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BlogThe Crisis Behind the Crisis
December 08, 2011 In his latest installment, C. J. Polychroniou surveys the slow motion collapse of the eurozone and the ongoing fragility of the US economy, and insists that underneath it all lies a deeper crisis. What we are witnessing, he suggests, is not just the fallout from the latest banking panic or financial crisis, but a set [...] Blog -
One-Pager No. 22A Crisis of Advanced Capitalism?
December 08, 2011 As the eurozone crisis continues, and while the US economy continues to muddle through, we need to reexamine what is actually going on, and sharpen our political-economy tools by considering...more Publication -
One-Pager No. 22
Μια κρίση του προηγμένου καπιταλισμού;
December 08, 2011 Καθώς η κρίση στην ευρωζώνη συνεχίζεται, και ενώ η οικονομία των ΗΠΑ συνεχίζει να έχει τα χάλια της, θα πρέπει να επανεξετάσουμε τι πραγματικά συμβαίνει και να ακονίσουμε τα πολιτικοοικονομικά...more Publication -
Blog
Levy Institute Launches Greek Website
December 08, 2011 Policy coordination and information exchange are critical to resolving the eurozone crisis. With this in mind, the Levy Institute is making selected publications that address aspects of the crisis—including policy briefs, one-pagers, and working papers—available online in Greek translation. A list of our current titles is available at www.levyinstitute.org/greek/, and more will be added weekly. Blog -
Blog
ECB Inaction: Dogma and Rationality
December 07, 2011 As Dimitri Papadimitriou has said, the European Central Bank is one of the only institutions that can save the euro project. The commitment alone to making unlimited purchases of member-state debt might do the trick. But as we have seen, there is a lot of opposition to the ECB acting as lender of last resort. [...] Blog -
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Would an ECB Rescue Be Inflationary?
December 07, 2011 This is one of the questions Marshall Auerback tackles in a piece at Counterpunch. His answer, as you might expect, is “no.” He also addresses the concern that the ECB risks an impaired balance sheet if it steps up and plays a larger role in buying member-state debt: … if the ECB bought the bonds [...] Blog -
Strategic AnalysisIs the Recovery Sustainable?
December 06, 2011 Fiscal austerity is now a worldwide phenomenon, and the global growth slowdown is highly unfavorable for policymakers at the national level. According to our Macro Modeling Team’s baseline forecast, fears...more Publication -
Strategic Analysis
Είναι βιώσιμη η ανάκαμψη;
December 06, 2011 Η δημοσιονομική λιτότητα είναι πλέον ένα παγκόσμιο φαινόμενο και η επιβράδυνση της παγκόσμιας ανάπτυξης δεν ευνοεί τις προοπτικές της δημοσιονομικής πολιτικής σε εθνικό επίπεδο. Σύμφωνα με τις baseline προβλέψεις της...more Publication -
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A More Dovish Fed?
December 06, 2011 While the latest figures show the unemployment rate dipping below 9 percent, a lot of this decrease has to do with individuals giving up and leaving the labor force. As for additional stimulus, Congress is currently negotiating an extension, and possible expansion, of the payroll tax cut. But Republicans are insisting that it be “paid [...] Blog -
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Hudson on Debt and Democracy
December 05, 2011 Michael Hudson has an article appearing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the history of debt and democracy. For those who can’t read German, Hudson has produced an abbreviated English version. An excerpt: The idea of an independent central bank being “the hallmark of democracy” is a euphemism for relinquishing the most important policy decision [...] Blog -
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“An ideologically useful but unrealistic vision of capitalism”
December 02, 2011 A great series of videos at INET collecting clips from Robert Johnson’s interview of Steve Keen, who is among those (few) credited with seeing the financial crisis coming. Hyman Minsky’s work has played a large role in Keen’s own thinking on this. In this particular clip, Keen talks about the ways in which economists have [...] Blog -
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Debating a Eurozone Exit Strategy
December 02, 2011 Yanis Varoufakis has an interesting exchange with Warren Mosler and Philip Pilkington, responding to their thoughts on the ideal path for a nation intending on breaking away from the euro. The Mosler-Pilkington “plan” (clearly gunning for the Wolfson Prize) is basically this: (1) the government in question starts using the new national currency as a [...] Blog -
Blog
Time to Demand Transparency and Accountability at the Fed
December 01, 2011 In its continuing series on the Fed’s bail-out of Wall Street, Bloomberg estimates that the banks got a $13 billion hand-out from the Fed’s easy lending terms. Using the excuse of the crisis, the Fed lent funds at near-zero interest to the banks. This was supposed to encourage them to begin lending to firms and [...] Blog -
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The Austerians’ Secret Plan to Devastate Corporate Profits
November 30, 2011 Speaking of balances, late last week Martin Wolf delivered a helpful column (“Why cutting fiscal deficits is an assault on profits,” FT Nov. 24). Wolf writes that if households are cutting back, a government that attempts to reduce deficits while anticipating no substantial changes in net exports must expect corporate surpluses to shrink. But increased [...] Blog -
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Peeling Back the Veil at the Federal Reserve
November 30, 2011 At Citizen Vox Micah Hauptman uses the recent Bloomberg revelations (regarding the details of the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary efforts to stabilize the financial system) to frame a discussion of Fed transparency and accountability: The Fed has vigorously defended its secrecy, claiming that working behind closed doors is necessary to prevent panic in financial markets. According [...] Blog -
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Austerity for the Austere
November 29, 2011 In a new one-pager C. J. Polychroniou illustrates how dire the situation in Euroland is becoming, running briefly through the outlooks for Greece, Portugal and Ireland, Italy and Spain, Belgium, France, and Germany. From his entry on Italy and Spain (emphasis mine): Both nations are currently engulfed in debt flames (in spite of the fact [...] Blog -
One-Pager No. 21
Biopolitics and Neoliberalism
November 29, 2011 With the crisis in the eurozone threatening the integrity of the European Union itself. German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to brush aside calls to permit the European Central Bank to...more Publication -
One-Pager No. 21
Βιοπολιτική και νεοφιλελευθερισμός
November 29, 2011 Με την κρίση στην ευρωζώνη να απειλεί την ακεραιότητα της ίδιας της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης, η Γερμανίδα καγκελάριος Αγκελα Μέρκελ συνεχίζει να απορρίπτει το κάλεσμα για την μετατροπή της ΕΚΤ σε...more Publication -
Blog
Slow Motion Disaster Speeding Up
November 29, 2011 In a recent interview Dimitri Papadimitriou talked about the EU leadership’s failure to prevent the euro crisis from entering its terminal phase and ran through the likely repercussions for the US financial system. Papadimitriou cites $3 trillion in exposure for US finance, half of which is mutual fund investments in European banks and sovereign debt—and [...] Blog -
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Confusion in Euroland
November 28, 2011 In a new one-pager, Dimitri Papadimitriou and Randall Wray team up to offer their take on the confusion that seems to afflict many approaches to the eurozone crisis. Government spending did not cause this crisis, they argue, and austerity will not solve it. Wray and Papadimitriou include this chart showing both government and private debt [...] Blog -
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End the Fed and Old Hickory
November 27, 2011 Randall Wray kicks off a discussion of the movement to reform or eliminate the Federal Reserve with a look at Andrew Jackson’s 1832 refusal to extend the charter of the Second Bank of the United States (effectively forestalling the creation of a central bank in the US): The basis of his objection to the US [...] Blog -
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Solvency First: A Workable Solution
November 23, 2011 In a new policy note Marshall Auerback argues that discussions of how to solve the euro crisis often conflate two distinct issues: solvency and insufficient demand. “Policymakers want the ECB to do both,” he writes, “but in fact, the ECB is only required to deal with the solvency issue. When you do that in a [...] Blog -
Policy Note No. 6Toward a Workable Solution for the Eurozone
November 22, 2011 Although it didn’t originate with an economist, the malaprop “It’s déjà vu all over again” is invariably what springs to mind in the aftermath of virtually any euro summit of...more Publication -
Policy Note No. 6
Προς μια εφαρμόσιμη λύση για την ευρωζώνη
November 22, 2011 Αν και δεν προήλθε από οικονομολόγο, η άκαιρη έκφραση «déjà vu ξανά από την αρχή» έρχεται πάντα στο μυαλό με το τέλος σχεδόν κάθε Συνόδου Κορυφής της ΕΕ τα τελευταία...more Publication