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# Economix Comix

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://economixcomix.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog](https://economixcomix.com/blog/)
- [Check out what may be a new book!](https://economixcomix.com/2026/03/26/check-out-what-may-be-a-new-book/) - Working title is "Politix." The early pages are here: https://economixcomix.com/home/politix/
- [New comic!](https://economixcomix.com/2026/03/12/new-comic-2/) - You've been wanting to read a comic about the intersection of New York's matching fund program and the comptroller's race, haven't you? Admit it. Well, now you can!
- [Democrats Are Bad at Messaging (to Me). Or, What I Learned from All Those Goddamn Political Texts](https://economixcomix.com/2024/12/03/democrats-are-bad-at-messaging-my-personal-experience/) - Okay, we’ve heard a lot about how Harris lost because the Republicans had all sorts of ways to get their message out--Fox, OANN, Sinclair, Musk, and so on and so on--and Democrats didn’t. Which is true. But Democrats also don’t use the tools they have. For example: I donated a decent amount this cycle; the punishment for
- [Welcome back!](https://economixcomix.com/2025/11/13/welcome-back/) - My website was hacked, or corrupted, or maybe demonically possessed, and it's still janky to all hell, but it's back up! Now we'll see real social change, hooboy. Many thanks to webmaster Ian Akin (http://ianakin.com/index.htm) for doing what was necessary to fix things (crossing the Bridge of Terrors, killing the demon, and so on).
- [Project 2025, and Why It's Bad](https://economixcomix.com/2024/10/18/project-2025-and-why-its-bad/) - Yow it's been a while since I've posted here, but I just finished a new piece about Project 2025! It wound up being about Project 2025, our wider political climate, our actual climate, dam failures in China in the 1960s. . . . It's below. Page references to Mandate to Leadership (https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf) are given in
- [A PSA about COVID and vitamin D](https://economixcomix.com/2021/02/28/a-psa-about-covid-and-vitamin-d/) - Writing comics about the economy is not the road to immoderate wealth that one might suppose, which is why I have a day job writing about medicine. So when I started reading about how vitamin D can help with COVID-19, I wound up making this: (This was made in early 2021; now it's late 2021,
- [More pages about the stock market!](https://economixcomix.com/2021/01/12/more-pages-about-the-stock-market/) - I just updated the piece on the stock market--the new pages start at page 14. You can find them at economixcomix.com/home/stockmarket. Per a reader's suggestion, I'm also putting them below:
- [New piece on the stock market](https://economixcomix.com/2020/10/24/new-piece-on-the-stock-market/) - So, this isn't quite the most urgent thing going on right now, but you may be wondering why the stock market seems so divorced from the real economy these days. I wrote a piece (in progress) here: https://economixcomix.com/home/stockmarket/
- [Where are the fluoride conspiracy nuts when we need them?](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/10/where-are-the-fluoride-conspiracy-nuts-when-we-need-them/) - The recent news that fluoride in high doses—far higher than the amounts added to drinking water and toothpaste—is harmful to children's brain development set off a new wave of conspiracy nuttiness; we might think of that as a revival of the lunatic fringe of the 1950s . . . . But it’s never really died. Here’s a
- [The economics of global warming, part 1](https://economixcomix.com/2019/10/31/the-economics-of-global-warming-part-1/) - So I'm writing a piece on global warming, and how bad mainstream economics is at evaluating it. It's taking a while (everything I write does), but Part 1 is here: https://economixcomix.com/home/warming/
- [The 2018 Epilogue](https://economixcomix.com/2018/10/03/the-2018-epilogue/) - Okay, so I let this website languish for a while. I was busy with various things, one of which was a brand-spanking-new epilogue for a new German edition. It's below! It's copyright by me. The illustrations are by Dan E. Burr, and the lettering is by Debra Freiberg.
- [New comic!](https://economixcomix.com/2017/09/06/new-comic/) - Yep, it's about healthcare too: It's here: https://economixcomix.com/home/sabotage
- [The Republican plan to replace Obamacare, in comics!](https://economixcomix.com/2017/01/23/the-republican-plan-to-replace-obamacare-in-comics/) - In keeping with what has apparently become my life plan of "make comics about the fine points of healthcare policy because I can dammit," here's another comic about the fine points of healthcare policy. Today, our subject is the best Republican plan to replace Obamacare. Behold: https://economixcomix.com/home/trumpcare/
- [Kurt Eichenwald Is Peddling Myths](https://economixcomix.com/2016/11/17/kurt-eichenwald-is-peddling-myths/) - There’s an article by Kurt Eichenwald in Newsweek making the rounds: “The Myths Democrats Swallowed That Cost Them The Presidential Election.” To summarize, it says: Clinton lost because not enough liberals voted for her. They voted for Stein or stayed home. Now they’re horrified, and (in his phrase), “they can go have sex with themselves,
- [Let's make paralysis work in our favor](https://economixcomix.com/2016/11/09/lets-make-paralysis-work-in-our-favor/) - Feeling a bit stabby today? Here's something to do: If you still have a Democratic representative or Senator, write them a letter. An honest-to-God, peel-the-stamp-and-stick-it letter. Tell them that you expect them to fight Trump's disastrous agenda. And that if they roll over for Trump, you will support—with your vote, with your donations, and with
- [Behold the timeline!](https://economixcomix.com/2016/10/25/behold-the-timeline/) - So, back in early 2016 Dan and I did a timeline of economists and economic thought for Les Arènes, the publisher of the French translation of Economix. For you French folks, it is (or was?) available in hard copy with a purchase of the book. For the rest of y'all, here it is: https://economixcomix.com/timeline-of-economists/.
- [In France!](https://economixcomix.com/2016/04/26/in-france/) - French fans: I'll be in and around Paris starting the end of this week: April 30: A book signing at BDNET Bastille, 26 rue de Charonne, at 16h00 May 1: A talk with Laurent Cordonnier at Salon du Livre in Arras at 16h15 (Information here) May 4: Interview and Q&A at La Maison de Université
- [Tax Cuts for the Rich: Let's Stop Pretending They Work](https://economixcomix.com/2012/07/24/tax-cuts-for-the-rich/) - We’re constantly hearing about how rich people are wealth creators, job creators, the most productive members of our society, a bunch of Hank Reardons, bla bla bla ad infinitum, and how we should cut their taxes so that they can unleash their productive powers. The more intelligent-sounding purveyors of this point of view use sophisticated
- [Greece](https://economixcomix.com/2015/07/04/greece/) - So, the Greek referendum is today. Here's hoping that it forces some progress in the endless madness that is the Greek crisis. Because so far the Troika has simply been demanding the same things, in the same terms, for years. Is it even a "crisis" when nothing changes for that long? Seriously, check out what I wrote about Greece in Economix,
- [A (poorly thought through) prediction about the Larsen B ice shelf](https://economixcomix.com/2015/05/18/a-prediction-about-the-larsen-b-ice-shelf/) - WARNING: See edit below. So, NASA is now predicting that the remnants of the Larsen B ice shelf will be gone by the end of the decade. I'm going to make my own prediction, just so I'm on the record: It'll happen faster than that. This coming summer (the Antarctic summer, so Winter 2015-2016 here) or
- [Greg Mankiw Is Everything That's Wrong With Economics](https://economixcomix.com/2015/05/11/greg-mankiw-sux/) - So anyone who read my rant about N. Gregory Mankiw's atrocious textbook knows I'm not a big fan. Now comes Mankiw's recent op-ed in the Times supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: "Economists Actually Agree on This: The Wisdom of Free Trade." It reminded me of another piece: Sylvia Nasar's column supporting NAFTA in the very same paper, 23 years ago:
- [What Is Our Children Learning? Or, Greg Mankiw and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Textbook (now with single-page goodness!)](https://economixcomix.com/2014/11/19/what-is-our-children-learning-or-greg-mankiw-and-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-textbook/) - So a while back I posted about how economics education as it’s usually done can manage to be dull, misleading, and (covertly) political, all at the same time. Which is, after all, why I wrote Economix, which is not (I hope) dull or misleading, and is overtly political. But there’s always someone who will say that any given criticism
- [Quote of the day: Demosthenes](https://economixcomix.com/2015/01/26/quote-of-the-day-demosthenes/) - "I observe that, although the speeches on our side are always manifestly just and sympathetic, and . . . are always regarded as saying what ought to be said, yet practically nothing is done which ought to be done, or which would make it worth while to listen to such speeches." —Demosthenes, Second Philippic, ~344
- [Chinese translation!](https://economixcomix.com/2015/01/15/chinese-translation/) - Economix is out in Taiwan! "Comic Economics, Understand at a Glance" is the Chinese title, and check out the new funky cover! The translator (Li Jianxing, or probably Lee Chien-hsing in Taiwan) clearly kept things simple and direct--there are long passages that I, with my rusty Chinese, can totally understand. Of course, "rusty" is a kind
- [What Is Our Children Learning? Part 5.](https://economixcomix.com/2014/11/12/what-is-our-children-learning-part-5/) - And we're back. We're looking at the 10 principles in N. Gregory Mankiw's Principles of Economics; We've covered 7 of his 10 principles already. Start at the beginning here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is . . . wait for it . . . here. Today let's check out: Principle 8: A
- [What Is Our Children Learning? Part 6: The End.](https://economixcomix.com/2014/11/13/what-is-our-children-learning-part-6-the-end/) - Welcome back to our exploration of the principles of economics in N. Gregory Mankiw's Principles of Economics. We've been going for a while; start from the beginning here. And we're done with the principles themselves. Finally! All we have to do is sum up. If you've been reading so far, you won't be surprised that summing up
- [What Is Our Children Learning? Part 4.](https://economixcomix.com/2014/11/11/what-is-our-children-learning-part-4/) - Welcome back to our examination of N. Gregory Mankiw's textbook. Start at the beginning here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Okay, we're starting the section "how people interact." It's probably the best section. Let's jump into: Principle 5: Trade can make everyone better off. This is true and not entirely commonsensical (many people think
- [What Is Our Children Learning? Part 2](https://economixcomix.com/2014/11/04/what-is-our-children-learning-part-2/) - (See Part 1 here). Okay, we've made it through Mankiw's Principle 1. Onward to: Principle 2: The cost of something is what you give up to get it. This sounds like plain common sense, but it's actually not — Mankiw is talking about the economic idea of "opportunity costs," which is a more exact way to think
- [What Is Our Children Learning? Part 3.](https://economixcomix.com/2014/11/05/what-is-our-children-learning-part-3/) - Welcome back to our examination of N. Gregory Mankiw's "ten principles of economics." (Part 1 of this series is here; Part 2 is here). We got through two principles last time, but today we'll only manage one. It's a big 'un: Principle 4: People Respond to Incentives An incentive is, according to my computer's dictionary, "a thing
- [What Is Our Children Learning? Part 1.](https://economixcomix.com/2014/11/03/what-is-our-children-learning-part-1/) - So a while back I posted about how economics education as it's usually done can manage to be dull, misleading, and (covertly) political, all at the same time. Which is, after all, why I wrote Economix, which is not (I hope) dull or misleading, and is overtly political. But there's always someone who will say that any given criticism
- [New Obamacare comic!](https://economixcomix.com/2014/10/28/new-obamacare-comic/) - Behold, a comic that explains Obamacare (nearly to death). It's here: https://economixcomix.com/home/obamacare.
- [Czech translation!](https://economixcomix.com/2014/10/13/czech-translation/) - You can see it here: https://www.kosmas.cz/knihy/198734/ekonomix/!
- [Also, it's tap water with a label](https://economixcomix.com/2014/08/11/also-its-tap-water-with-a-label/) - Mother Jones today has one more reason not to buy bottled water: It's coming from the most drought-afflicted regions of the country. I'm not saying never buy it. If it's hot, you're thirsty, and there are no water fountains nearby, it can make sense to spend $1.50 for a bottle of water. It's healthier than Coke,
- [Bob the Angry Flower describes my life without knowing it](https://economixcomix.com/2014/08/07/bob-the-angry-flower-describes-my-life/) - Writing Economix took a lot of work—I started in earnest in 2004 and the book wasn't published till 2012—and the whole time I had a rather loud voice in my head telling me that I was simply throwing away my life. At some point during those years I came across Stephen Notley's brilliant Bob the Angry Flower. One comic, called "Rhetorical
- [Ουδετερότητα του Δικτύου: Τι Είναι και Γιατί Πρέπει να μας Ενδιαφέρει ](https://economixcomix.com/2014/07/26/ουδετερότητα-του-δικτύου-τι-είναι-και/) - I didn't think anyone outside the US would care much about my net neutrality piece--it's pretty US-centric--but apparently the Pirate Party in Greece cared, so much that they made a translation! It's here. And here's a sample page: I would have been interested to know what "Spock/Tyrion fanfiction" is in Greece, but they didn't translate that.
- [New net neutrality piece!](https://economixcomix.com/2014/07/03/new-net-neutrality-piece/) - Behold my take on net neutrality, illustrated by the awesome Ian Akin! (I have Dan Burr working on a piece on Obamacare, but that will take a while.)
- [Quote of the day](https://economixcomix.com/2014/05/25/quote-of-the-day-10/) - FDR, who could have been talking about QE, in his first inaugural: "Faced by failure of credit they [bankers] have proposed only the lending of more money."
- [Awesome video summing up the mess we're in](https://economixcomix.com/2014/05/06/awesome-video-summing-up-the-mess-were-in/) - I come across very few things that make me jealous in an "I should totally have done that" way. This is one of them: a video from someone who goes under the nom de guerre of Haiku Charlatan that nails what's wrong with our economy. Like, why did I bother writing an entire book, dammit?
- [China Has Been the World's Biggest Economy For a While](https://economixcomix.com/2014/04/30/china-has-been-the-worlds-biggest-economy-for-a-while/) - The Financial Times has a piece on how the Chinese economy is poised to take over the mantle of "world's biggest economy" this year, which is earlier than previous estimates. But China has been the world's biggest economy since 2010. You can read about it in a post of mine from a couple of years ago,
- [Wink books is doing God's work](https://economixcomix.com/2014/04/25/wink-books-is-doing-gods-work/) - My incessant Googling of my own name recently turned up a review of Economix at Wink Books. It's been a while since I mentioned a review (although I keep this page updated), and I'm not writing about the review itself now. Point being, I wound up reading their other reviews; it turned out that Wink an interesting
- [Neil DeGrasse Tyson on gender and race in science, transcribed](https://economixcomix.com/2014/04/20/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-gender-and-race-in-science-transcribed/) - There's a video making the rounds where Neil DeGrasse Tyson talks about the gender and racial disparity in race and science. It's a great talk and I thought I'd transcribe it for the video-impaired. It's worth pointing out that this was a response to a question that in turn was prompted by Larry Summers talking
- [On a panel in (or near) Boston!](https://economixcomix.com/2014/04/11/on-a-panel-in-or-near-boston/) - Boston folk: I'm on a panel on Monday, 12:30 to 2, at North Shore Community College in Danvers (Room 105 in the HPSS building). Come and hear me pontificate! The campus map is here: http://www.northshore.edu/safety/pdf/Danvers_Map.pdf.
- [A comic about Obamacare](https://economixcomix.com/2014/04/01/a-comic-about-obamacare/) - I've already talked about my (overwhelmingly positive) experience with Obamacare in two blog posts here and here. But one Jen Sorensen, a freelance cartoonist in Texas, did the same thing in comics! It's available here. A sample:
- [Quote of the day](https://economixcomix.com/2014/03/30/quote-of-the-day-9/) - “Each man has his own individual right to do as he pleases, but businessmen have no influence over voting. If they did it would be the downfall of the nation.” —R.K. Mellon, businessman, quoted in Burton Hersh, The Mellon Family, p368. He was exaggerating, of course, but it wasn't completely implausible when he said it
- [Joseph Stiglitz comes out against the TPP](https://economixcomix.com/2014/03/16/joseph-stiglitz-comes-out-against-the-tpp/) - So, a week or so ago one of my favorite living economists, Paul Krugman, posted a piece on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He wasn't for it, exactly, but he thought it just wasn't that important. I disagreed, to put it mildly. But yesterday, one of my other favorite living economists, Joseph Stiglitz, came out swinging against
- [On the Gweek podcast](https://economixcomix.com/2014/03/05/on-the-gweek-podcast/) - Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing runs a podcast called Gweek, where people talk about their favorite media, devices, and suchlike. He was kind enough to include me on one with the author Scott Stigler; we recorded it yesterday and it's already up! Listen to us talk about zombie jugheads here: http://boingboing.net/2014/03/04/gweek-podcast-136-zombie-jugh.html
- [Who's negotiating our trade agreements?](https://economixcomix.com/2014/02/28/whos-negotiating-our-trade-agreements/) - The Washington Post has a nifty interactive infographic that shows who sits on the committees that advise the administration on trade negotiations. And although nobody can accuse me of being a pollyanna about the influence of business on trade agreements, even I was a bit stunned by just how corporate-heavy the committees are. It's worth
- [Why Antitrust Still Matters](https://economixcomix.com/2014/02/16/why-antitrust-still-matters/) - I was gratified, and surprised, by T-Mobile's announcement a year or so ago that they were planning to offer the sort of plan a consumer would actually want: Cheap, you're not forced to stay for two years, you don't keep paying for the same phone forever, you don't pay fees for going over your data limit
- [My Obamacare nightmare, concluded](https://economixcomix.com/2014/02/25/my-obamacare-nightmare-concluded/) - I posted a while back about my experience with Obamacare. To recap: I was informed that my existing insurance plan (for which I was paying $7100 per year) would no longer operate; I was offered other plans that looked to be better value for money. I ended that post with: So yes, Obamacare is a freaking
- [A comic on the Trans-Pacific Partnership!](https://economixcomix.com/2014/02/11/a-comic-on-the-trans-pacific-partnership/) - So, Dan and I have been working on a piece explaining the Trans-Pacific Partnership for a while--it's a tangled subject--and it's finally done! Check it out here.
- [Tom Coburn needs to read Dilbert](https://economixcomix.com/2013/12/13/tom-coburn-needs-to-read-dilbert/) - So, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has decided to stop bashing Healthcare.gov. "It will eventually work and work well," he said. But Coburn warned that the law would still have problems, thanks to the "centralized management" of the federal government, which is "inefficient, most of the time ineffective, oftentimes complicated by fraud or incompetence." All of this
- [How to get even more depressed, vol CLXXVII](https://economixcomix.com/2013/12/10/how-to-get-even-more-depressed-vol-clxxvii/) - So there's a new analysis of the Easter Island story. The old one: Polynesians showed up on this small, isolated island, used up all the trees, and the economy collapsed while people futilely built giant heads to make the collapse stop. They were reduced to a wretched remnant by the time Europeans showed up. The
- [Free Sample on Open Culture.](https://economixcomix.com/2013/12/04/free-sample-on-open-culture/) - Open Culture is an awesome website that I've been frequenting ever since I found out about it. It's devoted to bringing together all of the interesting, free things on the internet that you'd never find otherwise. So, younger readers, it's like a cat video site, but it's not all videos, and the videos are of
- [Ooh, this is delicious.](https://economixcomix.com/2013/11/26/ooh-this-is-delicious/) - Salon has an article by the awesome Alex Pareene about the decline of the Heritage Foundation, which has gone from a semi-sane, practical conservative think tank (the one that invented Obamacare) to a right-wing nutjob one (the one that puts billboards on Times Square warning against the horrors of Obamacare). Apparently, this shift has coincided
- [What the framers of the Constitution actually said about the filibuster, repeated](https://economixcomix.com/2013/11/23/what-the-framers/) - So, seeing the apoplectic outrage of the right wing about losing the filibuster in certain limited situations (an overdue rap on the knuckles considering how the filibuster has been abused in recent years), I thought I'd repeat something from a post I made two years ago during the first bullshit debt limit crisis. That post
- [My Obamacare nightmare](https://economixcomix.com/2013/11/15/my-obamacare-nightmare/) - I freelance, but I've been fortunate enough to be able to afford private health insurance since I was in my 20s. I thought my premiums--north of $7,100 per year now, and I'm single with no children [EDIT: And no health issues]--were pretty ridiculous, especially because I was on the absolute cheapest option my plan offered
- [The creators of Economix tackle Social Security!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/18/the-creators-of-economix-tackle-social-security/) - James Floyd Kelly's awesome review of Economix at Wired.com, which you should all read, includes a link to a completely separate piece Dan and I did. It's downloadable, it's 16 pages, it explains Social Security, and you should all read it. It's available exclusively through that Wired link. EDIT: Now it's available at economixcomix.com/home/social-security.
- [Economix in color!](https://economixcomix.com/2013/11/14/economix-in-color/) - So, Economix will be getting a Greek translation. And apparently the Greek market likes color comix, so the publisher will be putting Economix out in color! I was skeptical at first—we used black-and-white by choice, for clarity—but I've seen some sample pages, and they look good! Check them out:
- [The reason that conservatives aren't proposing an alternative to Obamacare](https://economixcomix.com/2013/09/30/the-reason-that-conservatives/) - If you go to the Heritage foundation website, they're throwing everything they have against Obamacare. "Everything they have," if my nonscientific I'll-read-all-I-can-before-I-vomit sampling is any indication, comes down to three things: Some people are quotably scared of Obamacare. Which is not exactly surprising after a multi-year smear campaign (remember "death panels"?). It's the thin end of
- [More thrilling text about the tax deduction for performance-based pay](https://economixcomix.com/2013/09/29/more-thrilling-text-about-the-tax-deduction-for-performance-based-pay/) - So, I did some more digging after my post talking about performance-based pay. (The relevant points from that post: The government does not allow companies to deduct pay over $1 million for execs, but "performance-based" pay is excluded, which is why so many execs get "bonuses" no matter how badly they do their jobs). It
- [The CEO of AIG tells the truth, accidentally](https://economixcomix.com/2013/09/26/the-ceo-of-aig-tells-the-truth-accidentally/) - So Robert Benmosche, the CEO of AIG, is under fire. AIG, remember, took a bunch of very stupid bets on the mortgage market, needed a massive bailout from the government (a bailout that was really a gift to the companies that took the other side of AIG's bets, like Goldman Sachs), and then paid its
- [SAT scores are flat, and that's worse than it sounds.](https://economixcomix.com/2013/09/29/sat-scores-are-flat-and-thats-worse-than-it-sounds/) - So, this year's SAT scores are out, and they're disappointing. Only 43% of students who took the test got scores indicating readiness for college. Really, SAT scores have been flat, or even slowly falling, for a while. Some of that slow decline can be attributed to more people taking the SAT. Maybe all of it can. But
- [Politics and economic instruction](https://economixcomix.com/2013/09/12/politics-and-economic-instruction/) - It's worth mentioning that when I came across the chart in Monday's post, I wasn't just idly sifting through charts; I do have a life. Rather, I wanted to check to make sure my understanding of the history of the national debt was right. My understanding was: When Ronald Reagan took office, the burden of
- [Spending and debt](https://economixcomix.com/2013/09/09/spending-and-debt/) - So, I was looking for a chart showing the national debt over time and came across this one, from zfacts: Debt as a percent of GDP is the best measure of the actual burden of the debt; the economy (i.e., GDP) is where any funds to service or pay back the debt have to
- [One thing we should have learned from Iraq](https://economixcomix.com/2013/09/07/one-thing-we-should-have-learned/) - The Syria situation is a freaking mess, and I'm not even going to add my two cents as to what we should do. But I do have something to say about *how* we come to a decision: One of the less savory aspects of the rush to war in Iraq was the way that, in
- [Stimulus vs Austerity](https://economixcomix.com/2013/09/04/stimulus-vs-austerity/) - We hear a lot about the "stimulus vs austerity" debate. The phrase (in quotes) gives more than half a million hits on Google. But that's a crude, inaccurate way to think about our policies. The fact is, we have both stimulus and austerity now. The stimulus is for the rich (the "job creators" who need
- [We need more mugshots like this](https://economixcomix.com/2013/08/31/mugshot/) - Someone pointed me to the photo collection Mugshots of the 1920s, from the files of the New South Wales police. All the pictures are worth a look, but I took a special interest in this guy: Not that the photo itself is better than the rest, but here's the police description: A con man who
- [Time to legalize insider trading?](https://economixcomix.com/2013/07/30/time-to-legalize-insider-trading/) - Dylan Matthews, at the Washington Post's Wonkblog, has a pretty well-reasoned piece suggesting that we should just get rid of the laws against insider trading. That sounds crazy at first, but it's hard to argue with most of his reasons--in fact, I'm on record saying some of the same things, including: Insider trading laws are designed
- [Me talk okay words](https://economixcomix.com/2013/07/24/me-talk-oka/) - I of course obsessively Google my own name, and I just found that the Hipcrime blog mentioned my talk at the Full Circle Series (recording available at the C-realm site here). More than that, they actually bothered to transcribe part of it! It reads much like I was giving a talk without notes (which I was), but
- [Banks and commodities: the full story](https://economixcomix.com/2013/07/22/banks-and-commodities/) - The New York Times has a well-researched article on how banks have been entering commodity markets (like aluminum); it makes the case that Goldman has been profiting by restricting the supply of aluminum, while consumers have paid extra, to the tune of like $5 billion. Not all of that $5 billion has gone into Goldman's
- [Bruce Bartlett on finance](https://economixcomix.com/2013/06/13/bruce-bartlett-on-finance/) - Bruce Bartlett, in the awesomely named but unrelated Economix blog over at the Times, has a piece that makes a point that I've been thinking for years: Finance is a drag on the economy. This goes against all sorts of economic orthodoxy; in this view, if we're paying banks, stockbrokers, and real estate agents more
- [Before you buy that air conditioner](https://economixcomix.com/2013/06/25/before-you-buy-that-air-conditioner/) - So, it's summer. It's hot and it's going to get hotter. You may be thinking of buying an air conditioner. Before you do, though, why not buy new lightbulbs--those swirly compact fluorescents--instead? Sure, you answer. Or hey, why not a new camera lens? Or a hundred pounds of bacon? Or a pony? Bear with me.
- [Les Échos likes Economix!](https://economixcomix.com/2013/06/28/les-echos-likes-economix/) - Les Échos is a French financial newspaper dedicated to the proposition that markets are better than planning (as a rule of thumb). And they like Economix! This might be the closest I've come to an official notice from the financial world.
- [Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rourke, and me](https://economixcomix.com/2013/06/21/jerry-lewis-mickey-rourke-and-me/) - So, the French version of Economix has been getting some awesome reviews. Here's Phillipe Arnaud in Le Monde, which even I, in my America-based provincialism, had heard of: "Proof that one can make difficult concepts intelligible without the encumbrance of mathematics!" (My translation.) And Omri Ezrati at Al Bayane (a Francophone Moroccan outlet) says: "Combining comics with clear
- [Speaking at Port Washington](https://economixcomix.com/2013/06/19/speaking-at-port-washington/) - Friday, June 21, 12:10 PM: A day that will live forever. For it is the day that I, Mike Goodwin, will be speaking at Port Washington Public Library. Come by! I'm working on my talk now--it should be good. Info is here: http://www.pwpl.org/blog/2013/05/11/sandwiched-in-101/
- [Speaking at the Full Circle series on Friday!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/12/13/speaking-at-the-full-circle-series-on-friday/) - This Friday evening, screw The Hobbit--that's apparently not going to be very good. (Sigh.) Instead, come to hear me speak at the Full Circle series! I guarantee that it will be the only talk you hear that includes both forgotten economists from the 1960s and Master/Blaster from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Okay, the only talk you
- [En Francais!](https://economixcomix.com/2013/05/23/en-francais/) - Francophones rejoice! The French version of Economix is out! It has a cool new cover; gaze on it here.
- [¡En Español!](https://economixcomix.com/2013/05/21/en-espanol/) - Economix is now available in Spanish, from Lunwerg Editores. No habla Español, but Google Translate tells me that these people (heavy hitters all) say good things: Una obra monumental que te permite, de un vistazo, entrar de lleno en lo importante de la historia de la economía. Para los que no somos economistas es un
- [On the Livelihood Show](https://economixcomix.com/2013/05/18/on-the-livelihood-show/) - I had a great discussion with Marcy Rosenbaum of the Livelihood Show back at the Miami Book Fair; it’s online here. Marcy seeks out people who’ve taken interesting directions in their lives; I guess “move to India to write some impossible book” qualified. Check it out!
- [Stocks prepare for new crash](https://economixcomix.com/2013/05/03/stocks-prepare-for-new-crash/) - I could have titled this "Stocks hit new high." But "Stocks prepare for new crash" is more to the point. Yes, the recent jump in stock prices was based on some good economic news. But "good," these days, is relative. We're more than four years into a freaking depression. Maybe, just maybe, some cautious optimism is
- [On the Ropes is out!](https://economixcomix.com/2013/04/02/on-the-ropes-is-out/) - I can’t believe I’ve let this news sit for a month (my only excuse is that my day job is brutal). Anyway, this deserves trumpets and drum rolls: On the Ropes, illustrated by Economix’s own Dan E. Burr, is out! Here’s an interview with the author, James Vance. Key line: “Dan is a collaborator’s dream.” My copy is
- [Wall Street Boobs, or, The Meaning of the WSJ Editorial Page](https://economixcomix.com/2010/04/09/wall-street-boobs-or-the-meaning-of-the-wsj-editorial-page/) - I came across this article recently, in which David Murrin, a hedge fund manager, opines that Obama's tepid health care reform means the death of the American Empire. See, it shows that Americans want handouts, won't take responsibility for themselves, bla bla bla. I don't recommend actually reading the article--it's entirely the sort of drivel
- [The New Mercantilism, 2: Gagging physicians](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/19/the-new-mercantilism-2-gagging-physicians/) - Well, this is bad. An article on Truthout details how a new Pennsylvania law makes it difficult for us to even know what chemicals frackers are using, much less what they're doing to us, because they're trade secrets. Check out how difficult it is to get, and especially to share, information that may be needed for
- [Steve Keen is trying to reform economics](https://economixcomix.com/2013/02/17/steve-keen-is-trying-to-reform-economics/) - Steve Keen, author of the excellent Debunking Economics, which I used as a source, has a project on Kickstarter that's worth a look. The video and text on the Kickstarter site explains the project pretty well--basically, Keen says that he has a better economic model than the ones that economists use today, a model that
- [Reviewed in Reason magazine!](https://economixcomix.com/2013/02/13/reviewed-in-reason-magazine/) - Matthew Feeney at Reason magazine gave Economix a nice review, calling it "a surprisingly entertaining use of the graphic novel format for education in a sometimes tricky but always important field." This is especially gratifying because the folks at Reason (a libertarian bunch) tend to skew conservative, and Economix is pretty unabashedly liberal, so we have many points
- [More reviews!](https://economixcomix.com/2013/01/17/more-reviews/) - I've fallen behind in my updating, but Economix has gotten more good reviews: 1) The awesome and talented Colleen Mondor at Bookslut (yes there's a site called Bookslut and it's quite good) says: Honestly, I can't believe how captivating a book has been crafted about what most of us would agree is one of the dullest subjects
- [On the Top 12 list at Comicsworthreading!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/12/23/on-the-top-12-list-at-comicsworthreading/) - I somehow managed to not post that Economix was reviewed (and recommended) by the illustrious Johanna Draper Carlson on Comicsworthreading.com last week. Now it's number 5 on her list of the best graphic novels of 2012! This is a good day.
- [Reviewed on Truthdig](https://economixcomix.com/2012/12/16/reviewed-on-truthdig/) - Thomas Hedges on Truthdig reviewed Economix! His review goes into some depth, with valid criticisms (I did in fact tend to give each president credit or blame for everything that happened during their administration, whether or not that was entirely fair; at one point I had far more nuanced discussions, but they, like so much
- [Interviewed by Emily Long of The LAMP!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/12/11/interviewed-by-emily-long-of-the-lamp/) - The LAMP is a very worthy organization; it works to make kids more media-savvy. And Emily Long, bigwig of The LAMP, interviewed me, here. If you were thinking, damn, I wish I could read an interview with someone who quotes obscure 1956 books at length, well, now is your chance. And a donation to The
- [Steve Keen on the C-Realm podcast!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/12/09/steve-keen-on-the-c-realm-podcast/) - Steve Keen's talk on the C-Realm podcast is wonky in the best sense--it gets deep into subjects that most people find impossibly arcane but does so clearly, in a way that makes it obvious what's at stake. Check it out!
- [December 14, save the date](https://economixcomix.com/2012/12/03/save-the-date/) - If you're in New York, I'll be speaking on the interrelations of economics and food at the First Circle series on December 14th in midtown Manhattan. I'll post more about this as the time approaches, and the info is here.
- [The Social Security piece is downloadable again](https://economixcomix.com/2012/12/02/the-social-security-piece-is-downloadable-again/) - My Social Security piece, which was available from Wired for a while, now has a permanent home, just in time for the fiscal cliff debate. The screen-friendly version is here. The fully printable version (17 megs) is here. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
- [Debunking the "three for one deal."](https://economixcomix.com/2012/12/01/debunking-the-three-for-one-deal/) - It's impossible to keep track of all of the falsehoods that circulate in the right-wing echo chamber, but when one threatens to escape that rarefied world and join the conventional wisdom, it's worth trying to stomp it. The falsehood du jour is the idea that Republicans should dig in their heels when negotiating with Democrats,
- [Interviewed on the C-Realm podcast](https://economixcomix.com/2012/11/28/interviewed-on-the-c-realm-podcast/) - I'm on the very very eclectic C-Realm podcast! Check it out here: http://c-realm.com/podcasts/crealm/338-comicbook-economics/ And next week (I think) is Steve Keen, one of my heroes.
- [Interview with Lance Eaton](https://economixcomix.com/2012/11/27/interview-with-lance-eaton/) - Lance Eaton of Byanyothernerd interviewed me (Mike) and will soon be interviewing Dan; The interview with me is here.
- [Kindle edition available!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/11/26/kindle-edition-available/) - Yes, after a delay due to changing tech specs, Economix now has a Kindle edition. It's available from Amazon Here.
- [Only one shopping month till Christmas](https://economixcomix.com/2012/11/23/only-one-shopping-month-till-christmas/) - And, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel points out, Economix would make a great gift! I especially like that Economix made it onto their list for a reason other than its Wisconsin connection (artist Dan E. Burr being from Milwaukee). So if you plan to participate in the grotesque orgy of consumption that is the modern
- [The real story behind Hostess](https://economixcomix.com/2012/11/20/the-real-story-behind-hostess/) - Salon.com has a good summary of what really happened to Hostess; the title, "Vulture capitalism--not unions--killed Twinkies" summarizes it pretty well, but I thought this quote from a worker deserved repetition: “Remember how I said I made $48,000 in 2005 and $34,000 last year? I would make $25,000 in five years if I took their
- [Question answered](https://economixcomix.com/2012/11/09/question-answered/) - So in a previous post I argued that Romney is a gullible guy, and that if he somehow pulled off a victory he’d soon lose his grasp on reality in the world of lies, half-truth, and flattery that is Washington. I asked: In the not-yet-impossible case that Romney is elected (or becomes President through fraud), how
- [Okay, bad example](https://economixcomix.com/2012/10/31/okay-bad-example/) - From page 286 of Economix:
- [One week only--$0.99 on iTunes!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/10/23/one-week-only-0-99-on-itunes/) - You read that right: for one week only, iTunes has a promotional offer: ninety-nine cents for Economix on the iPad! It's here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/economix/id552899192?mt=11 At these prices, you can't afford *not* to learn about the economy!
- [I will not be in costume, however.](https://economixcomix.com/2012/10/12/i-will-not-be-in-costume-however/) - If'n you're going to be at New York Comic Con tomorrow, come by the Abrams booth (806) between 2 and 2:30: I'll be there signing books.
- [Another reason not to vote for Romney: He's gullible](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/28/another-reason-not-to-vote-for-romney-hes-gullible/) - There’s been a lot of press about Mitt Romney’s comments in a private fundraiser about how 47% of Americans are parasites living off productive members of society (like him). But I’m more interested in another part of the same speech, one that’s gotten less play. Here’s Romney: “[W]hen I was back in my private equity
- [Social Security on the web!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/10/01/social-security-on-the-web/) - The Social Security piece Dan and I did, which is in the style of the book, is now available for viewing. Enjoy. Tell your friends!
- [Interviewed in Milwaukee Mag](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/26/interviewed-in-milwaukee-mag/) - Erik Gunn of Milwaukee Mag interviewed me and Dan. The interview gets into some of the background of the book and of our collaboration. It's cool. It's here.
- [Bestseller!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/21/bestseller/) - In one panel of Economix I show a store advertising a bestseller. The bestseller is Economix. I put that in as a joke; there was no way that a wonky comic about the economy would become a bestseller. But then this happened. Check out number 5. Still processing this.
- [There is much we do not yet understand about Trotskys](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/21/there-is-much-we-do-not-yet-understand-about-trotskys/) - First, Leon Trotsky appeared in Economix (unnamed, but he's there). And now Bob the Angry Flower has a comic featuring Trotsky. I hereby declare Fall 2012 to be The Season of Trotsky in Comics.
- [I really don't ever get tired of good reviews.](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/09/i-really-dont-ever-get-tired-of-good-reviews/) - Especially when the review is from Chris Marshall at Collected Comics Library, and most especially when it includes lines like: It’s unlike anything you’ve read before and I can guarantee that it’ll be up for an Eisner Award next summer. Hear that, Eisner people? You don't want to make Chris Marshall a liar, do you?
- [My first interview!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/08/my-first-interview/) - Andrew Smith of the Scripps-Howard news service has an interview with me that begins: Michael Goodwin hasn't just written a great graphic novel -- he's written one that should be required for every school, newsroom and library in the United States. I think he liked it.
- [BigThink Likes Economix!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/06/bigthink-likes-economix/) - Behold Bob Duggan's review. Some choice quotes: "Economix eliminates stupidity in the face of economics-speak." "Goodwin writes in a clear, vibrant style. He gives you not just the basics, but also the forgotten or misremembered bits of economic history that muddle it for so many of us." "Burr’s illustrations make what Thomas Carlyle called “the dismal science” after Malthus’
- [Quote of the Day](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/04/quote-of-the-day-8/) - I finally watched Mitt Romney's speech. It made me think of what Henry Cabot Lodge said back in the 1920s: "The businessman dealing with a large political question is really a painful sight.” (Quoted in Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Crisis of the Old Order).
- [Slideshow at Mother Jones!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/02/slideshow-at-mother-jones/) - If you want to know more about Economix before you buy, check out the slideshow over at Mother Jones; it's a well-thought-out selection of panels from the book. You'll get a great overview of how the book looks and reads.
- [It's fun! It's clever!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/04/its-fun-its-clever/) - I confess that I was unaware of the existence of the website Brewsandbooks.com, even though I love nothing more than brews and books. Brewsandbooks is the website of one Josh Christie, who has excellent taste in both brews and books. I know because he likes Economix. Here's the review: The graphic format is often associated with
- [Great review on BoingBoing!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/02/great-review-on-boingboing/) - Mark Frauenfelder on BoingBoing reviewed Economix; it's titled "Economix: Terrific Cartoon History of Economics." So, he liked it. It's an in-depth, thoughtful review, so you should all read it, but here are some highlights: "Dan E. Burr's appealing illustrations add punch, humor, and clarity to Goodwin's already-excellent storytelling skills." "Economics books usually bore me, but
- [Economix hits stores!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/09/01/economix-hits-stores/) - Yup. After ten years and no end of tribulations, Economix is finally in stores. You should buy it. That is all.
- [Reviewed by the Miami Herald!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/27/reviewed-by-the-miami-herald/) - "This witty and elegant volume takes on a number of complex issues — in this case, economics, history and finance — and makes them comprehensible for mere mortals. Burr’s illustrations are clear and sharp, ably complementing Goodwin’s narrative. If you want to gain a better perspective on our ongoing monetary tribulations, you could do far
- [Economix got a starred review in Publisher's Weekly!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/20/economix-got-a-starred-review-in-publishers-weekly/) - Behold! It's available here. Key word: "brilliantly." In other news, the fact that I can't italicize titles in post headers drives me far more crazy than it should. . . .
- [I like Mark Miller](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/17/i-like-mark-miller/) - Mark Miller at Reuters has an article, "The Top Six Myths About Medicare." It's a model of clear thought and clear writing. You should read it. That is all.
- [China is the world’s biggest economy. Now. Already.](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/14/china-is-the-worlds-biggest-economy-now-already/) - There’s a sort of constant, low-grade handwringing about the fact that the Chinese economy—which overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest economy a couple of years ago—is expected to surpass the US in maybe 2016. But really, that’s already happened. China is now, today, the world’s biggest economy. And has been for a while. The long
- [The great American tradition of feeding at the public trough](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/13/the-great-american-tradition-of-feeding-at-the-public-trough/) - Scott Reeder at the Atlantic has an article about how two sporting goods stores--Cabela's and Bass Pro--have received massive doses of state and local taxpayer money. Basically, if these stores want to open in your town, they first demand all sorts of subsidies. Cabela's, for instance, often gets the town to build parts of the
- [Why the Republicans just lost the election, big.](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/11/why-the-republicans-just-lost-the-election-big/) - So Mitt Romney just selected Paul Ryan as his running mate. In so doing, he just killed any chance he might have had of winning the election. I'm not the first person to say that, of course, but other people are focusing on Ryan's policies. And sure, they're horrific. But the real problem is not that
- [Andrew Leonard talks politics](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/11/andrew-leonard-talks-politics/) - Andrew Leonard's review of David Wessel's Red Ink (which I have not yet read) gets to the heart of the problem of much of our discourse on the economy: Red Ink, according to Leonard, is a very useful guide to exactly what the problems are with the federal budget, explained in an even-handed manner. And as
- [Thoughts on Curiosity](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/07/thoughts-on-curiosity/) - I watched the live stream of Curiosity's landing on Mars last night. For those of you unlucky enough to miss it, it showed the NASA Personnel at the Jet Propulsion Lab following the lander's progress. It was incredible. The tension as the people who'd put years of work into a daring project—throwing a complex, fragile,
- [Reviewed!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/08/04/reviewed/) - Economix just got its first review! A good one! From Bob Greenberger! This is a good day.
- [The Unemployed, in Their Own Words](https://economixcomix.com/2012/07/24/the-unemployed-in-their-own-words/) - Gawker.com asked unemployed people to tell their own stories, and the responses have been flooding in. They're harrowing, but they're worth reading. Or rather, what makes them harrowing is what makes them worth reading; these are intelligent, articulate people (the all caps rants presumably don't get published) who, often, didn't make any particularly bad decisions
- [Okay, this is more than horrifying.](https://economixcomix.com/2012/07/19/okay-this-is-more-than-horrifying/) - Bill McKibben's new Rolling Stone article: Global Warming's Terrifying New Math, is clear and chilling. The article goes into depth, but the math is simple: According to our most conservative (i.e., hopeful) estimates, it's possible that we could survive a warming of 2 degrees Celsius without catastrophe. (This is arguable—this summer, with its droughts and
- [Quote of the day: Mike Davis](https://economixcomix.com/2012/07/18/quote-of-the-day-mike-davis/) - Thus, the cities of the future, rather than being made out of glass and steel as envisioned by earlier generations of urbanists, are instead largely constructed out of crude brick, straw, recycled plastic, cement blocks, and scrap wood. Instead of cities of light soaring toward heaven, much of the twenty-first-century urban world squats in squalor,
- [Quote of the day: Tim Kreider](https://economixcomix.com/2012/07/02/quote-of-the-day-tim-kreider/) - From yesterday's New York Times: "[I]f your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary. I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter."
- [Time to listen to the market about fracking.](https://economixcomix.com/2012/07/14/time-to-listen-to-the-market-about-fracking/) - It'll be no surprise to my regular readers that I'm a bit skeptical when people praise "the market" (by which is usually meant "powerful companies that do not operate in anything resembling a real free market"), but there is a case when leaving things to private business is clearly better than leaving it to government:
- [Allen West is stuck in the 1980s](https://economixcomix.com/2012/04/11/allen-west-is-stuck-in-the-1980s/) - So, apparently Allen West has "heard" that 80 House Democrats or so are members of the Communist Party. Specifically, the Congressional Progressive Caucus. You know, liberals. A strange choice of words. Allen, if you're reading this, here's a guide to how conservatives like you refer to liberals, depending on when you're doing it: Until 1917:
- [Quote of the Day: Rexford Tugwell. ](https://economixcomix.com/2012/05/07/quote-of-the-day-7/) - Came across this quote, from Rexford Tugwell: “If we lack purchasing power, we lack everything…. There is just one thing to do: Take incomes from where they are and place them where we need them.” Tugwell was one of FDR's "brain trust"; he was speaking of the depression of the 1930s, but he could have
- [How screwed are we? This screwed.](https://economixcomix.com/2012/04/04/how-screwed-are-we-this-screwed/) - Here's a chart showing the Club of Rome's 1972 predictions for the future, as given in Limits to Growth, and how things have worked out since then. Pretty accurately. Frighteningly accurately. I'll take the liberty of reprinting it, for those who don't want to click on the link. It's copyright etc. the Smithsonian magazine. The
- [What do science journals charge for, anyway?](https://economixcomix.com/2012/04/07/what-do-science-journals-charge-for-anyway/) - Here's some of good news (a bit old now): A boycott by scientists made Elsevier (publishers of many science journals) back off its support of the evil Research Works Act. From the article: The boycott targets Elsevier, the publisher of popular journals like Cell and The Lancet, for its aggressive business practices, but opposition was electrified by Elsevier’s backing
- [Quote of the Day](https://economixcomix.com/2012/04/16/quote-of-the-day-6/) - Our quote of the day comes from Alexis de Tocqueville: “We so soon become used to the thought of want . . . that an evil which grows greater to the sufferer the longer it lasts becomes less to the observer by the very fact of its duration.” Quoted in Henry George, Progress and Poverty.
- [On Amazon!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/06/06/on-amazon/) - The book exists! I have an actual, physical copy in my hands! You can pre-order it on Amazon! That is all.
- [Speaking of our broken patent system](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/21/speaking-of-our-broken-patent-system/) - I mentioned our screwy patent system last post; today comes the news that the Supreme Court has decided that, essentially, natural laws can't be patented. From the article: In general, Justice Breyer wrote, an inventor must do more than “recite a law of nature and then add the instruction ‘apply the law.’ ” “Einstein, we assume,
- [Holy Christ, Austrians](https://economixcomix.com/2012/01/08/holy-christ-austrians/) - So Mark Crovelli at Mises.org, whoever he is, has a post that I am still having trouble believing. Essentially, he argues that economists don't need the scientific method--that pesky process of checking your conclusions against the real world—as long as they're smart enough to understand how things really work. Now: Mises.org is an organ of
- [Quote of the Day](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/24/quote-of-the-day-3/) - Our quote of the day comes from John Stuart Mill: "I know not why it should be a matter of congratulation that persons who are already richer than any one needs to be, should have doubled their means of consuming things which give little or no pleasure except as a representative of wealth; or that
- [Quote of the Day](https://economixcomix.com/2012/04/02/quote-of-the-day-5/) - From Dwight D. Eisenhower: “If all Americans want is security, they can go to prison.” Quoted in William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream, page 745 He said that in the 1950s; he no doubt didn't mean it to be a prediction.
- [Quote of the Day](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/27/quote-of-the-day-4/) - Our quote of the day comes from William Jennings Bryan: “They call that man a statesman whose ear is tuned to catch the slightest pulsations of a pocketbook, and denounce as a demagogue any one who dares to listen to the heartbeat of humanity.” Quoted in Jason Goodwin, Greenback, page 275 of the hardcover edition.
- [The Healthcare Mess](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/31/the-healthcare-mess/) - So apparently, the Supreme Court case on Obama's healthcare reform is rapidly descending into madness. Let's start with the objection to mandates. Paul Krugman gives the counterarguments here. To quote: Is requiring that people pay a tax that finances health coverage OK, while requiring that they purchase insurance is unconstitutional? It’s hard to see why —
- [In Defense of the Post Office](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/28/in-defense-of-the-post-office/) - Jim Hightower on Common Dreams has an eloquent defense of the Post Office, including the fact that it's not actually broken at all--the reason it's having a budget shortfall is that Congress basically tried to kill it.From the article: The privatizers squawk that USPS has gone some $13 billion in the hole during the past
- [Financiers are dangerous idiots who need to be watched every minute](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/18/financiers-are-dangerous-idiots/) - This resignation letter by one Greg Smith, formerly of Goldman Sachs, has created a bigger splash than most. Maybe because he published it in the New York Times. From the letter: I have always taken a lot of pride in advising my clients to do what I believe is right for them, even if it
- [Good news for the World Bank, and the world](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/23/good-news-for-the-world-bank-and-the-world/) - This is good news: Obama just nominated Jim Yong Kim for head of the world bank. Who is Jim Yong Kim? Apparently he's a physician and an expert on health, which might be good to have at the head of an institution whose mission is to actually do good instead of just make a profit.
- [Quote of the Day](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/22/quote-of-the-day-3-2/) - Our quote of the day comes from Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of the New Republic, in 1989. “The cheer with which Western commentators greeted Mikhail Gorbachev’s tease that the Berlin Wall might come down when the conditions that generate the need for it disappear is another sign of how credulous we have become in receiving blandishments
- [Avoiding ads](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/20/avoiding-ads/) - Consumerist.com reports that Microsoft has patented a system that would let people pay to skip commercials. That could be the start of a rant about our broken patent system (is this really something that needs a patent? Isn't it sort of obvious?), but I'm on a different rant today. Specifically: People will pay to avoid advertising.
- [The Bond Vigilante](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/28/the-bond-vigilante/) - Tom the Dancing Bug is one of the best comics out there; I was going through the archives and came across this one that I'd somehow missed. It's actually an excellent explanation of how bond traders (who never seem to object to tax cuts for the rich) pretend to freak out when the government thinks
- [And speaking of clueless rich people:](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/06/and-hot-on-the-heels-of-yesterdays-post/) - Hot on the heels of yesterday's post, here's Ann Romney, saying "I don't even consider myself wealthy." Right, her money doesn't matter. It's not important to her. It's not a part of who she is. Will she say the same when the taxman comes around?
- [Cracked.com on Clueless Rich People](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/05/cracked-on-clueless-rich-people/) - Yep, I'm linking to Cracked again. Here David Wong skewers the clueless excuses rich people make when people say, hey, maybe you have too much money. My favorite quote, regarding the very common "I got rich, you could too" excuse: So "anyone can get rich" isn't just untrue, it's insultingly untrue. You can't have a
- [Tim Geithner's Amnesia](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/03/tim-geithners-amnesia/) - Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner has an opinion piece called Financial Crisis Amnesia in Thursday's Wall Street Journal (I was pointed there by DrRichardCranium on Reddit; excuse his name). Geithner rightly reminds Wall Streeters that it's a bit disingenuous to complain about reform when not too long ago they were on their knees for
- [The many forms of welfare for the rich](https://economixcomix.com/2012/03/02/the-many-forms-of-welfare-for-the-rich/) - This piece by Ezra Klein shows some of the ways people who don't think of themselves as being on government assistance are assisted by the government. I don't really have anything to add to it. You should read it.
- [Solutions: The taxpayer receipt](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/29/solutions-the-taxpayer-receipt/) - The Planet Money blog linked to this from an outfit called Third Way, which came up with a "taxpayer receipt" showing where your federal tax money goes. I agree with the Third Way people that this is a very good idea, and would be very easy for government to implement. Fact is, anything that dispels
- [Occupy the Workplace, Permanently](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/27/occupy-the-workplace-permanently/) - Michael Moore's doc Capitalism: A Love Story spends some time at a company called Republic Windows and Doors, where laid-off workers were holding what I think was the first big sit-in strike since the 1930s. The strike garnered widespread support, and it succeeded—the workers got money they were owed. Which was a limited goal, but
- [Grumble grumble](https://economixcomix.com/2011/05/20/grumble-grumble/) - So some time ago I had this flash that maybe the 1990s drop in crime was not due to the improving economy (really, the economy during the Clinton boom stank by the standards of the 1970s), or because of legal abortion meaning fewer unwanted criminal babies (as Freakonomics would have it) but because of lead.
- [Gold: A safe haven against what, exactly?](https://economixcomix.com/2011/09/12/gold-a-safe-haven-against-what-exactly/) - As of this writing, gold is up above $1800 an ounce; it’s been driven so high at least partly by the idea that gold is a safe haven in these chaotic times. But how, exactly? I understand why gold was so popular during its last big run-up in the 1970s—then, the problem was inflation. Your
- [Why we fight](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/12/why-we-fight/) - So I'd never heard of John T. Harvey, but he's got a blog over at Forbes, and it's really really good. His February 6th post, How Economists Contributed to the Financial Crisis, shows, with admirable clarity, just what's wrong with economics. In fact, I'm jealous--I knew the facts he mentions, but I wish I'd laid
- [Why we fight, part 2](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/23/why-we-fight-part-2/) - So someone on Reddit linked to this, a survey of college professors on who the best and worst presidents were. Okay, it's just college professors in central Pennsylvania. But still: Ronald Reagan, the best president on the economy? Jimmy Carter, the worst? These are the opinions of one Sanjay Paul, professor of economics at Elizabethtown
- [Choice vs Choice](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/22/choice-vs-choice-that-matters/) - I'm not the first person to point out that choosing between consumer products is not at all the same thing as having control of your life in any real sense. Or that meaningless consumer choices are used as a distraction from real choices, even a substitute for democracy. For instance, we can get a cheap
- [Reach deep into one's pandora box](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/12/bah-amateurs/) - So apparently there's yet another bad cover letter making the rounds. It's pretty bad. But sorry, it doesn't beat one I have. Some background: This isn't some friend of a friend thing: It really came to me when I worked for a medical advertising agency. So this person was applying to be an editorial assistant
- [Making the world a worse place](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/21/making-the-world-a-worse-place/) - The NYT economix blog has a post about how people view their jobs. Specifically, whether they think their job is making the world a worse place. Speaking as a guy who's spent years in drug advertising, which ranges from (in my opinion) occasionally useful to sometimes harmful (mostly it's just a waste of resources that
- [Mussolini or Gingrich? You make the call!](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/21/mussolini-or-gingrich-you-make-the-call/) - I created the quiz here. Check your Mussolini IQ! The piece began as a discussion about how surprising it is that a Mussolini hasn't arisen in the US yet. After all, we have the two necessary ingredients: broken politics and an angry, desperate population. All you need is a politician who directs that anger at
- [The real economics of Valentine's Day](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/14/the-real-economics-of-valentines-day/) - So Love2Learn on Reddit pointed out a silly video giving the economics of Valentine's day. It's a fun little piece, done in a dry deadpan that the presenter must know is hysterical. It's also wrong, most especially when he says that Valentine's day spending doesn't stimulate the economy because, after all, the money would be
- [The dangers of trademarks](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/07/the-dangers-of-trademarks/) - With all the recent attention on copyrights, it's worth checking out this article by Nina Paley: it details how Pyrex, once a brand name for a particularly strong, heat-resistant type of glass, is now being put on all sorts of glass. So people who see the Pyrex brand and expect the glass to stand up
- [Hah](https://economixcomix.com/2012/02/06/hah/) - Krugman does some fine skewering here, showing how several pundits, instead of honestly backtracking on their anti-Keynesian positions, pretend they never held them in the first place. But it raises the question--how did we get to the point that apparently smart, nationally known pundits think they can just say whatever they want, with nobody questioning
- [Quote of the day](https://economixcomix.com/2012/01/19/quote-of-the-day-2/) - "Being poor is a mindset. And it's one that, if given the chance, will make your ass poor again." From today's Cracked.com article, "The 5 stupidest habits you develop growing up poor."
- [Quote of the day: Jack Valenti](https://economixcomix.com/2012/01/18/quote-of-the-day/) - In honor of the PIPA/SOPA boycott, our first quote of the day is from Jack Valenti, head of the MPAA, in 1982: "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." Yep. The VCR came out, and
- [Uh, oh](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/18/uh-oh/) - Well, as I've been saying, things seem to be getting better (or at least getting worse more slowly). But it looks like we could be in for another meltdown in a year or two. Adam Levitin shows how this time it won't be subprime mortgages, but "option ARMs." Option ARMs give consumers the choice of how
- [New York Times, you can be so cute](https://economixcomix.com/2012/01/16/new-york-times-you-can-be-so-cute/) - I'm a fan of Planet Money, so I hate to first bring up Adam Davidson by disagreeing with him. But his article in Sunday's New York Times, "What has Wall Street done for you lately," begs to be refuted. The article (mostly) defends Wall Street by pointing out that we need finance, which is like
- [The best explanation of SOPA/PIPA I've seen.](https://economixcomix.com/2012/01/18/the-best-explanation-of-sopapipa-ive-seen/) - Is, of course, a cartoon by The Oatmeal. Lots of sites are dark today, but none are quite so entertaining.
- [The real meaning of Ron Paul's investments](https://economixcomix.com/2012/01/02/the-real-meaning-of-ron-pauls-investments/) - The Wall Street Journal had a good post a week or two ago analyzing Ron Paul's investment strategy, which is, um, a little out there. Basically, the guy has a huge amount of stock in gold and silver mining companies, which is a big bet that the price of gold and silver will go up.
- [What Donald Trump's Lady Gaga delusion shows us](https://economixcomix.com/2011/12/30/what-donald-trumps-lady-gaga-delusion-shows-us/) - So apparently one of my least favorite humans, Donald Trump, is taking credit for launching the career of another of my least favorite humans, Lady Gaga, in his new book. Well, here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: it's worth looking at Trump's thought process. From the article: Trump explained that he owns the
- [Once again, I bow to Cracked.com](https://economixcomix.com/2011/09/21/once-again-i-bow-to-cracked-com/) - The truly scary thing is, some of this was new to me. It's freaking impossible to keep track of just how screwed we are. Even if you make it a hobby. Like I do.
- [Testing](https://economixcomix.com/2011/09/11/testing-2/) - Having trouble uploading sample pages, so let's try and see if it works here: I think that did it! That's one of my two pages on Malthus. Woops--it's going into the right columns. Well, anyway, let's see if I can get this to work on the main Sample page. If I can, there are
- [“Tedious delays—continual negotiations and intrigue—contemptible compromises of the public good.” Or, How Nations Die.](https://economixcomix.com/2011/07/31/“tedious-delays—continual-negotiations-and-intrigue—contemptible-compromises-of-the-public-good-”-or-how-nations-die/) - With all the commentary on the debt limit negotiations, nobody seems to be mentioning that it’s just a continuation of normal Republican tactics: when they’re in the minority, they do everything they can to prevent government from functioning unless they get their way. What we’re seeing now is just a continuation of what we saw
- [Cracked nails it again](https://economixcomix.com/2011/05/28/cracked-nails-it-again/) - As I've mentioned before, I love the Cracked website. Today one of their columnists tackles the very unfunny subject of just how completely the poor are fucked in modern America, and does it with Cracked's patented mix of good information and irreverent humor. An example of the good information: I knew that payday-loan places offered
- [Gabriel Winant is my new hero](https://economixcomix.com/2010/09/07/gabriel-winant-is-my-new-hero/) - I'd never heard of him before, but damn I liked his excellent article at Salon, a fascinating look at a Southern labor movement in the 1930s. If that doesn't sound all that fascinating, Winant does a good job of tying the failure of one union movement to larger issues (briefly, working-class Southern whites never unionized
- [And there goes the WSJ](https://economixcomix.com/2010/08/16/and-there-goes-the-wsj/) - For a long time it was a cliche, one that was reasonably close to the truth, that the reporting at the Wall Street Journal was excellent, while the editorial page was a disgrace--a constant stream of right-wing lies. Now it's pretty clear that the reporting is infected as well. Exhibit A is today's piece on
- [How the Commodity Markets work](https://economixcomix.com/2010/08/16/how-the-commodity-markets-work/) - I really have no idea whether this story--where a commodities trader accidentally winds up having 28,000 tons of real, actual, physical coal dumped off at his workplace--is real. But it's a good yarn, and it shows how the world of commodities traders is so unrelated to the stuff being traded that the very idea of
- [Time to get your money out of Chase](https://economixcomix.com/2010/05/04/time-to-get-your-money-out-of-chase/) - Here's an article I missed about how Chase treats its customers. I've experienced the same disregard. They never got to the point of outright stealing from me (they just gave me a loan in the free-money days of 2006-2007 at reasonable interest "for the life of the loan" and then demanded it back), but then,
- [Match the exec's salary with his company's layoffs](https://economixcomix.com/2010/05/04/match-the-exec-salary-with-his-companys-layoffs/) - Here in Vanity Fair. Hat tip to askheidi at Reddit.
- [Awesome](https://economixcomix.com/2010/04/29/awesome/) - I love any combination of economic commentary and cartoons (for obvious reasons); I was particularly tickled to see this a week or so ago--it's Chris Ware's rejected cover for Fortune's May issue. Check it out--it's worth savoring.
- [Krugman on Ratings Agencies](https://economixcomix.com/2010/04/28/krugman-on-ratings-agencies/) - Krugman's nearly always good, but this column is simply superb--a reader who started the column not knowing a blessed thing about ratings agencies would, by the end, understand what they do, what the problems with them are (93% of mortgage-backed securities given AAA ratings in 2006 are now junk, which I didn't know), and what to
- [Ruh Roh](https://economixcomix.com/2010/03/15/ruh-roh/) - The Chinese are selling US debt. That's a big deal because, for the past several years, the Chinese have been selling their own currency and buying dollars (and other foreign currencies). If they start flooding the world with that money, the dollar might start to stumble. And if the dollar starts to stumble, it might
- [Larry Summers: Still wrong](https://economixcomix.com/2010/04/27/larry-summers-still-wrong/) - In a PBS interview, presidential advisor (and Clinton treasury secretary) Larry Summers gave his take on financial reform. Most of the interview is unobjectionable, but this gave me (and others) pause: Most observers who study -- who study this believe that to try to break banks up into a lot of little pieces would hurt
- [The New Mercantilism, 1](https://economixcomix.com/2010/03/09/the-new-mercantilism-1/) - So apparently, in the 2012 Olympics the police will have the power to stop people from entering events with non-sponsor items. Now I think that most everything you can buy is actually generic—cola is cola, soap is soap, a shirt is a shirt—and the fact that people actually care about brand is just sad. Really,
- [Hooboy we need to see more of this](https://economixcomix.com/2010/03/09/hooboy-we-need-to-see-more-of-this/) - The International Brotherhood of Electric Workers is suing Goldman Sachs for overpaying its executives. That may seem odd--what do electricians have to do with Goldman Sachs, after all--but unions have pension funds, and the pension funds own stocks, and stocks represent ownership of companies. Companies like Goldman Sachs. So when the managers of GS enrich
- [Rall gets it](https://economixcomix.com/2010/03/03/rall-gets-it/) - Always happy to see when a cartoon goes to the heart of an economic issue, especially one that's usually treated as something arcane. Rall, if you don't know his work, is excellent--his work in Afghanistan is more informative than a building full of cable news talking heads. EDIT: Forgot to mention: originally found through DrDm
- [It's just a freaking bank.](https://economixcomix.com/2009/12/17/its-just-a-freaking-bank/) - I enjoy Photoshop Disasters, a blog that is exactly what the name says, but this post struck me for a completely different reason than the freaky arms. What struck me: the young woman's look of accomplishment, of satisfaction, of sheer thrill. In an ad for a bank. Yeah, it's just a silly ad. But really, it goes
- [Cracked does it again](https://economixcomix.com/2010/01/19/cracked-does-it-again/) - I'm a pretty big fan of Cracked.com. I'd go as far as to say it's the generation-that-should-get-off-my-lawn's version of Mad Magazine--funny (usually), often wickedly subversive, and done in an irreverent style that disguises what's often really good information (even obscure scholarship). And I'm all for providing serious information in an irreverent package. Anyway, today's article,
- [In praise of inflation](https://economixcomix.com/2010/03/01/in-praise-of-inflation/) - I was pondering writing a post in praise of inflation. That sounds heretical, but really, our economic problem comes down to: Paper wealth (like a dollar bill) gives you a claim on real wealth (like a candy bar). We let paper wealth (stocks, bonds, house prices, etc.) get so far out of hand that there's
- [Okay, this is awesome](https://economixcomix.com/2010/02/05/okay-this-is-awesome/) - Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes, battling. Seems to me that Hayek is having words put in his mouth—just like Marx gets credit for every leftist dissent of the past century and a half, Hayek sometimes gets credit for free-market ideas that he didn't originate (and in some cases wouldn't have supported). Still: It's Friedrich
- [PricewaterhouseCoopers gets it right](https://economixcomix.com/2010/02/04/pricewaterhousecoopers-gets-it-right/) - Or at least, one Leo Johnson, partner for sustainability and climate change at PWC. At the end of an article in the WSJ--an article that's mainly about corporations finding excruciating new euphemisms for "we're cutting our social responsibility budgets because we can"--comes Johnson's flash of honesty: "If governments provide a strong legal framework that aligns
- [A random post on Craigslist can have more common sense than the entire Tea Party movement.](https://economixcomix.com/2010/02/04/a-random-post-on-craigslist-can-have-more-common-sense-than-the-entire-tea-party-movement/) - Here. The basic points for those who don't want to click: You're right to be angry. You're being screwed. The people screwing you are the very ones telling you to get angry at the socialists in Washington. As long as you listen to them, you're going to continue to be screwed. As with many economic
- [The Massachusetts debacle in perspective.](https://economixcomix.com/2010/01/21/the-massachusetts-debacle-in-perspective/) - This is from a Senate staffer. Spot-on, as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, in this case "putting things in perspective" means "getting even more depressed about them."
- [The Monsanto data: a (semi) medical perspective](https://economixcomix.com/2010/01/15/the-monsanto-data-a-semi-medical-perspective/) - NOTE: This post has some serious inaccuracies and overwroughtness; I'll be altering it in the next couple of days. There’s some buzz about a new study in the International Journal of Biological Sciences, which states that the studies Monsanto used to justify the use of three varieties of genetically modified corn are flawed. Thing is,
- [Haiti](https://economixcomix.com/2010/01/13/haiti/) - It's hard to see how the Haitian earthquake could be worse--a powerful quake, close to the surface, striking right in a densely populated area. But this is even harsher than what you might think: I did some freelance aid work in India after the 2004 tsunami, and the devastation was very much proportional to the
- [Instead of a cross, the albatross / About my neck was hung](https://economixcomix.com/2010/01/05/1000-words/) - Well, if you've ever wondered what happens to plastic, this is what happens. I should probably write about the economic concepts this illustrates, like externalities and bla bla bla, but really, I'll shut up so you can go look at the pictures. Okay, one more thing: bottle tops are like half the volume of plastic
- [The Great Depression and Today](https://economixcomix.com/2010/01/01/the-great-depression-and-today/) - Here's a slideshow interspersing pictures of the Great Depression with pictures of the crisis today. Worth a look.
- [Insider Trading and Nontrading](https://economixcomix.com/2009/12/30/insider-trading-and-nontrading/) - The most gratifying part of paying attention to the economy is watching, at the end of every bubble, almost as a natural part of the financial cycle, the predictable spate of arrests. There’s Madoff, of course, but his Ponzi scheme seems to have been a one-off (unless you think the whole stock market is a
- [Back from hiatus](https://economixcomix.com/2009/12/16/back-from-hiatus/) - Well, my legions of admirers--most of whom can hardly contain their incoherent praise of Viagra (seriously: grammar counts, even if you're a spambot) should be happy to know that I'm back. I was away dealing with a bit of a financial situation; unlike many, mine actually had some larger economic significance, so I'll post about
- [This guy understands more about the economy than many economists](https://economixcomix.com/2009/10/01/this-guy-understands-more-about-the-economy-than-many-economists/) - Seriously, check it out: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9pxt8/anybody_else_just_really_tired_of_trying_i_mean/
- [A Summary of the Health Care Bill](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/16/what-the-health-care-bill-says/) - Okay, so I read the entire freaking health care bill (the July 14 version). Here’s a summary, along with some suggestions how to make it better. Yeah, it’s long, but it’s less than 1% of the original, so there's that. First, here’s our current system, in a handy-dandy chart (unfortunately Dan is busy illustrating the
- [The best explanation of our health care system I've seen.](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/15/the-best-explanation-of-our-health-care-system-ive-seen/) - In comix form, no less. Check out Tom Tomorrow at: http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/09/15/tomo/
- [The France Telecom Suicides.](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/13/the-france-telecom-suicides/) - There may, or may not, be a rash of suicides at France Telecom. If there is, it may, or may not, be due to management's policies, which seem to be what we can call the American plan: Cut jobs to increase profits Work remaining employees harder to increase profits Give the profits to the shareholders
- [The big honking flaw in the health care reform bill](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/09/the-big-honking-flaw-in-the-health-care-reform-bill/) - So I read all 1018 pages of the health care bill (the July 24 version). I’ll summarize it in another post, but here’s a summary of the summary: There’s a lot to like in it. Most of the bill seems to have been written with care and thought by very knowledgeable people who genuinely want
- [Solutions, Part I: The Single Profit Statement.  ](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/07/solutions-part-i-the-single-profit-statement/) - This blog involves analyzing (or, um, bitching about) various aspects of the economy that don't work, so I thought I’d break things up occasionally by putting forward solutions to the things I’m complaining about. Some will be ones I’ve thought up, others will be other people’s good ideas that need more publicity. So here’s the
- [The unemployment numbers (again)](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/05/the-unemployment-numbers-again/) - We just got the August employment numbers; unemployment jumped from 9.4% to 9.7%. That sounds bad, but as I explained last month, the unemployment rate is a strange beast. In unsettled times like this it bounces around a lot, so it's better to look at the sheer number of jobs lost. It turns out that
- [Major bank 1.2 trillion in the red](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/05/major-bank-1-2-trillion-in-the-red/) - On the heels of last year's meltdown comes the news that EBANK has frozen its accounts, $1.2 trillion in the hole. It's the old story--in the words of the new CEO, "controls were not enforced, auditing was never completed and reporting was almost non-existent." On the bright side, the real-world fallout should be minimal--EBANK only
- [Why do we allow the health insurance companies to exist, again?](https://economixcomix.com/2009/09/04/why-do-we-allow-the-health-insurance-companies-to-exist-again/) - I consider myself a pretty cynical guy, but the latest news on the healthcare front shocked even me: Apparently private health insurers in California reject a fifth of claims. In one system it's 40% of claims. That's worse than it sounds: A health insurer isn't going to bother rejecting your claim for a routine doctor's
- [“Economists call for Bernanke to stay?” Not exactly.](https://economixcomix.com/2009/08/24/“economists-call-for-bernanke-to-stay”-not-exactly/) - “Economists are nearly unanimous that Ben Bernanke should be reappointed to another term as Federal Reserve chairman. . . .” That’s how a Wall Street Journal article begins. But I couldn’t help but notice that all the quotes in the article (three out of three) were from economists at financial firms. I emailed Phil Izzo,
- [The Employment Numbers](https://economixcomix.com/2009/08/07/the-employment-numbers/) - The New York Times reports that unemployment has dropped, from 9.6% to 9.4%. That sounds hopeful, but there are also 247,000 fewer jobs than there were in the first quarter of the year. That’s because to be “unemployed” takes more than simply lacking a job. You must have actively looked for work in the four
- [Some Thoughts About Wall Street Pay](https://economixcomix.com/2009/07/31/71/) - Floyd Norris has an article in today’s New York Times, neatly summarized by the headline: “It May Be Outrageous, but Wall Street Pay Didn’t Cause This Crisis.” Norris argues that: A) The crisis wasn’t caused by risk-taking behavior because Wall Streeters didn’t understand the risks that were being taken. B) Wall Street’s pay structure, with all its
- [First Thumbnails](https://economixcomix.com/2009/07/31/first-thumbnails/) - Just saw the first thumbnailed pages from Dan Burr today. Things are happening! A mere 5 1/2 years after I committed myself to doing this book!
- [Inaugural post](https://economixcomix.com/2009/07/17/inaugural-post/) - Welcome to Economixcomix.com, the site about the book Economix. I'll be using this blog to keep people updated on the book, comment on current events, write down some of the reams of ideas that didn't make it into the book, and whatever else comes into my head. ("I," by the way, am Mike Goodwin, the

## Pages

- [Home](https://economixcomix.com/) - Check Out: Economix explains Social Security Economix explains the Trans-Pacific Partnership Economix explains Net Neutrality Economix explains Obamacare What is Economix? Economix is a graphic novel by Michael Goodwin, illustrated by Dan E. Burr, that explains the economy. More than a cartoon version of a textbook, Economix gives the whole story of the economy, from
- [Politix](https://economixcomix.com/home/politix/) - This will be a new book, if things align, my money holds out, and we all live so long. Copyright 2026 by me. Pages 1-17 are illustrated by Dan E. Burr and lettered by Debra Freiberg; pages 18-27 are illustrated and lettered by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey. And the refs: Page 1: The quote
- [Matching Funds and the New York State Comptroller's Race](https://economixcomix.com/home/comptroller/) - Things are grim, so here I talk about a solution that's actually working, and also try to bring some attention to the New York State comptroller's race. Panel-by-panel refs are And the references: Page 1, panel 1: A decent description of the exchange between ICE agents and Renee Good is here: https://www.wired.com/story/the-campaign-to-destroy-renee-good/ Page 1, panel
- [Press](https://economixcomix.com/blurb/) - Reviews of Economix "I just cannot stress enough how amazing this book is!" —James Floyd Kelly, Wired.com "Teaches everything you should have learned in college about economics." —Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics and public policy at Harvard and former Chief Economist of the IMF "It's simply phenomenal. You could read ten books on the subject and
- [References](https://economixcomix.com/references/) - References and Notes Economix covers a lot of ground and draws on many sources (see the Further Reading section for a partial list). In many cases I came across the same fact in a million places; these are generally referenced to where I happened to come across them. Some things I left unreferenced because they’re common
- [COVID and Vitamin D: A Public Service Announcement](https://economixcomix.com/home/covid-and-vitamin-d/) - In my day job (yes, I have one--writing comics about the economy isn't quite the road to immoderate wealth that you no doubt thought) I write about medicine. I was reading up on the effects of vitamin D on COVID-19, and I thought it was important enough for a comic. This one's illustrated by Mariusz
- [Economix Preview](https://economixcomix.com/home/economix-preview/) - Economix-previewDownload Click on the PDF file and it'll download.
- [What's Going On With the Stock Market?](https://economixcomix.com/home/stockmarket/) - I started writing this in August--I'm kind of shocked that we're still pre-crash. More to come! More to come! I also have a book! And here are pieces on Social Security, Obamacare, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and net neutrality. They're all dated, but still informative.
- [](https://economixcomix.com/home/warming/) - Welcome to the economics of global warming! This is only part 1, but parts 2 and later will be a while, so enjoy! (If "enjoy" is the word.) Panel-by-panel notes will come when the piece is complete. If you like this, try my book! A free preview edition (the section on Adam Smith) is here.
- [Net Neutrality, part 2](https://economixcomix.com/home/net-neutrality2/) - A piece about net neutrality, published December 11, 2017. References are at the bottom. LEAVE A COMMENT FOR THE FCC: 1. Go to gofccyourself.com (that's the shortcut John Oliver made to the hard-to-find FCC comment page) 2. Click on the 17-108 link (Restoring Internet Freedom) 2. Click on "+Express" (it's on the lower left. 3. Be
- [](https://economixcomix.com/home/sabotage/) - Yes, it's more about the Republican health care plan. If you were wondering what was going on with "repeal and replace" lately, wonder no more, for I, the nation's foremost purveyor of comics on wonky healthcare subjects, am on the case! Published on September 6, 2017. See the end for citations. And see this article
- [](https://economixcomix.com/home/net-neutrality/) - This piece on net neutrality came out in 2014; The specific threat it talks about was defeated, but now (early 2017) it looks like Trump will be voiding net neutrality. Combine that with his tendency to lean on companies, and their tendency (so far) to fall over themselves to suck his dick, and we may be looking
- [Trumpcare](https://economixcomix.com/home/trumpcare/) - Behold a piece, illustrated by Ian Akin, about the Republicans' best plan to replace Obamacare. Spoiler: Their best ain't good. This is current as of January 23, 2017, but things are changing fast. Note that there are panel-by-panel references at the end. EDIT 1/25: As I said, things are changing fast. The Cassidy-Collins bill came out
- [](https://economixcomix.com/home/tpp/) - This comic about the Trans-Pacific Partnership was originally published in early 2014, when the full text of the agreement hadn't been released; the final text was more or less what was expected (slightly better in some parts, worse in others). But in any case, the TPP is dead. However, it turns out that investor-state dispute settlement is far
- [Obamacare](https://economixcomix.com/home/obamacare/) - This explanation of Obamacare was written in late 2014; the political predictions are far out of date now (see the update, which is linked at the end of the piece), but the mechanism of Obamacare itself hasn't changed. The sad thing is that it was working as designed. Check out the map at https://i.redd.it/s4kc2bd9ysux.jpg. The states
- [Timeline](https://economixcomix.com/timeline-of-economists/) - This is a timeline of economists and economic thought I made in early 2016 for Les Arènes, the French publisher. Now available for your viewing pleasure! You might have to click on it a couple of times to get it to display at full size.
- [Sample Pages](https://economixcomix.com/samples/) - The Adam Smith section of the book is available as a free preview edition. It's here: https://economixcomix.com/EconomixPreview.pdf.
- [Teaching Guide](https://economixcomix.com/teaching-guide/) - Teachers of Earth: Abrams has put together a teaching guide for Economix! It's here: http://www.abramsbooks.com/pdfs/academic/Economix_TeachingGuide.pdf
- [Obamacare follow-up](https://economixcomix.com/home/obamacare-follow-up/) - If you liked this, you might enjoy: The original Obamacare comic A comix explanation of net neutrality (with Ian Akin) The best comic explaining the Trans-Pacific Partnership you'll read all day (probably) Social Security in comics Economix, Mike and Dan's book explaining the economy A free preview of Economix (the Adam Smith section) Deleted scenes
- [Deleted scenes](https://economixcomix.com/home/obamacaredeleted/) - So, before the Obamacare piece was done I made some changes--I had too many batshit-angry conservatives everywhere, which was all about me venting rather than actually educating. But it's some awesome art, so here are the pages I had to take out:
- [Reply for Chris Gregory](https://economixcomix.com/home/reply-for-chris-gregory/) - Hi Chris, Sorry about the delay. So, to your points: First off, yes, "buying" status can be rational. It's true that all we're actually buying, ever, is feelings (even food gives us the feeling of not being hungry). And yes, it might make sense to buy expensive sneakers for the increase in status they give
- [](https://economixcomix.com/home/social-security/) - Liked this? Check out: My comic explaining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. (Or en Français, if you prefer.) My comic explaining net neutrality. My comic explaining Obamacare. A free preview of the book. The book itself!
- [TPP in French](https://economixcomix.com/home/tpp-french/) - Voir aussi: The same piece in English Economix en Français!
- [Further Reading](https://economixcomix.com/further-reading/) - Here are some of the books used as sources during the writing of Economix. They’re sorted into: Highly recommended (readable, relevant, and informative) Recommended (two out of three) Good reads For wonks only (these are good books, but not recommended unless you're a wonk) Not recommended Further watching (documentaries). Highly recommended Joel Bakan, The Corporation: The Pathological
- [About the Author & Artist](https://economixcomix.com/about/) - About the Author Michael Goodwin is a freelance writer who has always loved comics and history. His interest in history led him to an interest in the economic forces that underlie much of history, and he eventually started reading up on economics. In his initial reading, Mike thought he caught glimpses of a story, a story
- [Contact](https://economixcomix.com/contact/) - Email Mike
- [Stalin 1](https://economixcomix.com/samples/stalin-1/)
- [Socialism/Communism 2](https://economixcomix.com/samples/socialismcommunism-2/)
- [Socialism/Communism 1](https://economixcomix.com/samples/socialismcommunism-1/)
- [Mortgage 1](https://economixcomix.com/samples/mortgage-1/)
- [Farm 1](https://economixcomix.com/samples/farm-1/)
- [Mortgage 2](https://economixcomix.com/samples/mortgage-2/)
- [Stalin 2](https://economixcomix.com/samples/stalin-2/)
- [Socialism/Communism 3](https://economixcomix.com/samples/socialismcommunism-3/)
- [Farm 2](https://economixcomix.com/samples/farm-2/)
- [Affluent Society](https://economixcomix.com/samples/affluent-society/)
- [Malthus](https://economixcomix.com/samples/malthus/)

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