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BlogEurope’s Perilous Quest for Stability
February 14, 2013 Europe’s currency union is built on two key principles. The first is that the central bank must be independent of political control and its policies squarely focused on maintaining price stability. The second is that fiscal policy must be disciplined and never threaten price stability. Price stability, in turn, is the foundation for economic stability [...] Blog -
Blog
Reverse Pivot?
February 13, 2013 Is the era of the “grand bargain” over? That was the implication of a number of news stories that pre-framed last night’s speech. “When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday evening,” wrote the Washington Post‘s Lori Montgomery, “here’s one thing you won’t hear: an ambitious new plan to rein in the national [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 754Growth Trends and Cycles in the American Postwar Period, with Implications for Policy
February 11, 2013 Do all types of demand have the same effect on output? To answer this question, I estimate a cointegrated vector autoregressive (VAR) model of consumption, investment, and government spending on...more Publication -
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Master of Science in Economic Theory and Policy
February 11, 2013 Are your student advisees looking for an opportunity to advance their career goals with a graduate degree? The Levy Economics Institute Master of Science in Economic Theory and Policy can help them prepare themselves for responsible positions in government, business, education and research. The M.S. in Economic Theory and Policy degree is designed to meet [...] Blog -
Blog
Can the Deficit Warriors Be Appeased?
February 08, 2013 Over the last few years, there have been significant changes to the federal government’s finances—changes that have had barely any perceptible impact on the budget debate. The federal deficit has been shrinking (from 2009 to 2012) at a faster rate than in any other period since 1937. Most Americans have never lived through more rapid [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 753
The Missing Macro Link
February 07, 2013 This paper addresses the critique of the aggregational problem attached to the financial instability hypothesis of Hyman Minsky. The core of this critique is based on the Kaleckian analytical framework...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 752
Inequality and Household Finance during the Consumer Age
February 07, 2013 One might expect that rising US income inequality would reduce demand growth and create a drag on the economy because higher-income groups spend a smaller share of income. But during...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 752
Η ανισότητα και η χρηματοοικονομική συμπεριφορά των νοικοκυριών στην «εποχή των καταναλωτών»
February 07, 2013 Θα μπορούσε να περιμένει κανείς ότι η διόγκωση της εισοδηματικής ανισότητας στις ΗΠΑ θα μείωνε την αύξηση της ζήτησης και θα δημιουργούσε τροχοπέδη στην οικονομική ανάπτυξη της χώρας λόγω του...more Publication -
Blog
A Progressive Agenda for Greece (Part 2 of an Evening with Syriza)
February 07, 2013 Part 2 of a special event on Greece and the eurozone crisis, featuring top leadership of the official opposition party in Greece, SYRIZA: (1:30) Yiannis Milios, Economic Advisor, SYRIZA, Member of the Political Secretariat of Synaspismos and Professor of Political Economy, National Technical University of Athens (10:15) Rania Antonopolous, Senior Scholar and Director, Gender Equality [...] Blog -
Blog
22nd Annual Minsky Conference: Building a Financial Structure for a More Stable and Equitable Economy
February 06, 2013 A conference organized by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College with support from the Ford Foundation. April 17–19, 2013 Ford Foundation 320 East 43 Street, New York City In 2008–09, the world experienced its worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression. Global employment and output collapsed, and an estimated 84 million people [...] Blog -
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An Unconventional Central Banker
February 05, 2013 Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis and recession, we’ve seen some renewed interest (and angst) regarding the role of the central bank and of treasury-central bank cooperation. (The most recent example comes out of Japan, in which Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has been pushing for the Bank of Japan to accommodate his relatively [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 751
Arresting Financial Crises
February 04, 2013 Nineteenth-century British economists Henry Thornton and Walter Bagehot established the classical rules of behavior for a central bank, acting as lender of last resort, seeking to avert panics and crises:...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 750
Endogenous Bank Credit and Its Link to Housing in OECD Countries
January 31, 2013 The relevant economic literature frequently focuses on the impact of credit shocks on housing prices. The doctrine of the “New Consensus Macroeconomics” completely ignores bank credit. The “Great Recession,” however,...more Publication -
Blog
An Evening with Syriza
January 30, 2013 Below is the video from the first part of last week’s event at Columbia University that featured key leadership figures from the official Greek opposition party (SYRIZA). (3:29) Alexis Tsipras, Leader of the Opposition in Greek Parliament, Leader of SYRIZA, and President of Synaspismós. (46:40) Panel discussion, featuring Rena Dourou, Member of Greek Parliament (SYRIZA); [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 749
Weak Expansions
January 30, 2013 Using two standard cycle methodologies (classical and deviation cycle) and a comprehensive sample of 83 countries worldwide, including all developing regions, we show that the Latin American and Caribbean cycle...more Publication -
One-Pager No. 37Διδάγματα από έναν μη συμβατικό κεντρικό τραπεζίτη
January 30, 2013 Η παγκόσμια χρηματοοικονομική κρίση έχει προκαλέσει ανανεωμένο ενδιαφέρον στη Συμφωνία Υπουργείου Οικονομικών-Ομοσπονδιακής Τράπεζας του 1951 και στα διδάγματα αυτής της διαπραγμάτευσης για την ανεξαρτησία της κεντρικής τράπεζας. Μια ευρύτερη ερμηνεία...more Publication -
One-Pager No. 37
Lessons from an Unconventional Central Banker
January 30, 2013 The global financial crisis has generated renewed interest in the 1951 Treasury – Federal Reserve Accord and its lessons for central bank independence. A broader interpretation of the Accord and...more Publication -
Blog
MMT and the Sustainability of Sovereign Deficits and Debt
January 25, 2013 [This is the fourth part of a series (1, 2, 3) on sovereign deficits and debt. The series was started in response to Ed Dolan’s original post detailing agreements and possible disagreements with the MMT approach.] To recap very quickly, we agreed that sovereign government cannot become “insolvent” and forced to involuntarily default on commitments [...] Blog -
Blog
Are Currency Warriors’ Gloves Coming Off?
January 24, 2013 There is much hype about “currency wars” in the international media this week, reaching the heights of the Davos gathering. The excitement seems to have been started by Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann, who earlier this week aired his concerns about an apparent politicization of exchange rates owing to an erosion of central bank independence and [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 748
Analyzing Public Expenditure Benefit Incidence in Health Care
January 17, 2013 The effectiveness of public spending remains a relatively elusive empirical issue. This preliminary analysis is an attempt, using benefit incidence methodology, to define the effectiveness of spending at the subnational...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 747
Marriner S. Eccles and the 1951 Treasury – Federal Reserve Accord
January 17, 2013 The 1951 Treasury – Federal Reserve Accord is an important milestone in central bank history. It led to a lasting separation between monetary policy and the Treasury’s debt-management powers, and...more Publication -
Blog
Fed’s Crisis Transcripts to Be Released
January 17, 2013 Update: the transcripts were released this morning (Jan. 18) and are available here. Any day now, the transcripts from the 2007 Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meetings will be released to the public (FOMC transcripts are withheld for five years). These transcripts should give us some additional insight into the discussions that were occurring around [...] Blog -
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On Net-exports Life Support: Germany Is Back at It, and Now Euroland Is Too
January 16, 2013 Germany’s Federal Statistical Office released its first estimate of German GDP in 2012 at a press conference held in Wiesbaden yesterday: “German economy withstands the European economic crisis in 2012.” Reporting that growth slowed markedly in Germany last year, down to only 0.7 percent from 3 percent in 2011 and 4.2 percent in 2010, the [...] Blog -
Blog
A Special Event with SYRIZA
January 15, 2013 Next week, January 24th, the Modern Money and Public Purpose seminar at Columbia University will feature a special session with top leadership from the Greek opposition party, SYRIZA, including leader of the opposition Alexis Tsipras and economy critic George Stathakis (who gave an entertaining talk at the November Minsky conference in Berlin—see Session 3 for audio). This special event [...] Blog