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Examinations of the policy aspects of contemporary economic issues
169 publications found, searching for 'Public Policy Brief '
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Public Policy Brief No. 117
April 05, 2011
It’s Time to Rein In the Fed
AbstractScott Fullwiler and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray review the roles of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury in the context of quantitative easing, and find that the financial crisis has highlighted the limited oversight of Congress and the limited transparency of the Fed. And since a Fed promise is ultimately a Treasury promise that […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 117, 2011 PDF (1.19 MB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 116
October 28, 2010
An Alternative Perspective on Global Imbalances and International Reserve Currencies
AbstractThe stability of the international reserve currency’s purchasing power is less a question of what serves as that currency and more a question of the international adjustment mechanism, as well as the compatibility of export-led development strategies with international payment balances. According to Senior Scholar Jan Kregel, export-led growth and free capital flows are the […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 116, 2010 PDF (450.86 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 115
September 13, 2010
What Should Banks Do?
AbstractIn this new brief, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray examines the later works of Hyman P. Minsky, with a focus on Minsky’s general approach to financial institutions and policy. The New Deal reforms of the 1930s strengthened the financial system by separating investment banks from commercial banks and putting in place government guarantees such as […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 115, 2010 PDF (240.00 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 114
August 06, 2010
Debts, Deficits, Economic Recovery, and the US Government
AbstractIn this new brief, President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Research Scholar Greg Hannsgen evaluate the current path of fiscal deficits in the United States in the context of government debt and further spending, economic recovery, and unemployment. They are adamant that there is no justification for the belief that cutting spending or raising taxes will […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 114, 2010 PDF (400.44 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 113
July 21, 2010
Endgame for the Euro?
AbstractCritics argue that the current crisis has exposed the profligacy of the Greek government and its citizens, who are stubbornly fighting proposed social spending cuts and refusing to live within their means. Yet Greece has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the European Union (EU), and its social safety net is modest compared […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 113, 2010 PDF (662.55 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 112
June 28, 2010
The Great Crisis and the American Response
AbstractSenior Scholar James K. Galbraith argues the fundamental illusion of viewing the US economy through the free-market prism of deregulation, privatization, and a benevolent government operating mainly through monetary stabilization—the prevailing view among economists over the past three decades. The real sources of American economic power, he says, lie with those who manage and control […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 112
June 28, 2010
Η μεγάλη κρίση και η αμερικανική αντίδραση
AbstractΟ Ανώτατος Μελετητής James K. Galbraith εξετάζει κριτικά την ψευδαίσθηση του να βλέ̟πει κανείς την οικονομία των ΗΠΑ μέσα από το πρίσμα της ελεύθερης αγοράς, της α̟πορρύθμισης, των ιδιωτικο̟ποιήσεων και μιας καλοπροαίρετης κυβέρνησης η οποία λειτουργεί κυρίως μέσω της νομισματικής σταθερο̟ποίησης—η ε̟πικρατούσα άποψη ανάμεσα στους οικονομολόγους τις τελευταίες τρείς δεκαετίες. Οι πραγματικές π̟ηγές της αμερικανικής […]
Download Κείμενο (Brief) Δημόσιας Πολιτικής Νο. 112, 2010 PDF (1,009.09 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 111
May 11, 2010
Επιστροφή στην υστερία του ελλείμματος στις ΗΠΑ;
AbstractΣτο κείμενο αυτό, οι Yeva Nersisyan και ο L. Randall Wray υποστηρίζουν ότι τα ελλείμματα δεν επιβαρύνουν τις μελλοντικές γενεές με χρέη και δεν περιορίζουν τις ιδιωτικές δαπάνες. Οι συγγραφείς βασίζουν τα συμπεράσματά τους στην υπόθεση ότι ένα κυρίαρχο κράτος με δικό του νόμισμα δεν μπορεί να χρεοκοπήσει και στην άποψη ότι η κρατική χρηματοδότηση […]
Download Κείμενο Δημόσιας Πολιτικής No. 111 PDF (869.24 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 111
May 11, 2010
Deficit Hysteria Redux?
AbstractThis brief by Yeva Nersisyan and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray argues that deficits do not burden future generations with debt, nor do they crowd out private spending. The authors base their conclusions on the premise that a sovereign nation with its own currency cannot become insolvent, and that government financing is unlike that of […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 111, 2010 PDF (1,023.02 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 110
March 18, 2010
Toward True Health Care Reform: More Care, Less Insurance
AbstractThe United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, yet its system produces inferior outcomes relative to those in other countries. This brief examines the health care reform debate and argues that the basic structure of the health care system is unlikely to change, because “reform” measures actually promote the status […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 110, 2010 PDF (683.68 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 109
March 10, 2010
The Trouble with Pensions
AbstractPension funds have taken a big hit during the current financial crisis, with losses in the trillions of dollars. In addition, both private and public pensions are experiencing significant funding shortfalls, as is the government-run Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which insures the defined-benefit pension plans of private American companies. Yeva Nersisyan and Senior Scholar L. […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 109, 2010 PDF (894.29 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 108
February 01, 2010
Why President Obama Should Care About “Care”: An Effective and Equitable Investment Strategy for Job Creation
AbstractIn his State of the Union address President Obama acknowledged that “our most urgent task is job creation”—that a move toward full employment will lay the foundation for long-term economic growth and ensure that the federal government creates the necessary conditions for businesses to expand and hire more workers. According to a new study by […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 108, 2010 PDF (647.98 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 107
January 22, 2010
No Going Back: Why We Cannot Restore Glass-Steagall’s Segregation of Banking and Finance
AbstractThe purpose of the 1933 Banking Act—aka Glass-Steagall—was to prevent the exposure of commercial banks to the risks of investment banking and to ensure stability of the financial system. A proposed solution to the current financial crisis is to return to the basic tenets of this New Deal legislation. Senior Scholar Jan Kregel provides an […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 107, 2010 PDF (215.03 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 106
November 17, 2009
Can Euroland Survive?
AbstractSocial unrest across Europe is growing as Euroland’s economy collapses faster than the United States’, the result of falling exports and a weaker fiscal response. The controversial title of this brief is based on a belief that the nature of the euro itself limits Euroland’s fiscal policy space. The nations that have adopted the euro […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 106, 2009 PDF (1.07 MB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 105
October 28, 2009
It Isn’t Working: Time for More Radical Policies
AbstractThe Obama administration has implemented several policies to “jump-start” the American economy—efforts that have largely focused on preserving the financial interests of major banks. The authors of this new policy brief believe that maintaining the status quo is not the solution, since it overlooks the debt problems of households and nonfinancial businesses—and re-creating the financial […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 105, 2009 PDF (485.78 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 104
August 28, 2009
The New New Deal Fracas
AbstractA wave of revisionist work claims that “anticompetitive” New Deal legislation such as the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) greatly slowed the recovery from the Depression; in this new public policy brief, President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Research Scholar Greg Hannsgen review these claims in light of current […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 104, 2009 PDF (130.77 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 103
August 21, 2009
Financial and Monetary Issues as the Crisis Unfolds
AbstractA group of experts associated with the Economists for Peace and Security and the Initiative for Rethinking the Economy met recently in Paris to discuss financial and monetary issues; their viewpoints, summarized here by Senior Scholar James K. Galbraith, are largely at odds with the global political and economic establishment. Despite noting some success in […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 103, 2009 PDF (149.60 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 102
August 20, 2009
The Global Crisis and the Implications for Developing Countries and the BRICs
AbstractThe term BRIC was first coined by Goldman Sachs and refers to the fast-growing developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China–a class of middle-income emerging market economies of relatively large size that are capable of self-sustained expansion. Their combined economies could exceed the combined economies of today’s richest countries by 2050. However, there are […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 102, 2009 PDF (1.33 MB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 101
June 09, 2009
Promoting Gender Equality through Stimulus Packages and Public Job Creation
AbstractBeyond loss of income, joblessness is associated with greater poverty, marginalization, and social exclusion; the current global crisis is clearly not helping. In this new Public Policy Brief, Research Scholar Rania Antonopoulos explores the impact of both joblessness and employment expansion on poverty, paying particular attention to the gender aspects of poverty and poverty-reducing public […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 101, 2009 PDF (123.71 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 100
April 08, 2009
It’s That “Vision” Thing: Why the Bailouts Aren’t Working, and Why a New Financial System Is Needed
AbstractThe Federal Reserve’s response to the current financial crisis has been praised because it introduced a zero interest rate policy more rapidly than the Bank of Japan (during the Japanese crisis of the 1990s) and embraced massive “quantitative easing.” However, despite vast capital injections, the banking system is not lending in support of the private […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 100, 2009 PDF (202.39 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 99
March 09, 2009
The Return of Big Government: Policy Advice for President Obama
AbstractIn the current global financial crisis, economists and policymakers have reembraced Big Government as a means of preventing the reoccurrence of a debt-deflation depression. The danger, however, is that policy may not downsize finance and replace money manager capitalism. According to Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray, we need a permanently larger fiscal presence, with more […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 99, 2009 PDF (169.17 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 98
February 19, 2009
The Case Against Intergenerational Accounting: The Accounting Campaign Against Social Security and Medicare
AbstractThe Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) has proposed subjecting the entire federal budget to “intergenerational accounting”—which purports to calculate the debt burden our generation will leave for future generations—and is soliciting comments on the recommendations of its two “exposure drafts.” The authors of this brief find that intergenerational accounting is a deeply flawed and […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 98, 2009 PDF (144.51 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 97
January 29, 2009
After the Bust
Abstract“Change” was the buzzword of the Obama campaign, in response to a political agenda precipitated by financial turmoil and a global economic crisis. According to Research Associate Thomas Palley, the neoliberal economic policy paradigm underlying that agenda must itself change if there is to be a successful policy response to the crisis. Mainstream economic theory […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 97, 2009 PDF (543.31 KB) -
Public Policy Brief No. 96
October 08, 2008
The Commodities Market Bubble
AbstractMoney manager capitalism—characterized by highly leveraged funds seeking maximum returns in an environment that systematically underprices risk—has resulted in a series of boom-and-bust cycles in equities, real estate, and commodities. Because subsequent cycles have been increasingly damaging to the broader economy, we are now at the point where we are experiencing the most severe financial […]
Download Public Policy Brief No. 96, 2008 PDF (327.99 KB)