> Like most things in economics, the slowdown boils down to supply and demand: the ability of the global economy to produce goods and services, and the desire o

> Like most things in economics, the slowdown boils down to supply and demand: the ability of the global economy to produce goods and services, and the desire of consumers and businesses to buy them. What’s worrisome is that weakness in global supply and demand seems to be pushing each other in a vicious circle. This is the sort of thing that makes people think economists live on a different planet. "Demand," in particular the "desire of consumers and individuals" for things, is something we have in spades- for a good example, walk down a main street of any city and you'll find some people who desparately want to stop being homeless. The problem, and on a more general scale this is the whole problem of our kind of economy, is that their demand doesn't matter. These homeless people could, in many cases, work- they could do things that generate more value than they require in exchange to live decent lives. But their kind of work is ubiquitous, and they have no control over the market for it; as a result, the market has been manipulated by much more savvy actors to shift that labor market against them. Once this happens to a kind of laborer, an entire segment of "demand" is functionally removed from the economy. The answer to that sort of thing has been known for ages- unions, substantial minimum wages, perhaps even basic income. But while the article talks about the kind of economic inequality that these measures combat, it does an impressive job of not putting two and two together. Economic stagnation and inequality are two sides of the same coin, but no one talks about this- because the managers of the economy are, predictably, wealthy, and have everything to lose to redistribution of wealth.