I finished the excellent "Trade Wars are Class Wars" by @M_C_Klein and @michaelxpettis a couple of weeks ago. It is a fantastic book, a must-read especially for my academic economist colleagues
The "global saving glut" of @benbernanke made the idea of "financial excesses" broadly known among academics, but the issue is far broader. Trade Wars are Class Wars provides the historical context, and makes clear connections between trade wars, inequality, and saving gluts.
For example, inequality is closely linked to financial excesses: the countries generating excesses (China and Germany) do so by suppressing demand, especially by those lower in the income distribution. The stuff on Germany in particular was completely new to me.
The historical context is also superb: The writings of Hobson, Eccles, and others are crucial for us to understand what is happening in the world today, in which interest rates are pinned at zero and debt levels are extraordinary.
For academic economists in particular, I would encourage exploration of one key question in particular that Trade Wars are Class Wars raises: why does investment not respond when excess savings enter the financial system?
The authors discuss "demand-driven" investment: if demand is weak, investment will remain weak. This is not the way traditional macro models work, where MPK is set equal to cost of capital. This requires more exploration for sure.
The work by @ThomasPHI2, Jan Eberly, and others has been exploring the explanations for apparent weakness in investment, but I feel this part of the story is where we still need a lot of research.
Bottom line: @M_C_Klein and @michaelxpettis show that excess savings are detrimental to the global economy, help us understand trade wars, and are the product of inequality and policy decisions. The solutions they propose are also spot on. Check it out!
amazon.com/Trade-Wars-Are…
amazon.com/Trade-Wars-Are…
