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Working Paper No. 697Distribution and Growth
November 22, 2011 This paper studies the effects of an (exogenous) increase of nominal wages on profits, output, and growth. Inspired by an article by Michał Kalecki (1991), who concentrated on the effects...more Publication -
Blog1967 Census of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: Digitized
November 22, 2011 [The following is from Joel Perlmann, Senior Scholar and Director of the Immigration, Ethnicity, and Social Structure program at the Levy Institute] In the summer of 1967, just after the Six-Day War brought the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Israel’s control, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics conducted a census of the occupied territories. [...] Blog -
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A Public Option for Banking?
November 21, 2011 In the course of an interview by Alan Minsky from a couple of weeks ago, Michael Hudson discussed a proposal for setting up a public option for banking (following the “Chicago Plan” of the 1930s and, says Hudson, Dennis Kucinich’s recent NEED Act): Instead of relying on Bank of America or Citibank for credit cards, [...] Blog -
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A Miserable but Revealing Online Game
November 18, 2011 The European Central Bank has finally responded to overwhelming public demand and created an online game, €conomia, in which you get to direct monetary policy for the eurozone. The game appears to reward achievement in a distressingly instructive manner. According to Matt Yglesias: …they grade you on the basis of a pure inflation targeting regime [...] Blog -
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Is the ECB Really Powerless? (Part III)
November 18, 2011 (Update added below) In our last post on this topic, we found the head of the Bundesbank citing legal obstacles (Article 123 of the EU treaty) as the reason why the European Central Bank cannot step up as lender of last resort. Can the ECB work around that Article 123 restriction? In the last couple [...] Blog -
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The Future of the Eurozone
November 18, 2011 It has become a cliché that the survival of the European Union (EU) depends on its ability to reform, either through enlargement—greater economic and fiscal coordination in the direction of some sort of federal state—or by getting smaller, with the eurozone becoming a true optimum currency area. Surprisingly enough, most analysts, including leading EU officials, [...] Blog -
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Financial Fraud Prosecutions Down 60% Over Last Decade
November 17, 2011 (Down 57.7 percent to be exact.) Sure, Wall Street has returned to claiming its 40 percent share, or so, of all corporate profits, while receiving little more than a regulatory slap on the wrist (which lobbyists are currently working to bring down to a light effleurage), but at the very least, at the end of [...] Blog -
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The Italian Solution: A Dissent
November 17, 2011 Yesterday a group of economists issued a petition to the (new, Berlusconi-free) Italian government. You can read it here. They set out what is mostly good advice based on the premise that Italy should remain in the EMU. Many of my friends signed the petition, but I had to decline. Here is the text of [...] Blog -
One-Pager No. 19Το μέλλον της ευρωζώνης δεν ανήκει στη διεύρυνση
November 16, 2011 Η επιβίωση της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης εξαρτάται από την ικανότητά της να προβεί σε μεταρρυθμίσεις, είτε μέσω επέκτασης—μεγαλύτερο οικονομικό και δημοσιονομικό συντονισμό προς την κατεύθυνση κάποιου είδους ομοσπονδιακού κράτους—ή με το...more Publication -
One-Pager No. 19
The Future of the Eurozone Does Not Lie with Enlargement
November 16, 2011 The European Union’s survival depends on its ability to reform, either through enlargement—greater economic and fiscal coordination in the direction of some sort of federal state—or by getting smaller, with...more Publication -
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Among the Minskyans
November 16, 2011 Dan Monaco, writing for The Straddler, attended this year’s Minsky Summer Seminar at the Levy Institute and put together an engrossing (and accessible) article that looks at the work of Hyman Minsky, paying particular attention to Minsky’s interpretation of Keynes (including his views about the misinterpretation of Keynes by mainstream economics). The article is sprinkled [...] Blog -
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A new government in Italy
November 16, 2011 Italy is getting a new government today, which is expected to act rapidly to strengthen the Italian growth potential, thus addressing the public debt “problem.” However, it is doubtful that any new government in Italy can succeed in addressing the European financial crisis without concerted action at the European level. I endorse at least the [...] Blog -
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Is the ECB Powerless or Unwilling? (Ctd)
November 15, 2011 Relevant to the question of the legal limits of relying on the European Central Bank as lender of last resort, Tyler Durden observes Jens Weidmann, head of the Bundesbank, defending the narrow view of the ECB’s role in a recent Financial Times interview: FT: Can you explain why the ECB cannot be lender of last [...] Blog -
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Keynes vs. Schmeynes Debate
November 14, 2011 If you missed last week’s Reuters-sponsored Keynes vs. Hayek debate at the Asia Society, video of the event is attached below, beginning with James Galbraith’s contribution. The debate, predictably, ended up being more about the last two-and-a-half years of economic policy. Note also the way in which this turns into a Democratic Keynesianism vs Republican [...] Blog -
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Is This the End of the EMU?
November 14, 2011 (cross posted at EconoMonitor) For more than a decade, I’ve been arguing that the EMU was designed to fail. It was based on the pious hope that markets would not notice that member states had abandoned their currencies when they adopted the euro, thereby surrendering fiscal and monetary policy to the center. The problem was [...] Blog -
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Underutilized Workers Outnumber Job Openings 7 to 1
November 11, 2011 (Click to enlarge.) The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released this month show an increase in the number of job openings available throughout the United States, as reported by Catherine Rampell in the New York Times “Economix” blog. As of the end of September, there were 3.8 unemployed people per job opening, [...] Blog -
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Is the ECB Powerless to Rescue Europe, or Just Unwilling?
November 11, 2011 1) Marshall Auerback, at New Economic Perspectives, digs into the issue of whether the ECB is legally permitted to engage in the sort of “lender of last resort” activities that many think are key to mitigating this crisis: The notion that it cannot act as lender of last resort is disingenuous: The ECB does have [...] Blog -
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“Posh Cambridge Forecaster” Sees Through the Euro
November 10, 2011 Here is another flattering mention of Wynne Godley‘s prescient writings on the euro, this time from John Cassidy’s blog at the New Yorker. (Cassidy sat in on the Keynes side of this week’s “Keynes vs. Hayek” debate.) Many of Godley’s publications at the Levy Institute (“haven for heterodox thought,” as Cassidy calls it), including his [...] Blog -
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Minsky and the Economics Profession
November 09, 2011 There’s an interesting (and unsettling) section of Martin Mayer’s presentation at the Minsky Conference that I’ll quote at length in which he talks about the reception of Hyman Minsky’s work. Add this to the growing “what’s wrong with the economics profession?” folder: I have found my own explanation, rather a disturbing one, for Hy’s relative [...] Blog -
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Minsky Conference Proceedings
November 09, 2011 The 20th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, organized by the Levy Institute with support from the Ford Foundation, featured a broad range of speakers, including Gary Gensler (CFTC Chairman—occasioning some interesting back-and-forth in Q&A regarding commodities speculation), Paul McCulley, Andrew Sheng, Phil Angelides, Charles Plosser, Gary Gorton, Charles Evans, Vitor Constancio (Vice President of the [...] Blog -
Policy Note No. 5Η επίλυση της κρίσης της Ευρωζώνης—δίχως εξαγορές χρέους, εθνικές εγγυήσεις, αλληλοασφάλιση, ή δημοσιονομικές μεταβιβάσεις
November 08, 2011 Ένας από τους λόγους για την αποτυχία του Ecofin και του Ευρωπαϊκού Συμβουλίου να δώσουν λύση στην κρίση της ευρωζώνης είναι η αντίσταση σε εξαγορές χρέους, κρατικές εγγυήσεις, αλληλοασφάλιση και...more Publication -
Policy Note No. 5
Resolving the Eurozone Crisis—without Debt Buyouts, National Guarantees, Mutual Insurance, or Fiscal Transfers
November 08, 2011 One of the reasons for the failure of Europe’s governing bodies to resolve the eurozone crisis is resistance to debt buyouts, national guarantees, mutual insurance, and fiscal transfers between member-states....more Publication -
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Two Ways to Fix the Eurozone
November 08, 2011 Among the (many) obstacles to working out a solution to the crisis in the eurozone is resistance to schemes that involve debt buyouts, national guarantees, mutual insurance, and fiscal transfers. Stuart Holland has a new one-pager and policy note in which he suggests a twin-track strategy for solving the crisis that does not rely on [...] Blog -
One-Pager No. 18
Δίδυμες στρατηγικές για την επίλυση της κρίσης στην ευρωζώνη—Δίχως αγορές χρέους, εθνικές εγγυήσεις, ασφαλιστικά σχέδια ή δημοσιονομικές μεταβιβάσεις
November 08, 2011 Η ακύρωση της συνεδρίασης της 26ης Οκτωβρίου των Υπουργών Οικονομικών της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης, ή του Ecofin, έχει διαβρώσει περαιτέρω την εμπιστοσύνη στην ικανότητά του να δώσει λύσει στην επιδεινόμενη κρίση...more Publication