Summary Spring 2009

This issue of the Summary begins with a Strategic Analysis by the Levy Institute’s Macro-Modeling Team, along with a review of the latest Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data. The authors foresee a steep rise in the private sector balance and an abrupt fall in GDP in the United States, with employment rising to 10 percent in 2010; moreover, they say, the unprecedented drop in interest rates may not be effective in reactivating standard lending practices. What’s needed in order to achieve balanced growth and full employment? A drastic change in the institutions responsible for running the world economy—one that would involve placing far less than total reliance on market forces.

INSTITUTE RESEARCH

Program: The State of the US and World Economies

Strategic Analysis

• WYNNE GODLEY, DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, and GENNARO ZEZZA, Prospects for the United States and the World: A Crisis That Conventional Remedies Cannot Resolve
• GENNARO ZEZZA, Flow of Funds Figures Show the Largest Drop in Household Borrowing in the Last 40 Years

Program: The Distribution of Income and Wealth

Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being

• EDWARD N. WOLFF, AJIT ZACHARIAS, and THOMAS MASTERSON, Postwar Trends in Economic Well-Being in the United States, 1959–2004
• THOMAS MASTERSON, EDWARD N. WOLFF, and AJIT ZACHARIAS, What Are the Long-Term Trends in Intergroup Economic Disparities?
• EDWARD N. WOLFF, AJIT ZACHARIAS, and THOMAS MASTERSON, Long-Term Trends in the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW), United States, 1959–2004

Program: Monetary Policy and Financial Structure

• THOMAS I. PALLEY, After the Bust: The Outlook for Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policy
• JAMES K. GALBRAITH, L. RANDALL WRAY, and WARREN MOSLER, The Case Against Intergenerational Accounting: The Accounting Campaign Against Social Security and Medicare
• L. RANDALL WRAY, The Return of Big Government: Policy Advice for President Obama
• JÖRG BIBOW, Insuring Against Private Capital Flows: Is It Worth the Premium? What Are the Alternatives?
• JULIA S. PERELSTEIN, Macroeconomic Imbalances in the United States and Their Impact on the International Financial System
• EWA KARWOWSKI, Financial Stability: The Significance and Distinctiveness of Islamic Banking in Malaysia

Program: Employment Policy and Labor Markets

• PAVLINA R. TCHERNEVA, Obama’s Job Creation Promise: A Modest Proposal to Guarantee That He Meets and Exceeds Expectations
• KIJONG KIM, Hypothetical Integration in a Social Accounting Matrix and Fixed-price Multiplier Analysis

Program: Economic Policy for the 21st Century

• FATMA GÜL ÜNAL, Small is Beautiful: Evidence of an Inverse Relationship between Farm Size and Yield in Turkey

INSTITUTE NEWS

• Upcoming Event: 18th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, April 16–17

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars