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Working Paper No. 847Integration, Spurious Convergence, and Financial Fragility
October 16, 2015 The Spanish crisis is generally portrayed as resulting from excessive spending by households, associated with a housing bubble and/or excessive welfare spending beyond the economic possibilities of the country. We...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 846
Secular Stagnation or Stagnation Policy?
October 09, 2015 The current debate on secular stagnation is suffering from some vagueness and several shortcomings. The same is true for the economic policy implications. Therefore, we provide an alternative view on...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 845
The Euro’s Savior?
September 30, 2015 This study assesses the European Central Bank’s (ECB) crisis management performance and potential for crisis resolution. The study investigates the institutional and functional constraints that delineate the ECB’s scope for...more Publication -
BlogKregel on the Vulture Funds
September 28, 2015 Jan Kregel, the Levy Institute’s director of research, was recently interviewed by the Buenos Aires Herald regarding Argentina’s economic prospects and its ongoing situation with the “vulture funds.” On Argentina’s policy challenges: So there are no alternatives to devaluation? Argentina has one net advantage. As a result of the vulture funds it’s relatively insulated from the global crisis. Now [...] Blog -
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Endogenous Financial Fragility in Brazil: Does Brazil’s National Development Bank Reduce External Fragility?
September 22, 2015 by Felipe Rezende Introduction The creation of new sources of financing and funding are at the center of discussions to promote real capital development in Brazil. It has been suggested that access to capital markets and long-term investors are a possible solution to the dilemma faced by Brazil’s increasing financing requirements (such as infrastructure investment [...] Blog -
Research Project ReportThe Impact of Public Investment in Social Care Services on Employment, Gender Equality, and Poverty
September 22, 2015 Produced in partnership with the International Labour Organization, United Nations Development Programme, and UN Women, this report examines the demand-side rationale for a public investment in the social care sector—specifically,...more Publication -
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Reactions to S&P Downgrade: S&P Analyst Confirms There Is No Solvency Issue
September 17, 2015 by Felipe Rezende In previous posts (see here and here), I discussed Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgrade of Brazil’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to junk status, that is, to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-‘, and its decision to downgrade Brazil’s local currency debt to a single notch above “junk” status. S&P hosted a conference call [...] Blog -
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Credit Rating Agencies and Brazil: Why the S&P’s Rating of Brazil’s Sovereign Debt Is Nonsense
September 13, 2015 by Felipe Rezende So S&P has downgraded Brazil’s rating on long-term foreign currency debt to junk and lowered its long-term local currency sovereign credit rating to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BBB+’. First, what are sovereign debt ratings? Standard & Poor’s sovereign rating is defined as follows: A current opinion of the creditworthiness of a sovereign government, where [...] Blog -
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Levy MS Program Now Accepting Applications for Fall 2016
September 10, 2015 The Levy Economics Institute Master of Science in Economic Theory and Policy is a two-year degree program that emphasizes theoretical and empirical aspects of economic policy analysis through specialization in one of five key research areas: macroeconomic theory, policy, and modeling; monetary policy and financial structure; distribution of income, wealth, and well-being; gender equality and [...] Blog -
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Binzagr Institute Inaugural Conference: Sustainable Full Employment and Transformational Technologies
September 09, 2015 The Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity is holding its inaugural conference — Provisioning and Prosperity: Sustainable Full Employment and Transformational Technologies — October 2nd-3rd at Denison University. For those who cannot attend, the event will be livestreamed (and questions can be posed via Facebook and Twitter @BinzagrInfo). More information on registration and conference themes can be [...] Blog -
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Euroland Has No Plan B: It Needs an Urgent Recovery Plan
September 08, 2015 At last, the eurozone economy appears to be experiencing some kind of recovery. GDP started growing again in the spring of 2013, following seven quarters of decline, with domestic demand shrinking for even nine consecutive quarters between 2011 and 2013. Today, it is conceivable that within a year or so the eurozone might recoup its [...] Blog -
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Second Edition of the Modern Money Primer
September 07, 2015 The second edition of L. Randall Wray’s Modern Money Theory: A Primer on Macroeconomics for Sovereign Monetary Systems, an updated and expanded version with new chapters on tax policy and inflation, is now available for order and will be released September 23rd: “This book synthesizes the key principles of Modern Money Theory, exploring macro accounting, monetary and fiscal policy, currency [...] Blog -
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Is Economic Inequality Immoral?
September 07, 2015 Harry Frankfurt, whose formal concept of “bullshit” is indispensable to both professional and everyday life, recently published an article for Bloomberg View arguing that (1) economic (income and wealth) inequality is, in and of itself, morally insignificant and (2) “egalitarianism” (being concerned about economic inequality in and of itself) is harmful. The article is an excerpt from a [...] Blog -
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Folbre on the Consequences of Ignoring Unpaid Work
August 31, 2015 Nancy Folbre, who recently joined the Levy Institute roster as senior scholar, was interviewed by Dollars & Sense on the topic of how conventional economics and policymaking deal with (or rather, fail to deal with) household and caring labor: D&S: What is the practical consequence of not measuring household labor and production? Are economic policies and [...] Blog -
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Working Paper Roundup 8/31/2015
August 31, 2015 A Nonbehavioral Theory of Saving Michalis Nikiforos “We present a model where the saving rate of the household sector, especially households at the bottom of the income distribution, becomes the endogenous variable that adjusts in order for full employment to be maintained over time. An increase in income inequality and the current account deficit and [...] Blog -
Policy Note No. 5The BRICS Initiatives in the Current Global Conjuncture
August 05, 2015 Developing countries, led by China and other BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa), have been successfully organizing alternative sources of credit flows, aiming for financial stability, growth, and...more Publication -
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S&P Threatens to Downgrade Brazil to Junk
July 30, 2015 by Felipe Rezende S&P has issued a negative outlook regarding Brazilian sovereign debt. The S&P’s announcement stated that Over the coming year, failure to advance with (on- and off-budget) fiscal and other policy adjustments could result in a greater-than-expected erosion of Brazil’s financial profile and further erosion of confidence and growth prospects, which could lead [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 844
A Nonbehavioral Theory of Saving
July 29, 2015 We present a model where the saving rate of the household sector, especially households at the bottom of the income distribution, becomes the endogenous variable that adjusts in order for...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 843
Is a Very High Public Debt a Problem?
July 27, 2015 This paper has two main objectives. The first is to propose a policy architecture that can prevent a very high public debt from resulting in a high tax burden, a...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 842
Making the Euro Viable
July 24, 2015 The euro crisis remains unresolved and the euro currency union incomplete and extraordinarily vulnerable. The euro regime’s essential flaw and ultimate source of vulnerability is the decoupling of central bank...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 841
Marx’s Theory of Money and 21st-century Macrodynamics
July 24, 2015 Marx’s theory of money is critiqued relative to the advent of fiat and electronic currencies and the development of financial markets. Specific topics of concern include (1) today’s identity of...more Publication -
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Crystal Balls, or Robust Economic Research?
July 16, 2015 An article from Bloomberg listed nine people who saw the Greek crisis coming years ago. The list may be narrowly confined to Anglo-Saxon economists, but I am quite happy that most of the people listed worked at, or were/are affiliated with, the Levy Institute. Wynne Godley is the first on the list, given his [...] Blog -
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Deflation Über Alles
July 15, 2015 The “negotiations” that surrounded the latest Greek deal do not reflect well on the system (such as it is) of EMU governance. And there are no silver linings to be found in the outcome of this process. It is a testament to how far we are from “normal” that even the best-case scenario would have left little room for [...] Blog -
Greece Is Committed to Staying in Euro Zone: Antonopoulos
July 09, 2015 Levy economist and Syriza MP Rania Antonopoulos is interviewed ahead of Brussels Group talks. News