Filter by
3512 results found
-
BlogData Show Increased Fed Role in Financing Federal Debt
March 15, 2011 (Click on graph to enlarge.) Some interesting information on the federal government’s balance sheet can be gleaned from the fourth-quarter flow-of-funds report, which was released by the Federal Reserve Board on the 10th of this month. The total amount of all federal liabilities, as reported by the Fed last week, is shown as the sum [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 658Keynes after 75 Years
March 15, 2011 In this paper I first provide an overview of alternative approaches to money, contrasting the orthodox approach, in which money is neutral, at least in the long run; and the...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 657
What Does Norway Get Out Of Its Oil Fund, if Not More Strategic Infrastructure Investment?
March 12, 2011 For the past generation Norway has supplied Europe and other regions with oil, taking payment in euros or dollars. It then sends nearly all this foreign exchange abroad, sequestering its...more Publication -
Strategic AnalysisJobless Recovery Is No Recovery: Prospects for the US Economy
March 10, 2011 The US economy grew reasonably fast during the last quarter of 2010, and the general expectation is that satisfactory growth will continue in 2011–12. The expansion may, indeed, continue into...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 656
Money in Finance
March 05, 2011 This paper begins by defining, and distinguishing between, money and finance, and addresses alternative ways of financing spending. We next examine the role played by financial institutions (e.g., banks) in...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 655
A Minskyan Road to Financial Reform
March 04, 2011 In the aftermath of the global financial collapse that began in 2007, governments around the world have responded with reform. The outlines of Basel III have been announced, although some...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 654
Measuring Macroprudential Risk
March 03, 2011 With the Great Recession and the regulatory reform that followed, the search for reliable means to capture systemic risk and to detect macrofinancial problems has become a central concern. In...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 653
Financial Keynesianism and Market Instability
March 02, 2011 In this paper I will follow Hyman Minsky in arguing that the postwar period has seen a slow transformation of the economy from a structure that could be characterized as...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 652
The Dismal State of Macroeconomics and the Opportunity for a New Beginning
March 01, 2011 The Queen of England famously asked her economic advisers why none of them had seen “it” (the global financial crisis) coming. Obviously, the answer is complex, but it must include...more Publication -
Blog
January Employment Report: Broader Effects of Seasonal Adjustment
February 16, 2011 (Click figure to enlarge.) Two Fridays ago, I blogged about some newly released Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data from a monthly household survey. I was surprised later to see that Multiplier Effect was one of only a handful of websites to mention that non-seasonally adjusted data showed vastly different and perhaps more disturbing results [...] Blog -
Blog
Mortgage Morass
February 14, 2011 The White House remedies for the mortgage meltdown have now been presented. Congress will debate the life extension, death, or rebirth of federal mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the coming weeks. When the noise has died down, don’t expect substantial change. But those who hope for genuine financial reform should, nonetheless, listen [...] Blog -
One-Pager No. 8It’s Time to Rein In the Fed
February 14, 2011 The economic crisis that has gripped the US economy since 2007 has highlighted Congress’s limited oversight of the Federal Reserve, and the limited transparency of the Fed’s actions. And since...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 651
Unit Labor Costs in the Eurozone
February 14, 2011 Current discussions about the need to reduce unit labor costs (especially through a significant reduction in nominal wages) in some countries of the eurozone (in particular, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal,...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 651
Το μοναδιαίο κόστος εργασίας στην ευρωζώνη
February 14, 2011 Οι τρέχουσες εισηγήσεις σχετικά με την ανάγκη να μειωθεί το μοναδιαίο κόστος εργασίας (κυρίως μέσω δραστικών μειώσεων των ονομαστικών μισθών) σε ορισμένες χώρες της ευρωζώνης (ειδικότερα στην Ελλάδα, την Ιρλανδία,...more Publication -
Policy Note No. 1What Happens if Germany Exits the Euro?
February 11, 2011 Like marriage, membership in the eurozone is supposed to be a lifetime commitment, “for better or for worse.” But as we know, divorce does occur, even if the marriage was...more Publication -
Blog
Seasonal Adjustments Roughly Account for Reported Drop in Unemployment Rate
February 06, 2011 In Friday’s post, I pointed out that unemployment and employment numbers announced by the BLS had apparently been changed greatly by the process of adjusting for typical seasonal changes. These adjustments are meant to account, for example, for the fact that retail business is generally stronger than usual during the holiday season at the end of each [...] Blog -
Blog
Beneath the Surface, Some Disappointing Unemployment Data
February 04, 2011 A note on the unemployment figures released earlier this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), reporting the results of a January survey of U.S. households: The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 9.4 percent in December to 9.0 percent last month, a healthy improvement. On the other hand, before seasonal adjustment, the unemployment [...] Blog -
Blog
A New Peek at the Secrets of the Fed?
February 02, 2011 In December, the Levy Institute issued a working paper that asked how the economy might be affected by the seemingly unusual fiscal and monetary policies implemented by the Fed and other central banks since 2008. The authors, Dimitri Papadimitriou and I, used a phrase that is not often spoken in this era by governments and central banks around the world: “monetizing the deficit.” This phrase traditionally describes the [...] Blog -
Blog
Education, earnings and age in the Great Recession
January 27, 2011 Reading the back and forth between Brad deLong and David Leonhardt over the structural versus cyclical nature of unemployment during the Great Recession, a question nagged at me, spurred by this quote from Leonhardt: The data that the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Thursday gives me a chance to explain why I disagree. In [...] Blog -
Blog
Long-Term Interest Rates Brought Up to Date
January 21, 2011 Last summer, this blogger posted a graph showing the path followed by U.S. long-term interest rates since 1925. There has been some interest in a new and updated graph, especially in light of concerns that bond markets might soon demand higher yields as the economy expanded. One appears above. Reasons for apprehension about a possible [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 650
Fiscal Policy: Why Aggregate Demand Management Fails and What to Do about It
January 19, 2011 This paper argues for a fundamental reorientation of fiscal policy, from the current aggregate demand management model to a model that explicitly and directly targets the unemployed. Even though aggregate...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 649
Fiscal Policy Effectiveness: Lessons from the Great Recession
January 18, 2011 This paper reconsiders fiscal policy effectiveness in light of the recent economic crisis. It examines the fiscal policy approach advocated by the economics profession today and the specific policy actions...more Publication -
Blog
The impact of the recession on jobs
January 13, 2011 The Economic Policy Institute has produced an interesting analysis on jobs lost and recovered in U.S. post-war recessions. They show how many months were needed, since the beginning of a recession, to get back to the initial employment level. However, the working population is growing over time, so getting back to the employment level of, [...] Blog -
Blog
Will the U.S. recover lost output and jobs?
January 12, 2011 At the last meeting of the American Economic Association in Denver, Giuseppe Fontana discussed the theoretical arguments on whether the Great Recession will generate a permanent loss in output. He argued that, according to the dominant “New Consensus” theory, output should return to its historical path once the shock has been absorbed. Alternative, heterodox theories, [...] Blog