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BlogThe “Shovel Ready” Excuse and a Fed for Public Works?
The latest chapter in the “why was the original stimulus so small?” story is a memo from December 2008 that reveals Larry Summers’ assessment as to why the stimulus (ARRA) had to be limited to around $800 billion—about half of what was necessary, in Summers’ estimation. There are various conclusions you can draw from this [...] -
My Big Fat Greek Speculative Rally
CNN Money, February 8, 2012. © 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)—Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Greece is close to getting another bailout from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, the so-called troika. Greece may also be close to a deal […] -
Working Paper No. 706Inflationary and Distributional Effects of Alternative Fiscal Policies
This paper augments the basic Post-Keynesian markup model to examine the effects of different fiscal policies on prices and income distribution. This is an approach à la Hyman P. Minsky, who argued that in the modern era, government is both “a blessing and a curse,” since it stabilizes profits and output by imparting an inflationary […] -
Blog
Europe’s “Bankers First” Approach
“…while Europe’s leaders haven’t hit upon a way to forestall a years-long span of catastrophically high unemployment and falling living standards, they do appear to be really really really really committed to saving banks.” That’s Slate‘s Matthew Yglesias, who notes that this (seemingly exclusive) focus among European elites on saving their banks likely ends up [...] -
Press ReleaseEuropean Economic Crisis Likely to Worsen and Threaten Shaky US Financial System, Levy Scholars Say
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Blog
Conference: Reclaiming the Keynesian Revolution
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Canada Income Inequality: Study Shows Government Policies Growing Less Effective at Narrowing Gap
Huffington Post Canada, February 3, 2012. Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. All rights reserved. As debate about income inequality mounts, a new study [see Working Paper No. 703] underscores how important public investment in social programs like education and health care is in narrowing the rich-poor divide. At a time when Ottawa prepares to beat […] -
Blog
How to Delay the Next Financial Meltdown
Dimitri Papadimitriou and Randall Wray deliver a second installment of their joint assessment of the risks that a renewed global financial crisis might be triggered by events in Europe or the United States. In their latest one-pager they move past disputes over etiology and lay out their solutions for both sides of the pond: addressing [...] -
One-Pager No. 24Delaying the Next Global Meltdown
It’s a mistake to interpret the unfolding disaster in Europe as primarily a “sovereign debt crisis.” The underlying problem is not periphery profligacy, but rather the very setup of the European Monetary Union (EMU)—a setup that even now prevents a satisfactory resolution to this crisis. The central weakness of the EMU is that it separates […] -
One-Pager No. 24
Τα σημερινά μέτρα απλά καθυστερούν την επόμενη παγκόσμια κατάρρευση
Είναι λανθασμένη η ερμηνεία της εξελισσόμενης καταστροφής στην Ευρώπη ως μια κρίση κρατικού χρέους. Το βασικό πρόβλημα δεν είναι η ασωτία των περιφερειακών λαών, αλλά η ίδια η αρχιτεκτονική της ευρωπαϊκής νομισματικής ένωσης — μια αρχιτεκτονική κατασκευή που ακόμη και τώρα αποτελεί εμπόδιο σε μια ικανοποιητική επίλυση αυτής της κρίσης. Η κεντρική αδυναμία της ευρωπαϊκής […] -
Blog
State Taxes Are Wildly Regressive
Some indigestible food for thought: there is not a single state in the Union—not one—in which the top 1% of income earners pay a higher rate of state taxes than the bottom 20%. For the majority of states, it’s not even close: the poorest 20% pay somewhere between double and six times the tax rate [...] -
Working Paper No. 705
What Do Poor Women Want? Public Employment or Cash Transfers?
The literature on public employment policies such as the job guarantee (JG) and the employer of last resort (ELR) often emphasizes their macroeconomic stabilization effects. But carefully designed and implemented policies like these can also have profound social transformative effects. In particular, they can help address enduring economic problems such as poverty and gender disparity. […]