...

Economist Eric Beinhocker and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer: "This “difference principle” helps makes clear why open and fair markets, diversity, and inclusive institutions are signal features of successful economies." Read more: evonomics.com/redefining-c...

Neoliberalism promised a rising tide that would lift all boats, but the 2008 financial crash exposed the truth: it wasn’t a rising tide — it was a zero-sum game, where gains for the few came at the expense of the many.

Listen to @glgerstle.bsky.social explain on this week’s pod: bit.ly/GaryGerstle

Economist Geoffrey Hodgson: "Adam Smith is said to be the founder of modern economics. Yet, contrary to a widespread view, Smith regarded individuals as driven by moral motives as well as self-interest." Read more: evonomics.com/smith-and-da...

Author Steve Roth: “And in the U. S., roughly 60% of that wealth itself — the stuff that accrues income to owners, just for existing — is earned the old-fashioned way: it’s inherited.” Read more: evonomics.com/capitals-sha...

Read more by Tim O’Reilly: evonomics.com/rewrite-the-...

The dumbest business idea ever: maximizing shareholder value. Read "Why the Pursuit of Shareholder Value Kills Innovation" by Economist Chris Dillow: evonomics.com/pursuit-shar... [Credit Cartoon by Jonesy]

Don’t wait for global politics to fix climate change – we can do it ourselves: evonomics.com/woman-nobel-...

New Ways to Teach Economics - Evonomics Our world is much too complex to be effectively understood by just one type of economist.

"Building on a decade of work by the Rethinking Economics student movement and with input from some 150 professors throughout the field, we have created a toolkit to design such programs: Economy Studies." evonomics.com/new-ways-to-... @rethinkecon.bsky.social

Professor Amitai Etzioni: "What is needed is a systematic pro-social economics, that combines appreciation for the common good and for others as well as for the service of self." Read more: evonomics.com/how-learning...

Economist Blair Fix: "Inflation is not purely a ‘monetary’ phenomenon. Inflation redistributes income." Read more: evonomics.com/the-truth-ab...

Historian @rutgerbregman.bsky.social: "Anybody who fears mass unemployment underestimates capitalism’s extraordinary ability to generate new useless jobs." evonomics.com/doubt-capita...

Author Yves Smith: "Short-termism, underinvestment, and a preoccupation with image management." evonomics.com/maximize-sha...

"Why do hardworking people with similar talents and training often earn such dramatically different incomes? And why, too, have these earnings gaps grown so much larger in recent decades? Almost no other questions have proved more enduringly fascinating to economists." evonomics.com/how-markets-...

Author Rutger Bregman: "No, wealth isn’t created at the top. It is merely devoured there." evonomics.com/no-wealth-is...

Author Eric Liu: "Conventional wisdom conflates self-interest and selfishness. It makes sense to be self-interested in the long run. It does not make sense to be reflexively selfish in every transaction." evonomics.com/traditional-...

Evolutionary biologist David S. Wilson: "Let there be no more talk of unfettered competition as a moral virtue. Cooperative social life requires regulation. Regulation comes naturally for small human groups but must be constructed for large human groups." evonomics.com/death-invisi...

“Debunk the meritocratic argument on its own terms, by contrast, and all the defenders of inequality have left is libertarianism, a value system that has much less appeal among the American public than meritocracy.” evonomics.com/extreme-ineq...

Insanely Concentrated Wealth Is Strangling Our Prosperity - Evonomics Today's mountains of wealth throttle the very engine of wealth creation itself.

I've updated this older post with the latest available data. evonomics.com/insanely-con...