Publications

198 publications found, searching for 'L. Randall Wray '

• Policy Note No. 2026/8
  September 22, 2026

  Is the US Running Out of Time as the Rest of the World Runs Out of the Dollar?

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Global trust in the US and its almighty dollar seems to be in question, with some nations scrambling to create alternative payment systems to compete with it. Some believe it…more

• Working Paper No. 1131
  September 05, 2026

  Toward a Marx-Keynes-Minsky Synthesis

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  This paper summarizes and compares the approaches of Marx and Keynes to the theory of effective demand and places it within the monetary theory of production. While their techniques differed…more

  Download Working Paper No. 1131 PDF (304.90 KB)
• Policy Note No. 2026/7
  September 04, 2026

  Treasury Buybacks: Much Ado About Nothing?

  Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Introduction The recent move by the US Treasury to increase the buybacks of long-term Treasury bonds has created an equal mix of confusion, uncertainty, skepticism, and even panic. Some have…more

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• Working Paper No. 1122
  July 08, 2026

  Plutonomy—the AI Edition—and the Coming Crisis

  Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  This paper examines the rise of the plutonomy—an economy dominated by the new plutocrats—and compares it with the Gilded Age of the 1920s. We show how John Kenneth Galbraith’s analysis…more

  Download Working Paper No. 1122 PDF (767.70 KB)
• Policy Note No. 2026/3
  April 22, 2026

  The Real Cost of War

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  The press is full of stories on the cost of President Trump’s war of choice against Iran—said to be running at $2 billion a day. With an on-again, off-again ceasefire,…more

  Download Policy Note 2026/3 PDF (185.15 KB)
• Working Paper No. 1107
  February 20, 2026

  Artificial Intelligence: Friend, Foe, Fraud

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  The over-hyped Dot.com revolution bubbled and crashed at the end of the 1990s, leaving a largely unused physical and virtual infrastructure that eventually supported the rise of social media that…more

  Download Working Paper No. 1107 PDF (407.86 KB)
• Policy Note No. 2025/10
  December 22, 2025

  The Fed Lowered Rates Again. Is It Really a Surprise?

  Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  The whole world was watching on December 10, 2025 to finally find out what the Fed was going to do. Big money bets were placed—would the Fed leave rates unchanged…more

  Download Policy Note 2025/10 PDF (658.46 KB)
• Policy Note No. 2025/7
  September 19, 2025

  No, the Fed Is NOT Independent—It Is a Creature of Congress

  Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  In response to President Trump’s attack on the Federal Reserve, the natural critics of misguided monetary policy find themselves defending the Fed and the notion that the Fed is—and must…more

  Download Policy Note No. 2025/7 PDF (186.35 KB)
• Working Paper No. 1084
  July 09, 2025

  MMT: Heuristics versus Paradigm Shift?

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  This is a revised version of the keynote address presented at the FDR library for the Levy Institute Summer Seminar on Money, Finance, and Public Policy on June 20th, 2025.

  Download Working Paper No. 1084 PDF (222.28 KB)
• Policy Note No. 2025/4
  May 22, 2025

  Ratings Agencies Downgrade the Dollar’s Exorbitant Privilege

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  They are at it again. Moody’s has finally joined the other two ratings agencies in downgrading US government debt. Standard & Poor’s downgrade was first in 2011[1], while Fitch waited…more

  Download Policy Note 2025/4 PDF (584.34 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 158
  March 04, 2025

  That “Vision Thing”: Formulating a Winning Policy Agenda

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  For a PDF version of this Public Policy Brief, please click here. There are many ways to lose a presidential election, and pundits have come up with a long list:…more

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 158 PDF (2.33 MB)
• Working Paper No. 1076
  February 07, 2025

  The Rise of the Modern Monetary System

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  This working paper integrates the credit money approach (associated with Post Keynesian endogenous money theory) with the state money approach (associated with Modern Money Theory) by drawing on Wray’s 1990…more

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• Working Paper No. 1062
  December 03, 2024

  The Value of Money

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  This paper examines heterodox theories of the determinants of the value of money. Orthodox approaches that tie money’s value to relative scarcity of money or to the price level are…more

  Download Working Paper No. 1062 PDF (536.95 KB)
• Policy Note No. 2024/1
  October 11, 2024

  The Boy Who Cried Wolf About Government Debt

  Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  In a New York Times editorial, David Leonhardt recounts Aesop’s apocryphal story about the boy and the wolf, warning that while deficit hawks have so far been wrong, the growing government debt will eventually bite. He reports the economic plans of both presidential candidates would add to the debt that will soon exceed GDP and grow to 130 percent of annual output under a President Harris, or 140 percent with a Trump presidency.

  The story of the boy and the wolf was a fable, although it was within the realm of possibility. The fable of the debt wolf is not. While there are real world wolves—Leonhardt mentions climate catastrophe and autocratic leaders, and the authors would add rising inequality and the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of billionaires—authors Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray assert, federal debt is not one of them.

  Download Policy Note 2024/1 PDF (368.08 KB)
• Working Paper No. 1055
  September 18, 2024

  The Relation Between Budget Deficits and Growth: Complicated but Clear

  L. Randall Wray and Eric Lin
  Abstract

  This paper looks at the relationship between government budget deficits and the growth rate of GDP. While orthodox economic theory offers several reasons to believe that growing deficits might be…more

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• One-Pager No. 72
  May 10, 2024

  If Government Can Print Money, Why Does It Borrow?

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Recently, the neglected question of why the US government borrows, given that it can print money, has arisen in the context of discussions surrounding a new documentary, Finding the Money. As L. Randall Wray observes in this one-pager, Modern Money Theory has been providing answers to this question for some time; and, he argues, it is a topic that mainstream economists are ill-equipped to address, since very few concern themselves with the monetary operations that underlie the question of why a currency-issuing government issues debt.

  Download One-Pager No. 72 PDF (123.67 KB)
• Working Paper No. 1018
  April 21, 2023

  The Unbearable Weight of Aging

  L. Randall Wray, Yeva Nersisyan, and Xinhua Liu
  Abstract

  The aging of the global population is in the headlines following a report that China’s population fell as deaths surpassed births. Pundits worry that a declining Chinese workforce means trouble…more

  Download Working Paper No. 1018 PDF (665.40 KB)
• One-Pager
  December 07, 2022

  The Causes of Pandemic Inflation

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  While the trigger for the Covid recession was unusual—a collapse of the supply side that produced a drop in demand—the inflation the US economy is now facing is not atypical,…more

  Download One-Pager No. 70 PDF (128.13 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 157
  April 12, 2022

  Is It Time for Rate Hikes?

  L. Randall Wray and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  Roughly two years into the economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, the topic of elevated inflation dominates the economic policy discourse in the United States. And the aggressive use of…more

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 157 PDF (638.88 KB)
• Working Paper No. 1003
  March 04, 2022

  What’s Causing Accelerating Inflation

  L. Randall Wray and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  This paper examines the recent increase of the measured inflation rate to assess the degree to which the acceleration is due to problems created (largely on the supply side) by…more

  Download Working Paper No. 1003 PDF (803.24 KB)
• One-Pager No. 69
  February 21, 2022

  Time to Celebrate Modern Money Theory?

  L. Randall Wray and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  A recent article in the New York Times asks whether Modern Money Theory (MMT) can declare victory after its policies were (supposedly) implemented during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic….more

  Download One-Pager No. 69 PDF (140.61 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 156
  December 08, 2021

  Still Flying Blind after All These Years

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Institute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray contend that the prevailing approach to monetary policy and inflation is influenced by a set of concepts that are…more

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 156 PDF (1,013.14 KB)
• One-Pager No. 68
  November 01, 2021

  Are Concerns over Growing Federal Government Debt Misplaced?

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  With the US Treasury cutting checks totaling approximately $5 trillion to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray argues that when it comes to the federal government,…more

  Download One-Pager No. 68 PDF (106.37 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 155
  June 30, 2021

  Can Biden Build Back Better?

  L. Randall Wray and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  President Biden’s proposals for investing in social and physical infrastructure signal a return to a budget-neutral policymaking framework that has largely been set aside since the outbreak of the COVID-19…more

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 155 PDF (984.38 KB)