What We Read Today 26 November 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries (and sometimes longer ones) of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

Protests Spread Across U.S. as Unrest in Ferguson Abates (Toluse Olorunnipa, Elizabeth Campbell and Esme E. Deprez, Bloomberg) Protesters snarled traffic and threw rocks and bottles at police as they marched through dozens of U.S. cities last night (Tuesday into Wednesday, 25-26 November), while Ferguson, Missouri, avoided a second day of widespread rioting. For more on Ferguson see articles listed below.

Japan Is Running Out of Options (William Pesek, Bloomberg View) Pesek argues that the time for regulatory reform to “increase competitiveness” and to “eradicate Japan’s deflationary mindset” is what is needed. Econintersect: Is it true that free markets can correct all problems? We will consider that possibility when someone can show us a “free market”. Is it time to abandon mythology and deal with the economy as a controlled system – controlled by the state or the oligarchy? And in deep trouble when the state and the oligarchy are the same?

Who Are These Economists, Anyway? (James K. Galbraith, Thought & Action) James K. Galbraith has contributed to GEI. Little has been added to the understanding of how the economics profession missed the Great Financial Crisis (even when it was in progress – Econintersect) that Galbraith presented in this classic article in 2009. And, with the exception of a few relatively shunned (by the mainstream of the profession) economists, little has been done to advance the state of the practice of economics beyond the sad condition which “couldn’t see it coming”. (Many of the handful who have made progress have had pieces post on GEI.) Unfortunately for the economics profession, more than five years after it was written this article is still timely

How the Health-Care Bureaucracy Killed Me (Malcolm MacDougall, The Daily Beast) MacDougall was given the run around and was denied treatment repeatedly for prostrate cancer until finally he resorted to writing this article. Five days later he died.

Oil Volatility Here to Stay Regardless of OPEC Decision (Inyoung Hwang and Jonathan Morgan, Bloomberg) Whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s OPEC meeting, options traders are betting on oil-price swings. A number of oil ministers seem to believe that the decision from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries isn’t likely to make much difference. Slowing global demand and a U.S. shale-drilling boom has created a glut that won’t fade any time soon. About half of the analysts Bloomberg interviewed expect an OPEC production cut to come from this meeting and the disagreement there has produced high volatility in futures prices as some of the remaining analysts bet there will be no cuts. There is more discussion on this ‘behind the wall’.